To Yangykala Canyon, and not to Awaza, a forbidden city.

Visiting the tourist zone of Awaza, on the outskirts of Türkmenbaşy, is forbidden. But the Yangykala Canyon is thankfully open to everyone who has a visa to Turkmenistan. I had read about Awaza before I came to Turkmenistan, and since we were going to Türkmenbaşy, the nearest city, I was convinced we would also see this fiasco of a tourist resort. However, the Yangykala Canyon lived up to the expectations.

Asgabat to Türkmenbasy

After a couple of days in the white marble city of Ashgabat, it was time to visit the countryside of Turkmenistan. Our first journey was on the night train from Ashgabat to Türkmenbasy. The train was perfectly okay, not very comfortable, but it brought back memories of when I was on Inter-rail in Europe, in my twenties. But at least the train wasn’t extremely delayed, even though it had long stops at some stations. During the night, it also changed, so we were driving in the other direction.

Türkmenbaşy

This small city has, of course, got its name after the first president. He had big ambitions for this area. One of them was to build a fantastic tourist resort. This is what their tourist page says about Awaza.

“The amazing nature of Turkmenistan and the ecologically pure Turkmen coastline of the Caspian Sea is now the focus of worldwide attention. The Caspian Sea, which is the largest lake on earth, separates Europe and Asia, and simultaneously serves as the western border of Turkmenistan with a coastline of 1200 km. National tourist zone «Awaza» today in the sphere of world tourism is widely known as the most comfortable coastal tourist recreation center.”

Türkmenbaşy does not have much to offer, but we had a very nice late breakfast here and a rest before starting our journey through the desert. We asked whether we should go to the Awaza complex, but I saw our guide become a little stressed and said it is no longer open to tourists and will only be used by local congresses and the like. So much for the worldwide attention!

I knew where on the map it was, and while we had the brake, I had a stroll down towards the sea, and there I could see it in the distance. The buildings and hotels look fantastic from where I was standing.

Bumpu ride

Now we were divided into smaller vehicles, 4 by 4, because the roads we were going to drive were bumpy. Our guide told us that Turkmenistan, after all, was a big country, and that building roads was expensive, so that’s why the roads were in such bad condition. We said, a bit less white marble in the capital could have paid for several roads. We could see that it was planned for a double lane in both directions in many places, but most of the time, only one side had asphalt, and it was so badly worn that cars and trucks had to drive in zig-zags back and forth.

Endless desert

Around 70% of Turkmenistan is desert, so for long distances there is not much to see. And with the roads in bad shape, the driving went quite slowly. We did, however, get off the road and onto more sandy roads, and there it was easier to speed up, and the guys driving made a competition of who could pick the fastest route. At one point, we passed a small local cafe, and we stopped for a break. At the same time, a local bus had a break too.

Yangykala Canyon

Finally, we were reaching the highlights of the day, and maybe even for the whole trip, the Yangykala Canyon. The attraction of Yangykala canyon is the sudden appearance of soaring cliffs in layers of white, green, pink, red and even green in a desolate setting. The colours are sublime, and the whole area definitely delivers a wow effect as you first come upon it.

I know there are travel companies that take tourists on hikes down in the valley and between the fantastic rock formations. Unfortunately, this was not a part of our group, and we had to be satisfied with watching it from above. But it was still a fantastic experience. Afterwards, we had to hit the long way back through the desert and to check into a hotel in Balkanabad.