Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan - April 2017

I arrived in Almaty, Kazakhstan on Monday (10 April) afternoon after a short 2 hr Air Astana flight from Tashkent.  There were no visa requirement to enter Kazakhstan and the whole entry process was quite efficient.  I stepped out into the arrivals area and immediately was set upon by taxi drivers.  I tried to fend them off but one of them was persistent and offered to take me to town for 1000 tenge (around $3).  That sounded too good to be true but he was persistent.  I confirmed the price and agreed to go with him.  When we left the airport things changed and it became 1000 tenge per kilometer.  When I understood this I got quite irate and demanded he take me back to the airport.  I even opened the door at a traffic light so he couldn’t proceed.  We argued and we settled at 5000 tenge which is about what it should be.  I just hate it when taxi drivers try to take advantage of people like that.  It leaves a bad taste in your mouth about the entire country.

Zhibek Zholy, Almaty

Almaty looked a little shabby and scruffy, like it had just emerged from under the winter snows - which it probably had.  I stayed at a modest hotel, the Hotel Kazzhol, near the center of town.  In the evening I took a walk around the hotel.  There is a street called Zhibek Zholy which is modeled on the Arbat in Moscow - a pedestrian street with restaurants and bars and street vendors.  Pleasant enough but it wasn't the Arbat and as I said everything was a little shabby.  

Zaliskay Alatau Mountains, Almaty

The next morning (Tuesday 11 April) I awoke to clear skies and a nice view of the mountains from my hotel room window.  They are the Zailiskay Alatau mountains and they looked impressive.  By 10:00 am however they were hidden in haze.

Zinkilov Cathedral, Panfilov Park, Almaty

Almaty itself is not that impressive.  It looks very Soviet with lots of drab and dreary blocks of flats.  I headed off to see the limited sights that the city had to offer.  There was the Arbat Street again and then Gogol Street to the Panfilov Park.  In the park there is the colorful Zinkilov Cathedral, a very picturesque Orthodox Cathedral one of the few Tsarist era buildings left in the city.  Adjacent to the cathedral was the war memorial to the fallen of the Civil War and World War II.  As is often the case in Soviet countries, the memorial itself is quite fearsome and foreboding.

War Memorial, Panfilov Park, Almaty

I stumble upon the Green Market (or Kok Bazaar) which is a huge market selling all manner of produce and paraphernalia.

Meat stall, Green Market

Nearby the market is the Central Mosque - a fairly impressive though quite modern building by Almaty standards.  The other site to see in the city is the view from the top of the adjacent hill, Kok Tobe.  It is served by a cable car which alas on this day was closed for “prophylactic repairs” to the cable.  It is quite the trek to the top by car or bus so I give that one a miss.

Almaty, Near Republic Square

In the afternoon I headed back out to the airport for my flight to Bishkek.  I only spent 24 hours in Almaty but to be honest that was enough to get the flavor of the place and really it doesn’t have a lot to offer.  A drab Soviet city with little evidence of its Tsarist or pre-Tsarist past.

The flight to Bishkek was short, an hour or so, and the entry into Kyrgyzstan was easy.  No visa requirement, just a quick review of the passport, a stamp and “welcome to Kyrgyzstan”.  I got some money from an ATM at the airport ($1 = 60 Kyrgyzstan Som) and got a taxi into town.  Again there were no meters in what was supposed to be an “official taxi and the price was 1000 som instead of what I found should be a 600 or 700 Som trip.  The airport in Bishkek is a long way out of town (over 30 km) but the road is good and we are soon in the congestion of Bishkek rush hour.  My hotel for the night is the Hotel Solutel, a modern hotel down a side alley.  

Manas the Great, Bishkek

The next morning (Wednesday, 12 April) I walk over to the center of Bishkek.  I had to locate my travel agent (Advantour) and pay for my driver out of Kyrgyzstan into China.  I paid the travel agent $490 in cash and she assured me that someone would pick me up in Osh on Friday morning and drive me to the border.  On the Chinese side of the border someone else would be waiting to take me to Kashgar.  It is a 500 km trip over rugged terrain (on the Kyrgyzstan side at least) so $490 might be a reasonable price.

Lenin, Bishkek

After completing that transaction I had the rest of the morning to explore Bishkek.  The main center of town is not that big and it had a nice feel to it.  Plenty of parks and avenues of trees.  I think I covered all the sights in the guide book in a couple of hours - the Lenin statue, the statue of Manas the Great (another Tamerlane type figure), Ala Too Square, Panfilov Park. a few museums (none of which I went into).  

Park, Bishkek

After exploring the city, I made my way back to the hotel for lunch and then took a taxi to the airport for my flight to Osh in southern Kyrgyzstan.  It was about an hour’s flight on a beat up old 737 with Air Manas.  Manas is the airport for Bishkek and it was once the main exit point for US troops coming out of Afghanistan.

Arriving in Osh, I was surprised to see someone from my hotel/guest house waiting to pick me up.  That made getting into town easy and I realized that I would have struggled without someone to meet me.  The Guest House I was staying in was in a back street that had no name and the house had no number or sign - nothing to identify it as a Guest House.  The guest house was named the Guest House VIP and I had a flat above the owner Raffi's main house.  It wasn’t luxury but for $15 per night what can you expect and I didn’t see any better places that I would have wanted to stay at in Osh.  It’s not a big town.

In the evening I go to a restaurant recommended in the Lonely Planet guide and have an order of kebabs - beef, lamb and duck meat.  They were pretty inedible.

Suleman Too, Osh

On the way back home I stop into a little shop to buy some snacks for the night and to my surprise they put my stuff in a Morrison’s plastic bag (Morrison's is a UK supermarket chain).  Apparently when Morrison's changed their logo some time ago, they sold off all their old bags to Kyrgyzstan where they are still in use today.  

