paulrbyler

December 14th Aktau was overcast, windy and the temperature was slightly below freezing when I stepped outside at 9:30 AM on December 14th to catch a ride to the Mangyshlak train station. Catching a ride in Aktau is pretty easy as people just stick out their hand and some random driver will usually stop in a matter of minutes and today was no different. A small blue Korean made car soon stopped and I quickly stepped back so Jyldyz could negotiate the fare. Most of the locals assume I am one of the many Caucasian Russian/Kazakhs that stayed after the breakup of the Soviet Union as long as they don’t hear me speak. Therefore Jyldyz always does the necessary negotiating because if they find out that I am a foreigner the fare will quickly double or ... read more

Stop #4 August 1st 2012 Ananevo We soon arrived in Ananevo where there was supposed to be some remnants of an old settlement called the Cossack settlement that was founded in 1890. We asked around and were not able to get any information on it from all of our stops and inquiries. I soon chalked it up as another map error as they seemed to be quite frequent and headed on to what was going to be our next stop, called Svetly Mys. We did stop at a nondescript café out in the middle of nowhere and got some dumplings and tea. The price was 230 SOM, very cheap and the smallest bill I had was a 500 SOM note equaling approximately 10 USD. They told me they didn’t have change and thinking it was a ... read more

Stop #12 July 27th 2012 Issuk-Ata Resort After striking out at Teplye Kluchy we decided to see if we could find a shortcut over to the next valley, which was named Issuk-Ata as there were supposedly some hot springs there as well at a resort. I was hoping we could find a shortcut without going all the way back to Bishkek then heading east and south up the valley again. After arriving back in Koytash we started asking around and indeed found a road heading to Karagay-Bulak and was supposedly only about 45 minutes away. At the beginning the road seemed fairly nice although it wound around the hills with some steep switchbacks. The further we drove the more remote it became though with long distances between any signs of habitation. It also turned from cracked ... read more

Stop #2 July 26th 2012 Gumbez of Jarkynbay XIX century A.D. Following the success of the previous day of having a great evening driving through the hills of the Chuy Region in I decided to try and locate Jarkynbay’s Gumbez. This proved to be fruitless in spite of hours of driving. We started from Bishkek driving west until reaching the small city of Sokuluk. This city’s population is mainly made up of the Dungan people which are from a different ethnicity then the local Kyrgyz people are and also adhere to a stricter version of Islam. Surprisingly though, this didn't keep an old drunkard from trying to take a nap on the road. This was a quaint little city with animals roaming freely within the city limits. Thinking that upon arriving in Sokuluk and asking around ... read more