Farawayistan

Tag: kazakhstan

Kazakhstan greatest country in the world

But really, who would’ve guessed. Our first experience of Kazakhstan after crossing the Caspian wasn’t the greatest. So we were very surprised every time people told us Kazakhstan was the highlight of their trip so far. We decided to take a chance and invite Sabina’s parents to this place. Let’s see what it has to offer.

We were so excited to finally be in a modern city again. Almaty has quality restaurants everywhere, too many coffee shops to try (we tried of course) and a McDonalds with a proper McCafé. Pure luxury if you ask us. One of the benefits of cycling the world, is that you can eat as much as you want without gaining any weight. The downside is that you’re constantly hungry of course, so that kind of balances it out. Well, Almaty is foodie paradise. We could find everything here. One kilogram of pancakes for not even 1 USD for example.

ORS to the rescue

But it wouldn’t be Central Asia if one of us wasn’t having stomach issues. The Pamir belly was still ever apparent and we were both on dorm arrest. We patched ourselves up with oral rehydration solution (ORS) and stuck to food that agreed with our upset bellies. We caved once and got McDonalds and both ended up terribly sick again. We were definitely playing it safe from here on and prayed to not get this sick again.

Luxury

After a few days Sabina’s parents, Wout and Monique, joined us. It was great to reunite after not having seen each other for a couple of months. They arrived pretty early and had had a long flight, so Monique had booked a luxury hotel for all of us.

It got even better, because they had also brought all things we had been adding to our wish list the last months. It was a pretty interesting collection of bike tools, Dutch food (even mayonnaise!) and candy, bikepacking bags and new cycling shoes for Robin. We finished the bag of crisps first.

Southern capital Almaty

There was so much to do in Almaty. We walked around town to see the Soviet architecture, visited the bazar, took the cable car to a view point slash amusement park and enjoyed the exquisite gastronomy scene. After every day of sightseeing Wout and Monique would take a swim in the pool and visit the sauna at our amazing hotel. We only joined them for the first day and we can confirm that it was lovely.

Charyn Canyon

But things were only to get better. We had booked a private three day SUV tour to see the nature this region has to offer. Andrey picked us up in his incredibly cool SUV and we were off to our first outdoors destination: Kazakhstans canyons. With Charyn canyon being the most impressive one.

After crossing the endless, wide-open plains outside of Almaty, the landscape suddenly gets a third dimension. The canyon consists of colorful formations, and towering cliffs. Being scared of heights definitely didn’t help some of us when visiting this majestic nature phenomenon. Robin was the bravest one and faced the deep abyss to take some wonderful shots.

The Kazakh simple life

After Charyn we cruised along the breathtaking views of more canyons and mountains in the distance. We drove to a small Kazakh town offering Wout and Monique their first insight in small town life of Central Asia. Luckily they also enjoyed getting stuck in a traffic jam (sheep and goat jam) and weren’t too bothered by the more simple accommodation located in the foothills of the Tien Shan mountains.

Kolsai Lakes

On our second day we drove to the famous Kolsai Lakes for a brisk hike. Armed with trekking poles for Monique and anti-diarrheal medicine for Sabina, who was still quite sick, we hit the path. We started to hike along the first lake, which was already very impressive. The pine forest reflected beautifully in the calm water and the mountains painted the horizon.

The second Kolsai lake

The total tracking distance to the second lake and back was 16 km. Three quarters in the trail started to become more and more difficult. So after a small lunch and some tea Wout and Monique started to walk back at a bit more relaxing pace then we had been doing. We continued together with Andrey and we were not disappointed by the rest of the hike. The forest became more dense and we passed waterfalls, deep muddy tracks and it even started snowing for a bit!

On the way back from the second lake Sabina started to struggle. She was exhausted and had to dive in the bushes every now and then for some business we won’t define. At an extremely slow pace we did make it back, and at the second lake we could even see her parents walking and waving to us from the other side of the first lake. They had taken a somewhat shorter stroll the other way, which had been equally beautiful.

Kaindy Lake

For our last day we had three items on the program. First of was Kaindy lake, also known as the sunken forest. The lake was formed as the result of a landslide triggered by an earthquake more than one hundred years ago. It blocked the gorge and was filled by mountain river water. Trunks of submerged pine trees rise above the surface of the lake. The cold water helps to preserve the trees, which are overgrown with algae and other water plants.