Osh Street Scene

In the night it started to rain and it got windy. With a tin roof on the house it sounded really bad.  In the morning it finally calmed down a little so I went off to see what the town had to offer.  As I leave the power in the area goes out.  I walk through town on Lenin Street out to the square where there is a large Kyrgyzstan flag flying, a government building and a statue of Lenin pointing the way forward.  It's interesting that Kyrgyzstan is one of the few places that still has Lenin statues.  I did not see them elsewhere.

Lenin Statue, Osh

Next to the square is a war memorial.  Typical Soviet style - a bit fearsome.  Adjacent to it were half a dozen busts of presumably war heroes.  As I took a picture of the scene a policeman appeared and asked me what I am doing.  He insisted that I delete the picture from my camera.  He is joined by more police and plain clothes officials and they want to see my passport which was conveniently back in my room.  I showed them my driver’s license and they want to keep it so we get into a tugging match over it - me pulling on one side and the policeman tugging on the other side.  I won and I put my license safely in my wallet.  They don’t let up though and they insist they want my passport so I tell them let’s go to the Guest House.  They don’t want to do that so we are at an impasse.  Then one of them gets someone who can speak English on the telephone and I tell her my story and she translates.  That still doesn’t make any difference.  Then I remember I have a picture of my passport on my phone so I show them that image.  Finally that seems to calm them down and they let me go. What a fuss.

Back at the Guest House, there is still no power and what is now worse, the water supply has been shut off.  Apparently when it is stormy, the river that supplies water to the town gets a lot of sediment in it and they shut off the water to the town to avoid contamination.

Osh Bazaar

I walk to the south side of town to the Osh Bazaar.  It is quite a large market constructed from old shipping containers that are laid beside each other and modified to make small individual stalls.  Quite ingenious.

Osh Bazaar

In the late afternoon, the weather brightened and I climbed up the large rocky outcrop that sits above the town.  The rock is called Suleman Too and it has a small mosque on the top.  Apparently the Prophet Mohammed might have prayed their once upon a time so it is quite the revered site.  There was a good view of the town from the top.

View from Suleman Too, Osh

In the evening there still was no water or light in my room so I washed from a very cold jug of water.  Finally just as I go to bed the water and power came back on again.

Next morning the driver I had arranged for in Bishkek promptly picks me up at 6:00 am.  I bid farewell to my most gracious and apologetic host, Raffi, and my driver, Mohammed, and I set off for the Chinese border.

Horses on road from Osh to Kashgar

Sheep on road from Osh to Kashgar

Everything went well for the first couple of hours.  There was the occasional flock of sheep, horses, or yaks wandering across the road but nothing to hold us up.  Then as we started to climb conditions worsened until snow eventually covered the road and our progress was slow.  We crept over a pass of around 13,000 ft and then dropped down the other side where thankfully the road conditions got better.  We arrived in the town of Sary Tas where the road forks to the right for Tajikistan and to the left for China.  We headed east to China and for a while all was well until again we started to climb.  The weather was quite fine with clear blue skies but there was a lot of blowing snow and again our progress was slow.  I was getting a bit worried that my driver at the Chinese border would give up and go home, leaving me stranded.  

We climbed higher until the road became a single track through banks of snow. Then we encountered a truck coming the other way that was stuck in a snow bank and we couldn't proceed.  Things did not look good - the Army were there trying to move the truck out of the way but they were all a bit amateurish and the truck was going nowhere.

Worsening Snow Conditions

Stranded Truck blocking the road

I started to wonder about alternate plans - returning to Osh and fly to China was always an option but then vehicles came in line behind us and we couldn’t really turn around.  My driver tried to pass me off to the Army and have them take me to the border but they wouldn’t have anything to do with it.

Finally a Caterpillar tractor arrived on the scene and he pushed the stranded truck out the way.  We then had to wait another hour while the tractor helped a series of trucks that were coming towards us move on through.  At about 1:00 pm we finally got moving again.  I had arranged to meet my driver at the Chinese border at 11:00 am and we were still a long way away from China.  

Kyrgyzstan Border Checkpoint

We made good progress for a while and then about 20 km from the border there was a military post and a gate across the road.  The soldiers kept us waiting and waiting and didn’t seem at all helpful (the border is closed until 2:00 pm they said).  Finally at 2 o'clock they looked at my passport and gave me the go ahead to proceed but my driver’s papers apparently were not in order and they wouldn’t let him pass.  I began to think I would never make it to China.

Somehow my driver managed to arrange with a ride to the border with a Chinese truck driver so I was loaded into the cab of his truck.  We sped along for the remaining 20 km to the main Kyrgyzstan border control.  I left the truck and proceeded on foot to the customs station.  They were closed until 3:00 pm, so yet more waiting.

Loading me onto the truck to the border

Finally I was free to proceed and I use my last 10 Som to get what I thought was a ride across no-mans-land to the Chinese side of the border post.  They only took me a couple of kilometers and then dumped me at another border post where I had to walk another kilometer or so to the Chinese border gate.  At the gate there were two very young Chinese soldiers with very bad teeth who unchained the gate and let me in.  This border gate is in the middle of nowhere so the soldiers arrange for the next truck driver that comes through to take me to the main Customs Hall which is a few kilometers down the road.

Walking across the border to China

After my second truck ride of the day I arrive at the main Customs Hall. Very modern, very large, and as far as I was the only customer. It was now 4:00 pm and to my delight I found my driver and his English speaking colleague still waiting some 5 hrs after I was supposed to be there.  That was a huge relief and I sank into the back seat of their car for the 250 km ride to Kashgar.

More photos of the trip in Kazakhstan are here and in Kyrgyzstan are here.