25th to 29th of May 2011 - text update
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25th of May 2011
I left Almaty eastwards towards the Tian Chan mountain range. When I got closer to the Kyrgyz border the weather changed and dark clouds rushed in. I went carefully down into the Charyn Canyon, afraid that hard rain would change my cart track (partially in the riverbed) all of a sudden into a mud and water mix.
Luckily I made it back to the road before the heavy rain started. I went to Köktal (40km from the China border) and then westwards towards Taldykorghan.
Such beautiful landscapes on the whole tour as you can see on the pictures in the extra post.
This country is so rich in nature, in culture, in resources and in the character of its people…
26th of May 2011
I was so messed from the 680km the day before that I decided to stay another day in Talykorghan.
In the morning – still pondering what to do - I wandered over the market and when I returned to the hotel Valerie was waiting for me in the lobby.
The evening before when I arrived in the hotel with my dirty motorbike (& also dirty clothes:-) he talked to me and invited me to the German Organization/Club in TK.
However that didn’t happen but now he invited me to his home outside of TK together with his daughter and a translator. He owns 500ha of farming land, is the president of a bicycle club and is motorbiker as well. He and his daughter prepared an opulent fish BBQ in his beautiful garden. Late in the afternoon we went with his car to a nice river. Such generous and lovely people and we spend a very nice time together! Thank you!
28th of May 2011
Big move to Ust Kamenogorsk (Öskemen), 850km on Kazakh roads, 10hours including breaks. You can calculate what I did most of the time :-) But that kept me awake, flying through these beautiful sceneries.
29th of May 2011
Of course the next day I was kaputt again, still swollen eyes from the windy 850.
Should I rest in Öskemen or split the 590km to Barnaul into 2 day trips? My Kasakhstan visa will expire on the 30th of May.
Better rest and make the whole the next day some navigation showed me. I decided for a day trip to the Altay mountain range but got 2 times stuck in some industrial areas of Öskemen. As mentioned I was somehow too messed and I changed plans again. So I just went on top of a small mountain close to the city. Not really a nice view, chimneys and factories everywhere…lead, copper and other metals mining took its toll on this place.
I made some detour in order to find the right way out of the city for the next day and went back to the hotel. The afternoon I spent in a nice café with Wifi.
30th of May 2011
I started early from Öskemen north-west towards the Russian border.
The border crossing went smooth, friendly border and customs control but all in all it took more than 2h and when I was finally through I was soaked in my motorbike clothes. Well it had also 30°C.
Surprisingly on the Russian side I was on gravel after I had in Kazakhstan asphalt from Öskemen till the border.
I arrived in Barnaul at around 5pm. Later I found out that “they stole” me again one hour. Now I am “5h away” from Germany.
Nobody understands me here. Experiencing this again I have to say, reflecting KZ (yes, they do have this country indicator/symbol on the back of their cars…horrible) in total that communication was much easier in Kazakhstan compared to Russia (the micro part of Russia I have seen + experienced). They try harder to find a way to communicate to you whether with hands and feet or searching help from others. In Russia it can happen that they just look on the floor.
But of course I am the foreigner here and I could do better if I would have learned more Russian in my 3 months course back at home.
Just an hour ago I had such an incident…I was in a restaurant and asked them pointing on pictures in the menu if I can have the burritos also with shrimps (instead of the indicated meat fill) + some guacamole and potatoes. Da da. So I got the burritos filled with beef, the shrimps plate, potatoes and guacamole. Wow, I was well satisfied after my BIG lunch! :-) But here at least I got something (or many things:-). The evening before I got NO beer in a beer bar (had they something else?)…the communication got at some point so wild after some iteration cycles that in the end nobody understood anybody:-) I tried the next bar and they needed 15min to serve me a beer…I was dead thirsty after sitting the whole day on the bike with 30°C. But THAT beer made ziissch! :-)
Aha, some of you will say, he eats meat?? Well I took it as destiny and this was my “eating meat preparation course” for Mongolia…:-)
Haha, now I can laugh but let's see what I will get there...I made already my worst case scenarios.
