Posts

Feaured Post

About castle valleys and drowned trees

Image
Following the exploration of Altyn Emel National Park, we were set to discover the remaining natural wonders that the south-east of Kazakhstan still had to offer. With our Russian driver Boris navigating the 4WD van over the (off)-roads while cracking jokes, we spent many shaking hours in the car, as Kazakhstan is a massive country. For the final three days in the 'nature themed' part of our trip, we had on our schedule visits to: Charyn Canyon, Kolsai lakes and Kaindy lake. Gaukhar had arranged a guesthouse for us to stay in, once again a very simple home and home cooked food: delicious manti, salty meat dumplings. There, we met an older Swiss couple again that had been following the same route as us for the past two days, and who had refused an even more rudimentary guesthouse that only had an outhouse (schijthuis). The place we stayed at had a real toilet at least, but no shower. We had to make due with a wood-burned banya (Russian sauna) for 500 Tenge per person.  And beli
Post a Comment
Read more

Exploring Kazakhstan...Almaty and Altyn Emel NP

Image
  Beautiful poppy fields of Kazakhstan     Before we head over to the second country we are visiting during our silk road trip, let's talk Uzbeks first. Neither of us had ever been to Central Asia, and for me (Bart) it was the first time visiting a mostly Muslim country, so I didn't really know what to expect. We prepared by bringing long sleeved clothes (for Mosque visits) and saying we are married, but none of this seemed necessary. Most people practice Islam, but fairly loosely, and most importantly, they take the important parts of the religion and don't linger on the stupid, little, aged details. Barely any women covered their heads in scarfs, especially in the cities, and we could enter mosques without problem. But above all, we found that people in Uzbekistan are very warm, generous and inviting, often offering food or help. They were interested in these two funny looking, white (one more than the other) tourists and even if they didn't speak Englis
Post a Comment
Read more

Stunning Samarkand

Image
Following our adventures in the more desolate, rural parts of Uzbekistan, cut off from wifi and with it, the rest of the world, we arrived in the country's 3rd largest city, Samarkand. Immediately it became clear that in some ways, it was a mix of the two previous cities we'd visited, it had the size and more modern feel of Tashkent with its wide boulevards and green parks, but also the rich history and beautiful old monuments that you find in Bukhara. One man is solely responsible for Samarkands development and its multitude of impressive monuments and unsurprisingly you find his name all over this city (and the rest of the country) and that is Amir Timur, also known as Tamerlane. Perhaps not so well known to us clueless westerners, he managed to do in the 14th century what Alexander the Great and Genghis Khan did before him: conquer pretty much anyone he ran into. Around a century after Genghis Khan, Timur used his legendary strength and genius tactics on the battlefield to p
Post a Comment
Read more