http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Kazakhstan/ Travel adventures in journals and photos from Asia , Kazakhstan en-us Mon, 16 Nov 09 22:09:43 +0000 Mon, 16 Nov 09 22:09:43 +0000 Kazakhstan http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Kazakhstan/East-Kazakhstan/Almaty/blog-449894.html Atyrau 7. September 2009Nach zwei Wochen verlasse ich Almaty mit einem Zug nach Turkistan wo ich das Mausoleum von Khoja Ahmad Yasavi besuche das bei weitem architektonisch bedeutendste Monument Kasachstans. Ich unternehme auch einen Ausflug zum Fluss Syrdarja der im kleinen Aralsee muendet. Junge Kasachen ueberreden mich zu einem erfrischendem Bad. Dies ist einer der raren Schwimmerlebnisse d http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Kazakhstan/blog-439291.html Almaty 24. August 2009Ein letztes Mal profitiere ich von den billigen puenklichen und meist komfortablen chinesischen Zuegen um mich in die Naehe der Grenze zu Kasachstan zu begeben. Als die Sonne ueber der Steppe aufgeht erreiche ich Jinghe wo ich auf den Bus umsteige. Die zur Haelfte fertig gestellte Autobahn nach Yining fuert durch eine trockene Berglandschaft in Richtung Suedwesten. Auf de http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Kazakhstan/blog-439286.html We are ashamed to say that prior to visiting the sum total of our knowledge of Kazakhstan was based on having seen Borat. This being an especially poor showing given that it is the seventh largest country in the world. We always had a suspicion that Borat wasnrsquot a documentary but we didnrsquot fully appreciate how inaccurate a picture of the country it painted. Admittedly we saw only http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Kazakhstan/blog-430234.html Kazakhstan is by far the largest and most prosperous of the former Soviet Central Asian states. Stretching from the 7000m Tian Shan to the Caspian sea it is longitudinally nearly as large as the 48 contiguous states. In the east pipelines carry petros across the mountains into China. The western most regions where much of these petros are mined are technically in Europe. It is the richness http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Kazakhstan/blog-422005.html So I failed in my attempt to get from East Timor to Jordan without flying. I was so close in fact I was even in Europe. The city of Oral in far northwest Kazakhstan is west of the Ural river and so is considered part of Europe. In Russian itrsquos ldquoUralskrdquo but in English itrsquos usually called after the Kazakh ldquoOralrdquo. I went as far as Oral but I was hoping t http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Kazakhstan/Oral/blog-401671.html In an effort to avoid my normal boring titles I was going to title my blog ldquoKazakhstan is nicerdquo and then after a few days I was going to title it ldquoKazakhstan has a veneer of nicenessrdquo but I was already sick of people making the Borat references so I decided not to reference that film at all and instead go with the title from the Beatles song which got stuck in my head. http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Kazakhstan/East-Kazakhstan/Almaty/blog-401650.html For four Journeyrsquos there has been a travelling soul that has been in me wanting to find adventure wanting to discover new things new cultures. That soul has enjoyed nearly every possible moment. But here in Central Asia that soul was gradually drained of life. Hence for the first time ever I pulled the pin and got a flight outta here. My last stop was the Kazakhstan former capital Almaty. http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Kazakhstan/blog-394274.html We had a lovely albeit brief stay in Kazakhstan a week of travel and errands complemented by a bit of sightseeing and hospitable locals.Our stay here began with the multiple border checkpoints between Russia and Kazakhstan. The train crosses the border at about 9pm with the rigmarole of the Russian and Kazakh border guards prodding and poking every nook and cranny of our compartment what they http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Kazakhstan/blog-328879.html gtgtgt DON'T MISS THE ENGLISH VERSION PLEASE SCROLL DOWN IN ALL OF OUR BLOGS. Tag 75 bis 9415.200 km von GalwayWir haben es geschafft Nach 4.000 km Steppe 4 Reifenpannen und der Erkenntnis dass die Seidenstrasse auch nicht mehr das ist was sie mal war haben wir dieses riesige Land erfolgreich durchquert und koennen Kasachstan hinter uns lassen. HurraErstmal dort hin zu kommen war j http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Kazakhstan/East-Kazakhstan/Almaty/blog-322238.html Well I finally finished my mt. biking trip through Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan and while it