(Kazakhstan) I am going to miss horses on the endless filed

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I was so excited to enter into Kazakhstan which was larger than Western Europe and 9th largest land in the world.

 

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But my excitement was erased by the snow with the strong headwind. I could not see the front clearly and my clothes and bags were covered by the snow.

 

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I reached a small village after fighting against the snow.

 

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I was cycling slowly to look around the village and saw some family around their garage. I asked for pitching my tent at the inside. Then they invited me into the house. The dinner was quite big portion with a warm tea.

 

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The calm morning was starting and the road was busy with children going to school. Their clothes were very bright in the white and dark village.

 

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It was very quiet morning on the way I got out of the village.

 

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Nomad leading sheep greeted at me kindly and two sheepdogs were following them.

 

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Nomad was so friendly that they even let me try to ride a horse. The one thing I really liked about Central Asia was I could get a chance to ride a horse sometimes. Also, it was very cheap and easy to hire a horse for hiking because there were everywhere horses.

 

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I always so felt so peaceful and calm whenever I saw a horse on the field because it looked so free.

 

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Nomad’s yurt was covered by the snow on the field far from the road.

 

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I had to dress warmly because it was very cold. I wore long sleeve, winter jacket, long pants, and long waterproof pants. Just started cycling in the morning, I had to wear a red waterproof jacket as well. These waterproof pants and jacket were really good to keep the heat from the body. But as more I cycled, I took off the clothes one by one.Β  The only problem was to keep the heat on fingers and toes. I bought cheap winter gloves. But it was small that the glove didn’t help to keep the heat much. I would buy winter gears when I get to China.

 

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There was one big hill from the morning that it helped me to stay warm cause I burned lots of energy.

 

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After the hill, I cycled between valleys. I always enjoyed cycling on this kind of road, for curves were always fun. I could not guess what kind of scenery I would see after the curve so I always got surprised by a new scenery after turning on the curve.

 

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After the valley, there was endlessly field. I found some old building made of sand. It was similar to what I saw in Sudan or Iran.

 

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I left my bicycle on the road and walked into deep inside the field to check how it looked like.

 

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There were some patterns. I could not know why it was made and when it was built as there was no any explanation around.

 

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As I was about to go back, the scenery of my bicycle on the wide field looked so beautiful.

 

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I faced camels suddenly in the middle of nowhere. I didn’t see real camels though. I thought maybe there were camels around.

 

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Arriving in a small town, I was having very strong wind. I thought there was the storm coming. But later, it became calm.

 

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I asked a few people to look for a bank and then I took some money from ATM.

 

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I didn’t want to go out once I get an accommodation. So I bought the food before finding a hotel. I must say Shashlik, a meat bbq on a metalΒ skewer, was fantastic tasty in Central Asia. All of the meat on the pictureΒ cost less than $2. After I got the food, I checked a few different hotels. I chose the hotel which had a room for $8 shared bathroom. During the night, I was wakened up with sweat as the heater was too strong. So, I had to open the window. I was curious that Kazakhstan was like Russia which must be very hot inside of house always. When I was in a Russian house in Russia, I had to wear summer clothes because of a very hot heater, which was good.

 

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At the next morning, I found a nice road under the construction that there were only few cars. Later I was afraid that the road is not connected to the main road. I asked the road construction worker and he told me there would be no problem to reach my destination on this road.

 

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Sometimes beautiful nature stayed with me for a while as like a best friend while cycling.

 

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I wanted to arrive at my destination before the dark. But the last part was really bad and I had to go around many times.

 

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Finally, I got to the city after the dark.

 

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I was checking a few different hotels and then I found one restaurant. I decided to have dinner first because I was starving. The food was just amazing. There were many different foods on the menu as well. I felt like Kazakhstan had many good foods. But I would stay only for short-term that I couldn’t know many things about the country.

 

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I got a bit expensive hotel for $18 with private bathroom since I stayed very cheap hotel last night.

 

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They served a lot of foods into the room in the morning. It reminded me of Uzbekistan. Whether cheap or expensive hotel, the breakfast was a lot in Uzbekistan. I really loved a big breakfast on the day I had to cycle.

Although Kazakhstan was the ninth biggest country in the world, I could move to China with three days cycling only. On the bottom of the east south in Kazakhstan, there was a border to China. I thought it was too short to know. So I decided to stay at least two more days in a small city here.

 

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Although it was a small town, there were many people and cars going around.

 

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I had Shashlik and Laghman as a lunch. Laghman was my fav food in Central Asia. Every region cooked different ways, but it never ever disappointed me.Β  One funny thing was they served the beer with the straw.

 

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On my last day, I had local beer and prepared to cross the border for the next day.

 

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Sometimes I could see a vintage vehicle and it looked just awesome.

 

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On the way to the border, there were so many corns on the road. Later I found the reason that there was a corn factory just next to the road. It seemed so many trucks kept going with corns and they dropped a lot of them on the road. I felt it was a bit of waste of corns. On the mountain area in Tajikistan, trucks droppedΒ many small coals. I always wanted to pick when trucks drop something. haha.

 

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When I arrived at the border, I heard that the border would close after the sunset. There were many people around and It was not that simple that it took the time at the immigration. I met a backpackers and he was waiting for a minivan to cross the border. I had realized that I had to go around about 8km (5mi) more because there was something between borders, which I didn’t know before. I tried to cycle so fast but there was a strong wind. I could see that the sun was about to disappear. I worried that I should set up my tent on the land between Kazakhstan and China. While cycling next to the fence, I was afraid and excited that the next country was just after this fence.

All of Asian and European cyclist I met took the train to skip western China. Only Jamy, British girl which I cycled together in Pamir, cycled all the way to South East Asia in China. I had only three months visa in China and I should cycle more than 6,000 km (3,728 mi) to South East Asia. According to the law, I could extend the visa. But still, 6,000 km sounded too much for only one country. I was not sure I could make it or maybe I would take the transportation like other cyclists. Anyway, I would try and see how it would go.

This was the time to say goodbye to Central Asia which was one of the most adventurous places on my trip. I really liked Central Asia so much. This was a very beautiful place. I would miss everything which I had in Central Asia. I sincerely thanked everything of Central Asia, which let me cycle safely. Now I needed to move to a new county, China! Yeah! But if they closed the border, I would go the next day?

 

 

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Route
Days in Kazakhstan = 6 Days
Distance of cycling in Kazakhstan = 253 km (157 mi)
Expenditure in Kazakhstan = 96$
($1=331 Tenge)


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4 Comments
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  1. I use lobster gloves and heavily insulated boots to ride during the finnish winters. As you know, they can be mighty cold 😁 To me the vietnam and area around it seems really interesting, I would also love to ride around Japan some day 😊 γƒ•γ‚‘γ‚€γƒˆοΌπŸ™

  2. Love reading about your adventures ! If you need a place to stay in a sudney, we would love you to stay with us !

  3. Kazakhstan is definitely an adventure, going by every cycle touring blog I’ve read so far!

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