{"id":926,"date":"2018-07-05T09:43:57","date_gmt":"2018-07-05T08:43:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/tomenwafa.be\/?p=926"},"modified":"2018-07-05T09:51:57","modified_gmt":"2018-07-05T08:51:57","slug":"kazakhstan-round-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tomenwafa.be\/?p=926","title":{"rendered":"Kazakhstan – Round 2"},"content":{"rendered":"New friends, heroic actions and a big scare from Suzy<\/span>
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Saturday, the 23rd<\/sup> of June<\/strong><\/p>\n

After the uneventful crossing into Kazakhstan, we stepped on the gas to get to Almaty in time\u2026 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!<\/p>\n

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Almaty traffic didn\u2019t 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 \ud83d\ude42 .<\/p>\n

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Sunday to Saturday, the 24th<\/sup> \u2013 30th<\/sup> of June<\/strong><\/p>\n

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\u2026).<\/p>\n

On Monday we changed hostels, partly because our old one was fully booked, partly because Wafa found a real \u2018backpacker\u2019s\u2019 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.<\/p>\n

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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!
\nSo 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\u2019re also considering taking a flight from Western Mongolia to Ulaanbaatar and back, just for the visa\u2026 We\u2019ll see what we\u2019ll do when we get there, I guess?<\/p>\n

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\u2019t 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\u2019ve met them about 15 times (if not more) on the road, travelling together part of the way. They almost feel like family now \ud83d\ude42 .<\/p>\n

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\n(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?)
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Tuesday morning we went to the Russian embassy early, together with 2 French bikers we\u2019d 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\u2019d 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:<\/p>\n

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\n(On the road we were again stopped by police, but they quickly let us pass once we made clear we didn\u2019t speak any Russian\u2026)<\/em><\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

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\u2019t like very much\u2026)<\/p>\n

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After sleeping late again on Thursday, we went to an Almaty park in the afternoon, hoping to find a pool to go swimming. It\u2019s been steadily getting warmer since we left the high mountains, with temperatures now going to 30\u00b0C and above, so we needed to cool down. After learning the pool would cost us 25\u20ac (!), 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\u2026).<\/p>\n

On Friday we got our Russian transit visa from the embassy. We thought we\u2019d 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!<\/p>\n