I can't even begin to explain how beautiful it was flying into this city...at the bed of the Altai mountain range huge snow capped mountains rise up and completely surround the city, absolutely stunning. The whole flight we were getting smacked constantly in the arm by Bec as she alerted us to the changing landscape beneath us, desolate plains, sandy cliffs, huge rivers, then mountain ranges as far as we could see.
Even the stuard on the plane was asking us why we Aussies were travelling to Kazakhstan and our reason was pretty basic.......we had seen it somewhere in a magazine or on TV and wanted to know more so we came to see it.
With our stamps and VISAS sorted we ventured forth, claimed our bags, literally strolled through customs (there was noone there) and out to meet our driver who was waiting. So glad we organised transfers so many random people asking us if we wanted a taxi. Driving through the city every tom, dick and harry was pulling up on the road side as citizens waved to them getting a lift....definately not on our list of things to do.
So we got to our hotel the lovely Hotel Turkistan to realise....CRAP we didn't exchange any money!!! Luckily there was a place down the road so we made a quick dash and exchanged some for the hotel with a 'lovely' lady that spoke some english...HOORAY!! Squeezed into our ity bity lift and up we went. Our room is quite big with a seperate lounge and bedroom with a king and a single, a litte bathroom and two balconys overlooking the Altai mountain ranges.....perfection! No kettle though but a fridge so our little element heaters are a life saver!!!!!! Cheers mummy!!!
First night we roamed around a bit and used our limited Russian to buy bread, water, bananas, milk, a couple of beers and some meat pastries for dinner which did fine. After all that I imagine it must have been around 1500T or roughly $10 Aussie for the three of us.
Finally the jet lag caught up at 10pm so off to bed we went and here I am at around 6:30am though I've been awake since 5:30am watching the sunrise above the Altai over a cup of tea.
What will today's adventure be?
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