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This trip, in April, 2011, was an visit to two locations in Central Asia, that we planned together with our Shanghai-based student coordinator, Scott. Our team of three went overland through Kazakhstan and arrived in Uzbekistan around the time of a famous event there, known as Asrlar-Sadosi (The Annual Festival Of Traditional Culture). Like many travelers heading to the “Stans”, we diligently studied the Lonely Planet’s must-read Thorn Tree travel forum on Central Asia. Below is our daily log of an unforgettable trip.
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To bed around 2am and then up at 4:30am for last minute packing and a 5:00am airport trip.
Taking a 7:40am flight, the route was Shenzhen – LanZhou – Urumqi
The view coming into LanZhou was strikingly different from what I was used to, with a dry brown hilly landscape extending as far as you could see – which was not very far due to haze caused by dust and sand particles.
A friend in Shenzhen, who comes from the north of China, was amused that I didn’t realize that low visibility was the norm in some areas in China – he mentioned that in some locations and weather conditions visibility can go as low as just a few metres.
Arriving in Urumqi, despite reduced visibility, there was a range of beautiful snow-capped peaks in view. The immediate goal was to purchase Urumqi-Almaty bus tickets for the next day. After that it was time to enjoy the local food and stock up on nuts and dates for the trip – all readily available at cheap prices.
By evening our team of three was together, after Scott arrived on a late afternoon flight, and we spent the night at a very comfortable reasonably-priced hotel by the name of “Home Inn”.
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After a slower morning, we made our way in the afternoon to the overnight Urumqi-Almaty bus.
Getting ready to board
The wide aisle between the beds was great
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Arriving early at the China-Kazakhstan border town of Korgos, we had to wait on the Chinese side till after 8am before continuing our journey. There was a restaurant and wood-fire heated hot water outside for washing. And halfway across we got a clear view of the snow-capped peaks of the Tian Shan Mountains.
By the way, halfway is where we spent a long time due to a delay to do with the bus’s paperwork. We learned two things: (1) Our fellow passengers were really patient; and (2) We needed to be patient too. Sure enough, later everything was fine and we left in the afternoon across the fairly flat countryside of that part of Kazakhstan.
Around sunset we stopped for some yummy Kazak food for dinner. The choices of meat may include horse and of course the menu will be in Russian. You WILL need a Russian phrasebook here. We learned “speciba” (unofficial phonetic spelling of Russian for “thank you”) pretty quick and progressed from there. Arrival in Alamty was pretty late around 11pm after which we headed to the simple but convenient apartment we had booked.
Dinner stop
Late arrival around midnight
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First impressions of Amaty: Very clean, tidy, modern, with tree-lines streets everywhere and a beautiful view of snow-capped peaks to the south.
Morning activity: A drive around town with our hosts and a trip to the supermarket to stock up on food. We ate at our apartment mostly as eating out was not that cheap.
Downstairs outside our apartment
Tree-lined streets
Well-stocked supermarket
Afternoon: We headed to a park and look-out area to get a view of both the city and the mountains.
Passing a mosque en route
Walk to summit
The city below flanked by the Tian Shan Mountains
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