🇺🇿🇹🇲🇹🇯 🇦🇿 Stan/Baku 25

Two weeks in Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Baku
An enchanting journey through Central Asia, from the ancient Silk Road cities of Uzbekistan to the mountain landscapes of Tajikistan, and the deserts and modern architecture of Turkmenistan Read more

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🇺🇿🇹🇲🇹🇯 🇦🇿 Stan/Baku 25 Leonardo Floridia
One of the most difficult Visa to obtain
April 23, 2025 in Turkmenistan ⋅ ☀️ 26 °C
We have a tourist visa that will allow us to visit one of the most unusual countries in the world.
We had to obtain an invitation letter, take a COVID test (in 2025!), and pay over $100 strictly in cash and in pristine bills.

We were very lucky—an American we met at the Door to Hell told us that all 10–15 of his friends were denied a visa, and only he was admitted.

The trip can now start!Read more
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🇺🇿🇹🇲🇹🇯 🇦🇿 Stan/Baku 25 Leonardo Floridia
Dasoguz - Kamil supermarket
April 23, 2025 in Turkmenistan ⋅ ☀️ 27 °C
Just after the border is the city of Dashoguz, the third-largest in the country.
We stop at a local supermarket to do some shopping before continuing our journey.

Nothing like the local bazaars and markets. Here, they sell Nutella and Barilla, along with many other Western brands. We’re stunned by the price (the equivalent of €33 for Nutella, 19 for some Barilla), but we quickly realize that there is an official exchange rate (1 = 140 manat) and a parallel "black" exchange, much more favorable one.

I have breakfast with an excellent coffee and continue wandering down the aisles.
On one shelf, side by side: an Iranian juice, an American Sprite, and Dobry Cola (the Russian substitute for Coca-Cola after the sanctions). A practical sign of Turkmenistan’s policy of permanent neutrality.Read more
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🇺🇿🇹🇲🇹🇯 🇦🇿 Stan/Baku 25 Leonardo Floridia
The students’ uniforms
April 23, 2025 in Turkmenistan ⋅ ☀️ 28 °C
Along the streets, we notice dozens of students in uniform.

The boys wear a suit with a white shirt and black tie. Schoolgirls wear a green dress (the national color) decorated with geometric patterns. University female students wear the same dress, but in red.Read more
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🇺🇿🇹🇲🇹🇯 🇦🇿 Stan/Baku 25 Leonardo Floridia
Just 37 cents per liter!
April 23, 2025 in Turkmenistan ⋅ ☀️ 28 °C
Our guide stops to refuel. I lean out to check the price: 1.50 manat per liter.
The converter on my phone shows EUR 0.37... 37 cents.

After all, Turkmenistan is one of the world’s major hydrocarbon producers (its entire economy is based on natural gas extration and export).Read more
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🇺🇿🇹🇲🇹🇯 🇦🇿 Stan/Baku 25 Leonardo Floridia
The bazar of Dasoguz
April 23, 2025 in Turkmenistan ⋅ ☀️ 28 °C
Our guide stops in the first city beyond the border, called Dashoguz, which is also the third-largest city in the country.
The city is the administrative center of the district, bordering Uzbekistan, and once included part of the Aral Lake. Being a border area, any movement within the district must be specially authorized by the Givernment and arranged well in advance.

The bazaar is deserted; it’s just us, the vendors, and the guide.
We pick up the food we’ll eat during the night in the middle of the desert and set off again.
Before leaving we notice products from Russia alongside apples from Ukraine, a sign of the permanent neutrality policy that Turkmenistan has followed since its founding.Read more
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🇺🇿🇹🇲🇹🇯 🇦🇿 Stan/Baku 25 Leonardo Floridia
A plov in Turkmenistan
April 23, 2025 in Turkmenistan ⋅ ☀️ 29 °C
Even though we’ve already tried plov, this one is special: we’re in Turkmenistan, one of the least visited countries in the world.

The plov was delicious, and the place was decorated in an eccentric but very beautiful way. It’s probably both a restaurant and a nightclub/dance hall.

A sign behind us reminds us that we are in an Islamic country and that this restaurant is alcohol-free.
In front of us sit some elegantly dressed people, perhaps employees of a company or, more likely, officials on their lunch break.

Somehow, my SIM manages to connect to the internet for a brief moment, allowing me to send a WhatsApp message.Read more
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🇺🇿🇹🇲🇹🇯 🇦🇿 Stan/Baku 25 Leonardo Floridia
A huge flag in Dasoguz
April 23, 2025 in Turkmenistan ⋅ ☀️ 29 °C
Near the market, in a square, a flag rises high, visible from all over the city.
The flag of Turkmenistan is full of symbols: the green and the crescent moon represent Islam, the five stars stand for the country’s five regions, and the five carpet designs symbolize the emblems of the five founding tribes of the nation.

