Day 134 – Out of the haze and onto a train


3rd December

My temperature at 1am this morning was still 40.3 degrees. By 4:30am however, it had fallen to 38.4, and by 8am, it was a normal 36.7.

Had this happened a day later, I would have been in a tent in the middle of the desert on my way to the town Merv. Sweating like I did when coming down off that 40 degree fever, I would have been in serious, serious trouble has I been in a tent whose temperature would surely have been below zero.

I still have crazy diahorrea though. The food here in Turkmenistan is terrible, so even though I am very hungry, I don’t have an apetite. I ordered a pizza (pizza is my favourite food for when I have no apetite) at a fancy ish restaurant, and was served a pizza consisting of cheeze, mutton, onions, and of course, salt. Way too much salt, way too much mutton, and way too much onion in this country. They have pies of the same constituent here. They are terrible…

So at least all is well as far as the fever is concerned, so I was able to buy a ticket for the train bound for Ashgabat. Leaves at 6pm. Cost of ticket is 40,000 mannat (less than US$2). Gets to Ashgabat at around 8am tomorrow.

I get to the train station at 5:30pm, and am told that I can’t take my bike on the train, because there is no baggage car. No dramas however as there is another train at 7pm with a baggage car.

All checked in baggage gets checked in at a different building. It cost 20,000 mannat for the baggage processing fee, and I was asked to pay 50,000 mannat to the baggage handler because it was a heavy bike. What a joke. Not wanting to tick anyone off however, I paid all requested money, and all was well.

I am on a train bound for Ashgabat. It has really bad toilets.


Turkmenistan railways train toilet – not pretty (between Turkmenabad and Ashgabat, Turkmenistan) / トルクメニスタンの列車のトイレはひどい(トルクメナバッド・アシュガバット間の列車にて)


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3 thoughts on “Day 134 – Out of the haze and onto a train

  • carl w.

    Seems the phantom sink poo-er has paid that toilet a visit. I was actually more shocked when I had to take my daughter to a public toilet in Surrey which actually makes this one look clean….

  • Lee

    Eek. That's quite a fever. Glad things seem to be back to the right (internal) temperature now.

    And how 'bout those *outside* temperatures… I'd be a mess.