Turkmenistan                                          2015

The Dani of Papua

From Houston to Sydney 2013

 

One of the perils of flying into or out of Turkmenistan is that most flights arrive or depart at unsavoury hours in the middle of the night.  I was more fortunate; the FlyDubai flight to Dubai that I was taking had a much more civilised departure time of 11:40 am.  That meant leaving the hotel at 9:00 am, allowing time for a final taste of the hotel’s distinctly mediocre breakfast.

Passage through the immigration and security checks was surprisingly quick and smooth, and I had time for more than an hour’s leisurely conversation over coffee (instant of course) with the other friends I had made over the previous week who were travelling on the same flight.

I was fortunate to have a window seat for the flight, although the atmosphere was much more hazy than it had been a week earlier when I arrived.  Nonetheless, I had good views of Ashgabat as the aircraft completed a wide right-hand circuit after take-off, gaining altitude to clear the Kopet Dag Mountains on the Iranian border.

Two and a half hours after take-off I landed in Dubai, where I had a 12 hours transit stop before boarding a Qantas Airbus A380 for the twelve and a half hour flight to Melbourne.  It was Sunday night when I arrived in Melbourne, and after an overnight stay in an airport hotel, I connected to my final flight home to Sydney, finally arriving home around lunch time on Monday 18th May.

My epic journey was over.


Day 8 - Leaving Ashgabat

Saturday

16 May 2015