Horse-ing Around 3

Charyn Canyon and Kolsai Lake

Rohan and I met ridiculously early one morning, to jump on a tour bus to visit some amazing places around Almaty. We didn't get back till around 10.30pm. The bus was jam packed full of Kazakhs and Russians. Rohan and I, and another bunch of 4 Indian students who've been studying in Kyrgyzstan, were the only English speakers there.

Unfortunately our Kazakh guide, as friendly and sweet as she was, rattled off all her info in Russian, which everyone but us could understand. She'd speak for five minutes about a place in Russian, and then say a sentence or two in English just for us.

Zippin' down the highway

Everything was so green, and then suddenly it wasn't. As we approached Charyn Canyon the land got drier and drier.

We walked inside the canyon for a couple of clicks, eventually hitting the river. It was stunningly beautiful. But we didn't have much time in there. That's the thing with tours.

We took a mashrutka back, a popular form of transport around here. It's just a van with rows of seats, normally inside the van. This one has the seats outside for the views, which were stunning.

A golden eagle, with its handler, and a local tourist who paid to get a photo taken with it. Eagles are commonly used for hunting on the steppe, and for earning tenge from tourists.

We visited another couple of canyons before lunch.

Equus everywhere

Steppe-en-wolf. Born to be wild. And now very tame, used only for more tourist pics. Bizarre.

We stopped in an old eating house for a completely overpriced lunch. They refused to reduce the price for a non-meat version of their lunch fare, which was pretty greedy of them really, considering the standard version was basically all meat, and the veg version consisted of a bunch of potatoes fished out of a chicken salad, served with a chunk of stale-ish bread.

That's what ya get on tours sometimes.

Kolsai Lake

We travelled to this magnificent lake, and, yeah, it felt just like the European Alps, except for the mashrutkas, the Kazakh flags and the Russian fashion.

Again, we didn't have too much time to really go on a hike, the lake is at least a three and a half hour drive from Almaty, and it was all go-go-go.

But it was really stunning, so all worth it.

He's not about to jump. The black rod has a camera attached to the end of it, which spins around the circular platform and makes a video of you being all patriotic and cool.

Stunning isn't it.

This was just before it started to rain.

Our bus broke down on the way back, and we were here for ages, which was totally fine by me, because we got to watch the sunset. It was pretty cold though. All of the passengers were eventually transferred to other buses, bit by bit, as they rolled past. Rohan and I and the other sweet Indians just chatted and played each other our favourite music, because they had a Bluetooth speaker. It was fun.

Takin Care Of Business

I've gotta tell you a little trivial secret.

Bicycle mechanics is one of my least favourite interests in the whole universe.

In my mind it's surpassed only by automobile mechanics, cats dressed up in baby clothes, eating at McDonalds, waiting at traffic lights, or listening to politicians avoid saying anything visionary or even meaningful.

But having chosen to ride a bicycle halfway around the world, there's certain things you just can't ignore forever, despite wanting to.

Black Bewdy was in desperate need of a service, and Almaty is the place to do it, with a host of experienced bike mechanics around.

But I hadn't thought of the fact that I'd arrived smack bang at the beginning of the cycling season, and that loads of local Almatians* are into riding. Every single bicycle mechanic I went to, (which was a lot), was too busy to work on her. I'd need to make an appointment, and wait at least another four days in Almaty.

I really didn't wanna do that.

So I had to make do with getting a new tyre for her, and, unfortunately, the mechanic was so rushed and flustered that he didn't do a good job putting it on, he put a new tube in her with the wrong valve (which didn't fit my pump), and fiddled around with my brake pads so they were set really badly (unbeknown to me).

Even I could've done a better job than him, which is really saying something.

I had to go back to him the next day, and I bought a new pump with adjustable fittings, and I didn't really notice how bad the brakes were until much later, when I had a proper load on and was going steeply downhill (not a good time to discover your brakes aren't working properly).

So I've learnt a lesson.

Always check the work.

*PS. If I was an Almatian I would definitely get a dog, and no prizes for guessing which one.