Scenic breaks

The other two stops were more like scenic breaks to stretch our legs. We went to our last canyon, the Black canyon and to Bartogai Lake. A reservoir in the middle of the desert, a steppe surrounded by rocky mountains. We can’t thank Andrey enough for three amazing days. He was a great guide and we had a lovely time. If you want to know more about his tours, check out his website kolsaitour.com.

From luxury hotel to youth hostel

Back in Almaty we traded the luxury of the Novotel hotel for a youth hostel. It was fun to show Wout and Monique how we have been traveling and meet other travelers. We considered putting them in a dorm for fun, but that was maybe a little too much. The private rooms would do, and it was nice for us to also have a private room for once! We spent our last days together walking around the city and simply enjoying each others’ company.

Kazakhstan had been a great success. Greatest country in the world!

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18 January 2020
A hitchhikers guide to Kyrgyzstan (on a bike)
Sometimes you visit a city or a country and you just know you will be back one day. Kyrgyzstan was like that for us. We had seen and heard amazing stories of people bikepacking this rugged country. We had just missed the boat this year. It was October, so too late in the year to ride here.

A lot of passes were already closed, and our gear isn’t really made for winter camping. Nor are we. Also Sabina’s parents were visiting us soon in Almaty, Kazakhstan so we only had two weeks to cross the entire country.

Goodbye Osh

After a few days in Osh we rolled out of the city. On this trip we found that we really enjoy hitchhiking at times. We prefer it over public transport, not over cycling of course. It’s a fun challenge to find a ride and most drivers are extremely friendly and love the company.

With our bicycles it makes more sense to hitch with trucks. There’s enough space for the bikes and for us. The trucks drive for long distances and the cabin is usually very comfortable. Being higher than other cars, you can just stare out the window and get a great view of the country passing by you.
Our hitchhiking tips

Make sure the truck has enough time and place to pull aside where you want to get in.

Find a ride at a gas station or truckers restaurant.

See if you can get to the highway. There is more traffic with further destinations, so the chance of finding a ride is higher.

Learn how to say hitchhike in the local language. In Russian it’s avtostop.

Even when you’ve agreed on where you want to get out, keep an eye on the map. Miscommunication can happen easily, and you’ll end up in a completely different destination than intended.
Talking to truckers

From a small city outside Osh we hitchhiked to Bishkek. It was a bit harder to find a truck, but we ended up getting a lift from a gas truck. The bikes were hauled on the roof, and it worked just fine. By now we had learned picked up on some of the basic questions, so we were able to have somewhat of a conversation with our driver. It usually goes something like this.

Driver: Atkuda? (where are you from?)

Us: Gollandiya (The Netherlands).

Driver: Skol’ko tebe let? (how old are you?)

Us: Twenty-eight and twenty-nine (use fingers to show the numbers).

Driver: Vy zhenaty? While pointing at ring finger (are you married?)

Us: Da (yes). We aren’t but it’s just easier to say yes.

Driver: U vas yest’ deti? or just Deti? (Do you have children?)

Us: Net (no). Thinking oh boy here we go again.

Driver: Looking confused, obviously there’s something wrong with this couple, still gonna ask Pochemu? (why?)

About the money

Other questions we would get a lot were about money. What we did for a living, how much money we made. What does it cost to live in The Netherlands and what do you pay for rent. At first it felt a bit weird. Why do they want to know what we made? Are they scoping out if they can get something out of us, was in the back of our minds. But it was just pure interest. We have never felt unsafe, and when we offered to give money the driver almost always declined. Usually we offered to pay for food, that seemed to be more acceptable as payment.

Truckers lifestyle

If you’re lucky the driver has a good taste in music. This is actually never, so we counted our blessings on our radio-free ride to Bishkek. It was a long drive to Bishkek. Truck drivers are not allowed to drive at night in Kyrgyzstan, so we had to pull over for the night. The driver folded down an extra berth in the back of the cabin. We took the lower bunk and he the top. Who would’ve thought we would spend the night sharing, a cabin with a trucker at a gas station. We loved it even tough it was quite cramped.

The next day our driver even got us breakfast. A box of Chocopie’s, a spongy chocolate biscuit you find all over Asia. Not the healthiest, but hey, it’s the truckers lifestyle we’re livin’ now!

A few hours later we were right in the middle of the city. As we were unloading our stuff, a deranged man was looking at our stuff and shouted a question at us. ‘Are you spies?!’ Oh the lovely encounters we have, they keep amazing us.

