Exploring Kazakhstan...Almaty and Altyn Emel NP
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| 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 English, they'd still come and have a chat with us.
So far, Kazakhstan doesn't seem much different. In the few hours we spent in a cafe in Shymkent waiting on our train, Maria got a free salad from a dude whose English was limited to 'no English sorry', we got free home baked goods and a life story in Russian from an Uzbek/Kazakh lady and an older beer drinking guy offered to pay for our drinks. Great!
We spent a chill day in the large city of Almaty (1.4 mln) in the south-east of the massive country of Kazakhstan. The capital until 1997, most older (Soviet) buildings and institutes and libraries etc are located here, and we did a little sightseeing. The city is noticeably a lot more 'western' then it's Uzbek counterparts (Western style cafes, more ethnic food restaurants) and also it's inhabitants are more a mix of Kazakhs, lots of Russians and foreigners. The huge, snow-capped mountains to the south tower over the city in a neverending manner that I can't help but find impressive, and it reminds me a little bit of LA or Munich.
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| Almaty is at the foothill of the Zailiyskiy Alatau mountains, seen here from our room at Sky Hostel |
Last but not least, they drink more beer here, which means it's available, cheap, and varied! Later we met our lovely guide Gaukhar who will show us all the beautiful places in the area in the next 5 days, starting things off with some background info on Almaty and Kazakhstan. Her English is good, she's from Almaty but has traveled around the world and is talkative and funny, so it left us excited for the coming days.
Where Uzbekistan was the part of our trip where we soaked up (and nearly drowned in) a ton of culture and silk road history, from now on we'll be seeing more of beautiful mother nature. First stop: Altyn Emel National Park. About a 5 hour drive from Almaty, it consists mostly of a ginormous plain, with mountains pretty much all around in the distant horizon. The plain changes between dry dirt with some shrubbery to more lush green grass and some trees, but mostly it's flat as far as the eye can see. Interrupted only by some 'roads' that can really only be conquered by 4 wheel drives and a tiny village here and there, the land is used by Kazakhstan's famous horses to graze on, as well as Saiga antelopes and the wild Przewalski horses. The park is so large and badly marked, that you're obligated to bring (and pay for) a guard in your car, who tells you where you can go and waits when you do your sightseeing, watching a movie on his phone or so. The beautiful thing about this park is that it houses a number of peculiar but astonishing showpieces of nature, that seemed to have randomly dropped out of the sky on this huge plain. The freaks of nature we visited in Altyn Emel: the Singing Dune, the colorful Ak-Tau mountains, the volcanic Katu-Tau rocks and a 700 year old willow. I'll let the pictures do the talking, enjoy!
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The famous Singing Dune that rises up to 150m from the dry land is created by strong winds carrying sand exactly to this spot
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