I left Almaty eastwards towards the Tian Chan mountain range. When I got closer to the Kyrgyz border the weather changed and dark clouds rushed in. I went carefully down into the Charyn Canyon, afraid that hard rain would change my cart track (partially in the riverbed) all of a sudden into a mud and water mix.
Luckily I made it back to the road before the heavy rain started. I went to Köktal (40km from the China border) and then westwards towards Taldykorghan.
Such beautiful landscapes on the whole tour as you can see on the pictures in the extra post.
This country is so rich in nature, in culture, in resources and in the character of its people…
26th of May 2011
I was so messed from the 680km the day before that I decided to stay another day in Talykorghan.
In the morning – still pondering what to do - I wandered over the market and when I returned to the hotel Valerie was waiting for me in the lobby.
The evening before when I arrived in the hotel with my dirty motorbike (& also dirty clothes:-) he talked to me and invited me to the German Organization/Club in TK.
However that didn’t happen but now he invited me to his home outside of TK together with his daughter and a translator. He owns 500ha of farming land, is the president of a bicycle club and is motorbiker as well. He and his daughter prepared an opulent fish BBQ in his beautiful garden. Late in the afternoon we went with his car to a nice river. Such generous and lovely people and we spend a very nice time together! Thank you!
28th of May 2011
Big move to Ust Kamenogorsk (Öskemen), 850km on Kazakh roads, 10hours including breaks. You can calculate what I did most of the time :-) But that kept me awake, flying through these beautiful sceneries.
29th of May 2011
Of course the next day I was kaputt again, still swollen eyes from the windy 850.
Should I rest in Öskemen or split the 590km to Barnaul into 2 day trips? My Kasakhstan visa will expire on the 30th of May.
Better rest and make the whole the next day some navigation showed me. I decided for a day trip to the Altay mountain range but got 2 times stuck in some industrial areas of Öskemen. As mentioned I was somehow too messed and I changed plans again. So I just went on top of a small mountain close to the city. Not really a nice view, chimneys and factories everywhere…lead, copper and other metals mining took its toll on this place.
I made some detour in order to find the right way out of the city for the next day and went back to the hotel. The afternoon I spent in a nice café with Wifi.
30th of May 2011
I started early from Öskemen north-west towards the Russian border.
The border crossing went smooth, friendly border and customs control but all in all it took more than 2h and when I was finally through I was soaked in my motorbike clothes. Well it had also 30°C.
Surprisingly on the Russian side I was on gravel after I had in Kazakhstan asphalt from Öskemen till the border.
I arrived in Barnaul at around 5pm. Later I found out that “they stole” me again one hour. Now I am “5h away” from Germany.
Nobody understands me here. Experiencing this again I have to say, reflecting KZ (yes, they do have this country indicator/symbol on the back of their cars…horrible) in total that communication was much easier in Kazakhstan compared to Russia (the micro part of Russia I have seen + experienced). They try harder to find a way to communicate to you whether with hands and feet or searching help from others. In Russia it can happen that they just look on the floor.
But of course I am the foreigner here and I could do better if I would have learned more Russian in my 3 months course back at home.
Just an hour ago I had such an incident…I was in a restaurant and asked them pointing on pictures in the menu if I can have the burritos also with shrimps (instead of the indicated meat fill) + some guacamole and potatoes. Da da. So I got the burritos filled with beef, the shrimps plate, potatoes and guacamole. Wow, I was well satisfied after my BIG lunch! :-) But here at least I got something (or many things:-). The evening before I got NO beer in a beer bar (had they something else?)…the communication got at some point so wild after some iteration cycles that in the end nobody understood anybody:-) I tried the next bar and they needed 15min to serve me a beer…I was dead thirsty after sitting the whole day on the bike with 30°C. But THAT beer made ziissch! :-)
Aha, some of you will say, he eats meat?? Well I took it as destiny and this was my “eating meat preparation course” for Mongolia…:-)
Haha, now I can laugh but let's see what I will get there...I made already my worst case scenarios.
