Turkmenistan Travel Info

Our travel agent in Turkmenistan, Rejep (the company website) was very attentive during the whole process including all of the emails that went back and forth during the trip preparations. This included securing our Letter of Invitation (LOI) which is a requirement to get a visa to enter the country. He tried to save us money at every turn and was very accommodating to our wishes. Be aware that in addition to the $100 visa fee charged by the government you will have to pay $100 to the travel person making the arrangements for the LOI for each person traveling. Be sure to allow yourself enough time for the activities you plan. The LOI effective for a range of dates but the number of days you may be in the country is also limited in the LOI and those days include your arrival and departure days regardless of the time you arrive or depart. Let’s say you want to spend 10 days in country. If you get in at 1 AM or 7 PM the day you arrive is day 1. The day you leave whether it is 3AM or 10 PM that is day 10. So that actually leaves you 8 days to do your site seeing and take care of business as necessary.

Off to Britain Again

Once again we will be flying across the pond to sunny London. Picked up pounds at my brother's credit union today so we are all set. Will be leaving from Chicago tomorrow evening. Overnight flight to the UK seems to be the way to go. Looking forward to seeing Melanie. Scheduled to go to the Globe twice while we are there. Looking forward to the trip. Hope I can sleep. Last time at the Bladow Hotel in London.

One great outcome of this trip will be that we once again become MVP on Alaska Airlines mileage program. Better seat selection and chances for upgrades. We will even be on our way to MVP Gold. With the trip to London, the flight back home, and a flight to Turkmenistan should make it but we will see.

Sunday — On the Way Home

6 AM, five or less hours of sleep. Oh well, we soon will be on our way back to the U.S.A. Megan still isn’t feeling well and Bonnie isn’t either. Hopefully this won’t hinder our trip home too much. Took a taxi to the airport. For some reason it only cost half as much to get to the airport as to go to the hotel. Anyway the ride was uneventful as it should be. Kind of just streamed through the airport as we were already checked in when we left Cairo. Passport was checked probably half a dozen times altogether but no big deal. We sat outside the gate to have some breakfast. Again Bonnie and Meg weren’t feeling well so they did not eat much. I had eggs Benedict with smoked salmon instead of Canadian bacon. It was tasty but pretty salty. Not something I would probably order again.

After breakfast was time to proceed to the gate. Got in a very long line and had our passports and boarding pass checked three more times. I was a random security check so Meg and Bonnie got on the plane while I awaited further screening. There was really no problem but the ladies were worried they wouldn’t let me on the plane because it was taking so long. We are sitting in row 18 which is right behind business class so we should be able to get to customs pretty quickly in Seattle. Will say much more about Emirates Airline in a separate entry. There are many nice things to say. Still 10 more hours to Seattle.

I am now writing on the plane to Anchorage. We actually got to Seattle about a half hour early. That was really nice. Got a bite to eat. Then it was time to go to the gate again. The Sea-Tac airport is a very familiar place and it was nice to be in a familiar place once again. While we were sitting on the airplane waiting for everyone to get on Patty Bryant passed us on the way to her seat. You know you are home when you run into someone on the airplane that you know.Plane to Anchorage left on time and it’s supposed to be a 3 hour 8 min flight. Hope that’s a good estimate. I’m ready to be home. I look forward to sleeping in my own bed tonight. It’s supposed to be in the mid to upper 70s today in Anchorage, We will probably feel a little chilly.

We arrived in Anchorage about 5:50 PM. That makes almost 24 hours traveling. Temperature here is 77 F. It’s now 6:50 and Bonnie is in bed. I’m going to try to stay up so I’m not up in the middle of the night and not tired. It is good to be home with wonderful weather on top of it. Will try to get some pictures posted tomorrow.

Saturday - On the way home

This morning seemed to come early for everyone and we overslept. Ephraim had made arrangements for a taxi to take us to the airport. We are an hour and a half from the airport and we were taking a taxi. We were supposed to be up by 6 this morning and we got up at 6:50. The taxi was supposed to pick us up at 7. He had actually been waiting for us since about 6:40. But with getting up late there were no protracted goodbyes. The hardest part was to part company with Melanie. She had changed her flight and was going back to London direct from Cairo instead of flying to Dubai with us. It was a tearful departure. We will miss Ephraim and Kaja. They were a lot of fun to spend time with on the trip. They are wonderful hosts and wonderful people. We hope to visit them in Poland one day.

We wanted to get to the airport 3 hours ahead of departure since we had bad experiences the last time we left Cairo. We were away from the resort by 7:20. That is a record for us to get ready that fast and say our goodbyes as well. Off we went to the airport. The driver did not speak any English except for a few words but as usual we were able to communicate just fine.

We got to the airport about 9 AM. Went through initial screening and off to the departure counter to get our bags checked and our boarding passes. That was all done by 9:30, So now we had 2.5 hours to kill. Melanie’s flight from Cairo was 5 hours after ours so Ephraim and Kaja took her to the airport later in the day. The flight left a little late because of traffic. Heavy traffic in on the taxiways in Egypt, who would have guessed.

We arrived in Dubai about a half hour late. Breezed through passport control and off to the taxis. Went to the wrong hotel first. They provided us transport to the correct one. We got checked in just fine but Meg was feeling poorly.  We went across the street to a mall to get her some Tylenol and a sports drink. We also picked up some dinner at the food court and took it back to hotel to eat. The Japanese food we got was very tasty and we ate while watching TV. Finally turned in around 1 AM setting the alarm for 6 for the final two legs home.

Friday - Reprise

Today was exactly the same as yesterday weather wise. We were all up by about 8 this morning. Breakfast consisted mostly of leftovers and using up the rest of the eggs combined with onions and tomatoes. All ate their fill. Bout 10:30 we headed for the beach. I went with Mel, Meg, and Bonnie this time. Ephraim and Kaja came down laster and brought a backgammon board with them.

Before our gracious hosts arrived Mel and Meg went out on a sand bar and composed a message to Lindsay and Kiel regarding their upcoming wedding. They drew a heart in the sand with an appropriate message inside and took a video to post on Facebook.

There was a sand bar, actually there were many, because the tide was out. You could walk nearly a half a mile into the ocean and hardly get wet on your journey because there was that much sand exposed. Kind of reminded me of the tides at home but these were only about 8 feet instead of 30. The water patches between the bars were actually hot, probably about 105 F. The tide came back in about 4 PM and then there were no sand bars but much of the water was still very shallow.

Everyone went swimming at different times during the day. We had a cooler with us today so there was plenty of things to drink and it wasn’t necessary to go back to the flat until late in the afternoon.Ephraim and Meg started playing backgammon sometime during the afternoon and many of us took a turn at the board. It had been a long time since I had played and had to refresh my memory on the strategy and setup of the game. Taught Bonnie how to play so we will be able to play together when we get home. We had a pleasant day by the sea.

The goal for dinner was to eat up all the food that was left. In general we did a pretty good job. Meg and I played a little more backgammon in the evening but the general rule was to get everything packed and ready to go for the morning trip to the airport.

With most everything packed it was once again off to bed.

Thursday -- By the Sea, By the Sea, the Beautiful Sea

After breakfast this morning everyone went down to the beach except me. I decided to stay in the villa for a while to get the blog caught up. Much of the morning I spent doing just that. Shortly after noon I decided to go join the rest. Got my suit on, got all greased up, and then started looking for the key so I could lock up when I left. Alas, it was not where I was lead to believe it would be. So I stayed put and and work on my Master Gardening Class most of the afternoon. Kaja came back sometime after 3 and I told her I couldn’t find the key and she showed me where they “hid” it. Of course it was nearly in plain site. There was still another day to come for me to be at the beach and I enjoyed the time I had to myself.

When the rest came back Megan unloaded a bunch of shells they found on the beach. She spread them out on the coffee table. Ephraim was standing near the table a little later and exclaimed, “I think this one is alive”. Sure enough one of the shells was occupied by a hermit crab. It got taken back to the sea and hopefully it survived it’s ordeal.

After we ate our dinner and cleaned up we chatted and played a silly card game. I don’t remember what the game was called but it was played with a special deck and went very fast. There were a number of variations all just as silly as the previous. We did have fun playing the different games.

Around 10:30 we all were tired and turned in for the night. Tomorrow would be another sunny, cloudless day. They never have a weather forecast on the news because the weather is always the same, sunny with 0% chance of precipitation. They say it’s boring but tolerable.

Wednesday — Leaving Sokhna Behind

We had turned off the AC last night because it seemed chilly in the room. At 3 this morning I woke up sweating and flicked it back on. In just a few minutes it was pleasant in the room again and went back to sleep until about 7 AM. Bonnie got up shortly after while I was writing for this blog. Could not post but the same as today I am writing and will post later when wifi is available. We all ate a leisurely breakfast and then got everything packed up and down to the lobby so we could check out.

Once we checked out I asked what the plan was for the day and Ephraim suggest we go to the cave church in Cairo. I told him that would be fine since Megan and Melanie has not seen it yet. We loaded everything in the cars and off we went. About a half hour or forty-five minutes down the road we turned off into a different resort. Ezzat said there was a spectacular beach down here that wanted us to see. We stopped some distance from the beach and got out of the car. I was taking pictures of some flowers and they were waiting for me to turn around. Once I did I was told we would spend the rest of the time here in a villa that was owned by a friend of Kaja’s in honor of my retirement. I was very surprised. Everyone was in on the secret except for me. What a pleasant surprise.The name of the resort is Marina Wadi Degla.

After we got settled in everyone went down to the beach. Indeed the beach is beautiful. You could wade out quite a long ways this afternoon. The water was warm, 80+ F. We frolicked in the Red Sea for a few hours before we had “lunch”. Ezzat and Susan we going to return to Port Said while we stayed with Ephraim and Kaja at the resort. After lunch we said out goodbyes. It was a sad departure for us. We have enjoyed the company and hospitality of our Egyptian brothers and sisters for more than 10 days. We look forward to seeing them again whether it be in Egypt, Poland, or the U.S.A. We wished them a safe journey and a well deserved thank you and away they went. Ephraim got a call later in the evening when they had arrived safely in Port Said.

During the evening we ate, talked, ate, and went for a walk around the complex. This is really a lovely place. If you know someone in Egypt that has a villa here I would highly recommend it.