Bishkek to Almaty

We only spend two nights in Bishkek and continued our journey to Almaty. There wasn’t a lot to do or see and we will most likely come back here next time we are in Kyrgyzstan. For now we just had some unhealthy junk food and prepared to cycle on towards country number seven, Kazakhstan.

It was a short ride to the border. The crossing went smooth too. On the bikes we could just jump the queue and pass all the cars waiting in line. Visa was free and on arrival, and of course just as all the other central asian countries, they stamped on the same page creating a neat little collection.

The first hundred kilometers after the border were nice. The road wasn’t too busy and the landscape was made up of wavy hills. The wind was playing it’s ever apparent part and grew stronger in the afternoon. We found a campsite that offered some cover after following a small road to some monument in the middle of nowhere.

Bad road, bad borsh

The upcoming day, the road became a bit of a bore. It’s a new road and the first part isn’t open-end, that part was fun. We had the fresh concrete all to ourselves and the traffic was still on the old narrow parallel road. Weirdest part about this road, was that there are no turns for a few hundred kilometers. It just goes on and on and on. Soon enough our fun ended and we had to join the busy traffic on the old pothole filled road.

We stopped for lunch at one of the restaurants and ordered some borsh (Russian style soup). Bad borsh as it turned out a few hours later. We discussed if we wanted to continue cycling or hitch another ride for the last part. As if the gods were listening in, just as we were getting ready to leave a couple truck drivers started talking to us and offered us a ride.

Almaty at last

We had found ourselves in a truck once again, and this time we didn’t even have to ask. The drivers companion, a small spaniel wasn’t too happy about this at first. After a while we finally gained its trust and he would carefully let us pet him. We had to stop outside the city, since trucks aren’t allowed in the city during the day. At this point the bad borsh also started kicking in for Sabina.

We said our goodbyes to the spaniel and his driver and cycled in to Almaty. A huge city. Not what you need when cramps and nausea have just gotten the better of you. Robin was leading the way in the now dark and busy city. We’ll spare you the details of the shunless toilet breaks, but let’s just say we were happy we had made it to our new home for the next chapter in our journey. It was time to park the bikes for a while and spend quality time with family in this surprisingly beautiful new country.

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11 January 2020
Crossing the Caspian to Kazakhstan

Our journey east continues. This time not on two wheels, but across sea and over train tracks. From Baku, Azerbaijan we set sail towards Kuryk, Kazakhstan. A place we would never have expected to find ourselves. From there we cycle in the Kazakh desert to Aktau, where we hop on a 30+ hour train to Nukus, Uzbekistan. A journey that took us 6 days in total. How about that for a travel experience.

If you’re thinking about crossing the Caspian Sea by cargo ship, this blog can be quite useful. There’s no passenger ferry with a schedule. Some ride to the port, which isn’t in Baku itself but in Alat, and camp in the truck parking lot for up to four or five days. If you’re not interested in that, follow our tips and wait it out in Baku instead.

Tracking vessels

There are two ships you can take to get from Azerbaijan to Kazakhstan, the Professor Gul and Merkuri-1. On MarineTraffic you can follow the vessels to see where they are, and where they are heading to. Don’t count on the ETA it shows, this expires all the time. You see, Baku is known for its heavy winds. This means ships can’t always enter the harbor and need to wait it out for however long necessary.

On Saturday we could see that the Merkuri-1 had just left Alat and Professor Gul was right out of Kuryk, Kazakhstan. That was fine, because we wanted some time in Baku for sightseeing. We kept tracking the vessel on its way to Kazakhstan, and after that Azerbaijan.

Ship today?

On Saturday we could see that the Merkuri-1 had just left Alat and Professor Gul was right out of Kuryk, Kazakhstan. That was fine, because we wanted some time in Baku for sightseeing. We kept tracking the vessel on its way to Kazakhstan, and after that Azerbaijan.

When the ship started approaching Azerbaijan on Monday, we called the port (+994 55 999 91 24) to ask if they knew when it would arrive and if we could get on board anytime soon. No ship today, they said. Due to the wind, the port was closed. On Tuesday we got the same response, port is closed today. We could see the Professor Gul was still waiting outside Baku at the same spot, hiding from the wind.

