About castle valleys and drowned trees
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