Just came out of Turkmenistan. Other than getting nailed for $77 dollars of fees at the border, the country was a great experience.

Maybe a few thoughts:

The people are not outwardly friendly like Iran, but they are very nice and helpful when approached. We were treated to 2 amazing feasts and one wedding celebration.

We were on a 7 day transit visa from Ashgabat to Farap, but we deviated for 2 days. We went up to Darvaza to camp by the gaz crater at night. We had no problems with the police. Usually we just slow down a bit at the checkpoints, but don't make any indication we're stopping. Then just wave and keep riding by. The one guy who did stop us just looked at our passports with 0 understanding of English and waved us on. The police are nice and know nothing about immigration rules.

Camping by a museum in Merv one night, the police just came to make sure we were doing well and enjoying out time in Turkmenistan on our cool bikes.

The rules say that if you have a transit visa over 5 days you have to register, but the Ashgabat office didn't want to bother with it and the exit border didn't bat an eyebrow.

If you have a more than 5 day transit visa watch out. The entry border charges you $15 for insurance, but it only last for 5 days (this is almost impossible to notice). We got caught in this scam and had to pay another $22 dollar at the exit border (for 5 days more insurance even though we were leaving the country that very minute). No amount of arguing could convince the impervious civil servants.

If you crossing to Farap, beware there's a toll bridge that will cost we $7 and then another 100,000 manat. We had no idea this was coming and it screwed our budget.

The rules say there's a $25 exit fee, but this was never brought up with us. We didn't question our good luck, but figured it must not apply to transit visa holders because there's no way the government would miss a grab at more $US.

Beware, if you're not going the Farap route. The road after Darvaza to Konya-Urgench is TERRIBLE.

Hope this helps someone.

Cheers, Mike P.S. we're now in Bukhara and loving this city.

+1 re the road from Darvaza north .. SE Tajikistan was even worse ..

Emile
www.boskoop2nepal.nl