Talk:Turkmenistan Voyage Tips and guide

Text here has been deleted more than once, most recently by an anonymous user, and restored a couple of times by admins. I've just restored it again, then rewritten it in a form I hope is less politically charged. Other opinions, comments, rewrites? Why is it a disclaimer, rather than warning, box? (WT-en) Pashley 19:59, 10 March 2007 (EST)

I cannot find information on the boat link from Turkmenbashi to Baku? This is quite important, as many backpackers are interested in taking this route to Central Asia. Feel free to send me the info and I can post it up. Thanks!! (WT-en) Cupcakecommander 08:38, 1 September 2007 (EDT)

Someone added the following to the Talk section. I removed it because it is against our external link policy, but it might be useful to someone to start up a Turkmen phrasebook, so I'm putting it below. (WT-en) Texugo 00:00, 8 May 2008 (EDT)

• Free printable Turkmen-English English-Turkmen Dictionary with grammar and pronunciation published by Peace Corps [1].

I have a an urgent question that I think I know the answer but I want to be sure does having an israeli stamp in your passport cause problems when applying for a visa

I sincerely doubt it will have any bearing—Turkmenistan is the most solidly neutral nation on the planet. Nonetheless, getting that visa is very difficult (unless my knowledge is outdated) regardless of where you have or have not been. --(WT-en) Peter ^Talk 20:31, 3 September 2009 (EDT)

Yeah it really is neutral I mean they have a 12 million dollar arh dedicated to it. Thanks and yes getting a visa especially as an indepedent traveler is near impossible luckily I am going with my dad

Let me revise that for an indepedent traveler it is near impossible for most people it is just difficult not nearly impossbile just a big typo for whoever is reading

This is an odd case, given how large the country is but how very small it's population is—80% is the infamously inhospitable, completely empty Karakum Desert. While the Karakum isn't going to have a lot by way of cities & ODs (pretty much just Darvaza, I think), and therefore won't have sub-articles, it could still make a good travel article, and visitors always make an excursion there just to see it. The Karakum technically encompasses more than what I've drawn, but I've tried to keep anything that is in any way distinct from the desert in a separate article.

Scheme a:

• West Turkmenistan (or Caspian Basin (Turkmenistan)) — natural gas/oil land, in the Caspian Basin, Turkmenbashi, etc.
• Central Turkmenistan — centered on Ashgabat, the towns along the Trans-Caspian railway, Kopet Dag Mountains
• East Turkmenistan — Merv, ruins, possibly Turkmenabad, which is troublesomely separated from the rest of the country by the Karakum...
• North Turkmenistan (or Khorezm) — around Amu Darya River, Dashoguz, totally isolated from the rest of the country, intertwined with Khorezm Oasis areas across the Uzbekistani border
• Karakum Desert — self explanatory

Scheme b:

• Combine East & Central Turkmenistan into a big South Turkmenistan region, which would contain the bulk of the nation's cities & attractions (of which, in all fairness, there are not many).
• Combine the isolated Turkmenabad area with North Turkmenistan into an Amu-Darya region (they're both on the river at the Uzbek border), which would be interesting, and would avoid the problem of having a region split by desert.

I'm favoring scheme B, and have drawn it up in the map to the right. I would appreciate any thoughts on how well these ideas would fit with our goals. --(WT-en) Peter ^Talk 12:19, 16 January 2010 (EST)

I like scheme B, but I think dividing the country by provinces (and there's only 5, merging Ashgabat capital district into Ahal) may be preferable. First of all, by having the desert as a single region, there's very little to fill a Karakum Desert page with (as you said) and that will hinder the Turkmenistan page from increasing in status. From a traveller's point of view, there is little which unifies the desert west-east into a distinct travel destination...visitors will use the roads and will make a trip to Darvaza, per se, from Ashgabat or between Ashgabat and Dashoguz while a visitor may visit the eastern Karakum from Mary or Turkmenabad. And I've never seen a district as slim your proposed Amu-Darya, except Transnistria (for understandable reasons). Perhaps the northern two provinces could be merged, thus: Caspian Basin, Central Turkmenistan, Southeastern Turkmenistan, & Northern Turkmenistan (Amu-Darya). (WT-en) AHeneen 21:59, 16 January 2010 (EST)

Actually, the Karakum region was the only one that I felt pretty sure made sense! I think there's actually plenty to write about, like interacting with the Turkmen in the very small settlements, Darvaza, tour companies that will take you on excursions (I doubt the government will let you wander around there)—there just won't be any subregions, cities, or other destinations to list. A pure bottom level region is fine when it is coherent (and is actually a lot easier to get to usable status, and thus to allow the eventual promotion of Turkmenistan to guide status. I'm amenable to following the province lines more closely, but I'm not sure they are based much on anything other than drawing lines in the sand though... And are you suggesting we do away with the Amu-Darya Region, then split what I have as the South Region into a Ashgabad area & Southeastern Turkmenistan (and add Kerki & Turkmenabad to that region)? That could possibly work, although the North Turkmenistan region article would be really spare. I remain pretty uncertain about all these questions. Would be nice to hear some other opinions... ;) --(WT-en) Peter ^Talk 15:52, 19 January 2010 (EST)

