Illiquidity
Tomsk is a civilized place. Even had public johns right near Lenin’s statue, which is in the middle of downtown. It did cost 30R to use them. In my illiquid state, that seemed like a bargain. After a coupla days I carefully snuck up on a dry fart. Happy days are here again. Free advice, don’t have anything to do with raw fish.
As always wasn’t sure, when we drove into town, where to park, not to mention being able to find an open john. No problem there’s several parking lots right in the middle of where you want to be, and there were the affore mentioned facilities. No charge either. Stayed the night.
Old wooden buildings with lots of foo foo on them is the draw. Also some nice old churches. After awhile it does get a bit repetitive, but to date it was about as good as this sort of thing has gotten. Guess the Siberian rail line missed it, but it has turned into a university town.
Tomsk is real clean with flower gardens in the public squares. Lots of guys, the next morning, out picking up the trash thrown around by the night crawlers. Weed whackers and lawn mowers even. Streets we drove, were fairly smooth. Great place to visit, I give it a big recommendation. Could have stayed longer but Russian Visas are short and Russia big, so we headed out.
It’s Siberia
Next target was Omsk . Somewhat more of the same as Tomsk . First visited a partially reconstructed old Nunnery south of town. Nice setting along a river. Even has a hot springs near a little chapel, back in the trees. On the way from there to Omsk , we, as always, got stopped at a Policia check. It was pretty cold out and had started to rain. While I was ‘talking’ to the guys, I charaded that it was cold out. One of the guys shrugs his shoulders and with a smile says “It’s Siberia ”. Got a good laugh outa that one.
We camped near the river by the old town gates. King of low budget camping. Right in the middle of the old district. No problems and the day before we headed out even managed to find some water.
Our visas for Kazakhstan started on the 15th and we got to the border later in the day of the 14th so needed to hang around before midnight came. There were several things concerning me, like there was a rumor that I needed a Carnet and also Jack was told he needed an invite, in spite of internet and Kazak embassy saying I didn’t need one. Had one for Marisol, but not me.
No problem on any front. Even had insurance available at the border for only 500R for both the bike and van. Real bargain as it cost me close to 3000R for Russia . Wasn’t looking and feeling my finest as by the time we got through it was around 3:00 AM.
Internet Time
The Book of Guide mentioned a lake area, Burabay, on the way from the border to Astana, that was known as the “Kazak Switzerland”. On the way there, on horrible roads, we got stopped by some police with radar. We obviously couldn’t be speeding but we were told we didn’t have our headlights on. Kazakhstan is one of those countries where you’re supposed to turn on your headlights during the day on highways.
He was wanting money, I said give me a ticket. I never pay bribes. They had another victim in the car with them, whom I assume they were either trying to extract money from or were giving a speeding ticket. It took awhile, like maybe twenty minutes, getting around to me. Marisol was out along the highway with her beach game ball racket swatting the ball around. I was reading my book. Wanted to show them we had plenty of time.
Finally they get me in the pig car and started the old money routine again. One was making these motions like I’m going to keep your driver’s license. Before I got in, I’d written their license number and time of day and highway number on one side of a little piece of paper, and the name of Kazak’s president on the other. I said give me a ticket, but BTW I’m going to write the president on the internet about you folks hassling the tourists. Up to this point all three were doing this tough guy routine.
There was maybe a ten second delay, and all three go ballistic. All my papers were thrown back in my lap; they all start motioning me outa the pig car. They’re saying nyet nyet. Tried to ask them which lights I was supposed to have on, park on head but they just kept motioning for me to leave and saying nyet nyet. Some folks you just have to find a way to communicate with. Skumsuckers.
You probably wouldn’t mistake Burabay for Switzerland , but for this area it was pretty nice. Everything was real flat until we got to this area, then there were pine trees and lakes and rocks. Pigs were hassling us horribly going into town. Got stopped six times in maybe three miles. All had dollar signs for eyeballs, but we left them disappointed. Finally the King of Low Budget Camping found a guarded hotel parking lot right across the road from a sandy beach. Didn’t cost nothin, stayed three nights. Guess the reason the pigs were so jumpy was the president was in town for some R and R. What better vehicle for a terrorist assassin to be traveling in, than a US camper van with dirt bike on the back
Oh No!
Last day there I decided to jog around the lake. The day before I’d walked, what I thought, was a quarter of the way around, in about a half hour, so figured if I jogged twice as fast, I could circumnavigate it in maybe an hour. Parking lot guards claimed the trail went all the way around. Figuring like this can lead to problems.