The entire country is scattered with images of these five emblems, along with the eight-pointed star and the national coat of arms.Read more
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🇺🇿🇹🇲🇹🇯 🇦🇿 Stan/Baku 25 Leonardo Floridia
Passing through Dashoguz
April 23, 2025 in Turkmenistan ⋅ ☀️ 29 °C
Through the car window, we see the various monuments and buildings of Dashoguz.

Even though it’s a town of 300,000 inhabitants, there are majestic and intricately decorated buildings—a preview of what we’ll see in two days in Ashgabat.

Leaving the city, we see a long row of identical houses with green roofs. The guide explains that they have just been completed bz the Government and will soon house families.Read more
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🇺🇿🇹🇲🇹🇯 🇦🇿 Stan/Baku 25 Leonardo Floridia
Alyonka chocolate
April 23, 2025 in Turkmenistan ⋅ ☀️ 29 °C
Finally, I get to try Alyonka, the Russian chocolate I often saw in stores in Uzbekistan.

The packaging is beautiful, featuring a little girl with a fair face and a headscarf. She is supposedly the daughter of an employee, chosen to symbolize the sweetness and delicacy of the milk chocolate.

Apparently, this is a very popular Russian (and formerly Soviet) chocolate, tied to many childhood memories for people from the former USSR.

Really delicious!Read more
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🇺🇿🇹🇲🇹🇯 🇦🇿 Stan/Baku 25 Leonardo Floridia
Ismamyt Ata Memorial Complex
April 23, 2025 in Turkmenistan ⋅ ☀️ 29 °C
At the edge of the desert lies the Ismamyt Ata Memorial Complex.

According to tradition, Isim Sahab, a companion of the Prophet Muhammad, arrived in the 7th century to spread Islam in the region.

After his death, the site became sacred, and his body is said to rest in the sarcophagus within the complex.

The complex is open, and the only living beings present were dozens of birds and hundreds of wasps, which had built their nests under the mausoleum’s domes.Read more
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🇺🇿🇹🇲🇹🇯 🇦🇿 Stan/Baku 25 Leonardo Floridia
Yzmyksir Galasy
April 23, 2025 in Turkmenistan ⋅ ☀️ 30 °C
Before entering the Karakum Desert, we stop to see the Yzmyksir Galasy Fort. It’s an ancient fortress built mainly from mud bricks, standing in the middle of the desert.

It served as a strategic point for controlling trade routes across the desert and for defense against raids, and its exact historical period is still uncertain.

Even though it’s April, the temperatures under the sun are extremely high. Walking in the short path to enter the fortress leaves us out of breath and sweating. The sunlight reflects off the white sand and is blinding. My travel companion and I joke that the guide, who stayed in the car with the air conditioning on, has actually abandoned us here!Read more
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🇺🇿🇹🇲🇹🇯 🇦🇿 Stan/Baku 25 Leonardo Floridia
In the middle of the Karakum Desert
April 23, 2025 in Turkmenistan ⋅ ☀️ 30 °C
We are traveling on the R23 / A388, the only road that crosses the country from Dashoguz to Ashgabat through the desert and the Door to Hell.

It is a strip of asphalt full of potholes that cuts through the desert. On both sides, the red desert sand, dunes, mountains, and beautiful camels.Read more
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🇺🇿🇹🇲🇹🇯 🇦🇿 Stan/Baku 25 Leonardo Floridia
A break in the middle of nothing
April 23, 2025 in Turkmenistan ⋅ ☀️ 30 °C
A short break from driving on the dirt road, in the middle of the Karakum Desert.
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🇺🇿🇹🇲🇹🇯 🇦🇿 Stan/Baku 25 Leonardo Floridia
The dromedaries along the desert
April 23, 2025 in Turkmenistan ⋅ ☀️ 29 °C
During the long journey through the desert, we saw numerous dromedaries and camels.
The guide explained us that most of them are privately owned by local farmers but are allowed to roam freely.

At the back of one of the many trucks crossing the country from north to south, we saw some camels with their heads sticking out of the truck bed.Read more
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🇺🇿🇹🇲🇹🇯 🇦🇿 Stan/Baku 25 Leonardo Floridia
We finally see the crater!
April 23, 2025 in Turkmenistan ⋅ ☀️ 29 °C
After hours of driving through the desert, over uneven roads and dunes, we finally see the country’s main attraction, the Door to Hell.

All around, there are dozens of vehicles and gas extraction equipment, rusted and abandoned by the Soviets after the end of extraction operations.Read more
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🇺🇿🇹🇲🇹🇯 🇦🇿 Stan/Baku 25 Leonardo Floridia
Finally we reached the Door to Hell!
April 23, 2025 in Turkmenistan ⋅ ☀️ 28 °C
After hours and hours of dirt roads, rough terrain, and potholes, we finally arrived at the Door to Hell, perhaps the place for which Turkmenistan is most famous worldwide.

The Door to Hell is a natural gas crater that has been burning continuously since 1971.
It originated after the collapse of a Soviet gas well in the 1960s. To prevent methane from escaping into the environment, the Soviets set the well on fire, thinking the gas would burn off quickly... well there were wrong!