I also think the desert doesn't make for a logical travel region as there are no ways of transport to visit that region. In many regions, provinces [[2]] are not the way to go, but I think that in the case of Turkmenistan they are ideal. There are five of them, which is fine I think, and they already correspond to the differences you have explained (except that the desert would be spread over these provinces and the north would be spread into 2 provinces). --(WT-en) globe-trotter 10:33, 6 March 2010 (EST)

Well, I've come to doubt that this discussion has any legs, so I've acceded to the majority opinion and implemented the new hierarchy based on the provinces, and the new map to the right. --(WT-en) Peter ^Talk 13:30, 21 April 2010 (EDT)

Looks great! --(WT-en) globe-trotter 14:16, 18 June 2010 (EDT)

What is the usefulness for travellers in calling a dictatorship a "republic"? On the other hand, is it time to revisit whether the country is still under "Stalinist" rule like North Korea? "Left-wing" is not likely to be a useful designation for travellers, whereupon, perhaps the subsection in question should be excised. (WT-en) Ikan Kekek 20:37, 2 May 2012 (EDT)

Should there be an article for the Darvaza gas crater? On the one hand it's arguably the country's biggest draw and visiting it isn't as simple as jumping on a bus tour from your hotel, but on the other hand it's truly in the middle of nowhere (you have to off-road to get to it, and there are no nearby villages), going there is mostly a matter of booking tours (or arranging a complicated taxi ride), and there is naturally next to nothing else to do there (though there are some other off-beat attractions on the road from Ashgabat).

Thoughts?

Rastapopulous (talk) 22:42, 14 May 2013 (UTC)Reply

I think it would make sense to have an article devoted to the Karakum Desert, which would be able to cover this. It's one of the world's most barren barren wastelands, so one article should be able to do even such a large area justice ;) --Peter ^Talk 05:30, 15 May 2013 (UTC)Reply

Should we make an article Darvaza (along with Derweze, another common spelling) that just redirects to Karakum? Rastapopulous (talk) 14:53, 15 May 2013 (UTC)Reply

And as an aside, which region should we put it under, as it spans a bunch of them? I'd put it under Ahal, as that's where the main (pretty much) only attraction is. Rastapopulous (talk) 15:02, 15 May 2013 (UTC)Reply

I guess Ahal makes the most sense, although we could link to it from more than one region. And yes, the flaming crater will necessitate a lot of redirects ;) I would suggest creating a Darvaza article, but there just isn't much to write about: hire someone to take you there by jeep, bring hot dogs, marshmallows, and super long sticks! --Peter ^Talk 15:17, 15 May 2013 (UTC)Reply

Articles made, content to come. Rastapopulous (talk) 16:29, 15 May 2013 (UTC)Reply

I have to say, one of my favorite changes from WT to WV has been the addition of page-top banners. I'd love to add one for Turkmenistan, and I think carpets might be the best subject for them because they are Turkmenistan's most famous product and so as to not have yet another picture with Turkmenbashi (also, monument pictures are hard to crop to the appropriate aspect ratio). I cropped two photos from my 2011 trip to the country, but can't decide which looks better. Thoughts as to which banner is better? Or maybe the subjects should be something other than carpets? Rastapopulous (talk) 11:27, 17 May 2013 (UTC)Reply

I like #2 better: more colorful. Nice work! Btw, try to sort your banners into individual countries in commons [3]. Danapit (talk) 12:04, 17 May 2013 (UTC)Reply

I tried that, but neither Cuba nor Turkmenistan have categories for them. Rastapopulous (talk) 12:04, 17 May 2013 (UTC)Reply

The second looks good. Thanks for helping us! You are welcome to create categories there. I went ahead and created commons:Category:Wikivoyage banners of Turkmenistan and Cuba for you. But you are welcome to create your own categories, or even just create redlinked categories and leave it up to someone else to make them if you don't feel up to it. JamesA ^>talk 13:04, 17 May 2013 (UTC)Reply

Both nice, and carpets are definitely the right thing to use. I also prefer #2. Pashley (talk) 13:09, 17 May 2013 (UTC)Reply

I went ahead and put banner #2 up since that seems to be the consensus thus far. Rastapopulous (talk) 13:13, 17 May 2013 (UTC)Reply

Rastapopulous, this is how you can create new categories (well, one way to do it): [4]. In step 1 you can enter for example "Category:Wikivoyage banners of Slovakia" in the search field (as a new non-existent category). And it belongs to Europe, so in step 4 you enter to the edit field "Category:Wikivoyage banners of Europe" (in double square brackets). Save and done. Danapit (talk) 13:23, 17 May 2013 (UTC)Reply

I think #2 is great. I upped the contrast and darkened it just a tad, not because the image really needed it, but because I think that style works best for the banners. If you're not happy with the change, please feel free to undo it. --Peter ^Talk 16:31, 17 May 2013 (UTC)Reply

Would you rotate the panorama image 180 degrees, please?

