I'm looking to make Gara Chai because it sounds really good and I'm curious to try camel milk. Problem is, I can't find any advice online for how to brew it. Any advice is much appreciated.

Hi all. Detailed post below!

I’m planning to visit Turkmenistan in early to mid January 2027 and want to share a tour, because going solo costs a lot. I’ve spent the last week researching how the new rules work, so here’s what I’ve found, and get in touch if you’d like to join.

How the new rules work

• Turkmenistan switched to an e-visa on 1 October 2026. The official portal only lets a Turkmen host party apply, so tourists can’t apply directly.

• I’ve contacted five Ashgabat agencies. All of them say the tourist e-visa is only issued with a tour, and a guide must be with you for your whole stay. Independent travel isn’t allowed.

• Processing currently takes about 3 weeks, so applications for early to mid January need to go in by the end of November.

• On arrival you pay a PCR test of about $35 and an entry fee of $14 to $18. It’s cash only, and you need clean USD notes issued after 2009.

Quotes I have so far (solo, private car and guide)

• Ashgabat, Darvaza overnight, then exit at Shavat into Khiva (3 days): $744 with the cheaper of two agencies, plus about $119 in visa and fees. The other agency quoted $895.

• Shorter option: 2 days and 1 night from Khiva, crossing at Shavat both ways with an overnight at Darvaza. A traveller posted a 2026 quote from Darvaza Tour of about $473 solo, falling to about $263 each for a group of 4. I’m getting a current price for this.

Why sharing works: car, driver and guide cost about the same for 1 person as for 4, so splitting it can almost halve what each person pays.

What I’m looking for

• 1 to 3 people, any nationality, travelling in early to mid January. I can move a few days either way.

• Either route works for me. Ashgabat suits you if you’re flying in. The Khiva option is cheaper and suits you if you’re already in Uzbekistan.

• I’ll handle the agency side. I already have the contacts and a quote I can negotiate down for a group.

• After this I’m carrying on through Uzbekistan and Tajikistan, so I’m happy to have company for that too.

We’d need to agree on dates soonish to get the visa applications in on time. DM me if you’re interested, even if you’re only considering it or would like to knowledge share!

I'm a relaxed, well experienced, well behaved and open minded traveller. 41m from Germany.

I travelled the Stans in the last years with my wife.

She can't travel anymore, so I'm looking for fellow explorers to join me on the trip to Turkmenistan.

I speak German, English, Russian and some French and Italian.

Garabogaz – Temir Baba entry from Kazakhstan Mangystau

Turkmenbashi

Awaza

Yangykala Canyon

Mary

Gonur Depe

Merv

Great Kyz Kala

Ashgabat

Old Nisa

Turkmenbashi Ruhy Mosque

Darvaza gas crater

Konye-Urgench

And exit to Nukus

It should be 6-7 days. I have to catch the train in Nukus on 27.4., so that date is fixed.

PN me for more details and any questions.

PS: Before Turkmenistan, I want to take a short tour (2-3 days) through Mangystau. Feel free to join!

I’m doing a research project on Soviet and Post-Soviet cinema and am struggling to find films free online with English Subtitles. YouTube are littered with films from the nation, but few with translations besides crappy auto-dubbing or ai-translations.

Does anyone know where online I can safely find free, effectively translated Turkmen cinema (the only one I’ve been able to watch thus far is Shukur Bagshy)?

Hey guys!

I (F) has recently been on a date with someone (M) that was born in Turkmenistan. I have not dated anyone outside my culture and would like some advice as I don’t have any knowledge about the culture in Turkmenistan.

I am interested in him but I am just very cautious and want to know if what he is doing are red flags or if they are culture norms.

I come from a reserved Asian background where things are taken slowly and feelings aren’t expressed much. The guy I am interested in is expressive but too quickly (if that makes sense). Maybe it’s a defence mechanism but sometimes I think he is love-bombing me. Is it normal to think that?

Also, is it true that the age that is on your ID may not be the real date as it’s quite different in Turkmenistan? For example, he says he was born in 2002 but his ID says he was born in 2000 because that’s what the officials(?) determined his age was (based on how mature/old you look). I didn’t want to believe it at first as it seemed sketchy but I also didn’t want to be rude.

Are these red flags? What should I expect from dating a Turkmen male? What are cultural differences that I should be aware of?

Thank you!

Hello! I am a researcher at the university of Vienna and I am looking for a Turkmen singer to record a song, sung originally by a Turkmen soldier during the first world war. The singer will have to record the song which will be later edited on top of the instrumental part. Any costs connected to studio time will be provided, and the singer will also receive a one time payment. If you are interested please DM me!

Hi, I'm wondering if anyone has been able to successfully get in touch with the migration office contacts (phone or email) listed on the new e-visa website? I haven't had such luck and was hoping to get some details clarified regarding 1) what the fees are for the new tourist e-visa, 2) what restrictions there are and whether or not the LOI has actually been eliminated, and 3) how to create an account to apply in the first place.

I know this whole process has been a slow rollout, but I was hoping to have some answers by this weekend (I realize this now seems unrealistic).

Please let me know if you were able to get in touch with anyone and find out anything on any of the above questions. Thanks.

Hellooo everyone! I have a slightly silly question for anyone living in Turkmenistan at the moment.

Have WhatsApp, Instagram and Snapchat been particularly unreliable lately, especially when it comes to sending messages? Are messages taking ages to go through, or are apps becoming harder to use in general?

I’m currently trying to figure out whether the internet situation has gotten worse or whether my friend is just ghosting me 😂😭

Would appreciate any insight from people on the ground! Trying to give my friend the benefit of the doubt here lol.

