That’s just the process for getting a ticket. Once you get on the train, you have a bad night of sleep ahead of you because you’ll probably wake up at every stop along the way or when someone’s baby in the corridor starts crying. Instead of buying a ticket for a room, some people bribe their way onto the train and hang out in the corridor the whole time or try to convince someone to let them sleep on the floor in their room.
Still, the train can be fun if you’re traveling with friends or bring along a good book. Whenever Andy, Lindsay and I went in together, Andy would bring his laptop and we’d watch episodes of “The Soup.” The one time I went by myself I finished one book and got a few chapters into a second one. You of course get off at the train station, so when you arrive in Ashgabat you have to either take a taxi or bus to the Peace Corps office.
As you know, a typical taxi ride from Balkanabat to Ashgabat is four to five hours depending on if you stop for a food/potty break and where the taxi goes once it gets to Ashgabat. From B to A, it’s 30 manat if you leave in the morning. (From A to B, its 40 manat because I always leave later in the day). It’s not the safest form of transport; I believe I’ve mentioned in past posts that there aren’t seat belts unless you’re lucky enough to get shotgun. And Turkmen drive fast on bad roads. Plus, if you’re stuck in the backseat, it has three adults so it’s not too comfy either. But you can get a taxi any day of the week at a moment’s notice; you don’t have to plan ahead. And when you get into Ashgabat, the driver will drive you straight to the Peace Corps office.
You can fly from Balkanabat to Ashgabat but only on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Fridays (sometimes that’s switched to Saturdays, so you have to keep checking). It’s 38 manat and the flight takes less than an hour. It’s much easier to get tickets than the train, but it’s obviously only an option if you plan to leave on one of those three days. You have to take a taxi to the Balkanabat airport (3 manat) and then a bus from the Ashgabat airport to Tekke Bazaar and walk the block to the PCO. So it’s really 41.20 manat.
If you want to go somewhere other than Ashgabat, say, Mary, you have to go through Ashgabat. There are no direct flights from Balkanabat anywhere except Ashgabat. Same thing with the train or taxis. The reason I thought to write this post is because Lindsay was trying to help one of our students figure out a way to travel from Balkanabat to Mary. The flight schedules are not accommodating or accurate. For example, the flight board said there was a direct flight from Turkmenbashi to Mary. Tbashi is an hour up the road from us, so if you tack on a 10 manat taxi ride, you’re all set. Except when they asked, it turns out there’s not really a flight from Tbashi to Mary. So they’re going to have to go through Ashgabat.
So traveling here is like wanting to go from Boston to Philadelphia but having to go through Washington, D.C. in order to do it.