One Week Tour Of Central Asia’s Most Isolated Country (part 3)

From the Muslim holy land of Mashhad, I took a taxi to Sarakhs, a border city in the Razavi Khorasan province of Iran to get to Turkmenistan, the 178 km long journey, but it only took me about 2 hours to get there border. Iran's infrastructure is quite good, although the topography here has changed slightly in elevation. I quickly cleared the visa at the border with a pre-prepared invitation letter in Vietnam. Currently, there are two border gates by land from Iran via Turkmenistan that tourists can use. One is from Mashhad, visitors can take a taxi to the small city of Quchan and then take another taxi with a 60km distance to go to the border area with Turkmenistan

. This method is often used by tourists who want to visit the capital Ashgabat first and a lot of foreign tourists choose this way. The second way is as I have experienced. I take a taxi to go to Sararkhs and pass the gate, from there I will take the car to go to Mary city Very few tourists go the second way like me, because they mainly want to visit the capital of Turkmenistan.



But this way is very appealing to bikers, as the road from Mashhad to Sararkhs is beautiful, with challenging hilly terrain for visitors to experience.After clearing out on the Iranian side, I got on the car again. The bus serving in this area crosses the border to the border gate of Turkmenistan for 100,000 rial (75,000 VND) for a distance of about 5 km, equal to the price I take a taxi from Mashhad to Sarakhs. This border has few foreign tourists, so the entry procedures for them in the form of bicycle transfer across the border, visa at the border have not been well trained by immigration staff. I arrived at the border area at 10am, had to go through several security checks from body temperature measurement, baggage check, camera, manual entry information in the security's book .. then submit I was guided through paying the entry fee and the bank service fee at the next counter before going back to the visa processing area.



After more than a few small waits due to power outages, the customs staff lunch and the time to call the travel agent where I asked for the invitation service, I went back to the next counter to pay the medium visa fee. is approved for 55 USD and 2 USD bank fees. At 13:00, I was holding a passport with a Turkmenistan visa still "hot", rushing to the gate to find a car to return to Mary. The weather in Turkmenistan that day was everyone told it was the hottest day since early summer. I see the temperature displayed on the driver's car as 43 degrees Celsius. More than half a day of transfer, check-in, and the heat has not let go from the Middle East, but when I get the visa, I seem to forget it all. So I also came to the most isolated country in Central Asia to begin my journey to explore famous landmarks on the Silk Road before.Merv was formerly an oasis city in the Karakum desert.



Large, located on a silk road and once the most populous city in the world, Turkmenistan has three world cultural heritages all on the Silk Road: the Kunya monuments complex in Urgench, the Nisa fortress of the people. Parthia is 18 km southwest of the capital Ashgabat and the Merv archaeological site near the city of Mary dates back thousands of years. In which Merv is considered a very important oasis city on the Silk Road, connecting with the economic, political and religious center of Bukhara of Uzbekistan at that time. I planned to visit Merv and then fly back to Ashgabat, considered to be the most beautiful capital in Central Asia, and the bus began to take me across the semi-desert terrain to the beautiful city of Mary. It is a typical provincial city in Turkmenistan, home to about 200,000 people and built mainly in the Soviet style with connecting railways and high and low apartment buildings. The street is planned with spacious roads along with a unique architectural system from monuments, squares, markets, churches. Only one day in Mary, but I still feel all the charm, as ancient as any European city. Everywhere I see a picture of the contemporary president as a true hero of the Turkmen people, I spend the next day touring the Merv archaeological site, about 40s away from the city of Mary.



kilometer. The site once held a very important position during the Persian empire, peaking its prosperity under Turkic leadership in the 12th century. By 1221, Merv fell into decline after suffering The Mongols sacked in a conquest that left tens of thousands dead. By the time of the Russian Tsar, Merv was discovered and discovered after hundreds of years of neglect.I climbed the highest hill in the area, my eyesight to imagine a city of Merv once in line. Thousand years of history, once the most densely populated city in the world, now only earth walls surround a vast area in the KaraKum desert..

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