Turkmenistan is shrouded in mystery, as it is one of the least visited countries in the world. North Korea gets a lot more visitors a year, most of them Chinese, and certainly much more media attention. But what do you know about Turkmenistan?
Let's start with the facts: it is a country in Central Asia, part of the former Soviet Union, whose name indicates a Turkic heritage... maybe these are the real Turks and not the ones who live in Turkey?In a way that is true since the Turks are supposed to come from these latitudes about a thousand years ago but, going straight to the point, Turkmenistan is an absurdly weird place of Earth. The border crossing from Iran was the worst in my life and I have done a number of them... having soldiers shout at you while you are ripped off trying to get your bike into the country is not my choice for fun. After two stressing hours and 75 US dollars, I was let into the country with a transit permit that allowed me to drive only on the road from Ashgabat to Dashoguz in the coming four days.

Ashgabat, shiny capital of marble and gold built with oil money...
Policemen in every corner but nobody else in the streets, recently created parks without people using them, grandiloquent monuments and avenues... for the next picture I have to thank Mayumi, who shared the ride with me across this country and took many 'forbidden' pictures from the back seat. This is how Ashgabat looks at night and how asphalt reflects the light when it is properly polished.

But to be fair, that is just the center of town. The suburbs look just like any other ex-communist country capital: concrete blocks and mazes of alleys and parks. And how did we get to the suburbs? Well, after one hour trying to find the address of a certain home stay recommended by Lonely Planet and right before giving up, I started talking to a girl that was coming out of a pharmacy and asked her if she spoke English. Then she replied: are you a couchsurfer? And half an hour later we were having dinner together and she was calling friends until she found somebody willing to host us for the night. That is how we got to know this lovely family, who provided a place to sleep, found parking space for my bike in a neighbor's courtyard and even prepared breakfast in the morning.

With this great company, I would really have liked to explore Ashgabat for a couple more days but we could not waste any time. We had a long way ahead to the Uzbek border across the desert and we had to get going... our main goal to visit on that empty road through the Karakum desert was the Darvaza crater, aka 'Door to Hell'. It is reached after driving for 300 km and not seeing anything else than a bunch of other cars and trucks, a couple of camels and a few thousand potholes. We finally reached the Darvaza area and stopped by one of the chaikhanas, which are sort of road cafes where you can eat something and also stay during the night.

However, the real fun is not to stay there overnight but camp near the crater and that is exactly what we did. I left my bike parked by the road and, when the sun was low enough, we started walking east. The burning crater is supposed to be 8 km from the road but it is almost impossible to find during the day, one has to wait until it is dark enough for the glow to be visible and then just walk towards the light, like a hypnotized insect. During our night hike and right after we started noticing the crater glow, the moon decided to join us and it was an incredibly beautiful massive red full moon rising on the horizon. Three hours after we started walking, we found the following otherworldly sight. Notice the three people on the other side of the crater to have an idea of its diameter.

The 'Door to Hell' is partly natural and partly made by man. Soviet engineers were in this area prospecting for natural resources and they found natural gas, which they wanted to extract if profitable. During their experiments, the ground collapsed and gas started to flow out. They decided to ignite the gas as they thought that it would eventually run out in a few days... and well, forty years later the gas is still burning. Leaving aside all this, it is a magical place. Fire has a very strong effect on human beings, probably related to times when we depended on it for survival. And this is probably the biggest permanent contained fire in the world, just in front of your face. For you to relate to more mundane artifacts, the Darvaza burning crater does sound and smell like a mountain-sized gas stove, like those used to fry eggs for breakfast or wok your favorite vegetables.

The next picture is not of a devil come out of the underworld but Mayumi getting as close to the edge as it was reasonable and safe. Depending on the wind direction, being that close can be pleasantly warm due to the infrared radiation or scorching hot if the heated air is blown on your face.

And that was it, we camped a couple of hundred meters away from the big hole, slept until sunlight woke us up and were given a lift back to the road by a British couple who had rented a 4WD car. At the chaikhana, we ate something again, rested for a while and I even had time for one of the weirdest experiences of my life when the 18-year old daughter of the owner asked me to stay one more night to explore the possibility of getting married. I have to say that I did not know what to say for thirty seconds, during which Mayumi started worrying about hitch-hiking in the middle of the desert... in the end, I politely declined the offer and drove on.

After another long day, we finally made it to Dashoguz and to the border, crossed into Uzbekistan and breathed deeply once we stopped feeling the pressure of the transit visa...

Next stops on the Silk Road: Khiva, Bukhara and, of course, Samarkand.