Hidden Gem

August 11, 2007 by dunny.

In the 3 days since you heard from us last we have crossed two countries, one of which is by far the most amazing place we’ve been so far.  We’re in Almaty, Kazakhstan…here’s how…

We left Bukhara shortly after the last post and set a goal on getting here as fast as the Chariot would go.  We made it up somewhere near Tashkent and stayed a night then kept moving…stopped in for breakfast and thought we’d found a Junior Awesomeite (a 12 year old boy who spoke great English and gave us tours of the restaurant and fish tanks and told us all the waitresses were in love with us).  He translated the orders and made things as easy on us as it’s been since we left Baku.  Then when we were leaving he asked for $10 for the “memory.”  We said no, so he asked for sunglasses.  I drew him a picture instead.  So he stole my tennis ball.  Little grifter.

We managed to cross the Uzbek-Kyrgyz (Osh, Kyrgyzstan) border late that night and were just going to try and make it as far as we could on our way to Bishkek.  The border guard had told us the road we wanted was good but had “one problem.”  Well about 50 km from the border we found the problem.  The road disappeard.  Completely.  So we turned around and wandered through southwest Kyrgyzstan fighting extreme sleep deprivation and a lack of roads or people to ask and finally ended up at a different Uzbek-Kyrgyz border crossing. 

Wolfgang from the Hobos went up to ask directions and as he made his way to the door a rabid dog went apeshit on him and he tuck-tailed and ran as fast as a fart in a frying pan.  Good wake up call I guess.  It turns out that the guard was napping…he woke up and basically told us that when that road had disappeared we needed to keep driving on the rock-track until it picked back up.  So we did.

When it finally did pick back up we managed to get lost again so we decided to pull over and catch some sleep there on the side of the road (2nd time in 2 nights).  Now, the Chariot has a lot of magic, but sleeping room it does not.  My legs fell asleep somewhere around 4:30 so I climbed out on the hood to stretch out and fell back to sleep.  As the sun was coming up, I was in a nice slumber until I heard a little whistle and a tap on the shoulder.  Ever seen Deliverance?

I rolled over and sat up and looked out at about 40 Kyrgyz locals (most on foot, some on donkey-pulled carts) staring at me with wide-eyed bewilderment.  I said hello.  They kept staring.  One of the donkeys started hee-hawing.  One of the kids hissed at me.  So I climbed back in the car and told Andy we might ought to get a move on.  Then we went back to sleep, using the tapping at the windows for meditative purposes.

Anyways, whenever we all got up we finally found the right road and started our journey to the mountains.  Along the way we stopped at the base of a giant lake near Toktogul and basically found the Barton Springs of Kyrgyzstan.  Cold river water running past nice rock shores, so we swam and were wet for the first time in 4 days.  Competely awesome…worth every baby leech we had to pick off.

We made our way into the mountains and discovered what has to be one of the most pristine, gorgeous lands in the world.  Rolling green mountainsides with nomad yurts and animals scattered all throughout…a sky so big it felt like another planet…cool winds for the first time in weeks…a clear sunset at our backs…

It’s my biggest regret we didn’t have time to stop.  I can’t describe the feeling of peace and tranquility in that countryside, it left us all so moved we almost said “Hell with it” and camped there.  Had to keep moving though…

We made our way back down the mountains through old Soviet tunnels and winding roads and more psychotic Central-Asian mountain drivers and on to Bishkek.  We got pulled over by some locals who were having a bachelor party and talked with them for a while, then they dragged us off to a grocery-store parking lot and drank vodka with us.  Sweet.

We made it to the Kyrgyz-Kazakh border around 3am and it was like walking into a rave.  There were huge arches and roughly 800,000 people milling back and forth…apparently it’s an open border and people go to and from Bishkek and the neighboring Kazakh border town on the weekends…we were stars to say the least.  All in all though, the last 2 borders have taken a combined 2 hours with no fees and lots of help.  Eat me Turkmenbashi.

Headed north today and trying to get to Barnaul, Russia as fast as possible.  If you have a minute do some research on Kygyrzstan…it really was the most surprising gem of this entire journey, one that left us all begging to come back some day.  As with every story from this trip, we only have time to write the most essential details, so ask us about it when you see us.

Also, be sure to scroll down a couple posts…we got hold of Andy’s Turkey recap and posted retroactively.  That, and keep puttin up awesome folks.

Skip, out. (SkipLizard Homepage)

P.S.  They wrote about us in the main Turkmenistan newspaper.  No names or anything, but I’m not sure what level of celebrity that puts us at…here’s the link…

http://www.turkmenistan.ru/?page_id=3&lang_id=en&elem_id=10725&type=event&sort=date_desc

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