Ravshan.
24 Listings@else Listings
It was a 3-day, 2-night tour, but it was a tour that will remain in my memory forever. The guide was really kind and always took care of us. The price was also very reasonable. I love Turkmenistan. I would like to invite my Japanese friends and go to Turkmenistan again using your tour!
The 2-star rating I gave for this tour was not directed at Ravshan and the assigned drivers but the guide that was with us. Ravshan was very receptive and helpful in his communications with me about my tour needs for Turkmenistan. He also made the tour plan possible for me to visit the places I wanted to see: Ashgabat city tour, Ashgabat by night (light illuminations), Mary, Darvaza gas crater, water crater, Konye-Urgench, Yangikala canyon amongst other places within 1 week. But upon arriving at Ashgabat airport, my first impression of the guide was very lukewarm and there were significant difficulties communicating with him as he only focused on speaking with other tourists in my group. I had many positive experiences with other guides from Europe, Middle East and North Africa. They spoke very clearly and detailed with good historical and cultural knowledge. But for this Turkmenistani guide, I couldn't understand what he was saying for the whole trip. Standing close to him, I also cannot understand properly. He just spoke softly and didn't bother to repeat for me. Just speak once and move on. Even the female guide at Turkmenistan National Museum spoke better than him and I really enjoyed It very much. For him, it was very frustrating for me and I wasn't able to fully enjoy the Turkmenistan hospitality. The attractions and landscapes are interesting but doesn't fully compensate for my terrible interaction experience with the guide. To make things worse, he often left me out of the group conversation over meals. I tried to involve myself in the group conversation with the guide and tourists over meals however he only focused on talking to the other tourists at first. But I gave up halfway and just focused on taking in the sights of landscapes and attractions. I didn't fully understand the information on Turkmenistan culture, politics, local people's lifestyles, etc. After concluding the tour, I can only say that I can only remember Turkmenistan for their beautiful sights only, nothing else. On some days, I was visibly upset with him such as the lack of coordination for the domestic flight back to Ashgabat from Dashoguz. Originally we are scheduled to take a flight at 7.50pm but the guide couldn't secure the seats so we had to take 11.40pm flight and reached Ashgabat hotel around 2am. I was very tired and moody. We also had to start our tour at 6am on the following day, which was not enough rest for us after the domestic flight. Another time I was again unhappy with the poor coordination between the driver and guide for the route between Turkmenbashy (starting point) and Kow-Ata cave (end point) before heading back to Ashgabat hotel. We only managed to reach Kow-Ata cave at 5.55pm which was 5 minutes to their closing time (6pm). Although the staff at cave was gracious enough to give us extra 15 minutes to visit the cave (walking down and up), I wasn't very happy because at 6pm, the sky was already becoming dark which meant it was not very safe to descend into the cave when the outside sky was quite dark. And we also needed more time to climb up back to the main entrance which could be risky when there wasn't enough sunlight to illuminate the stairway. I had to quickly go down and come out of the cafe for safety reasons. It was a stressful and frustrating ordeal for me. On the way to Konye-Urgench, I was appalled to see the guide doing a last minute review of the UNESCO sites before giving a brief commentary to us as we move from one site to another at Konye-Urgench. His commentary was very inadequate with a lot of pauses of "uhhh" sounds. He only gave info such as century dates and dimensions of each monument. But I appreciate him for his undivided attention to me on my last day of tour when the other tourists have departed earlier than me. He took me to some places which were not in the tour itinerary such as Russian orthodox church in Ashgabat, last minute shopping, etc. He also gave me the traditional wristband to ward off evil as a token of appreciation. As a result, I had to tip him less generously than usual in the view of the negative experiences above. However I did tip the drivers generously as I felt they have done their jobs well in taking us to places as indicated on the itinerary. But overall, I will not recommend this tour company to anyone even though it wasn't Ravshan's fault.
As someone who has traveled in 130 countries, including 4 in Central Asia, I cannot recommend Ravshan or his guide Serdat to others and would not use either again. Ravshan, assistant Dowlet and guide Serdat are all nice, but missed the mark in many ways. Due to poor planning and execution. From start to finish. 1. Guide Serdat met us at the airport in a small car, not the SUV promised that would accommodate our bags and wheelchair. 2. We arrived at the hotel to find it was not wheelchair accessible AT ALL. Even though we had exchanged many emails with Ravshan and Dowlet in the 2 prior months. 3. The guide Serdat was annoying in several ways - talking loudly on his phone in the car, talking loudly to the driver in Turkmenistan language. I asked him repeatedly to speak more quietly, like the driver, but to no avail. At the sights and crater, he offered almost no history or insight - we used Google for most information. 4. The yurt we were given at Darvaza Crater in the desert was TOTALLY INADEQUATE. I've stayed in many huts and yurts in Africa etc. This one lacked the most basic furnishings - a toilet closer than 100m away, a pillow with pillowcase, a blanket for cold desert nights. Why they would give a yurt with no access to a toilet to someone in a wheelchair is hard to imagine. (to save money no doubt). Poor planning on their part. I've had several great guide experiences through IndyGuide. This one sets the low mark. That said, Turkmenistan was enjoyable and is recommended for its unusual character!
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