Mongol Rally: Our 3-Day Wild Ride Through Turkmenistan!
This adventure kicks off with a ferry from Azerbaijan that turns into an epic waiting game – 3 days anchored in the middle of the sea, waiting for the weather to clear.
Imagine: no food, no certainty, yet we definitely had fun.
By the time we finally set foot on land in Turkmenistan, we were half-starved, cranky, and ready for anything.
Except what came next.
Welcome to the marble-clad, ghostly arrival hall, where the Mongol Rally official drivers are whisked away, leaving us “passengers” clueless and abandoned in this oversized, empty, locked space that felt more like an alien quarantine than a ferry terminal.
Three hours… then four… and finally after 10 HOURS, Alex and the other drivers reappeared with marked maps, rules, and a very clear warning: stick to the roads we’re allowed on or risk a Turkmenistan prison tour. Yeah, no thanks!
By this point, Alex was in full-on grumpy mode, and we were practically starving, but we managed to find a grocery store for our first meal (well, snacks) in 72 hours (cue choir of angels).
Rejuvenated and ready, we hit the so-called “roads” (think: lunar craters) and headed toward the marble madness that is Ashgabat.
Ashgabat: The Weirdest Capital on Earth
Driving into Ashgabat was like entering an alternate dimension where everything’s shiny and nobody’s home.
It’s a city built out of pure marble, dipped in gold, and sprinkled with the weirdest monuments you’ve ever seen – except there are no people around!
Imagine walking in front of museums with no visitors.
Streets are wide enough for parades but empty.
The silence is eerie, broken only by the hum of surveillance cameras tracking our every move.
We wandered through pristine, deserted streets that felt like a movie set for a dystopian sci-fi film, only to stumble upon the world’s largest indoor Ferris wheel – yes, really. Everywhere we looked, there were palaces, golden statues, and monumental buildings, but not a soul in sight.
It’s like Turkmenistan decided to build the capital of the future… and forgot to invite anyone.
On our drive out of the city we ended up meeting some foreign architects at a traffic light (yes, we were the only other car on the road!) who kindly invited us to eat with them at a buzzing mall nearby.
The contrast was mind-blowing.
Suddenly, we were surrounded by locals, foreign workers, and life!
After a good meal, we were happy to leave the city and move on to the next insane stop: The Gates of Hell.
The Gates of Hell: A Fiery Pit of Insanity
Driving out of Ashgabat felt like leaving a marble dream and heading straight into the underworld.
Hours passed on dusty, half-roads through endless desert until finally – at sunset – we reached The Gates of Hell.
No, this isn’t a metaphor.
The Darvaza Gas Crater, or “Door to Hell,” is a massive, flaming pit smack in the middle of the Karakum Desert, and it’s been burning non-stop for over 50 years!
Soviet scientists accidentally created it when they drilled into a natural gas pocket, and ever since, this fiery inferno has been raging, lighting up the night sky like a scene from the apocalypse.
Standing at the edge of this churning inferno, feeling the blistering heat on our faces and smelling the sulfur in the air, it was like staring straight into the planet’s flaming core.
The crater glowed eerily as darkness fell, casting an orange glow across the vast emptiness of the desert.
It’s one of those moments that leaves you speechless – part awe, part terror, and a whole lot of WTF.
After spending the night basking in the insane heat of the crater, we hit the road at dawn, racing toward the border.
We had to leave Turkmenistan before our three-day visa expired, and trust me – we were more than ready for whatever madness awaited us next.
More from the Mongol Rally here: