Fact and figures after 25 days / Cijfers na 25 dagen

-          Gereden / Driven: +/-10000km

-          Tankbeurten / Gasoline refills: 45

-          Getankt / Refilled: 1920 liter (3 motorbikes)

-          Min. temperatuur : 1°C (Aktobe, KZ)

-          Max. temperatuur: 36°C (Shymkent, KZ)

-          Gereden in regen / Driven in rain: 26h

-          Gereden in smeltende sneeuw / Driven in melting snow: 1h

-          Boetes / Fines: 2

-          Verwittigingen / Warnings: 5

-          Landen / Countries: 8

-          Wachturen grensovergangen / Time wasted at borders:
                      PL / UA: 1h
                      UA / RUS: 6h
                      RUS / KZ: 1h
                      KZ / KG: 0,5h
                      KG / KZ: 1h

-          Alcohol verbruik / consumption: Can’t remember  

May 03 Semey - Pavlodar (KZ)

Pavlodar lag normaal niet op onze route, maar aangezien we voor op schema stonden en Semey niet echt een aantrekkelijke stad was (in onze ogen), besloten we verder door te rijden tot in Pavlodar. De weg was in redelijk goede staat, dus de 320km werden vrij vlot afgewerkt.  

Semey is not a nice city. Gray, dirty and too much industrialized. A big contrast with Almaty. Therefore we decided to make a detour and drive via Pavlodar to Barnaul. 320 Km through forests. Monday we have an appointment in Barnaul to change our tires. Metzler promised to courier 3 sets of tires for us. Meanwhile we will do some site-seeing.

Lunchtime 

Kazakh Toilets



May 02 Qabanbay - Semey (KZ)

The road from Qabanbay to Almaty is ideal when suffering from kidney-stones. After approximate 25 km the stones are crushed and can get washed away naturally. As with every treatment it comes with some side effects such as cracked teeth, dislocated limbs and a severe concussion. This merely to illustrate that the road was in pretty bad condition. Before departure we asked a local businessman about the road and he told us that the first 500km was very good and only the last 100km was not so good. Better not to do business with this kind of people.

Kazakhstan = beautiful. Kazakhstan is extremely diverse. It varies from breathtaking natural scenery to modern vibrant cities. We have been in traditional villages, drove through the desert on 4 lane highways, drank fresh camel milk at a remote camel farmer, were interviewed and photographed for a glamourous life style magazine, drove through a copy of the Vegas strip filled with Casino's , bars and nightclubs, visited brand new ski resorts, etc. It seems Kazakhstan has it all, and we loved it.

May 01 Almaty - Qabanbay (KZ)

Brrrrrriusdbcibibejksdkusdckusdiucnerivunedicbed, Oooopsss. We were just struck by a small earthquake. Nothing to worry about according the hotel manager, it happens often in Almaty.
Today we had to drive direction Semey to later cross the border with Russia. Semey is around 1200km which we will do in 2 or 3 days depending the road condition. Leaving the modern city for endless view of pure nature.

Driving through hills, fields, Salt lakes, desert, all in merely 600km. Very good weather and smooth roads. Too smooth it turned out to be as we were stopped for the 100th time by the police for speeding. Johan is getting experienced how to deal with the cops. After a few minutes of understandingly shaking his head, pretending to be overwhelmed and promising we will not do it again, they let us go with a warning and the occasional group photo. We wish police would be like this back home.

In a very small village we found a nice new hotel build for Business men driving between Almaty and Semey. Because we did not see anything remotely habitable for the past 200km we decided not to take any risks and booked a norm for the night. This was a wise decision.

April 30 Almaty (KZ)

As genuine movie stars we drove on our bike through Almaty behaving a bit macho. This because we where being photographed numerous times by the local press for a new life style magazine and a local news site. The pictures will be published in next months edition together with the small interview we gave earlier.
We took a tour through the city into the mountains and were informed about the history and recent developments in and around Almaty. It is clear that Kazakhstan is developing rapidly and it nice to see that the Kazakhs' still show interest in people and events from outside their country.

In Almaty besloten we een rustdag in te lassen. Vandaag werden we ook uitgenodigd voor een fotoshoot door een lifestyle magazine.