Saturday, the 23rd of June
After the uneventful crossing into Kazakhstan, we stepped on the gas to get to Almaty in time… for the world cup game of Belgium vs Tunisia! After a 200 km drive through the empty steppe, we got to Almaty proper. While filling up Suzy up with diesel, Tom noticed the left front tire was looking deflated. We just thought to fill it up again, but the tire repair guy next door advised us to let him have a look. Result: second flat tire of the trip!
Almaty traffic didn’t seem to be any better than in Bishkek, so it took us the better part of an hour to cross the city to our hostel. They pointed us towards a very nice Uzbek restaurant, which served delicious horsemeat plov! Every booth had its own TV, so Tom was very happy to watch the game 🙂 .
Sunday to Saturday, the 24th – 30th of June
We spent the rest of the week in Almaty. Sunday was again a day for practical stuff; writing, planning and preparing for our Russian transit visa. We talked to two Afghan students at breakfast, who are studying at the American University of Central Asia in Bishkek (and thus know Chris, small world indeed!) on a scholarship. These girls really changed the way we look at Afghanistan a bit: they were modern, liberal, and set to return to Afghanistan once they finished their studies. Not at all what we expected from young Afghans! And as with so many people in this region, they had family studying and working all over the world (North America, Europe, Asia…).
On Monday we changed hostels, partly because our old one was fully booked, partly because Wafa found a real ‘backpacker’s’ hostel on iOverlander. The new one was also fully booked, but we could set up our tent in the garden, almost for free. We would end up spending the rest of the week here.
Our plan so far had been to get a double entry transit visa for Russia: this would mean going from Kazakhstan through Russia to Mongolia, and then after three weeks in Western Mongolia, doing the same route in reverse. However, we found out it is impossible to get a double entry visa in Kazakhstan as a tourist (need to be a resident). Poop!
So we changed our plan: with a single entry visa we can get to Mongolia. Then we need to go all the way to Ulaanbaatar for a new visa (possibly a tourist visa? If not, a new transit visa.) Then we can go through Russia again to Kazakhstan. This will add another 3000 km to our trip, over crappy Mongolian roads. So we’re also considering taking a flight from Western Mongolia to Ulaanbaatar and back, just for the visa… We’ll see what we’ll do when we get there, I guess?
So Monday was again spent planning and getting our paperwork done to apply for the Russian visa the next morning. We also saw Jonas and Michael, our little German brothers, again. They didn’t get a spot at the hostel, but we could say goodbye one last time. For real this time, as they were flying to Iran later that week. I guess we’ve met them about 15 times (if not more) on the road, travelling together part of the way. They almost feel like family now 🙂 .
(We also had some pictures taken for the visa application. Left: old pictures from Belgium. Right: new photoshopped pictures from Iran and/or Kazakhstan. Which are the best ones?)
Tuesday morning we went to the Russian embassy early, together with 2 French bikers we’d met earlier at the Mongolian embassy in Bishkek, and who were also staying in our Almaty hostel. Martin and Thibault turned out to be some of the nicest and funniest guys we met on the whole trip, we’d have loads more fun with them during the rest of the week. After a surprisingly quick embassy visit, we went to the Tamgaly petroglyphs, some 150 kms outside of Almaty. We were astonished by the sheer amount of drawings we found. Some rather abstract ones as well, such as the sunhead-dudes:
(On the road we were again stopped by police, but they quickly let us pass once we made clear we didn’t speak any Russian…)
In the evening we went to the local Shakespeare Pub to watch the France-Denmark game. Boring as fuck, but nice talking to all the people from our hostel.
Wednesday we got a late start (after sleeping late), but in the afternoon we went hiking in the hills/mountains around Almaty. It was a very nice walk to a local waterfall. Very refreshing shower as well. The group from the hostel made it great fun. In the evening we went to the pub again to watch the Germany-Korea game. Great atmosphere, not least because we could have a laugh with the Germans! (Which our German hostel comrades didn’t like very much…)
After sleeping late again on Thursday, we went to an Almaty park in the afternoon, hoping to find a pool to go swimming. It’s been steadily getting warmer since we left the high mountains, with temperatures now going to 30°C and above, so we needed to cool down. After learning the pool would cost us 25€ (!), we decided to just hang out in the park instead, playing card games and Frisbee. Relaxing. Later we watched Belgium win their game against England (bloody Januzaj…).
On Friday we got our Russian transit visa from the embassy. We thought we’d leave later during the day, but ended up staying to plan Mongolia, do some shopping and just hanging about in the hostel. At night we went out to a local club, which made for some great fun!
We didn’t leave on Saturday either, having slept only a few hours and half hung over (Tom). The day was mostly spent doing nothing. In the evening the hostel had organized a BBQ to celebrate the birthday of on the other guests, which was great fun: good food, great people, making music… The France – Argentina game was also really entertaining to watch!
Sunday, the 1st of July
We really had to get started today, or we’d never leave this place 🙂 . However, first some Israeli guys made everyone breakfast, a delicious shakshuka. This consists of a spicy tomato sauce with eggs poached in it. So nice! After that, Thibault gave Tom a haircut (which turned out OK, even though he had never cut someone’s hair before…). And then it was noon already, so lunch time!
