The official currency in Turkmenistan is new manat, sometimes denoted by the symbol “m” (ISO code: TMT). It is divided into 100 tenge.

The US dollar is widely accepted, although it should only be accepted in international hotels or at the airport according to regulations. You will be asked to pay with dollars in hotels, certain tourist sights and for your tour operator. Be sure to take lots of USalthough it should only be accepted in international hotels or at the airport according to regulations. You will be asked to pay with dollars in hotels bills for small purchases.

You cannot exchange manat outside of Turkmenistan, so only exchange what you intend to use, as it is impossible to exchange manat back into dollar inside Turkmenistan.

There is a black market for currency in Turkmenistan. The black market rate at the Russian Bazaar was 18 manat for UShowever in Nov 2019. The black market exchangers, however, know many tricks for scamming travelers.

In 2009, a new manat was introduced at a rate of 5000 old manat for 1 new manat.

Credit cards are only accepted in big international hotels and banks in the bigger cities. Visa credit cards are the most useful. MasterCard is accepted at one bank in Ashgabat, and at the ATM in the Hotel Grand Turkmen and the Ak Altyn Hotel in Ashgabat.

BY PLANE:

Internal flights are possible on Turkmenistan Airlines which flies daily between Ashgabat, Mary, Turkmenbashi, Dashoguz and a couple other destinations. Flights are subsidised, and due to fuel costs, extremely cheap. Prices are around USD5 for a flight from Ashgabat to Mary or Dashoguz. Turkmenistan Airlines operates with a fleet of Boeing 717s, purchased in 2001. You might not be able to photograph freely in and around the airport, though this is not unheard of elsewhere.

BY BOAT:

The Amu Darya is an important inland waterway for Turkmenistan.

BY CAR:

At least in Ashgabat, like in much of the former Soviet Union, “taxis” are mostly unofficial – and can be hailed by flagging down a car by the roadside. Haggle, and agree on the destination and price in advance – knowledge of Russian will definitely come in handy. The roads in Ashgabat and Turkmenbashi are in great condition. The road from Turkmenbashi to Ashgabat is being upgraded to a two-lane, dual carriageway.

The usual sensible precautions apply here. If your instincts suggest that something might be not quite right, then it’s best to go with your instincts.

Roadblocks are in place throughout the country. You will be stopped and asked for your passport and car papers. Although inconvenient, this process won’t take too long.

Drive on the right. Minimum age: 17. International permit required. Speed limit: 60 km/h in urban areas, 90 to 120 km/h on highways. Police may also stop you for no reason. Just be polite and don’t pay them a bribe. Radar guns may be used to measure your speed. If caught speeding you should negotiate a price, a few dollars should be fine in most cases.

BY TRAIN:

Turkmenistan has at least one daily train between major cities in the country. Timetable here. Journeys are slow but heavily subsidized (a few USD in the 1st sleeping class to anywhere in the country). Tickets can’t be bought online and trains fill up fast so be sure to get one in advance. Train classes are typical for the ex-Soviet Union but most of soviet trains have been replaced with modern Chinese air-conditioned cars.

Rail service in Turkmenistan is provided by Turkmendemiryollari (Turkmenistan railways), Ashgabat, phone 3632 255545, fax 3632 473858. On the principal trains they offer soft and hard accommodation with sleeping and dining cars.

EAT:

Expect distinctly average Russian cuisine in restaurants. As in Uzbekistan, plov and more central Asian-type fare can be found in markets. If you can find it, try sturgeon from the Caspian Sea, sometimes prepared in a ‘tempura’ style.

Meals often start with a soup, as chorba, a meat and vegetable soup. Another national dish is plov, rice with mutton, onions, carrots, spices, raisins, peas or quinces. Manty are steamed dumplings filled with lamb. Ku’urma is lamb, cooked in its own fat. Ichlekli is a meat and onion pie and gutap is a pie filled with meat, potatoes, spinach and pumpkin.

DRINK:

Look out for a range of ‘Turkmenbashi’ labeled vodka, which can be washed down with the range of Russian ‘Baltika’ brand beer. It can be harder to find local beers in outlets catering to foreigners, but ‘Berk’ is well worth asking for; ‘Zip’, on the other hand, is awful.

Tea is excellent and readily available.

Best to err on the side of caution, and stick with bottled water. As in Russia, you may want to specify byehz gah-zah (literally, ‘without gas’ or ‘still; plain’) if you do not like fizzy water. ‘Borjomi’ mineral water from Georgia is available in Ashgabat’s shops.

Local people prefer to drink gok chai – green tea, often with dried fruits or herbs, as mint.

TBC.

Rugs:

Turkoman rugs are famous, tending towards rich reds with geometric patterns. Some traditional patterns are unique to each tribe, and an expert can generally identify the tribe from the shape of the medallion-like pattern elements called guls. However, it is fairly common to find a mixture; when a weaver from one tribe marries into a different tribe, she may use elements from both in her creations.

Sometimes Turkoman rugs are called “Bokhara” rugs because Bukhara in neighbouring Uzbekistan was a centre for their trade. Turkmenistan is not the only source of Turkoman rugs; Uzbekistan and northern areas of both Iran and Afghanistan have some Turkoman people. Other Afghan rugs are heavily influenced by Turkoman design and Turkoman designs are often copied in India and Pakistan; dealers may also call those rugs “Bokhara” but, while some of them are fine rugs, in general they are neither as high quality nor as valuable as real Turkoman rugs.

Today, wool is often coloured with synthetic and not with natural dyes; back in the 19th and early 20th century, this was a problem because early synthetic dyes were of low quality. Today, it is much less of an issue but some collectors still prefer natural dyes, mainly because they give better arbrash, the subtle variation in colour across a rug.

You need an export permission for carpets purchased in a bazaar or private shop. The Expert Commission on the back of the Carpet Museum in Ashgabat (phone 398879 and 398887, opening hours M-F 14:30-17:30, Sa 10:00-12:00) has to certify that the carpet is not more than 50 years old and may be exported. This costs 115 manat per square metre and can take a few days. In addition carpets exceeding 1.5 square metres are subject to an export duty of 400 manat per square metre payable in USD at the official rate of exchange at customs on departure.

Some carpet factories are run by the state owned company Turkmenhaly. If you buy a carpet in a state shop, the export fees normally are included in the price, although customs will charge a commission fee of 0.2 percent of the price of the carpet.

For an accessible (still in print and sanely priced) guide to these carpets, look for books by the California collector Dr. Murray Eiland. If you intend spending a lot, and especially if you are interested in older carpets, it may be worth looking deeper. The classic book on Turkoman rugs is Tappiseries de l’Asie Centrale by AA Bogolyubov, who was Tsarist governor of Turkmenistan, published in Russian and French in St. Petersburg in 1905. It was a limited edition and is now rare and extremely expensive (several thousand U.S. dollars). If you are passing through London, the British Museum has a copy and will let visitors browse through it. A translation (the original French plus English), Carpets of Central Asia (ISBN 978-0903580052), was published in Britain in the 1960s; it is no longer in print but can be found in libraries. On the used market, it is both much easier to find and far less expensive than the original.