Sailing

13th May 2019

Our biggest stress point on this trip has been crossing the Caspian and getting into Turkmenistan. It's complicated, it's stressful, it's pretty unfathomable without the languages and almost impossible without help. That's all really one needs to know, one could leave it at that. It's a very long story and beats what we had to do to get into Singapore. Jump over it if you don't feel up to it, it is long, very long and beaks all the presentational rules with little graphical content. But it is cathartic for us.

One has a choice of Type of visa for entering Turkmenistan, a Transit visa or a Tourist visa. Transit visas are easier, but you can only spend 5 days in the country. We were not sure we could cross the country in 5 days due to the heat and reputedly very poor roads, which would have slowed us down. So we opted for a Tourist visa which necessitates you being part of an organised Tour with somebody accompanying you all the time. So we organised a tour just for the two of us - ie somebody local, government 'approved' , following us or leading us in a car as we crossed the country.

All good and a Letter of Invitation was issued by the Turkmenistan Bureau of Foreign Affairs on that basis so we could obtain the visa. They allowed us a ten day visa in a twenty day window, which was fine for our seven day itinerary. Except the Turkman Embassy insisted that we name the start day and that's where the next problem lay.

The start day is the day you land in Turkmenistan. There are no ferries, as we know them, across the Caspian. There are freight ships. They don't run to a timetable and they are not announced anywhere. There are five that seem to ply their trade carrying an Azeri flag and they all date from the 1980's. One of them sank a few years back under high wind, which now means that there are restrictions linked to wind speed. There are also two Turkmen boats built this century. All boats leave when they are full and dock when they can. Paul has been tracking them nerdishly for the last two months on a Marine Traffic website to see whether there was any pattern. There isn't. All one could say is that the best crossing time for a Turkmen boat was @12 hours, but equally it had also taken 33 hours once, whereas the Azeri boats were a lot slower. There are not boats everyday. Things were also complicated by the ships leaving Azerbaijan from two ports; Baku Port or Baku International Seaport, which is actually 70km south of Baku.

What Paul had noticed was that for the past ten days no ship had left Baku. We found out that a  Turkmen ship was due  to dock in Azerbaijan at 1030 Monday morning and one at 1730 the same afternoon. So first thing Monday morning we went to Baku Port to see whether we could buy a ticket there. We were told that freight ships no longer ran from Baku and you could not buy tickets there. The port was closed and all ships were leaving from the International Seaport 70km away. It made sense - prime real estate in the city centre doesn't want or need a load of Turkic trucks.

So we returned to the hotel, packed the bike, told the hotel what we were up to and if we failed to find a boat we would return. We found the seaport and all went really well. We had bought our tickets, for a good boat, 160$ each including cabin and and extra 20$ for the motorbike to 'use' the port and we were through no issue. We were sorted and told to wait in the parking area until called. boarding would be at 13.00 - it was 12.30.

It's not like Dover Calais. There is no signage. There is no one walking round 'calling' you. We saw the man who sold us the tickets as he turned up in the parking lot. He said 16.00. This is a freight parking lot. There was no shade. There was a shop where we bought tomatoes, apples, water and crisps. There were containers containing dubious showers and even more dubious toilets. There was no choice - there was no nice terminal building. Paul bought another bottle of water and cleaned the bike.

15.30 and no action of any sort; we started to fret. The locals who inhabited the containers 'couldn't' help as they were Azeris and we were booked on a Turkmen boat. Francoise asked the security guard who was barring the way, he said we were in the wrong car park. There were only two and we had gone to the one we were directed to.

 

So we changed car park and everything was fine. We cleared Azeri customs with no hassle. We could see the boat so we rode up to it. 'Who said you come here? At once an easy question but simultaneously a hard one. There were a large number of lorries there slowly reversing on to the boat. Luckily a Turkman who had studied in London and driving a rather flash Audi 4x4 - especially for his tender years - turned up alongside us and we were both sent back to the fence to wait. Lorries had to be boarded firsthand . They had to reverse on, so they could drive off as there was only access at one end of the ship. We would be last on, first off. It was still very sunny. We boarded at 18.30.

We had to hand over our passports on the ship and pay the transit cost of the bike - another $100. This was so far all going to plan, we knew this. We then asked about our cabin and were told we only had reclining seats. We explained that we had paid 40$ each extra for a cabin. They were not that interested. Luckily our young Turkman was in the same situation and he kicked up a fuss.  We benefited from it. The ship confirmed that the Azeris's on shore were not allowed to sell cabins and that they could only sell seats. Of course we had no receipt - just the boarding cards, which said reclining seats....