After finally leaving for real (with many heartfelt goodbyes), we got on the road to northeast Kazakhstan. We drove another 400 kms, before turning off the main road to find a good camping spot. Wafa also got pulled over by police for the first time (speeding!), but again Tom managed to play the idiot convincingly enough that they let us go. He’s got a real talent for it…
While checking the camp spot, we ran into Aldo, another of our hostel buddies, who had left the day before. So another camping night with company!
Monday, the 2nd of July
Tom woke up early to another herd of goats surrounding our tent. When they started moving along though, a pitiful bleating sound could be heard from a nearby canal. Disaster! One of the little goats had fallen in and was being swept away!
(Not pictured: goat.)
Tom, being the hero he is, didn’t hesitate and tried to get the little fellow back on shore. The first 500 meters of the canal were too high, so rescue attempts were unsuccessful. After that, the canal bank started getting lower, so he could grab the goat from the water. Only just in time, because little Rudi (as the goat was called by that time), had just given up swimming and was drowning.
Once Rudi was on shore, things didn’t look good: he was barely breathing and had a dazed look in his eyes. So Tom tried CPR on the little guy’s chest (because that’s what they do in the movies to make them cough up the water, right?). No success. Next he dangled Rudi upside down by his hind legs, vigorously shaking the little bastard to get the water out. Again no success, but by now Rudi started bleating a little bit again, so maybe there was still hope?
After a few more minutes, Rudi stood up again! Brought back from the dead, hurrah! In obvious shock, Rudi was unable to move more than a few paces at a time though. Looking confused and shivering violently, he tried to hide in some nearby bushes. But just as Tom decided to let the little guy be, the herd of goats returned to the scene. With some ushering, Rudi was finally returned to the fold. A very emotional moment, both for Rudi and Tom:
(Meanwhile, Wafa had slept through all the commotion.)
After breakfast, we bade Aldo goodbye and got on our way again. We wanted to drive a large part of the way to Russia, so apart from a small lunch break, we drove on until 8 PM. Still mostly empty Kazakh steppe along the way. We also passed some lakes which had seagulls, literally 1000’s of kms away from any ocean. We had thought to camp again, but got in a really big storm along the way. So we didn’t take any risk (because Tom’s 9-year old 50€ festival tent is probably not waterproof anymore) and checked into a roadside hotel, just 200 km from the Russian border. In the evening, we saw the Brazil – Mexico game, but turned in early, and missed the epic Belgium – Japan match 🙁 .
Tuesday to Wednesday, the 3rd – 4th of July
After a 2 hour drive over a rotten road, we arrived in Öskemen, the last big stop before Russia. We were actually ahead of schedule, and had a day and a half of time to kill before we could enter Russia (visa starting date: 5/7). So Wafa had the luminous idea of going to a car repair shop for a quick check up before heading to Mongolia proper. The iOverlander recommended a place for 4×4’s, so after visiting the city (highlight: an ‘authentic’ Siberian village in the middle of the city park), we had these guys have a look.
It turned out Suzy hadn’t been coping with the shitty Central Asian roads that well, after all. According to the mechanics, there was a problem with our rear wheel bearings, the front ball joints should be replaced AND the engine mounts were ‘destroyed’ (imagine thick Russian accent for extra effect). As these guys came with a recommendation, and seemed honest enough, we trusted their judgment (they also saw that our oil filter hadn’t been fitted correctly during the oil change in Bishkek, for example). But fuck! Bad news indeed!
Kiril told us he would start looking for parts the next day, but wasn’t very hopeful that he could find anything in time for us to get on our way to Mongolia. Our Russian transit has a very narrow window (5-8 of July), so even 2 days of delay would mean we couldn’t make it to Mongolia.
We went to bed slightly apprehensive about the next day, as you can imagine…
So after sleeping late and some anxious waiting, we called Kiril again on Wednesday at noon, only to find out he hadn’t found any of the parts. After looking at our alternative travel options (plane: too expensive, train: takes too long, bus + taxi: too cumbersome), we headed into town ourselves to look for car parts. To be honest, Tom had all but given up at this point. Already apprehensive about the Mongolian roads and conditions, this was the final straw; it felt like we weren’t supposed to go to Mongolia after all.
But we got lucky! The first garage we stopped by (thank you Wafa!), pointed us towards a parts shop. While we didn’t find that shop, we stepped into another one that had our wheel bearings and ball joints. The guy working there even drove us to another shop to find some new engine mounts as well! Talk about good service!
We drove to the car shop with our shiny new parts for Suzy. The guys started working on her straight away. Apparently they go the extra mile for tourists, as they know these have serious time constraints. We were told they would probably work until 10 or 11 PM… Nice!
After all the excitement of the day, we decided to celebrate with some nice aperitifs and sushi!
Thursday, the 5th of July
As we’re writing this post, it is now the first day of our Russian transit visa, but we’re quite hopeful we can get under way sometime in the early evening. We found out our border crossing is apparently the only one between Kazakhstan and Russia that is open 24h a day. The idea is that we get the car back by 6 PM, and start driving towards Russia right away. Fingers crossed!