was a very tough trip it was one of the best trips Irsquove ever done. I really had a great time I hadnrsquot biked much in the past couple of years so I was not in biking shape at all and the first 5 days were really hard on me as they were all long hard rides that allowed no time for recovery. Lucki http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Kazakhstan/blog-313658.html I arrived in Almaty Kazakhstan two days ago. Yesterday my bike mule aka Jim Wilson flew in with my bike and tomorrow we start off on 12 days of mt. biking from Kazakhstan to Kyrgyzstan and back again. I t promises to be beautiful but grueling ride as we climb over 12K foot passes.I will write and tell you all about it when I get back to Almaty on the 11th http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Kazakhstan/East-Kazakhstan/blog-305156.html Saturday 24 May Kizilorda to Shiyeli 134 kmUp at 5.30 no shower as water cold. A long day but not too bad. Nice green bushes and small rivers the early part of the day but later back to dry steppe. The road was good and we had a following wind. Today we cycled in our groups the Reds let me go ahead with JeanJacques and we had a good day. We had a bit of a wait at lunchtime stopped http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Kazakhstan/Kyzylorda/Aralsk/blog-295637.html Tuesday 20 May Toretam to Josali 88 kmMy big bag did not turn up in the lorry yesterday but I found it this morning hidden behind some cardboard in the second lorry for some reason. Had to do some hasty luggage sorting and also get a new chain on my bike before leaving. Claude managed to rip the school gate off with the lorry not a very good return for their hospitalityVery hot 42 degree http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Kazakhstan/Kyzylorda/blog-294419.html Tuesday 20 May Toretam to Josali 88 kmMy big bag did not turn up in the lorry yesterday but I found it this morning hidden behind some cardboard in the second lorry for some reason. Had to do some hasty luggage sorting and also get a new chain on my bike before leaving. Claude managed to rip the school gate off with the lorry not a very good return for their hospitalityVery hot 42 degree http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Kazakhstan/Kyzylorda/blog-294418.html Wednesday 14 May Makat to Mumkyur 115 kmIt rained in the night. There was a hole in the ceiling over my corner and some of my gear got damp. A bit of ceiling fell in one of the other rooms so I didnrsquot get the worst Walked to the restaurant for breakfast eggs good. It wasnrsquot raining when we set out the rain had liquefied the mud on the village streets so it was less slippe http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Kazakhstan/Atyrau/blog-294404.html Saturday 10 May Astrakhan to Ganyushkino Kazakhstan 140 kmA grey morning. To a square by the Caspian Sea for a reception I got interviewed for TV in French We all received a bag with a nice picture of Astrakhan and a calendar and some little girls danced for us. It started to rain. On the way out of town I had a puncture in the back tyre and the guys changed the wheel for a spare from http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Kazakhstan/Atyrau/blog-294366.html Rond 7 uur 's morgens arriveert onze trein in Tobolsk. We hebben een dagje tijd om de stad te verkennen laten onze bagage achter in een locker van het station en nemen de bus naar het centrum. We zijn gewaarschuwd door onze reisgids laat je niet ontmoedigen door de immens grote en vele sovjetappartementsgebouwen die de nieuwe stad sieren maar geniet van de pracht van het witte Kremlin en kuier http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Kazakhstan/East-Kazakhstan/Almaty/blog-285845.html Kazakhstan got the shortest visit of my trip despite being a huge country. It serves as more of a gateway to other places than a destination in itself. for me it was the place to collect my visa for Uzbekistan and is also the departure point for the last country on this trip the strange and foreign UKArriving in Almaty I wasn't quite sure what to expect a taste of the USSR little change from http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Kazakhstan/East-Kazakhstan/Almaty/blog-282214.html I wandered past the Uzbek embassy an hour or so before it was due to open for visa applications just to get the lay of the land and see if anyone had turned up to start queueing. I spoke to the guard who wrote my name down on a list and told me to come back at 2.30pm.Instead of hanging around there I had a pleasant hour or so mooching around in Gorky Park and then psyched myself up for another http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Kazakhstan/East-Kazakhstan/Almaty/blog-278938.html