The Rest Finally Arrived!

We arrived at this Kazakhstan homestay which was a house with three bedrooms, a huge dining room, kitchen, bathroom with separate shower and another eating area just off the kitchen. The town was very quaint at the base of the Tien Shen mountains with fresh mountain spring water used for drinking, showers cooking etc. We all pulled up outside this blue gate (as our instructions said, but all the gates were blue) with a simple abode and a small shack next door where the inhabitants were going to stay in order to accommodate us in the main house. There were hens and baby chicks running free all over the yard and cows walking down the roadway enroute to their homes. We arrived around 12:30 pm and began texting Leo in the troopie from the time we arrived onward, trying to find out what was happening at the border. They still had no news and it wasn't until we were having dinner at approx. 5:00 pm that we received a text that said, "We're Out!!!!". By 6:00 pm they had not only departed the Uzbekistan border but had entered and cleared the Kazakhstan border as well. They said that they were on their way and we could only imagine what kind of mood that they would be in once they reached us after their 32 hour stay at the border in the dead heat and no place to sleep. Apparently, they had texted that they stayed at the police chief's house on the floor for the night and Mick MacDonald, our tour leader, was starting to sweat the rampage he would get from unhappy customers who had been arrested and detained in Uzbekistan.

By around 9:30 pm, we received another text followed by a phone call advising that they had decided to stay in Shymkent for the night, since driving after dark on the rough paved highways and poor visibility, as well as lack of sleep and dire need for a nice shower, was enough for more than one day and a hard days events at that. Pat and Isaac seemed to be in good spirit, as was Leo when Mick advised that they had to be up at 6:30 am, breakfast at 7 and departure by 7:30 since it was an hour and a half ride to the homestay. They had to be there by 9 am since the agent Sveltlana would need all of our passports to take to be stamped as proof of stay, a requirement of Kazakhstan law. Sure enough at 8:45, am we heard the sounds of bikes pulling up and we all went outside to greet our long lost fellow riders and hear their stories of what transpired in their 32 hour border stay.

I must say that Pat, Isaack and Leo were all in good spirit when they arrived even though they did look somewhat tired and perhaps a bit stressed. One of the funniest things that Mick MacDonald shared was that prior to arriving at the Uzbekistan border on the Monday morning, Pat had let him know that being "An American" meant that he would get processed through the border with "priority service" and would be one of the first through as a result of his status. We all had a chuckle at that 32 hour priority service that Americans receive in Uzbekistan. Apparently, they stood in the heat all day waiting for their new Visas to arrive back from Tashkent. But in the end, they were treated to a smorgasboard lunch set up in advance by the police chief for which they had to pay. The police chief also housed them on his floor for the night accompanied by breakfast where no one said a word due to the language barrier. Pat noticed that the wife of the police chief worked extremely hard getting breakfast ready along with ironing her husband's uniform and polishing his boots with kids in tow. Apparently there looked to be a twenty year age difference between the chief and his wife (some men's ideal dream). This is traditional Uzbekistan practice with the wife's main role being to look after the needs of her husband and children. Pat also complained about the lack of toilette facilities. He attempted to walk by snarling german sheppards enroute to the outhouse which he could smell from a distance. He decided to put a clamp on things as he still was not completely well. They also shared with us the sign language they learned in order to communicate with the Uzbekistan guards. However, when their passports were stamped, it read that they overstayed their visas, they were to leave Uzbekistan immediately and they were banned from re-entering Uzbekistan again. Once again, great American priority service. It truly paid to be an Aussie or Canadian (two hours - now that's priority service).

We all spent the rest of the day relaxing with some taking a hike up the mountain top and others going for short walks in the neighbourhood. We left early the next morning for Almaty which was our biggest riding day yet (a total of 650 kms). Presently we have spent three nights relaxing at a guesthouse, (Korean owned) which houses 16 bedrooms for people from all over. Murray, Pat, Isaac and Joe took their bikes to the local BMW dealer for servicing. The compass bikes also received maintenance as well as one getting a new rear tire. We have eaten Korean food, visited their supermarket as well as stocked up on pills for all the various ailments we all have incurred. Tomorrow we are headed for Charyn Canyon where we will be camping for the night before heading back to this guesthouse for another night's stay. Until we're back. I apologize for no pictures but I am unable to load pictures at this time.