some border info req. (Central Asia)
 

So next year we will be taking the Georgia/RUS border then onto Astrakhan - Atyrau.

From here I want to take the Beyneu to Kungrad (UZB) border which I found a little info on, is this well travelled?

I would like to enter Turkmenistan on a 5 day transit visa from Nukas and re-enter UZB at Turkmenibat/Bukhara. Has anyone entered Turkmenistan this way before? As I would really like to see the gas crater.

and I take it I need to get visa's sorted long before I get to any of these borders. I was thinking of trying to get it all sorted in Istanbul/Ankara before heading east. Any better options? sound like a plan? there will be 2 of us in a 4x4.

?c?

Thanks,

G

The Beyneu - Kungrad road is definitely not well travelled, but doable, although the road is very bad.

You cannot enter and leave Turkmenistan from/to the same country on a transit visa - you need to go through Turkmenistan, for instance from Kazakhstan to Uzbekistan, or from Uz to Iran. You will need both visas in advance before you apply for the Turkmen transit visa. Istanbul or Ankara are possibilities for all your stan visas. See the embassy reports on the previous link for more on that.

doh that makes sense with a 'transit' visa. Scratch Turkmenistan then, maybe? Could you enter from Kaz at Bekdash? then exit into UZB at Bukhara for example?

Bad roads shouldn't be a problem, looks like that is our way to Uzbekistan then. Would you recommend stopping in Istan/Anakara to do all these? we cannot get them from the UK because we will be leaving in January and taking a slow drive around and down. I did read in a few places about picking up visas in Turkey before heading east.

If anyone has a better idea please let me know.

cheers :thumbup1:

G

Yes, it's a 4WD road, I would say, but the border is open towards Bekdash. You should have a look at my visa guide for reports on visas in istanbul/ankara. If I recall correctly without looking, I think Ankara is better, but see for yourself. Remember you can apply for your Turkmen visa in one embassy (eg. London, Ankara) and pick it up in a second one (eg. Baku).

I don't think you'll get a transit visa for a Kazakhstan - Turkmenistan - Uzbekistan transit, as there is no reason to have to transit Turkmenistan.

But, I am interested - did you cross the Bekdash border from Turkmenistan into Kazakhstan (or visa-versa)?

The road to the gas crater has quite a bit of sand FYI.

We never bothered trying.
Like you said, it wouldn't be a transit on the proposed route so we took the usual route through to Nukas/Khiva etc from Kaz.

G