When we woke up on Wednesday, the first thing we did was check MarineTraffic. We could see that the ship had set course towards Alat, so we immediately called the port again. The ship was leaving today and we had first 60 minutes, then suddenly only 30 minutes to get to the port. The race against the clock had begun. We were still in our pajamas and we were a one hour car ride away from the port.

Racing to the port

We tried to get a Bolt car (like Uber) but there was none available, so we hauled one of the purple London-style taxi’s instead. We agreed on the amount of 50 Manat (about 25 Euro), which is high but not outrageous. The bikes barely fit, but it worked after we took Sabina’s front wheel out. Sabina had to sit next to the driver, which isn’t officially a seat, so she sat on a crate that functioned as a chair.

Our stress levels were quite high, but we were in the car and called to let the port know we were on our way. We had already bought the tickets online, which isn’t really necessary, since you only get a voucher which you need to exchange where you buy tickets. But this way we could pay with our credit card instead of with dollars.

The price was 80 dollars per person, and we didn’t have to pay extra for the bikes. If you buy your ticket at the harbor you will probably pay 70 dollar, but you get a bed in a cabin for four. We had a private cabin, with a toilet and shower.

Taxi issues

The taxi drive to the port was quite eventful to say the least. Our driver had no problem with our strict schedule, he just ignored it instead. Our first stop was at the mosque, where he could donate money. We then stopped, to after a lot of guessing figured out Sabina had to get off the crate and sit on the floor, so no one could see she was sitting in the front. After a few miles (and 5 cigarettes) he probably felt bad, because he stopped again making Sabina sit on the crate again. To make matters worse, the GPS location for the port on iOverlander wasn’t correct. We missed the exit to the port and ended up in the town of Alat instead.

Once we finally found the port, it was very unclear where we should go. We needed to collect the tickets as fast as we could, but one of us had to stay by the taxi, since he didn’t have change from a hundred. We sure as hell weren’t paying him a single Manat more than agreed upon.

The circus at the port

Sabina was racing around the port on her bike with the still somewhat loose front wheel, trying to find the ticket office. When she finally found it, there were two men yelling at each other and the one at the desk had to finish stapling a lot of documents very aggressively before he would help her. We never knew one could aggressively staple, but this man sure proved it.

Getting the tickets took ages, and Robin was still waiting with the now also angry taxi driver. Sabina exchanged the one hundred bill for two fifties, so we could finally pay the taxi. When we handed him the money, he started shouting yevro, yevro, yevro. (Did he mean Euro?) Chaos was complete at this point. Once he realized we weren’t going to give him more than agreed upon, he kicked his car and left in fury.

This time of year there’s a circus going on in Central Asia. It’s the Mongol Rally Circus. We see lots of tiny old cars plastered in stickers, heading the same direction as us. The Rally is an intercontinental race from Prague, Czech Republic (used to be London, UK) to Ulan Ude, Russia (used to be Ulan Bator, Mongolia). We saw a bunch of them gathered on the parking lot. Most of them had been waiting there for five days, waiting on the cargo ship to Turkmenistan.

Making new friends

We also met three other cyclists here, Devrim from Turkey, George from the UK and Josh from the States. And then there was one odd duck parked between it all. A bright yellow Lada with a Russian license plate. It belonged to Alexey, who we befriended right away. We grabbed a bite to eat and he told us about his experience with the Transcontinental Race, a self-supportive bicycle race across Europe. But now he swapped his bike for this cool whip instead.

After waiting for a few hours, which we used to get a visa for Uzbekistan (we later found out we didn’t need one), it was time to get on the ship. We could stall the bikes on the parking deck and were appointed cabin number one. We had bunk beds, and a small window looking out the front deck. Or the air vent on the front deck at least. The bathroom smelled so funky, we stuck our noses in our toiletry bag just to get the stench out.

Life on board

Life on the boat was simple and slow. We used our time to relax, edit some photo’s, write the blog and hung out with fellow travelers. There was a meal served three times a day. That was all the food you could get. There was no shop that sold snacks or water, so we made sure we brought enough of those.

On board we also quickly befriended Samir, who works on the ship. He told us about the Caspian Sea, life as an Azerbaijan sailor man and showed us around. He made sure we had everything we needed, thanks Samir!

Desert ride

Crossing the Caspian took us little over 33 hours, we went aboard around 2 pm on Wednesday and set foot on Kazakh shore at around 11 pm the following day. Country number three on this trip didn’t require a visa. This didn’t mean it was easy to enter Kazakhstan. After two passport checks and one baggage check on board, we got our stamp. In the port our bags and passports were checked yet another four or five times.