That way the lighter part of the image will be above the table of partial contents area and the darker area at the bottom (providing a greater contrast to the white lettering and the opaque overlay will blend in more). I think the overall effect will be less dark and gloomy. --W. Frank^e-mail_talk 11:29, 18 July 2013 (UTC)Reply

Only Visa credit cards are currently accepted as at November 2014, but MasterCard will be introduced in the near future. --180.191.104.193 02:44, 5 January 2015 (UTC)Reply

The articles seem to use different notations for the currency -- m, M', TMT, manat, etc. What should Wikivoyage use as its standard? worldatlas.com uses "manat", but notes than "m" is sometimes used. "M" and "m" would be confusing because these are used to denote "millions" and "metres". My preference would be for "manat" as being the clearest, but still concise. Ground Zero (talk) 20:29, 1 June 2018 (UTC)Reply

We use manat for Azerbaijan as well, so I reckon it would be consistent to stick with 100 manat for Turkmenistan as well. Ceever (talk) 20:33, 1 June 2018 (UTC)Reply

Seeing no further comment, in think we have a decision. Ground Zero (talk) 02:57, 14 June 2018 (UTC)Reply

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• TurkmenistanVisa.jpg

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The following Wikimedia Commons file used on this page or its Wikidata item has been nominated for deletion:

• Saparmurat Hajji Mosque Turkmenistan.jpg

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I can't find it in the article so presumably it is in Wikidata. --Comment by Selfie City (talk | contributions) 18:37, 19 July 2021 (UTC)Reply

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Not on the page. -- Ikan Kekek (talk) 22:09, 5 January 2023 (UTC)Reply

All the region articles suck. How about merging and redirecting them all? Ikan Kekek (talk) 07:05, 17 May 2023 (UTC)Reply

Per Category:Turkmenistan, we have 5 articles for each of the provinces. Each province has the following number of articles categorized beneath it:

• Ahal Province‎ – 6 articles
• Balkan Province‎ – 2 articles
• Dashoguz Province‎ – 2 articles
• Lebap Province‎ – 2 articles
• Mary Province‎ – 4 articles

All that adds up to 16 non-region articles that would soon be listed underneath "Cities" – I'm currently indifferent, but I'll see if I can expand the articles using content from tkwiki or ruwiki. If this isn't possible, then I !vote to redirect them all back here, leaving Turkmenistan#Regions linkless. SHB2000 (talk | contribs | meta) 08:26, 17 May 2023 (UTC)Reply

I've added some content to Ahal Province and Balkan Province, though it's not substantial. SHB2000 (talk | contribs | meta) 10:14, 17 May 2023 (UTC)Reply

Plus a bit of content in the "Understand" section of Mary Province, too. SHB2000 (talk | contribs | meta) 03:29, 20 May 2023 (UTC)Reply

I would support merging all region articles into this article per ttcf. --Comment by Selfie City (talk) (contributions) 13:50, 7 June 2023 (UTC)Reply

SHB2000 has been developing the region articles, so now I think it makes sense to keep them separate. Ground Zero (talk) 03:16, 26 June 2023 (UTC)Reply

@Ikan Kekek, SelfieCity: do you agree that we can withdraw this proposal now that the articles have been expanded somewhat, or do you still want to deregionalize? Ground Zero (talk) 16:26, 17 July 2023 (UTC)Reply

I don't have any strong opinion about that at this point, and I do see the improvements. Ikan Kekek (talk) 07:40, 18 July 2023 (UTC)Reply

I have withdrawn my support for merging the articles, although I'm still not entirely convinced these articles are effective standalone regions. --Comment by Selfie City (talk) (contributions) 12:12, 18 July 2023 (UTC)Reply

We say "VPNs cannot be used in Turkmenistan". How is that possible? All VPNs? I use Algo which sits on my own box in a cloud service, would that be blocked? From what I can tell via internet search, it's the major VPN services that are blocked, whereas you're okay if you're on one that has been set up independently. Can anyone confirm? Brycehughes (talk) 20:29, 29 April 2024 (UTC)Reply

I assume we have a dearth of experts on VPNs in Turkmenistan, so I qualified the statement on VPN functionality. Brycehughes (talk) 13:29, 30 April 2024 (UTC)Reply

I remember reading somewhere that you'd typically have to go to the US embassy to access outside sites, but I can't remember where. --SHB2000 (talk | contribs | meta) 13:34, 30 April 2024 (UTC)Reply

That would make sense, although I can't find anything about it either. It's tough finding up-to-date info. Traveller reports seems to generally state that almost every website is blocked, except for Google sites and (surprise) Wikimedia sites. iMessage also works for some reason (but not WhatsApp, etc.). I also read (not in anything authoritative) that you could be arrested for using a VPN. Who knows. Brycehughes (talk) 14:08, 30 April 2024 (UTC)Reply

This blog post (by this guy) was linked in the text but didn't support the linking statement, so I removed it. Regardless it's an interesting read so I figure I'll put it here in case anyone else is interested: https://varlamov.ru/1746027.html. Brycehughes (talk) 17:36, 30 April 2024 (UTC)Reply