Onwards, with a Unfortunate Change of Route

As I wrote in my previous post...

We’ve been in Dushanbe for a week now and have successfully got our Uzbeki and Iranian visas.  They are relatively straightforward to get.  The Turkmen one on the other hand is notoriously time consuming, and even then, not guaranteed.  We’ve to go back to the embassy on Thursday (21st July) and it should be issued to us then but we aren’t holding our breath…we’ve heard plenty of horror stories and loads of people that have just give up on it and re route instead.   If we don't get it, our only option will be to fly over Turkmenistan, which we are not particularly keen to do!  Just thinking about boxing up the bikes for a flight gives me a headache, so fingers crossed we get the visa and we'll be back in the saddle on Friday!

....and yet here we are, still in Dushanbe, on Saturday.  

When we went to the embassy on Thursday, the man made a quick call to someone in Ashgabat to enquire about our visa status, hung up the phone and shook his head.  So that was that.  No Turkmenistan visa.  So we did the only thing we could, which was to book a flight from here to Tehran, which leaves tomorrow.