The sleeper bus from Urumqi to Almaty turned out to be quite a comfy ride with two rows of bunk beds and almost enough space to stretch out. Yes, they’ve bunk beds in sleeper buses in this part of the world. A genius invention. Before we arrived at the border we managed to get in a few hours sleep which we needed to survive the crossing. Getting through the gate to the Chinese border turned into quite an adventure. As soon as the border was open, people were running towards the gate as if the guards were giving something away for free. They were ramming into each other like bumper cars, pushing like crazy and some started to throw massive pieces of luggage over the gate. You just had to hope for the best and watch out not to trip and fall or get a piece of luggage on your head. At least the Chinese border guards found this spectacle absolutely hilarious. The actual passport and customs procedures on both sides were pretty straightforward. But the best thing was that we had to wait around for several hours until the bus was cleared to hit the road again. Why the initial rush? At least the wait wasn’t too boring and it was fascinating to watch all the checks that were going on. In contrast to the Chinese border, in Kazakhstan you can bank on some argument breaking out at some point and possibly some pushing. In fact some of the women were physically attacking the customs guards for some reason which was quite a sight. Maybe they had the same problem as us. We almost lost our luggage which the bus drivers had dumped in front of the Kazak crossing instead of taking it along as they had done on the Chinese side. Luckily James managed to get out again past the guards, after some discussion, grabbed it from the pile that was there and have it scanned to be cleared.

We weren’t sure what to expect from Kazakhstan but we were looking forward to a change of scenery and culture. Along the way from the border to Almaty we drove through many villages with white brick houses with green or blue framed windows and neatly kept gardens full of flowers with colourful fences around them. Many street vendors were selling fruits or vegetables from donkey carts or out of the boot of Ladas. You could soon feel a Russian, almost Eastern European atmosphere in the air. Almaty itself has quite a European feel to it and it reminded us a lot of Eastern Austria. With it’s leafy streets, beautiful old buildings and trams it’s a bit like Graz. We really enjoyed the few days we spent wandering through the streets of Almaty, checking out the parks, museums and cathedrals. We also made sure to take advantages of the good restaurants and cafes while we could. When you mostly live on cheap food, places like these once in a while are a welcome change.

Food is definitely more important to us than accommodation. During the last few months we’ve had anything from mattresses that sag like hammocks, springs that poke out and push into your ribs or wooden boards simply replacing the mattress. I remember waking up in the middle of the night in Mongolia with my bum on the floor because the wooden planks supporting my thin mattress had collapsed! We’ve had the occasional electricity black out or of course no electricity at all, no water due to broken water pipes or even a flooded room because of water dripping through the ceiling. We’ll spare you the description of the bathrooms 🙂 But we’ve of course also come across many very nice budget places that made us feel very much at home. In Kazakhstan your best bet for budget accommodation are often old Soviet-era hotels where matter of fact ‘floor ladies’ (as they call themselves) rule the place with an iron fist and a bleached blonde perm. They make sure everything goes well on their floors and without their approval you’re NOT leaving the place. Our floor ladies were constantly ‘testing’ us because we generally didn’t understand straightaway what they wanted. In fairness it’s totally our fault that we can’t speak Russian. But it’s also very funny to have someone shouting something at you in Russian every time they see you and then shake their heads and complain that you miraculously didn’t learn Russian overnight.

We also had to do some visa business again and pick up our visa for our next destination, Uzbekistan. But for a change this was really straightforward thanks to a letter of invitation we had organised through some online visa agency a few weeks ago back in China. In theory we didn’t need it but it is recommended to speed up the process. We only had to make it past the very grumpy police who after several times of asking and reminding finally put us on the waiting list so we could enter the embassy. The friendly official inside issued the visa more or less on the spot (i.e. two hours) and off we were with yet another full page sticker in our passport.

After a few days in Almaty we decided it was time for a bit of nature again and we did a day trip to the Charyn Canyon, the second biggest canyon in the world after the Grand Canyon. It was really nice and actually reminded us a lot of Australian landscape which we didn’t expect to see in Kazakhstan. The next day we took the night train further east to the Aksu Zhabaghly Nature Reserve, one of the easiest to visit nature reserves in Kazakhstan. Not surprisingly, a fair deal of paperwork, permits and planning is required to get to certain areas. But we got in touch with a biologist who runs an NGO in that area and she organised a homestay and permits to the national park for us. We spent two days at a family’s guesthouse, did some horse riding (we’re really getting into this after Mongolia) and also hiked around Aksu canyon which is set in a scenic area of mountains on the one side and grassland on the other. The ranger and his family showed us typical Kazak hospitality which involves force-feeding, looking at many family photographs and being shown around the house. Family and children are very important in Kazakhstan. That meant that I had to take pictures with them and hold their few months old grandchild while James had to inspect their hunting rifle which was luckily unloaded. Kazak people take great pride in their houses and also rifles it seems. In general we felt very welcome in Kazakhstan. Every time we bought something in a supermarket or asked for something, people would want to know where we’re from and what we were doing in Kazakhstan. Sometimes in English but mostly in Russian or Kazak. Just pointing at ourselves, saying our names, then our countries in Russian and “tourist” would usually do the trick. Many times people would stop in the streets to shake our hands and welcome us to their country. In a way we got the impression that people are surprised to meet tourists, especially individual travelers because foreigners mostly come for business to Kazakhstan because of their rich oil reserves and mining industry.

From Aksu-Zhsabaghly we headed to Turkistan, the former capital of the Kazak khans from the 16th to the 18th century. Famous for the Mausoleum of the Muslim poet Yasai. It was built for this Muslim poet during the Timur area in the 14th century and is an important place for pilgrims. It was interesting for us to visit because this was the first time we felt a Central Asian atmosphere during our trip. You can feel the proximity to Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan here. In Turkistan we also experienced even more extreme Kazak hospitality when we were invited by some guys to join them at their table at a restaurant. This then led to several rounds of vodka, many toasts, again force-feeding and finally dancing to Kazak music. It was quite hard to get away without offending them but it was a fun evening. The next day was not so much fun so be warned and don’t underestimate the strength of Kazak vodka… (James: my stomach will never forget)

The last few days we spent in Shymkent, the capital of Southern Kazakhstan and also the border town to Uzbekistan. We had heard that this particular Uzbek border can be tedious to cross at times and foreigners often have to bribe their way past the border guards or get searched. But we were lucky and even managed to avoid the crazy pushing crowd at the gates. A doctor working there spotted us and kindly ushered us around. Even the notorious customs guys were friendly enough. Not for the first time has it helped to quickly say some names of famous football players as soon as someone asks you where you from. I wish Austrian footballers weren’t so bad. James just has to say Roy Keane but what should I say? At least I get sympathetic smiles. Football really unites the world and breaks the ice.

So what’s our summation of our stay in Kazakhstan? We only saw a small part of the country and mainly stuck to the south, the most Kazak part of the country where the majority of the Kazak population was settled during Soviet times. It was definitely interesting to see. If your main motive to go the country are major tourist sites you won’t find them here. But if you, like us, happen to travel through it’s certainly worth the ride, especially for the kindness of the Kazak people.