{"id":64771,"date":"2026-06-29T21:30:59","date_gmt":"2026-06-29T13:30:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/?p=64771"},"modified":"2026-06-29T21:30:59","modified_gmt":"2026-06-29T13:30:59","slug":"reclusive-turkmenistan-is-opening-up-is-the-worlds-weirdest-country-worth-the-trip","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/?p=64771","title":{"rendered":"Reclusive Turkmenistan is opening up. Is the \u2018world\u2019s weirdest country\u2019 worth the trip?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div id=\"\">\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">From a gas crater dubbed the \u201cGateway to Hell\u201d to the shimmering marble buildings of its capital, Turkmenistan is tentatively opening up to tourists after decades of isolation.<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">One of the world\u2019s most reclusive countries, the former Soviet republic adopted strict visa requirements after gaining independence in 1991, and closely monitors visitors.<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">While this policy remains largely in place, tour agencies in the Central Asian nation have noticed a recent decrease in visa rejections and this year authorities announced plans to expand the tourism sector.<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">A Western tour group taking advantage of this tentative thaw is spotted at the archaeological ruins of Nisa, an ancient fortress near the capital, Ashgabat.<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">\u201cI wanted to see what the mystery was about,\u201d says Nick Frey, a 28-year-old US tourist admiring the fortress.<\/p>\n<div class=\"image-inline-container e1a5rv550 css-1llrc1m e1yqhwb40\" data-qa=\"Component-renderMap-StyledDiv\">\n<div class=\"image-inline caption e1fvabeq0 css-19sk4h4 ea9pn0s0\" data-qa=\"Component-Container\">\n<figure class=\"image-inline caption ea9pn0s1 css-1qeofuq e1gf69pb0\" data-qa=\"ArticleImage-ArticleImageContainer\">\n<div data-qa=\"ArticleImage-handleRenderImage-ImageContainer\" class=\"css-bjn8wh e1gf69pb3\"><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"The archaeological ruins of Nisa, an ancient fortress near Ashgabat, the capital of Turkmenistan. Photo: AFP\" data-qa=\"BaseImage-handleRenderImage-StyledImage\" class=\"e1gf69pb2 css-6ikqhs e445x7d0\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/img.i-scmp.com\/cdn-cgi\/image\/fit=contain,width=1024,format=auto\/sites\/default\/files\/d8\/images\/canvas\/2026\/06\/25\/3897c4cf-c27d-4169-a588-539a67778ac4_f09af67b.jpg\" title=\"The archaeological ruins of Nisa, an ancient fortress near Ashgabat, the capital of Turkmenistan. Photo: AFP\"\/><\/div><figcaption data-qa=\"ArticleImage-DescriptionContainer\" class=\"css-1bj5zno e1gf69pb1\">The archaeological ruins of Nisa, an ancient fortress near Ashgabat, the capital of Turkmenistan. Photo: AFP<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">Turkmenistan declared itself \u201cpermanently neutral\u201d under its post-independence leader Saparmurat Niyazov, a policy that he used to justify extreme constraints on contact with the outside world.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><br \/>\n<center><br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.scmp.com\/lifestyle\/travel-leisure\/article\/3358312\/reclusive-turkmenistan-opening-worlds-weirdest-country-worth-trip?utm_source=rss_feed\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Read Full Article At Source <\/a><br \/>\n<center\/><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>From a gas crater dubbed the \u201cGateway to Hell\u201d to the shimmering marble buildings of its capital, Turkmenistan is tentatively opening up to tourists after&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":64772,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[1967,3446,25652,308,25653,728,3117,78],"class_list":["post-64771","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-bored-interesting","tag-country","tag-opening","tag-reclusive","tag-trip","tag-turkmenistan","tag-weirdest","tag-worlds","tag-worth","wpcat-33-id"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64771","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=64771"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64771\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/64772"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=64771"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=64771"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=64771"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}