World Tour - Europe, Asia, North and South America - Entries for: Turkmenistan
40° | sunny | km 93
Checkmate!
on 2016-05-30 in Turkmenistan
After a confusing border exit in Iran, we finally arrived at the gate to Turkmenistan. Everything looked perfect at first. We had some official from the border help us go to the right checkpoints and get everything sorted. We had to pay a small fee for entry and drove our bikes up to the customs inspection. Before the bikes were looked at we had to go into a couple of offices. We walked into the first booth and were told to sit down and wait.
After a while we found out what we were waiting for - with a lot of pride the guy behind the table told us that he had to finish his game of chess before he could help us. We watched him trying his best to beat the enemy computer. After he won he proudly showed us his stats and finally started the paperworks. There are a lot of restrictions when crossing Turkmenistan and even more fees we had to pay. Overall we spent over 200 $ at the border and had a specifically set route which we had to stick to.
To make things worse they checked Fabis rear top case and found the drone. All of them found it great but it was forbidden to use in Turkmenistan. Luckily we were able to convince them that sealing the case with lead would do the trick.
After all the fuss we were glad to have made it through and continued our journey to Ashgabat. Once we got down from the mountains we were instantly hit by the hot air in the city. It had almost 40°C and a lot of kicked up dust and sand made riding difficult.
Ashgabat surprised us nonetheless. We had not gathered any information about it and were amazed how big and pompous it was. Large buildings with facades of white marble reached into the sky. A beautiful park with many water fountains and monuments stretched along the main road. The roads were 3-5 lane wide and there was only little traffic. It was a bizarre sight for us. We decided to have a closer look at the city and its spectacular monuments and fountains. It was very hot but we managed to see a good part of it. At night everything was brightly lit up.
The hotels were to expensive to stay over night so we rode out of the city and into a small field to set up camp. The way was quite sandy but we managed not to drop the bikes and find a nice and quiet spot to sleep.
After a while we found out what we were waiting for - with a lot of pride the guy behind the table told us that he had to finish his game of chess before he could help us. We watched him trying his best to beat the enemy computer. After he won he proudly showed us his stats and finally started the paperworks. There are a lot of restrictions when crossing Turkmenistan and even more fees we had to pay. Overall we spent over 200 $ at the border and had a specifically set route which we had to stick to.
To make things worse they checked Fabis rear top case and found the drone. All of them found it great but it was forbidden to use in Turkmenistan. Luckily we were able to convince them that sealing the case with lead would do the trick.
After all the fuss we were glad to have made it through and continued our journey to Ashgabat. Once we got down from the mountains we were instantly hit by the hot air in the city. It had almost 40°C and a lot of kicked up dust and sand made riding difficult.
Ashgabat surprised us nonetheless. We had not gathered any information about it and were amazed how big and pompous it was. Large buildings with facades of white marble reached into the sky. A beautiful park with many water fountains and monuments stretched along the main road. The roads were 3-5 lane wide and there was only little traffic. It was a bizarre sight for us. We decided to have a closer look at the city and its spectacular monuments and fountains. It was very hot but we managed to see a good part of it. At night everything was brightly lit up.
The hotels were to expensive to stay over night so we rode out of the city and into a small field to set up camp. The way was quite sandy but we managed not to drop the bikes and find a nice and quiet spot to sleep.
44° | sunny | km 615
Fabi down
on 2016-05-31 in Turkmenistan
The next morning we were awoken by the heat. Since there was not much to see in the Karakum desert except for a quite well maintained highway we were getting some good miles on the clock. We had lunch at 44°C!! The streets sometimes switched sides because one of the roads was being serviced on or rebuilt. Since it was annoying to ride on a straight line the whole day Fabi and Denis decided to ride a bit over the gravel on the construction site. Basti wanted to save his tire and decided to switch to the other side and took some great pictures of them with the Sena.
Suddenly Fabi started to kick up lots of sand and dust, up to the point where it was difficult to see him. Denis started to break and slow down as soon as he saw the big dust cloud in front of him. Fabi was already in big trouble, the gravel road had suddenly turned into deep sand with some rocks and his front tire slid from left to right. He did not try to break otherwise he would have crashed instantly. So he hoped that the sand would stop and he would regain control of the bike. After some 30 or so meters his luck ran out and he went down in a big cloud of dust and sand. When the dust settled Denis and Basti had already arrived at the crash site. They helped Fabi up, luckily he was ok except for some pain in his left ankle.
The BMW on the other hand looked badly damaged at first. Some broken parts lay about 15 meters away what suggested that the bike slid for quite some time until it came to a full stop. He had a broken turn signal, mud guard, rear view mirror adapter. What looked to be the worst problem was the fact that his front tire was not in line with the handlebar anymore. We straightened the steering by opening the fork screws and adjusting it to the right position. This way we quickly looked for the next tree where Fabi could calm down a bit and recover from the hard hit. Luckily the next tree was not as far away as it could have been.
At the end of the day we decided to take some pictures in the dunes. Even though Fabis left ankle hurt, he still decided to try twice to ride up the small dune. The sand was just to deep with all the luggage so he had to give up in the end.
The next day we started early and rode as quickly to the border as possible. About 30 kilometers before the border at Turkmenabat we had to pay additional money. We had spent all of our Manats at the gas station before so we had some trouble paying the right amount. Luckily some lorry driver helped us out in the end and we were on our way. Because of the fuss we arrived at the border right in time for lunch break. So we waited, luckily in the shade of a tree, for one and a half hours until we could finally continue.
Suddenly Fabi started to kick up lots of sand and dust, up to the point where it was difficult to see him. Denis started to break and slow down as soon as he saw the big dust cloud in front of him. Fabi was already in big trouble, the gravel road had suddenly turned into deep sand with some rocks and his front tire slid from left to right. He did not try to break otherwise he would have crashed instantly. So he hoped that the sand would stop and he would regain control of the bike. After some 30 or so meters his luck ran out and he went down in a big cloud of dust and sand. When the dust settled Denis and Basti had already arrived at the crash site. They helped Fabi up, luckily he was ok except for some pain in his left ankle.
The BMW on the other hand looked badly damaged at first. Some broken parts lay about 15 meters away what suggested that the bike slid for quite some time until it came to a full stop. He had a broken turn signal, mud guard, rear view mirror adapter. What looked to be the worst problem was the fact that his front tire was not in line with the handlebar anymore. We straightened the steering by opening the fork screws and adjusting it to the right position. This way we quickly looked for the next tree where Fabi could calm down a bit and recover from the hard hit. Luckily the next tree was not as far away as it could have been.
At the end of the day we decided to take some pictures in the dunes. Even though Fabis left ankle hurt, he still decided to try twice to ride up the small dune. The sand was just to deep with all the luggage so he had to give up in the end.
The next day we started early and rode as quickly to the border as possible. About 30 kilometers before the border at Turkmenabat we had to pay additional money. We had spent all of our Manats at the gas station before so we had some trouble paying the right amount. Luckily some lorry driver helped us out in the end and we were on our way. Because of the fuss we arrived at the border right in time for lunch break. So we waited, luckily in the shade of a tree, for one and a half hours until we could finally continue.