Joanne along the Silk Road: Travel Advisories.

I had to fill out a letter of invitation for G Adventures so that I can enter Turkmenistan. You will, of course, remember this from my post in November, so so long ago.

I had to send in a scan of my passport, in colour, and a passport-like photo. I made my friend Robynne take the photo. She sucks because I do not look like the 32 year old that I think I look like. But I will forgive her, despite her making me look like middle aged.

The passport scan had to have the name page and opposite page and all corners showing. I scanned, cropped, straightened and sent it in. Rejected. They did not reject the photo of old me. So, despite my Luddite tendencies, I figured out how to increase the resolution on my scan. I have resent it but have not heard back.

In the meantime, I also have to click a little button that says 'I have verified with a consulate that I do not require a Letter of Invitation to apply for my visa / I do not require a visa for this destination so I figured I should actually check with Canada (gov.ca travel) that I actually don't need a visa for the other four countries.

Hey, I just checked G and they took my LOP! I'm "Good to Go!"

Anyway, when I went to Canada.gov Travel, I had to scroll by the travel advisors to get to Visa info.

Don't start with Tajikistan!

...

Several days later, picking up where I left off and then some.

I have heard that Turkmenistan has restrictions on medications. I don't have anything out of the ordinary by any means, but who knows about stuff in one's first aid kit? Imodium? anti-nausea? I figured I should check.

If you're interested if you can bring your
left handed steering car...

I haven't got to the medicine list but there are some easy to avoid things so far:

armaments, ammunition, military equipment and specifically designed parts and components
explosives
nuclear materials, including fuel assembly
ionizing radiation sources
technology and special equipment which might be used to manufacture weapons and military equipment

Or annoying but avoidable (I do like to buy a painting or two while traveling)

Works of art (pictorial graphics, painting)

Why? (but fine).

liquorice

Things I'm allowed to export without a permit

Macaroni products (thank goodness!)
Animal intestines (less thanks)
Glue for tiles (? is this necessary to list?)

There's a couple of things on there that I might actually export so no permit is good.

Bee honey
Confectionery
Packed therapeutic muds and sea salt

Bloody hell, I read that entire website and they didn't include a list of medication. Turkmenistan is at the end of the tour so if I lose anything, it will be fine. At least my macaroni products are safe.

Back to my travel advisories.

Kazakhstan is all green! Normal Safety precautions.

Kyrgyzstan is fighting with his brothers.

Tajikistan has some infrastructure issues. Remember to keep cash and water on hand.

Back to Turkmenistan.

Drinking, ok!

Alcohol-related incidents, including bar fights and drunk driving, are common.

Slagging Turkmenistan publicly, not ok (Turkmenistan officials, I am just pointing out what you said, please don't take it as criticism...)

Hotel rooms, telephones, e-mail and fax machines may be monitored, and personal possessions in hotel rooms may be searched. Some foreigners have been detained.