Turkmenistan, visa email and ferry to Baku
 

VISA SITUATION

I was able to apply for a Turkmenistan transit visa in Dushanbe, Tajikistan. I didn't yet have my Azerbaijan visa so I made a fake evisa and submitted it with my Turkmenistan visa application and it worked with no problems. They wanted me to come back in 7 days to retrieve the visa but I convinced them to email it to me so that I could cross into Uzbekistan while waiting for the visa. I believe most embassies offer this service.

I set the start date of my entry into Turkmenistan for 8 days after my application date, theoretically the day after I would get the visa emailed to me. On the 7th day I didn't get an email. On the 8th day I called the office and they said that they were still working on it. On the 9th day they finally emailed it to me mid-day and I crossed the border near Bukhara with no problems. I did have to pay about $100 in taxes and fees though.

Even though I entered the country a day after my visa had technically started, they shifted the date of the visa at the border to give me 5 days instead of 4. Two of my friends were given a code for their visa because the "letter of invitation" had not been issued by the government yet. The embassy told them that the code would be all they needed to get the visa at the border but they were rejected and had to go to Kazakhstan... so wait for the actual visa email and don't rely on the code they may give you over the phone.

If you cross the border near Bukhara late in the day and want to stay in Turkmenabat, there is a restaurant that caters to truckers that will let you sleep for free on one of their sofa tables. It's pretty much the last building on the outskirts of the city on the right hand side of the road right after the huge shopping complex. GPS approximately 38.971518, 63.506448

FERRY SITUATION

From Turkmenbashi you will have to wait a maximum of 3 full days. Many ships come and go but most of them run on diesel and cannot take passengers. If your visa is running out then you can get stamped out and wait in the designated area until a boat arrives. I took a VERY nice ship to Baku, $80 for me and $113 for my bike. I bought the ticket at this GPS coordinate: 40.000411 52.997866 I had my own cabin with a bathroom and hot water shower and it took 12 hours to arrive in Baku but around 24 hours from the time I got on the boat until I got off of it.

Hotel Turkmenbashi is $35 a night with nonfunctional wifi. However, all of the cheaper options in town will not let you stay with a foreign passport.

Also in Baku
 

I arrived on Friday afternoon and am leaving on Monday bound for Georgia.
I took the ferry from Aktau in Kazakhstan. The crossing was fine as was the process of buying tickets for self and bike. I have a 5 day transit visa for Azerbaijan but on arrival here they only gave me 3 days for the bike, I tried to argue that I was entitled to the full 5 days but it was futile. Also got hit for approx $115 in port charges on arrival which they want in US$, I only had that amount in EU which they accepted.

Port charges,hm ..hm ?? it is a scam ...once you pay ticket for yourself and bike ...no more payments are to be made .

Scam? I don't think so.
 

The passenger ticket pays for passage of self, then there is the cost of transporting the bike. I've sent a bike from Australia to Timor Leste previously and had to pay port charges at both ends in addition to the cost of shipping the bike. Then I sent the bike from Medan in Indonesia to Georgetown in Malaysia and guess what, port charges at each end. The port where the ferry docks in Baku is a new purpose built facility with modern offices and very efficient loading and unloading, to expect free use of these is unrealistic.