Jogged for an hour and still looked like a long ways to go. Then the trail ran out and still I wasn’t back to the hotel, which I could see maybe a half mile away, over the next hill. Then I come to a fence, which had an open gate, so I go through.
Then I ran into some military looking guys, with radios. Apparently another military base. Oh no, not again! This was not looking good. The first guy gets on his radio and talks to some other folks. Finally he leads me to some taller hats. More questions, more English. We then went to some taller hats still. And then there was a police car. After the Russian experience this was definitely not looking good. Ultimately the police guy takes me back to the van, and gets all sorts of passport and visa numbers. Took maybe an hour and a half. Was expecting a lot worse.
Headed for Astana, the new Kazak capitol. We needed to register our entry with the migration police within five days and were having lots of trouble doing this. Figured we should be able to do this in Astana, as Jack did. Making a long story short, you need to get a letter from a travel agent before they’ll stamp the god damned little piece of paper, but we did get it done. What a hassle.
Next paper work issue was new Russian Visas. Took a day to get them, after paying a fortune for expedited service. Was figuring it might take a lot longer as in Ulaanbaatar it took about thirteen days, and no way to get them faster. This would have meant coming back to Astana, before going to Russia , which would mean seeing a lot less Kazakhstan . They accepted a printout of the invite and didn’t ask for an ‘original’ like I was afraid they might.
Took a day to tour some around Astana. Have to call it a Fantasy City . Incredible architecture. Suspect a google search would get you a site showing it. No power lines, must have buried them. We took a ride to the top of the monument in the middle of the new government mall area. The capitol was moved from Almaty to Astana in the late nineties, so everything’s new, and they’re still building away. A docent, in the monument, claimed it was designed by some Japanese guy. Incredible job, I’d say. Really amazing in my opinion. Beats out Brasilia even.
Headed toward Almaty. Had two credible people tell me the road was fine, and they were right. Pretty good all the way. Only one area where we were run into the ditch. Chip sealing. Another section maybe fifty or sixty miles long, before Almaty also was like the Russia border stuff, probably hadn’t been redone yet.
There’s a big lake in southern Kazak called Balkhash. You drive around the western edge going to Almaty. Looked so nice, when we stopped for a look, we stayed for a day and night. If we hadn’t run outa propane, probably would have stayed longer.
Still the biggest hassle with Kazak is the police. At another police stop one of the skumsuckers got to thinking I should make a gift of my binoculars. Said I could buy another pair in Almaty. I allowed as he could buy HIS in Almaty. This sort of thing went on for maybe twenty minutes with him threatening to write me some bogus ticket and not give back my drivers license. Started staring at his badge and more importantly its number and then mentioning writing the president about him hassling tourists. He looks over at some other worm in plain clothes and I hear the tourist word. He motions for me to leave. I sat there for awhile like I didn’t get it. He gets more insistent about me leaving. Finally I left. Worm.
So far the road report for going from Almaty to Oral, which is at the border with Russia , doesn’t sound good. A Turkish guy, with passable English we had ran into in Astana, claimed there was a pretty long stretch of pretty bad road. He should know as is a road contractor and he had driven it. While camping in a park outside of Almaty a couple of Italian guys, also with passable English said they had just driven it with a VW Jetta. So got, what I think, is a pretty reliable road information. They too said there a was a section of about 450 kms that sounded real familiar like Mongolia’s best. Mentioned the ‘S’ word, sand.
Asphalt started out real good but then it’s gotten pretty rough, mostly filled pothole kind of stuff, but at least it’s asphalt. Supposed to be some dirt coming up, where the road is so bad that you have to drive along the side in the dirt. This is where the line you pick becomes all important, did I mention the S word?
The Kazaks have treated us incredibly nice. Hard to describe how nice, if you ignore the Skumsucker Policia. Keep giving us stuff and wanting to talk, invite us into their houses. As we get into the more Muslim area, you don’t see hardly any booze bottles and no drunks. Just real gentle nice folks. They just can’t believe they have seen an American car. Drive by waving and smiling, after a complementary toot of the horn.
Decided to goferit, hence this message from Shymkent, which is on the way west, just past Taraz, both of which are west of Almaty, for those following on a map. Hey, it’s an adventure.
Till next time,
DZ
We’ve had some trouble finding a functioning internet, which is why the delay for this missive
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