Tourists traveling the other direction were clearly annoyed by this futile border system, as the first thing they shouted to us was Don’t get too excited when you see a toilet in Kazakhstan! I guess they had been waiting there for quite a while, and the toilets were indeed locked. Welcome to Kazakhstan. Best country in the world.

There is absolutely nothing at the port of Kuryk, and the city was 20 km further. We teamed up with the other cyclist and camped in the desert next to the parking lot. We would cycle to Kuryk the next day and continue to Aktau on the same day. We had a strong headwind for the first 20 km’s. But after Kuryk, where we could get some Kazakh money, water and food, we continued cycling 70 km in the desert. This time with a strong tailwind luckily.

Feeling the heat

The wind made it feel like we were flying, but the temperature kept rising and rising. Shade was hard to find, and our water had also gotten very warm. This made it very hard to cool off, and Sabina was really struggling with the heat for the last 10 km’s in the desert. When we finally found some shade, she drenched her shirt in water and stood in the wind giving her chills all over. It got even better when a father and his son pulled over to give us a watermelon, which we devoured immediately. A very, very warm welcome to a new country.

The land of Borat

Riding in to Aktau felt surreal. The wind took a turn, and blew straight in our face, making the last bit a real pain. We were surrounded by huge factories, and there were massive pipelines besides and over the road. It got even weirder when we came to our beach resort hostel. Apparently we had stumbled upon a holiday resort for locals and Russians. The beach was clean, there was entertainment and music and we went on a crazy fast water slide, which would definitely not pass European safety standards.

Aktau is exactly what we expected from Kazakhstan. It probably doesn’t do it real justice tough. To get even more in the mood, we watched Borat with Josh and George and they also shaved the Borat-moustache. Not a pretty sight, but neither was Aktau.

Shipping it

On the ship we had sorted some stuff out, that we wanted to send home. DHL was exorbitantly expensive and charged 255 US dollars. So we opted for the cheaper Kazpost instead, at 24 US dollars. Or did DHL just make a calculating error? At least we were 3,5 kg lighter. Let’s hope we can feel it climbing in the Pamir’s.

All aboard

From Aktau our journey to Uzbekistan would continue by train. We bought the tickets online and had to cycle to another village to the train station the next day. We wanted to be there early, since it can be a real hassle with the bikes. Thank god we did, because the time on our ticket wasn’t local time but one hour earlier, probably the time in the capital. So instead of arriving one hour before departure, we came just in time.

The train was a whole experience on its own. We had two upper berths across from each other, above an elderly couple. They were lying on their bed or drinking tea with their friends, so we couldn’t really sit anywhere. The amount of stuff people brought on the train was astonishing. Entire kitchens including a six burner stove, tractor wheels, carpets, washing machines, it all went along.

After a thousand stops

There was a stop for about every fifteen minutes, even in the middle of the desert with nothing in sight. Staring out the window wasn’t really fun either, since there was only sand, dry bushes and a lot of garbage to see. This made us prime entertainment for the other passengers on the train. None spoke English, so it was a lot of guessing and gesturing.

Upon nightfall the train stopped and we could get out to stretch our legs. Not at a platform, but just by the tracks amongst other driving trains. Then all of a sudden we had to get back on, and the train drove on for a short bit to stop again. We couldn’t get off this time, but the train didn’t continued driving further until very early the next morning. We then had to get out of our beds and get our passports ready. The Kazakh teenage border police collected all the passports and after about thirty minutes we got them back with a fresh exit stamp.

Next stop was the Uzbek border police, which were the friendliest we’ve encountered so far. They made some chit chat with us and the other cyclists and asked about our journey out of interest instead of duty. We had a few hours on the train left and about a million stops. Vendors boarded the train and walked the aisles at least forty times each. All goods didn’t smell that fresh, so we skipped out on the dried fish and shasliks. No thanks.

Not for the fainthearted

When we finally got off the train our group quickly fell apart. We wanted to get out of the town and start cycling. We could borrow a little money from Josh that he had exchanged on the train, and we continued cycling in the desert with him. We were stoked to be on our bikes and camping again. And away from the hassle of the train. Would we recommend doing it? Definitely, just not for the fainthearted.

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24 August 2019