Anita and I are on the 5 Stans of the Silk Road tour with G Adventures. The first post can be found here: Exploring Central Asia: A Journey Through Kyrgyzstan

Now we’re heading into Kazakhstan. If the border crossing is any indication, this country is going to be fascinating!

Sunday, June 8

Drives thus far have been incredibly scenic and this one was no different. The border crossing to Kazakhstan was interesting. We took everything out of the van and the driver took the vehicle across separately. First stop was getting the departure stamp. Then I walked across no man’s land to Kazakhstan to get the entry stamp. Next to a building with an xray which all the bags had to go through. I was first so the young man had to turn the machine on. He seemed delighted to see me. There don’t appear to be many travelers going through this crossing.

We carried on to stop to view a beautiful gorge. People are learning to capitalize on tourists with settings for photo opportunities; 2 of which involved a golden eagle.

Our destination was the village of Saty in the Kolsay national forest. Lake Kaindy was formed after a landslide triggered by by an earthquake in 1911 forming a natural dam. It blocked the gorge and was filled by mountain river water. The trees have been submerged since and appear to be still growing under water.

We settled into our guesthouse then were picked up in 4×4’s. The drive into the park is an adventure. We got bounced around like crazy and even drove through a river. Upon arrival we hiked uphill for about 1.5 km in the pouring rain. The hike itself is pleasant. The stinky vans that take tourists up were obnoxious. The rest of the hike was really nice and the views gorgeous.

Monday, June 9

We left Saty village early as usual and were on the road before 8 am. First stop was Charyn Canyon where we had a few hike options. Anita and I chose to hike the lower canyon. The formations are beautiful and remind me a lot of some of the parks in Nevada. It’s called the little sister of the US Grand Canyon. I didn’t see the similarity there at all. lol

Back on the road we stopped in a village to buy a picnic lunch to eat in the park. Anita and I opted for ice cream. Yum!

Just outside of Almaty our van broke down. It sounded like a transmission issue. Uh oh. So the other van came back for us and we all piled in. 16 people plus luggage was pretty tight but it wasn’t far.

We checked into the Otrar hotel. It’s a strange place. In order to use wifi, a staff member needed to do it for us for EACH device. Yes, time consuming. Some tried to get laundry done. You can’t bring it to the desk. The supervisor comes to your room and counts items then reports to front staff…..twas way too confusing so we washed our clothes in the tub and hung them all over the room.
After Liliia showed us the lay of the land, Anita and I set off on our own to find dinner. We arrived at the Indian restaurant I’d chosen to find out they were closed for cleaning. Weird. So we carried on and found Ocean Basket. It was nice. We’re getting plenty of local food on this trip and wanted something different.

Tuesday was a slower paced day. It started with a city tour. We saw the Independence Monument, Ascension Orthodox Cathedral, Panfilov’s park (Panfilov’s guardsmen) and the Glory memorial among other things. Later Anita and I visited the Musical instrument museum. It was pretty interesting!

Wednesday;

A relaxing morning as the whole day was dedicated to a 1.5 hour flight to Dushanbe. Oh well. It’s much more pleasant than the alternative, a ridiculously long train ride.

On to the next post. Tajikistan!

Silk Road Journey: Highlights of Tajikistan’s Natural Beauty