Kazakhstan General Tips by filipdebont

Fondest Memory: We drove with our bus from Tashkent to the Kazakstan border. There was a long line of cars, busses and trucks that were also waiting to cross the border. As soon as we stopped with our bus, a number of young guys appeared with all sorts of carriages, to transport our luggage.
After 15 minutes our guide decided, that we needed to start walking towards the border. After saying goodbye to our Uzbekistan driver and guide, we did hire some young locals to transport our heavy luggage across the border.
It took ½ hour to cross the Uzbekistan border, so that was quick, but we wanted to enter Kazakstan. The Kazakstan border officials were not very helpful; they are still working along the old tradition (read the long and slow bureaucratic way as they used to do during Sovjetregime. They wanted us to fill in a Russian form in Russian; no one of our group did speak or write enough Russian to understand what it was all about. Thank god there was our Kazakstan guide Mss Rebibi, she filled in all our forms. We had to stand in full sun for more then 2 hours, best was that everyone had plenty of water, because it was terribly hot. So after passing some checkpoints, we finally arrived in Kazakstan (crossing time Kazakhstan border: 2 ½ hours so total time for travelling from Uzbekistan to Kazakstan: 3 hours. And our guide told us that a waiting time of 4 à 5 hours isn’t unusual.
On the picture you see our group walking across the border from Uzbekistan to Kazakstan.

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Fondest Memory: This hike along the rim wasn't difficult at all, the more time we had to admire the environment which was so unspoiled. However the guys who went down, they had a tough climb back, also because of the heat, there was almost no wind. But they all managed to get back without damage, thanks to their superb condition. They all had taken plenty of water with them, and that was necessary.

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Fondest Memory: You must admit that this scenery looks great. Yes I know it is not so overwhelming as the Grand Canyon or the Fish River Canyon in Namibia, but any way we had a good time in that region. I think it is not because you have seen the Niagara waterfalls or Victoria falls that you can't enjoy the view of some smaller falls.

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Fondest Memory: First thing we saw after we entered this huge country was a friendly man welcoming us on a big billboard, we had a little discussion in our group about whom that man was, we ended the discussion by presuming it was the Kazakstan president. Further on we saw billboards that showed Kazakstan’s natural heritage and scenery. The texts were again in some sort of Cyrillic writing, so we could not read it (again).

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Fondest Memory: On the way to Chimkent we saw some Kazakhstan cowboys leading a herd of cows, we stopped immediately for some photos of the cowboy-scene.
A bit later there also stopped a red Lada, a drunken man came out of the car, and he begun to annoy some of our travel companions. Wisely we tried to ignore him and went all back in the bus. But it was not enough for him; he also wanted to enter. Finally we could travel on, but he kept following us for sometime. And then he disappeared. But can you imagine what would happen if you travel on your own, and some drunken men come to annoy you, well it surely isn't a pleasant thought.

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Fondest Memory: As we travelled further on the scenery changed all the time and became more and more hilly.

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Fondest Memory: Oooochh and Waaawwww : the first sounds that were heard in our bus when the first snowy mountains appeared. We were all happy like little children.

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Fondest Memory: We spent the night in a little village at about 1000-m altitude. We stayed in a guesthouse, the friendly Kazach family had changed their entire house into a guesthouse with lovely bedrooms and two dining rooms, and the food they served was delicious. It was a good place to enter the Aksu Djabagly National Park that was our journey for the next day.
After diner the man in the house showed us his collection of photo albums, he was a good amateur photographer. He had so many beautiful pictures of local birds and all kinds of little animals. But I loved his winter shots of the scenery in the National Park the most; there was so much snow.

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Fondest Memory: The next morning we wanted to visit the National Park Aksu Djabagly. This Park has magnificent intact woods, mountain meadows and glaciers. The hills and mountains form the beginning of a complex of mountains that goes as far as the Himalaya. On the higher altitudes of this park you can even see snowleopards (we did not see them). After breakfast we go outside for the departure to the National Park, what a surprise, we did not go with our regular bus, no, no, there was a small old vehicle waiting for us.
This bus was old but still very strong. And was good because the gravel roads were very steep. After a 2-hour climb we arrived at an altitude of 1800 m, from here we could start our hike.

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Fondest Memory: Everybody was happy, the sun was shining and the scenery was magnificent. We split up in two groups, the first group (the ones with the better condition) would descend into the canyon, towards the river and then climb out of the canyon again. The second group would hike along the rim of the canyon. I joined the second group.

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