One of the world’s most isolated countries, this former Soviet state is showing signs it’s ready for more tourists

By Joe Yogerst, CNN

(CNN) — When the Turkmenistan government announced new streamlined visa regulations in April, people familiar with traveling to the Central Asian nation were unsure what to make of it.

Not that there are many such experts — along with North Korea and Eritrea, Turkmenistan has long been considered one of the globe’s most isolated countries, a legacy that dates to the 1990s when the nation broke away from the disintegrating Soviet Union and turned inward, settling into a sealed-off, independent authoritarianism.

For certain travelers, though, especially those who gravitate toward conflict zones and geopolitical oddities, Turkmenistan’s impenetrability has given it an alluring mystique. There’s just one problem: getting in.

Scoring a tourist visa is a long and invol