Turkestan - Kazakhstan

With flatness, wind, dodgy policemen, lack of running water, and national architecture the Kazakh adventure continues as the intrepid four travel on towards Uzbekistan.




Steve Dew-Jones:

Ah squat toilet, we meet again. Hotel Sabina should be praised for its lowly prices and thus I suppose that one should not be so surprised with the lack of, say, running water or a toilet seat.

Despite our rudimentary quarters, this remains a progression from last night’s camp somewhere near Qyzylorda, during which I failed to sleep very much as a result of the gale force winds that sent the tent canvas flapping into our faces throughout. Kazakhstan is really rather flat, you see, and the lack of anything to act as a wind-buffer seems only to encourage its propulsion.

Tomorrow we will be leaving KZ behind and making for another of the ‘stans, Uzbekistan. Apparently it’s quite similar, which doesn’t surprise me given that it was also formerly part of the Soviet Union. Those Russians don’t seem to have much architectural imagination. Come to think of it, they don’t appear to have much gastronomic imagination either. There was me thinking that we might get a break from the daily diet of shashlik and hleb (kebabs and bread), but Tashkent is likely to be just the same.

I’ll miss Kazakhstan after this, my second visit, but I can’t really explain why. Perhaps it is its oddities that give the place a certain charm, and I do like the fact that the country is painted solely with the colours from the national flag. Never before has one seen a country with so many turquoise walls. Hotel Sabina is no exception.


Jo Dew-Jones:

In our last couple of hours' drive in Kazakhstan, the landscape has altered entirely. There is a range of snowy mountains on the horizon, the fields are lush and rolling and we have encountered farming. It is really rather attractive.

Alas, we have had our first bad experience with a policeman. He seemed to want some kind of extra document for the car which we neither have nor need; after private 'conversations' with Steve and Bryn he refused to return Steve's driving license, and in the ensuing half hour negotiations attempted to accuse us of speeding (impossible - there was heavy traffic), not being authorised to have magnetic stickers on the car, and possibly having too dirty a vehicle. Maybe so! But none of those were legit, and it took Sophie making a very thorough note of the policeman and incident details to emphasise that we were no push-overs, and would not be conned. License in hand (in exchange for aforementioned particulars ripped up) we are on our way.