Compared to the past, the crater burns much less today, a sign that the underground gas flow is gradually depleting. Additionally, there have been multiple discussions in Turkmenistan about permanently closing the well, so if you want to visit, it’s better to hurry.Read more
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🇺🇿🇹🇲🇹🇯 🇦🇿 Stan/Baku 25 Leonardo Floridia
The Door to Hell during sunset
April 23, 2025 in Turkmenistan ⋅ 🌙 26 °C
The Door to Hell shows all its beauty during and just after sunset.

In the middle of the ever-darkening desert, you see a round hole emitting a red-orange light. It’s the Door to Hell!

Up close, with the little flames dancing, it’s a stunning sight.
But from a small hill a short distance away, the view is even more incredible: a perfectly round hole glowing red, surrounded by nothing but desert for kilometers and kilometers.Read more
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🇺🇿🇹🇲🇹🇯 🇦🇿 Stan/Baku 25 Leonardo Floridia
A tasty dinner in a yurta
April 23, 2025 in Turkmenistan ⋅ 🌙 26 °C
While we were admiring the beauty of the desert and the Door to Hell, our guides were preparing roasted chicken.

It was really flavorful and delicious. Even though we are in a Muslim country, our guides bought some beers for us, but we preferred to try the cherry juice, which was really good.Read more
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🇺🇿🇹🇲🇹🇯 🇦🇿 Stan/Baku 25 Leonardo Floridia
After dinner at the Door to Hell
April 23, 2025 in Turkmenistan ⋅ 🌙 24 °C
Some people go for a walk with their dog after dinner… we go to the Door to Hell.

Without a flashlight, it's impossible to see anything except a large glowing spot in the middle of the desert, radiating a yellow-red light.

Near the crater, the warm wind from the flames contrasts with the cool desert night air.
We put on hoodies to face the chilly desert night and enjoy a local beer called Berk 1.Read more
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🇺🇿🇹🇲🇹🇯 🇦🇿 Stan/Baku 25 Leonardo Floridia
The starry sky in the desert
April 23, 2025 in Turkmenistan ⋅ 🌙 23 °C
In the middle of nowhere, without internet and free from light pollution, I could enjoy the beauty of a truly unique starry sky.

Something that photos cannot fully capture. Above the yurts, an endless expanse of white dots scattered across a black sky.Read more
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🇺🇿🇹🇲🇹🇯 🇦🇿 Stan/Baku 25 Leonardo Floridia
Sleeping in a yurt, in the desert!
April 23, 2025 in Turkmenistan ⋅ 🌙 23 °C
After dinner and a cold beer by the crater, it’s time to sleep.
Not in a hotel, but in a yurt, in a sleeping bag, in the middle of the desert.

No signal and no internet, but under a beautiful starry sky.Read more
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🇺🇿🇹🇲🇹🇯 🇦🇿 Stan/Baku 25 Leonardo Floridia
Goodmorning from Turkmenistan!
April 24, 2025 in Turkmenistan ⋅ ☁️ 18 °C
Good morning from Turkmenistan!
After a night sleeping on a mattress inside a yurt, we wake up in Darvaza where we can admire the "door to hell" with the rising sun behind it.
This crater is an incredible sight at any time of daz and nigh.
Around us there is only desert.

We take one last look at it before going to have breakfast and then starting a long journey towards the capital of Turkmenistan, Ashgabat.Read more
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🇺🇿🇹🇲🇹🇯 🇦🇿 Stan/Baku 25 Leonardo Floridia
Good morning Turkmenistan!
April 24, 2025 in Turkmenistan ⋅ ☁️ 20 °C
It’s 8:15 in the morning, time to wake up to have breakfast.

During the night, no animals came to visit us (luckily!) and the sleeping bag did its job, keeping us warm (perhaps a little too warm!).

Seven hours of very good sleep to recharge our energy for the second half of the journey through the desert toward Ashgabat.Read more
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🇺🇿🇹🇲🇹🇯 🇦🇿 Stan/Baku 25 Leonardo Floridia
The mud crater
April 24, 2025 in Turkmenistan ⋅ 🌬 24 °C
This crater too, like the water crater and the Door to Hell, was formed by the collapse of a Soviet gas well.

Inside the crater there is a mixture of sand and water that forms a muddy, viscous liquid. The guide explains that it sometimes bubbles.Read more
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🇺🇿🇹🇲🇹🇯 🇦🇿 Stan/Baku 25 Leonardo Floridia
The water crater
April 24, 2025 in Turkmenistan ⋅ 🌬 25 °C
Although the Door to Hell is the most famous, there are other smaller and lesser-known craters in the area.

A short distance away, we stop to see the “water crater,” a circular depression filled with turquoise water that contrasts beautifully with the surrounding red/yellow sand.

Geothermal activity created a 50-meter-wide, 15-meter-deep hole, which naturally filled with water from underground aquifers.Read more
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