DAY TWO THURSDAY OCT 1 AWAY TO ALMATY, KAZAKHSTAN – 3 STANS BECOMING 4 STANS BECAUSE TAJIKISTAN DIDN'T HAVE STICKERS.
The group is downstairs waiting for our tour leader the next morning at 8. My Canadian roommate is not going nor is London going as she already has her Tajik visa. Wales is going even though he has his Tajik visa because he hasn’t been to Kazakhstan so it will give him a new country. We will be taking my roommates passport and money and photos and hopefully will be able to get her visa along with ours. Not sure why they couldn’t just take all of our passports and money and such to get the visas but apparently they think that won’t work and since they are more familiar with the workings and politics of the area, we all agree to go
. So this was a 3 Central Asia 'Stan trip but now it’s going to be four as we are now including Kazakhstan. Luckily I didn’t need it to complete my ‘Stans". I’m only lacking Pakistan and Afghanistan and at least I will see them on this trip.
As I was getting ready to leave the room, a porter came to get my bags which I thought a bit odd but my roommate gave them to him. When I got downstairs, I didn’t see my bags so I asked where they were. Thank goodness I did. My bags had been put on the bus of another group which was getting ready to leave the hotel. I ran out to the bus and found my bags and got them off. What if I had not gone down then or checked on my bags. I hate to think where they would have ended up or how I would have managed without anything except the clothes on my back and no meds or bathroom stuff or things to read or anything. Lesson learned. Never give your bags to a porter without accompanying them with the bags. Hope my roomie learned that too since she was the one that handed them over.
BUT there is no guide and no second driver. Slava is there and says that Anatoly has gone to pick up our guide. Finally around 8:30 or 8:45, a young man rushes in the hotel and says "OK, Let’s go!” We all kind of stare at him and someone eventually says, “are you our guide?” which he replies, yes, let’s go and then we are all moving to the cars and loading our suitcases and hoping into the cars and heading out to Almaty, Kazakhstan. I think he eventually introduced himself as Jamshed, a Tajikistan from Kojund. When he was “stranded” in Osh without a plane ticket, he ended up having to take a taxi from Osh to Bishkek which is a 12 hour ride
. Not fun.
So it is a long, boring drive. It’s pretty dull and flat with not a lot of pretty countryside to see although there are sheep and horses sometimes. There are a lot of places by the roadside with honey for sale but no one sitting there – using the honor system to leave your money and take your honey. Slava does have a radar detector in his car which goes off quite frequently and he slows to make sure he does the speed limit past the cops/soldiers – they might be one in the same here, not sure. I have on my seatbelt but I was one of the few that made sure I put it on every time. I am amazed that so many tourists feel they can be safe in a strange country without a seatbelt when they wouldn’t go to the end of their driveway at home without putting it on. And believe me, a lot of tourists die every year from foreign auto accidents. We had good cause to need it in the mountains later.
Can’t remember who all is in the car with me but the other American from New York gets in the car with me and sits on the bench seat with me. Slava and Jams are in the front seat talking in Russian almost constantly with Jams turning to answer questions when asked.
Finally we get to the border of Kyrgyzstan and line up to stamp ourselves out of the country. There are two checkpoints before we even get to the office to get into Kazakhstan and we have to fill out forms but we all then get stamped into Kazakhstan. We each had been given a small piece of paper to hold onto and it is taken by the immigration officer when he puts our form into our passport that we will need to leave the country
. Not sure what the purpose of the small first piece of paper was.
Jamshed then leads us out of the office and across another checkpoint where we are now across the border and officially into Kazakhstan. Our cars were stuck back before entering Kazakhstan in stalls that said things like “do not stand here – radiation”. We stood just inside the border of Kazakhstan for a good ½ hour or longer. Finally we see Anatoly coming across in one car. The other van is in the radiation area. Another 15 minutes and Slava is outside the radiation area but still not coming across. Someone tells Jamshed that we have to go back and pick up our bags and bring them over ourselves. Well geez. Why not start with that when we were going through the process.
So they let us back into the border area, we walk back into the building where we had our passports stamped along with receiving our forms to keep until we leave, back out the front door to the no man’s land between Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan, and pick up our bags which have been unloaded from the cars and are just sitting there. Then back into the building where the immigration officers are – who are just watching all of us walk back and forth past their windows – and out the door to the gates where we are again then let into the country but this time with our luggage which no one actually ever looked at the bags
. We just all filed under the sign that said “nothing to declare”. What a hoot.
Slava finally gets the van across the border and through the gate where we can then all put our luggage back into the cars and continue on into Almaty. While we were waiting, Jamshed had to go track down the one woman in the one tiny store that had the only key to the toilet. The men could go behind a bush but there weren’t really any bushes for the women as there were lines of trucks waiting to go through the border and no matter where we looked, there was a line of trucks somewhere in view. Luckily he found the key lady before it became urgent.
A bit later, after we have been rolling along for a while, we stop for lunch and they pay for our lunch where we have beef and bean soup, which was excellent, then some chicken – also excellent and rice pudding. One of the best meals of the trip. Sure wish I knew where we were at the time or the name of the place. Another toilet break and then on to Almaty.
In all, it took us over 6 ½ hours to get to Almaty. Slava knew about where the Tajikistan embassy was but we did have to pull into a service station and ask for directions. When we pulled out, Slava turned right but Anatoly turned left and as soon as Slava realized he was going in the wrong direction, he turned around and raced after him about a mile down the road before he caught up to him, flashed his lights and got Anatoly to stop and turn around.
Not sure if this was an embassy or just a consulate because it was just a small building with an office and a guard. He let us in and took our cell phones and we filed into the office where Jamshed and Slava collected all our passports and money and photos. Slava told them that my roommate, Canada, was very ill, which was why we had just brought her passport with us as she couldn’t travel. The guy bought it and accepted her passport for a visa as well. Not sure if any money changed hands besides the visa fees but we were told to wait and they would process the visas today.