Anyway we got a cabin. We watched remaining lorries manoeuvre onto the lower deck. They were literally six inches apart side to side. 40 lorries on the top deck, 16 on the lower. We were three cars, one transit van and one motorbike. It was now 19:30. Soon a tour group of 19 bikes, back up van and lead car turned up and filled the boat. They had tickets for cabins too - but there were no more available. At 20.00 all aboard.

The two shops on the ship were interesting in the fact that the doors were open and there was absolutely nothing in them. Just dust. The children's play area had already become an impromptu cabin - there were never any children anyway. There were,however, a number of Turkmen ladies who came aboard as foot passengers. We watched their luggage being craned aboard. The ladies all had plastic bags full of food. So did the truck drivers. Francoise went to the restaurant and asked about food. No food today was the answer, wait till Turkmenistan. Umhh.

However at 21:00, boat still in port, helpful young Turkmen whose family had been in the construction business for 10 years, said the restaurant was open now. So we went along. Lots of people eating their own food out of their carrier bags, but nothing else. But people had teapots so we asked for a teapot and was given one in minutes. Money was not requested. A few people started getting plates of things and after an hour we went and asked for some too. Again no money involved. The plates contained buckwheat, a stale bread roll that crumbled and a frozen mega chicken nugget. By frozen we mean that it was still frozen; or if not frozen, very cold and still quite crunchy. Not edible.

We returned to our cabin. We had been told that breakfast was at 09:00.

Paul remembers looking out of the window - we had a sea view cabin - and we were still in port just after midnight. In the morning people said that we had left sometime around 0100 in the morning and at that stage it was irrelevant whether it was Azeri or Turkman time. 

Breakfast was more edible. The hard boiled eggs were very difficult to peel and the cold frankfurters had plastic casings , you had to squeeze them out like pop ices. We then hung around as there was nothing else to do. Land was sighted just after midday and we docked at 14:00. We then had to sit down and wait for our passports to be returned. 16.00.

A sparse breakfast so we could rush to buy tickets, a tomato, apple and crisps for lunch, buckwheat for supper, a sparse breakfast, no lunch.....

 

But we were then first of the boat. And first to the passport office. But there was nobody there. One had to go to the Cashiers office first for the right to go to the passport office - but we did not know that. We were now last at the Cashier's office and we paid the 10$ per head arrival fee. We returned to the throng that was now around the passport office.

Paul had also been trying to contact the 'authorised travel firm' to tell them what boat we were on, so that they could pick us up outside the port as we were supposedly not allowed to travel on our own. As they had arranged the accommodation, we had no idea where we were supposed to be staying anyway! But we couldn't get through to anyone who spoke English. Friendly young Turkman, going under the name of Stephen as that was easier to pronounce, rang them up and gave us some other phone numbers. Which didn't work either. Deep breath time...

After a while we were at the front of the passport window and handed over our documents. The  officer seemed a little perplexed with the two expired Turkmenistan visas, from 2014 and 2017, but nodded his head when Paul gave him the Letter of Invitation we had received. He nodded his head, waved the passports and said something like '5 minutes'.

There was now a second wave of Turkic lorry drivers but we stood our ground for at least 30 minutes next to if not in front of the window.

Paul then spotted someone wearing a T-shirt that said 'Owadan' on it, which was the name of the travel company we had spotted and Paul pounced upon him to introduce himself. He had no English whatsoever, but started knocking at the Passport window and obtained the return of our passports. Things started to happen. He had a chum working with him, they said 'Bank' to us. We had already been to the Bank before but we needed to return, this time it was for $80 per head. We now know it was for our visa's. 

On obtaining these visa's the guys pushed to the front of the Passport queue and our passports got stamped.

They then said 'Bank' again. So we went back to the Bank and paid a further $89, which was for the bike. Something to do with size of engine, fuel tax and our itinerary.

All these payments receive hand written receipts in duplicate and are entered into ledgers. Those receipts need to be taken then to the next room.

With a fistful of receipts, for a fistful of dollars it must be said, our two new best friends went to the other end of the corridor and went into the room labelled, Veterinary Hygiene - taking no notice whatsoever of the queue that was outside. And the next room which was Plants and Animals, and the one that was Control Substances and then others that didn't have names on. They then said 'Bank' to us - this time it was only $13 and we think is the motorcycle insurance.

Afterwards We were told to go to the bike and ride it to the front of the queue of lorries. It was 21:30 and quite dark by now. There was a very cursory inspection of all of goods and chattels - we were expecting far more, having flushed what might be mis-construed medications down the toilet on the boat.The man gestured 'Go'. So we went. We showed our passports and he lifted the barrier. We were in Turkmenistan! Now where?

Luckily there was somebody beckoning us and we followed him to a cafe for tomato and cucumber salad and a kebab. And then to the hotel and we slept.

Very few photos as there was too much going on, too many guys in uniform and quite honestly we didn't really have a clue as to what was happening! But we will if we do it again!