Zharkent-Almaty
Trip Start
Mar 29, 2009
1
48
76
Trip End
Ongoing
Almaty,
Kazakhstan
Thursday, June 11, 2009
Up and off at 9am.(would loved to have stayed longer).
An hour into our drive we stopped, roadside, for a cuppa and porridge. And very hurriedly we moved on...before the tiny midges ate us, or our breakfast .
Featureless barren terrain turning into lovely green rolling hills and snow capped mountains before we drove into the Sharyn Canyon. Quite a spectacular canyon in it's size but not as deep as we thought. The locals like to compare it to the Grand Canyon which is a slight exaggeration! Even so, it is quite impressive with its colourful layers of sandstone.
We arrived Almaty around 5.30pm, and yes Jo, it was a bit of a K.W. exercise, mainly due to my ineptitude at map reading, a lack of street signs in a language we recognise, so much traffic and an impromptu stop by traffic police to check our documents right in the middle of a busy intersection. After what seemed like hours we found a really neat hotel in the middle of town, unpacked and headed out for a Western meal!
It's so nice here, we think we might stay a couple of days and stop to smell the roses.
Friday. 12 Jun. Almaty.
A perfectly lazy day and a big walk to sort out yet more documentation. i.e. Even though we have a Kazakh. Visa, we have to have it registered if we are to stay in the country five or more days. Now that we have done this we have to go back to the Visa Office in a few hours to pick it up!
We are pleased to report that our little travelling companion, Gazza the Gecko, is alive and well and still with us having climbed aboard for his own big adventure in Laos. Is HE going to freak out when he arrives in UK!!
Comments
Help wanted to cross into china from laos
HI
PLS SEE YOUR GUEST BOOK. WE ARE GROUP GOING TO INDIA BY CAR FROM SINGAPORE. We are unable to cross over to china FROM LAOS. We have not yet approached the border.
We want to know what is the procedure to take the car to china in BOTEN BORDER. Did you take any prior permmission to cross over with car.
Awaiting your reply
with regards
aravind
for rally team
www.sathyasainivas.net
Re: Help wanted to cross into china from laos
Greetings, have sent you an email and you'll find some more facts in the 'Boys Blog'
Good Luck in your travels