Finally we get back our passports with our visas and we all check to make sure the dates are correct, names correct, etc. and I check Canada’s and keep hers since we’re roommates. They have given us extra time actually so that’s good. We won’t run out of time in Tajikistan.
As it’s now after 4 p.m., I’m needing facilities again so we walk back to the service station but they don’t have toilets. They direct us to a school/apartment block across the street. Jamshed heads in and finds a lady who agrees to let us come into the ground floor laundry room and use the toilet but she has to go find the key again. Three kids are hoping to use the laundry room I think so they are filing in and out as we are waiting for the toilet and quite intrigued by us.
We’re done, I try and text my roommate so she knows she’s good too and I think it goes out but someone did call her from the agency to also inform her that she got a visa. We see a wedding pass us at some point but can’t get photos.
We are back in the car and Jamshed asks if we would like to see Almaty before we leave. HUH? Before we leave??? Thought we were staying the night!!! Well, no. So we drive around below the cable car and below the hill where the zoo is and the Beetles monument and stop at the Golden Man statue in the center of town. This is Almaty’s symbol. When I had visited Kazakhstan last year, the statue was in the middle of being cleaned so I couldn’t get close. I found this in someone’s blog and seems to be a good explanation:
It came from: http://kazakhworld.com/the-golden-warrior-a-kazakh-icon-of-independence-prosperity-and-heritage/
I have only copied part of it.
“””” For countries around the world, their independence is very symbolic and an inspiration of pride to its people. The symbol of independence is reflected in a monument. These monuments can be an incredible structure, an important figurehead, or even something from the heavens like a god. France has the Arc de Triomphe, India has a statue of Ghandi, Mexico has the goddess Nike holding a laurel wreath, and the United States has the Statue of Liberty. However, Kazakhstan has a very intriguing national icon that symbolizes its independence, but is a reflection of its prosperity, heritage and Kazakh patriotism.
In Independence Square in Almaty is the national monument symbolizing Kazakhstan’s independence and identity. The reason why it’s in Almaty is remind visitors that Kazakhstan’s capital city was Almaty until 1997 before it was moved to Astana. The monument is a 91 foot pillar and on top is a winged snow leopard known in Kazakh folklore as barys. On top of the barys is the “Golden Man” or “Golden Warrior”. The story behind “Golden Warrior” is very interesting.
The Golden Warrior, also known as Zolotoi Chelovek (Russian) or Altan Adam (Kazakh), is a statue of a Scythian warrior recovered from a kurgan, or burial mound, some 70 kilometers from Almaty in Issyk in 1969. In this burial mound, a skeleton was found and its believed to have been an 18 year old Scythian warrior prince dating back to the 3rd or 2nd century BCE.
The Scythians were a nomadic tribal people that inhabited the Pontic-Caspian steppe and described in Herodotus’ The Histories. While the Scythian people disappeared from history with the rise of the Kipchak Turks the territory that is in Northern Mongolia.
The Golden Warrior was discovered wearing a gold-platted uniform, along with a gold dagger and sword, and a pointed headdress with plaques of winged horses with horns, panthers, goats, among other animals. As is typical of burying rituals, the Golden Warrior’s kurgan included ceramic vessels, bronze castings and jewelry. The warrior was probably a member of the elite, given the luxuries of the kurgan and the elaborate headdress.
With the skeleton, the burial mound included warrior tools, horse skeletons, jewelry, and more clothing stitched with gold. The actual garments are on display in Almaty at the Central State Museum and some artifacts were on display at the Nomads and Network exhibitions in New York City and Washington, DC. This person soon became a symbol of Kazakhstan’s past and heritage leading to the nickname “Golden Man”. Golden Man has become an icon to the history and people of Kazakhstan.””””
There were people at the statue taking photos. There is a plaque at the bottom where you can put your hand on a handprint – probably the Golden Man’s. Lots of people were doing this and taking photos so we just joined in taking their photos. My roommate had asked me to try and get her a magnet of the Golden Man and I knew there were stores underneath the statue but also figured if we were driving back straight away, wouldn’t be a good idea to let everyone under the street to start shopping. So I rather sneaked down the stairs and ran inside to the first gift shop I saw and asked for Golden Man magnets. He had one design with the Man so I bought two, one for roomie and one for me, then thanked him very much as he was trying hard to interest me in other souvenirs and ran back outside and caught the group just as they were all walking back to the car. None of them knew I’d left for a minute or two until I presented my friend with her magnet.
So we head back to the border and Kyrgyzstan. It doesn’t take us quite as long to get back. We do stop for dinner along the way and for toilet breaks and get some snacks. We go through the gates and walk into the room to leave the country and there are several people there before us, rather odd it seems for so many to be leaving in the middle of the night (it’s after 10 p.m.) but we are stamped out of Kazakhstan and then back into Kyrgyzstan.
We finally get back to our hotel, the Golden Dragon, in Bishkek, and somewhere along the line, we had been asked if we wanted to do the fly thing to Osh or if we wanted to take what was supposed to be a two day drive and turn it into a one day 12+ day of driving so that we would be back on schedule. I’m not quite remembering where we were asked this but we all agreed without much discussion really that we wanted to do the drive rather than fly and miss things. Not sure if the two members who didn’t go on the trip had a say in this but they were in agreement also at the end.
Went up to my room and of course the key didn’t work. The porter went downstairs to get me a new key but I pounded on the door until my roommate got up and let me in, just as the porter came back with a new key. So to bed with a 12+ hour day in the car and another one set for tomorrow! Wonderful. Somehow I hadn’t realized this was going to be a road trip mostly.!
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