Jobs for the Boys

Happy times just before arriving at Turkmenbashi

Andy C has got you on the Ferry and crossing the Caspian Sea, now I will pick up the baton, not quite as philosophical as his blog, although I agree whole heartedly with his comments.

We arrived or we thought we had arrived at Turkmenbashi at about 4pm on Saturday 6th August only to anchor two hours off the cost. At 2 o’clock Sunday morning we started moving again and headed into port, thinking that all our waiting was over, boy were we wrong. We moored up along side the harbour but then had to collect our passports the fiasco began it took two hours to hand out one hundred passports, only speeded up when a couple of Mongol Rally passengers helped out. Understandably the ships crew could not speak English so we’re holding the passports up for a group of about one hundred people to see and identify themselves. Once all the passports were handed out a bridge charge for leaving the ship had to be made, with receipts done in long hand and in triplicate. So you can see how we lost 2 hrs in time.

Next stop was a make shift parking area on the dock, once all the cars and Lorry’s were disembarked and several discussion were made between the dock staff and the uniformed army we were moved to the other end of the port to again be parked in a car park made “for the job”. We then had to hand in all our passports and wait!!!!!!

Now there were a mixture of people on the boat some with valid visas that did not need extension, some with letters of introduction (LOI) and those whose visas had run out or were about to run out due to the wait at Baku, which was the category we fell into. Several telephone calls from the officials to head office at Ashgabat (every issue outside the norm has to be referred to head office) finally told us that we have to have a new visa issued which is the same price as the one we paid for in Baku. So the order in which they were going to process the visas was valid first, LOI second and you guessed it visa extensions last. So we were resigned for a long wait in temperatures of 40C plus. We arrived at the car park at 10 am and our processing finished at about 9pm, you might ask why so so long, well if I can remember the detail this is what happened.

Firstly we handed our passports in as earlier mentioned, we then had them handed back from one window and were told to form groups. All UK citizens in one and so on. The group then had to collect all the money for the visas amounting to $85 for UK citizens and $55 for all other citizens!!!! Once the money was collected it was handed into the second window were a receipt written out in triplicate was made. We then had to go to the second window and pay $14 with the receipt written out in duplicate in long hand for each of the ralliers. Don’t ask me what the $14 was for at this point I was loosing the will to live (and we were only a third of the way through the process).

At one point I spoke to one of the military men (there were hundreds) as we had been told that carpark charges past midnight were $12/hr. His English was very good. I commented on that fact and asked him where he learnt it. He informed me that he had studied law at Cambridge (I assume the university). It turns out that he was doing military service a two year stint, he was in his second year. Anyhow, I asked how long it was going to take to get through immigration, would it be before midnight. He replied “I am sure it will because I have to work until you are through!”

Continuing my explanation of our delay you will recall we have just paid our $14. We then went to the first window to have our visa stamped and say which exit from the country we were going to use so they could calculate fuel surcharges. Once we received the passport we then had to put our baggage through the X-ray detector only for four people to then rummage through our bags. I did notice that this process was speeding up with less baggage content emptied onto the table. I can only assume that this was because they wanted to go home as well as us.

Once through the baggage check the driver of the vehicle had to go to another window to have documents stamped to allow the car into the country this may have been three separate stations to achieve this goal I/We can’t remember. Then Andy had to, you guessed it, go back to the cashier to pay the fuel and insurance charges of $140 with duplicate receipt all written in long hand. Once that was completed he returned to the car for a three military men to look through the contents, again this was cursory compared to previous people simply because they wanted to get home.

In total we must have seen at least 20 different people and visited at least nine different stations to get through immigration. In the UK we would have said this was jobs for the boys!

Finally we were in the car and ready to set off. We ask someone the way to Ashgabat and they pointed us in the right direction, we were happily driving to the exit with the expected barrier awaiting us but with the unexpected request for a piece of paper. It turned out we had to visit another window to pay to get out of the port which we could only pay in local currency, we had none!! Luckily there was a kind Rallier who gave me the money.

By the time we had finished this stage of our trip I could see at least four letters of complaint that I will be sending on my return home!

We exited the port at about 9pm knackered, drove for several miles nearly hit a camel and finally decided to pull up on the side of the road and have a two hour nap. We were knackered I am knackered just writing about it so I will stop here and hand the baton back to Andy.

Cheers Andy P