Bad to Worse

Boat from Baku (Azerbaijan) to Turkmenbashi (Turkmenistan)
August 23rd, 24th & 25th
5km (cycling)

Worse than waiting 2.5 days for the ferry was finally getting on it. The trip was supposed to last 12 to 30 hours, but ended up taking 54 hours!!! I can't believe that Tour D'Afrique thought this boat was a good idea. We've only cycled 3 of the last 15 days of the trip, and now need to take a bus to Ashgabat, missing another 4 days of riding. The trip is completely offtrack. Georgia was unavoidable, but the mess in Baku and on the ferry should not have happened. I've lost confidence in Tour D'Afrique to make good decisions on our behalf. Hope things improve soon.

Just after 10am on the 23rd, as we ate breakfast back at the Mozart cafe (4th meal in a row there), we got a text message saying “Get here now. Boarding!” Jumped in a cab and hurried back to the dock. At 11:30am we starting passing through Azerbaijan's exit customs and boarding the ship. It took about 2 hours to get onto the boat, after numerous negotiations with the customs officers and boat captains. Everyone wanted to squeeze us for extra money. “No bikes! More money!” Even after we were on board, we had to wait 7 hours for the boat to leave. I was bored and hot before we'd even left the dock!

The ferry was smaller than I imaged. It had a large bay for trucks and train cars where we left our bikes and bags. There were about 100 people on board, including us, and the only seats were inside a hot room with no fresh air. We had tiny cabins that slept 4 each in two sets of bunk beds and had one small hatch to let air in. It was really hot, and we spent most of our time reading outside, sitting on the metal floor wherever we could find shade.

They did offer lunch and dinner from a small kitchen. For $2 you got a bowl of rice and a chicken drumstick. Nothing else available. No drinks. There were toilets and sinks but no showers. Felt like we were in a prison.

By 7am on the 24th we were at anchor within sight of the Turkmenbashi shore, after a hot night of fitful sleep. Now we had to wait for one of the 2 boats in the dock to leave, so that we could pull in. Sat there all day. Got my mattress pad and silk sheet out of the cargo hold, and joined the rest of the group sleeping out of the top deck that night.

This morning (the 25th) I awoke at 6am as the engines started. Finally we were pulling into the dock! Thousands of flies swarmed everyone for another 3 hours as we waited in the dock to disembark. It was ridiculous. At 11am, we unloaded the boat and began waiting for customs...again in the baking hot sun. (The guards would not let us stand in the shade because it was too close to the building.) I didn't get through until 5:30pm! Each of us needed to buy a Turkmenistan visa at the border, which was clearly a mistake. We should have got them in advance to save time.

Miles met us on the other side of customs with some sandwiches. We were all starving, having eaten only a few granola bars all day. I had been in the same clothes for 3 days. 5km group ride to a dump of a hotel in Turkmenbashi. It was 95F at 7pm at night! Hotel does have air conditioning, thankfully, which makes it seem almost livable. 8 hour bus ride to look forward to tomorrow. These bus, plane and boat segments are always terrible. Hope we can stick to our bikes from now on.

Our ferry:

Ben and Clive trying to find shade on the top deck:

Turkmenbashi harbor:

Finally arriving at the dock:

Waiting to get off the boat once we had docked: