Turkmenistan with MIR Corp.

I read the letter “Turkmenistan – Dangers & Annoyances” (March ’14, pg. 23) about a subscriber’s trip to that country while on a “five ’Stans” tour. We were in Turkmenistan during an Oct. 15-Nov. 4, 2013, tour with MIR Corporation (Seattle, WA 98104; 206/624-7289, www.mircorp.com) but didn’t have the complications and annoyances that he had.

The name of our trip was “Journey Through Central Asia – the Five ’Stans.” There were 14 in our group.

Yes, all of the border crossings were time-consuming, and it was difficult walking between the borders for some in our group, but there was excellent pre-trip visa preparation, and our tour director, Michel Behar, was always on top of things. He made sure the entry and exit documents were correct and ready at each crossing.

Only at one border did a few of us have luggage opened (I think they were going into Uzbekistan for the first time), but that was not a big deal. I don’t recall any pat-downs being done.

The sights in Turkmenistan were generally as the subscriber described, but you certainly would miss something by not going there. Ashgabat is Las Vegas and Disneyland on speed and has to be seen to be believed!

We never had problems taking photos anywhere except when we went to see a very small statue of Lenin. We made sure we took a photo of the statue from the side, with the government building behind us so it was not in the photo. (There was security watching us.) 

We were advised that our rooms in the Sofitel Hotel (Bitarap Turkmenistan Ave., Ashgabat) might actually be bugged, so we certainly took that into account.

I think that using a tour company extremely familiar with the countries being visited was the best way to go to that area.

ALLA CAMPBELL

Greensboro, GA