Issyk-Kul to Taldykorgan

Monday August 5th

Stefano had been in search of a Lenin statue to photograph for the Vanity Fair article he and Pietro are working on about our adventure. Our drive out of town from Lake Issyk-Kul to Almaty on Saturday had us pass this magnificent example, which, with a perfectly parked bus, and 2 co-conspirators (Don & Caroline) up on top – made for great fun! Especially once we noticed a police offer had emerged out of the government building behind us, standing in the doorway with his hands on his hips! Whoops – RUN AWAY, RUN AWAY.

(We later discovered that Sarah’s tweet of her photo had been picked up and had made it onto Kyrgyzstan TV later that night!! )

On the road back to the Kazakhstan border:

With no warrants out for our arrest (mocking of an historical figure in public…?) our quick & clean getaway was complete and we were sad to bid Kyrgyzstan adieu. In fact, we were having so much fun chatting with the Kyrgyzstan border guards while they signed our bus, we hadn’t even noticed our passports had been stamped until an official asked us to “move along”.

Back in Kazakhstan, the crush of locals passing between the 2 countries surprised us and was the most folks we’d seen in awhile (and certainly at any border crossing to date). With Don and the bus escaping mostly unscathed from what Will and Tommy had named “The Customs Dungeon” we were on our way to our swanky Holiday Inn in Almaty. (yep, in Kazakhstan!)

When we arrived at the gate to the hotel, the guard took one look at us and the bus, and we were sure he was uttering under his breathe …”None Shall Pass”! But thanks to Sarah’s “La De Dah” elite status and her use of points for our block of rooms, he was forced to call the manager who acquiesced to our request – WHOO HOO!! With access granted, hot showers and cold beer were once again top priorities after our days of camping.

Sarita’s all night editing session and unsuccessful media file uploads to The Adventurists had broken the hotel’s internet! LOL! 🙂 The wi-fi came back on just before we departed at noon, and we were all busy trying to get off one last blog or facebook post before beginning our multi day trek across Eastern Kaz as we headed off in search of the Russian border.

A short drive out of town is where we discovered where all the Kaz locales go on a sunday afternoon: Lake Kapshagay – a large reservoir, with its beach chairs, umbrellas, and water park truly looked like an oasis in the desert!

The afternoon was spent driving through some beautiful countryside dotted with small farming towns. The light that fell across the vast wide open plains was a feast for the eyes. Big white puffy clouds cast their long shadows over the green rolling grasslands, an endless bright blue sky and mountains in the distance

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The occasional passing semi with Military tanks loaded on their flat beds though was a quick reminder as to where we really were.

I watched another stunning sunset in the distance from the bus window. This one lit up all the surrounding clouds in magnificent orange with shafts of light streaming outward.

Time to find a place to camp. We all quickly vetoed the first potential site while we, comfortably sitting INSIDE the bus, watched Sarita take one for the team while checking out the off road conditions for the bus. Flailing her arms about like an epileptic in the midst of a terrible seizure, she furiously swatted away at the hungry mosquitos Yeah, not for us. We continued on til near dark and following on in our apparent theme, Sarita and Pietro navigated our way to another fabulous roadside landfill, I mean campsite, around 9pm.

Come morning, our landfill campsite, was not as bad as we’d imagined the night before. Trash aside, the very early morning light on the grasses and nearby hills was really quite beautiful, to me.