Kazakhstan

We were so happy to be back in Kazakhstan. We were trying so hard to leave Uzbekistan and finally we were out. It took us almost a week. We had a very good time, met amazing people and visited beautiful places, but we knew it was time to start moving towards China to be in Himalayas in time.

We were sad that we couldn’t go to Kyrgyzstan. We met lots of cyclist who went there through Kazakhstan or Tajikistan. We could still go through Alma-Ata. There are few borders we could cross but we decided to skip it this time and go straight to China.

The border officials in Kazakhstan were nice; they were impressed about our journey and made our crossing very smooth. We got the stamp and were only one gate away from Kazakhstan. The guards by the last gates wanted us to give them some money but we told them we didn’t have anything, they smiled and let us through.

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85km till the Uzbekistan border

We woke up in the morning still feeling tired. We slowly crawled out of the tent, made breakfast and tea and took time to enjoy it. We were thinking about the train, when it passed buy. Mirko said “We just missed it.”

It was a bit cloudy so we didn’t feel like rushing. We took water from the well, packed our bikes and start the journey towards the border. The trailer was making strange sound when the wheel was rubbing against the cart. So we tried to fix it. But it didn’t make any difference.

What we should do? I asked. We were again in the similar position like the day before; just the village was now behind us some 10km. We decided to hitch to the border. The truck passed by, but it was full so we didn’t have a chance. 30 minutes passed, than an hour and there were still no cars and no trucks to be seen from either side. Continue reading