DAY 4 (30th August 2024)
Kazakhstan (Altyn Emel National Park)
We were finally gonna leaving the city for a whirlwind tour of the southeastern part of Kazakhstan, and later, getting into Kyrgyzstan. For that, we needed to rent a car which could cater for the needs of the journey, carrying 4 full grown adults (Bro Ray: I am probably the most “full” grown, if you know what I mean) with an assortment of luggage and hand-carried items. One of the things we learnt while trying to rent a car is that not all cars are registered with permit to cross the border into Kyrgyzstan. So, the agent whom we contacted was very helpful in getting all our registrations done, and preparing the car for the arduous journey – even washed it clean for us!
This day turned out to be another unexpected adventure, as we had planned to head to the Altyn Emel National Park, and visit one or two places before checking in for the night. The next day we would cover another two locations within the park. But that didn’t happen. Instead, we ended up finding hidden gems of the places along the start-stop journey.
The night did not end very well, though. The place we intended to live in was overbooked, and we were given a yurt to sleep in instead. On the surface of it, it was ok because we’ve never slept in a yurt before, but because it cannot be locked, someone came into our yurt in the night while we were asleep, which spoiled it all for us. Should have been wonderful experience for us, but it made our stay unpleasant. Oh well, it was a good day anyway, in general.
Car Rental and Drive out of Almaty
After breakfast, I got a quick Yandex ride to Hertz Almaty, and I met these two guys who were super helpful in getting the car ready for us. We got the paperwork done, and after a quick look at the car, I got into the left-hand drive car (Bro. Ray: We drive on the opposite side back home) and got myself familiarised with driving on a different side of the road. Well, I have done this before in Taiwan, Hawaii and in Europe, so it wasn’t something new to me.
I drove back to the AirBnb to pick the rest of them, and then was the long drive out of the city. I am very thankful we got a big car – our luggage barely made it in with all our other stuff! I couldn’t help but notice that this city with its surrounding outskirts was really huge – spread out, really. And it took us a while to finally get onto a major highway out of the city. Once we were out of the city limits, the immediate contrast was evident. So, while I focused on driving, the others were busy taking photographs of the landscape, as best as they can from inside a moving car.
Along the way, about 90km out, we drove past Konaev, where all of Almaty’s casinos are placed. Due to the desert-like landscape, it gave off a bit of the Las Vegas casino strip vibes, although certainly not as flashy and not as glamorous. I suppose the government placed these buildings a fair way out of the city to discourage the gambling habit – and some of the casinos did look like they’ve been shut.
And then it happened…. The car warning lights suddenly came on signalling that I had to stop the car. Thankfully, we were only barely a mile away from the village of Saryozek, and we pulled up to a restaurant named Tavern 21 for lunch while we waited for the replacement car from Hertz. The kind people there understood our predicament, and allowed us to use their tavern as a base to eat, rest and freshen up. I also took this opportunity to catch up on a bit of work before taking a short nap while FIL and Wifey went exploring and taking pictures.
As the time went ticking by, we realised that there was no way we could catch up with our agenda for the day, which was to visit the Singing Dunes in the Altyn Emel National Park. In fact, the replacement car came only at 4:20p.m., and even so, we were informed this car does not have the necessary permits to go into Kyrgyzstan. Which meant that before we did cross over, they would have to bring us another car. We had to keep our fingers crossed that they would be able to send the car to us at the town of Saty, the last place of residence before our border crossing.
New Car, Same Journey to Altyn Emel National Park
We decided then, that we didn’t have to rush to get to Altyn Emel National Park, which was still approximately two hours away – we won’t make it either. Since the landscape looked much better from here on (but the roads were bumpier and had many more potholes), we decided to slow it down and that we will stop whenever and wherever (Bro Ray: Of course we would have to do that safely and at safe places) to take pictures… The result was these fascinating photos, samples of them as follows:
And then, as we continued to drive along, we came across this monument, literally standing there in the middle of nowhere (well actually, it isn’t exactly “nowhere” – it was erected at the 49th kilometre of the Saryozek-Zharkent Road). We had to backtrack a little as we had already sped past it. I am so glad that we did turn around and came back to this.
The monument was erected in 2010 to honor the senior sultan of the Great Zhuz Tezek Tore Nuralievich and the master of the famous verbal art Boltirik Sheshen. With a height of 7.4m, the monument was carved from Kurtny granite and even the surrounding pebbles are natural gabbo stones, and no chemical paints or other minerals were applied to the surface of the monument. This spot is actually the highlight of the day after the massive of disappointment of not being able to make it to the national park earlier.
Basshiy Village
Finally, we made it to Basshiy, a small village made up of several rows of houses, many of them serving as resthouses or AirBnb, and is the northern gateway to the Altyn Emel National Park. However, many of these “hotels” are not listed and you won’t be able to find them from the internet (well, at least not yet – maybe in time). There is a Visitor Centre in the middle of the village, and you can get more information on the available housing. Incidentally, if you didn’t pre-book your tickets, you would have to get them from this Visitor Centre during opening hours.
And because the unit that we rented was one of only two that can be discovered on the Internet, it was overly booked. In a hurried manner, the operators of this “hotel” emptied out the contents inside the yurt that was at the parking area, and gave it to us as our “room” for the night. The yurt was likely used as a store and didn’t have a proper door. Although we didn’t like it, Wifey and me agreed to the arrangement, while FIL and MIL got proper rooms. Then came the kicker – one of the workers of the hotel snuck into the yurt in the middle of the night to ‘take something’, but that should not happen!
We were supposed to stay for two nights at this place, but we decided to move to another place the next day. Such was our bad experience here. Certainly spoilt what would have been our first time sleeping in a yurt.
Summary for Day 4
For the second day in a row, our plans were thrown awry by unexpected turns of events. The long delay in getting a replacement car may actually had been a big blessing in disguise. Having already driven more than 260km from Almaty to Basshiy, driving to the Singing Dunes (Spoiler Alert – we would still get to do that the next day) on bumpy and uneven dirt track would require calm and concentrated driving. And if we were going to be rushing, we would not have been able to really enjoy the place.
By slowing down, we also got to feel the warmth of the Kazakh people – special shout out to the people at Tavern 21. And we would have missed that unexpected roadside monument. And we would have been unable to enjoy the beautiful landscapes bathing under the fading sunlight.
Finally, while I do value very much the exciting twists and turns of adventuring, feeling safe is not a compromise – having someone come into our sleeping quarters in the middle of the night was one of those things.
