Photogallery
Although it had only been 2 months since we started our journey in Brno, I already realized how much we have seen already. By this time we had covered 16 000km, enough to go from Brno to Vladivostok. Despite a few minor problems, the car was doing surprisingly well (taking into account the quality of the roads).
As we got closer to the former capital of Kazakhstan Almata, the landscape gradually began to change. The infinite steppe transformed into hills of Tan-San and the temperature decreased. Swimming in a lake under the snowy hills with a Moon above our heads was amazing. The next morning we finally arrived to Almata.
After about 14 days spent in a tent, we could finally enjoy the luxury of sleeping in a hotel again. Our first stop is the Mongolian embassy. We were promised to get the visa the next working day (which was Monday). We then headed towards Toyota service to get the home-made clutch replaced as it was not functioning. However we were told this spare part is not available and can only be ordered. Delivery would be within a month…. We thanked and tried to call home to find some different solution. The other members of our journey joining us in Ulanbaatar would bring it with them.
We took a little break during the weekend. I looked around the town while Alin went for a trip to Tan-San hills. The weather is not very nice and forced Alin to return earlier. We then spent Sunday doing some minor fixings on our car and then later in the afternoon we went to a swimming pool.
The visas were ready on Monday and we quickly left Almata, back to the steppe. On our way to Astana we spent night in a tent next to the fourth largest lake in Asia – Balchaš. Beaches here are really nice except for the garbage lying everywhere around. The water color however is looking just like on some picture from Maledives.
Astana is the capital of Kazakhstan since 1997. In a certain way it reminded us of the colloseal buildings and projects one can see in Dubai – 62m high pyramid of peace, 80m high presidental palace built from white marble, 150m high shopping center in a shape of a tent with air-conditioning system functional in a range of -35 to +35°C and with a swimming pool with beaches on the top floor, ocenarium full of sharks and last, but not least, Bajterek – 100m high monument and symbol of Astana.
I spent the time in Astana by myself as Alin had a visit for the weekend – his girlfriend Janca. What was interesting, was the way how men respect women in public transport. As soon as a woman enters any public transport vehicle, all men immediately stand up and provide their seat to her (even to foreigners like Janca).
