Just good
Okay, I'm back in a good mood. People aren't awful. It's just a small minority. And they all live in Kyrgyzstan. No, stop. I won't go back to that again. Sorry.
Upon leaving my least favourite country beginning with K we entered what is now my favourite country beginning with K; Kazakhstan. So maybe I've only ever been to those two countries which begin with the letter K, but still Kenya, Kuwait, Kosovo, or Kiribati are going to have a tough job topping Kazakhstan.
Most people in England probably know Kazakhstan almost entirely based on Borat, if you haven't watched it I would fully advise you too, but arriving in its former Capital city, Almaty, it was far from the backwards inbred country this depicts. In fact, Almaty was the most cosmopolitan city we have been too since Tblisi in Georgia and has a distinct European feel to it. We were a little bit late arriving to experience this on our first night though, turning up to a hostel at gone 10pm. After being welcomed by possibly the bounciest hostel owner I've ever seen, we dropped our stuff off and headed out to try and get some food quickly. In another fantastically lucky moment we found the "Food Park", a large outdoor Restaurant/Bar which, although definitely halfway through cleaning down and cashing up, agreed to do us a pizza each and some beers.
'They even brought blankets when it got cold'
The next day we were slow to get up as a proper bed is always a treat, and we had various things to look up whilst we had a bit of wifi. We headed out for some lunch though and this is when it really struck us how European a city it is. With the temperature at around 25 degrees, and with the terraces of endless cafes and bars spilling out onto the pavements we could easily have been in Berlin, Budapest, or Brussels. Stopping at one such cafe, which Lonely Planet had recommended, we had a great lunch.
Feeling full we headed off to find a cash point which allowed you to withdraw dollars; which some of the lads had run out of. As ever this was hard, and seeing us wandering round looking like headless chickens a local guy took pity on us and asked if he could help. Happy to accept we followed him and introducing himself as Quat he told us how he had studied in England; hence the very good English. Showing us a few sights on the way he found us a suitable cashpoint and gave us his number in case we ran into any trouble and needed help translating etc. Walking back to our cars, still parked by the hostel, ready to drive off we couldn't help but feel like we hadn't seen as much of Almaty as we would like. Luckily, as ever, we had no firm plans. So back into the hostel we went, checked in for another night, and then walked up the hill to watch the sun setting over the city. Heading back down into the city for some food we text Quat asking if he wanted to come join us. He had already eaten but came and joined us for a few drinks afterwards.
'Apparently made entirely out of wood and without nails'
The next day we left Almaty, driving East towards China; a detour to the direct route planned to go and see the Charyn Canyon. Often known as the Grand Canyon's little brother it is much smaller but often described as just as impressive because of its particular rock formations. Sadly we were told in no uncertain terms by the man staffing the gate that we were not allowed to drive down into the canyon itself, so we settled for walking down after lunch.
'Spot the tourists'
For the last few days we have been pretty much driving straight North across Kazakhstan headed for Russia. There's not really that much to say about all this even though we have covered a huge distance. The roads are pretty average and the sheer extent of everything is hard to comprehend. For the large part Kazakhstan is just extremely empty. Car wars has continued to escalate though with more and more apple cores and banana skins being launched between the cars. At its height so far this involved us racing off ahead far enough to turn around unnoticed, and leave Two and a Half Men with nowhere to go to dodge an extremely mouldy banana. Despite the lack of any sights so to speak of we have thoroughly enjoyed ourselves, making the most of the ample time we've had by stopping early to camp and generally taking a relaxed approach to the rally.
'As close as we have come to a full English'
Today we got to Semey in the very North of the country. Again having loads of time we decided to search out a cafe for a coffee and a bit of wifi to plan the next few days out a bit better. We luckily got chatting to another friendly bloke who told us he'd show us a cafe he knew. Unsure what to expect we started following him but were straight away interrupted when I get stopped for not having my lights on. This is actually a law in Kazakhstan and we'd been sticking to it all the way through, in classic fashion though one of the only times I'd forgotten to turn them on straight away was the one where the police were just around the corner. Confusing him with a paper counterpart license, and playing stupid as if I didn't understand anything he was saying other than what I'd done wrong, thankfully worked here and he sent me on my way after a while. Finally getting to the cafe we were amazed by how nice the place was and all opted for large slices of cake to go with our drinks. We are now camping between Semey and the border ready to head to Russia first thing tomorrow.