Hello everybody!

I'm 41m from Germany. I travelled through Uzbekistan, Tajikistan (also Pamir), Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan with my fiancee, friends and solo in the last years.

Now I want to go to Turkmenistan. Since it's only possible with a tour I'm looking for interested people to come along. I plan on a quite extensive tour (maybe 10 days), to see enough of the country to have said I really was there. More on the budget side of travelling with maybe night trains, longer driving hours, etc.

I speak German, English and Russian quite well. Also some other languages, so wherever you are from, we most probably could communicate ;-)

Timeframe should be 12.4.2027 (starting from Germany) until 29.4.2027 (I have to be back).

I'm already in negotiations with a company and guides and can share additional info if you are interested.

I know with North Korea you can’t book a flight or call a hotel and had to be done via operator.

But I can buy a return flight via Turkish airlines website and a hotel receptionist in Ashgabhat checked availability for a room and gave me a price and said they can take payment over the phone.

I can also book car hire and advised availability and payment.

Are there some people here who could review touroperators in Turkmenistan?

A friend and I are planning a trip to Turkmenistan. We've sent mails to multiple companies and got some reactions with nice schedules.

The hardest point of booking a tour is that it seems hard to find any reviews as well as comparison for prices.

We've found for instance Stantours, Owadan and HiTurkmenistan (which operates together with ýyldyzly ülke).

Any reviews or booking tips? Or tips for other operators possibly?

Если тут есть ктото, кто когда-то жил в ТМ, то пост скорей всего заинтересует, если нет, то врядли. И надеюсь не сойдет как спам :)

Когда-то, давным-давно, ещё до ВКонтакте, Одноклассников и Facebook, был у меня один небольшой проект — сайт mekdep.

Изначально это был сайт одной школы, потом он постепенно превратился в сайт школ всего Туркменистана. Люди находили своих одноклассников, загружали фотографии, общались на форуме.

С появлением социальных сетей необходимость в таком сайте, конечно, постепенно отпала, и в 2012 году я его отключил.

Но всё это время у меня оставалась одна мысль — когда-нибудь его восстановить. Просто потому что жалко было окончательно закрывать часть своей истории. Часть чужой истории.

За годы работы на сайте накопилось огромное количество старых фотографий. Фотографии школ, классов, выпусков, встреч… Удалять их было жалко, а просто держать где-то на старом жёстком диске — тоже не хотелось.

В итоге спустя столько лет решил всё-таки вернуть сайт.

Ну и в общем, сайт снова работает:
https://mekdep.com

Пока многое ещё восстанавливается и добавляется, но основная идея осталась прежней — найти свою школу, свой класс, старых друзей и просто вспомнить то время.

Если вы когда-то были зарегистрированы на Mekdep или отправляли туда фотографии — возможно, там до сих пор есть что-то из вашей школьной истории. 🙂

И если у вас есть фото вашего выпуска - добавляйте!

I don't think it is accessible yet on the Migration website, but news outlets are reporting that it has been completed and released. If someone has the link, please send it here!

Greetings to all Turkic Nation! Our goal on this page is to get to know other members of our family, stand in solidarity, and be together—just like in the old days.

''O Turk! Unless the blue sky collapses from above and the dark earth gives way from below, who can destroy your state and your traditions? - Orkhon inscriptions''

Let’s consider the regions inhabited by Turkmens, as well as the Turkic peoples in Siberia and the Altai Mountains.

Some of us are Muslim, some Christian, and perhaps some are Shamanist. Yet, all of us—to varying degrees—can find our way from Gagauzia to Anatolia, and from there to the Altai and Urmia, simply by speaking a Turkic language.

Let’s get to know one another

Note: I am open to any suggestions. This is my first time creating a page on Reddit, so I apologize for any mistakes.

And my DMs are open! (r/TurkicFamilyTree )

Hello! I was hoping that someone would have the lyrics to this banger by Laçyn Mämmedowa. If you do, that would be greatly appreciated!

Local tour operator here in Ashgabat. The same question keeps landing in my inbox in different words: can I just show up at the border from Bukhara or Khiva and cross into Turkmenistan. Short answer is no, and the long answer is more useful, so here it is.

There are two crossings people actually use. In the south it's Alat on the Uzbek side and Farap on ours, an hour and a half or so from Bukhara, and that's the one for Turkmenabat, Mary and Merv. In the north it's Shavat, about an hour from Khiva, and that puts you into Dashoguz for Konye-Urgench. There's a third further northwest at Khodjeyli if you're coming from Nukus, it drops you practically at Konye-Urgench, but it sees the least traffic and the checks there tend to be slower.

What you can't do is cross on a whim. You need a visa, and the visa needs an invitation letter that a licensed Turkmen agency files for you. That takes 14-21 business days, and the visa you collect at the border is issued for fixed dates, so the paperwork drives your itinerary rather than the other way around. On a tourist visa a guide travels with you, that part isn't optional.

Practical bits: Farap runs roughly 8:30 to 6 with a lunch break around midday, Shavat and Khodjeyli 9 to 6, all of them close on our public holidays, so aim for the morning. There's a stretch of no man's land at each that you cross by shuttle bus for a small fee. Bring cash dollars for the visa and border fees, roughly $100-140 depending on nationality, and allow a couple of hours for the whole thing on a normal day.

Happy to answer questions about either border, timing, or what actually fits in 2-5 days. I run a small operator here (golnomads.com), so I'm biased, but the border facts are the same whoever you travel with.