We are caught up!!!! – Here is Kazakhstan

By Steven Shoppman in

It has now been over 2 months since we were in Kazakhstan, and we are sincerely sorry for the delay in getting caught up on photos. Now that we have had this few days on the Hurtigruten, we will be releasing the latest photo galleries over this week. Today we have Kazakhstan.

Since we were robbed while we were in Kazakhstan, not a whole lot of pictures were taken. From the radioactive wastelands in the North to the Kyrgyz border we only spent a total of about a week in Kazakhstan. The people were not all that friendly to us and after we were robbed we decided it was time to move on, but there are some funny photos and some cool mountains to take a look at. Up next is Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, Turkey and more…by the end of the week we will be caught up all the way through here in Norway!!! Finally.

Around Almaty

At the Russian/Kazakh border, they brought out dogs for the first time as seen through the dirty window of Little PepeKarie joined us in Kazakhstan and since she missed Mongolia, we treated her to some nice fermented horse and camel milkThe sour, alcoholic milk was no problem for Bouey but Karie was out of her comfort zone in secondsThis was all that was left of the rear passenger window of the SequoiaKazakhstan is also home to the now famous TWBR grand theft incidentOn the way to Big Lake Almaty, we encountered some curious localsIt was almost as if they wanted to come with usCan you tell us where Kyrgyzstan is?We had a few unfortunate encounters in Almaty and for us, the best view of town was in the rear view mirrorIn Kazakhstan, we rotated the tires with the help of one big, burly Russian super mechanicAnd people wonder why it is nice having a Toyota in the middle of nowhereAnd people wonder why it is nice having a Toyota in the middle of nowhereWe camped in a field the first night we left Almaty and life in the country was a lot more pleasantThis is the side of Kazakhstan we hoped we would see more of

 This album is taken on our second trip into Kazakhstan to transit to Aktau and get on the boat across the Caspian Sea.

The Port of Aktau had plenty of security guards and officials running around but was probably the most unsecure port in the worlSince we had to wait in the parking lot for 10 hours to board the ferry, Karie and Tash cooked some foodI think this yacht belonged to the Kazakh customs officials The oil-rich Caspian has pumped billions of dollars into the Kazakhstan economyUnfortunately, very few Kazakhs ever see profits from the country’s new found life blood No fire extinguishers, but plenty of axes to fight firesIt looks like some of the art work was updated in the 70’sAfter spending over a day waiting for the ferry to leave, when it finally did, it was time to celebratePassengers on the ferry came in all shapes and sizesOur cabin was located in the deep, dark depths of the ferryAt least the unisex toilet was close to our cabinWe found a shower, but could not find any hot waterOnce aboard, we realized the ferry was probably older than most of our parentsThe ferry had an emergency phoneGiven the lack of crew, we wondered who would operate the life boats if the ferry went downMore axes in case of fireOil also pumps a lot of life into the Azerbaijan economyWe found what we think is the emergency escape ladderWe found out that the black boxes on boats are orange If we thought the port had lax security, they really didn’t care if you wandered around the ferryI guess the fire plans tell you how to use the axesSteve found one rusty crank with his headWe found some rusty cranksWe met some new friends from AzerbaijanBaku, Azerbaijan finally in the distance after the longest and hardest three days on the expeditionWe thought this guy was getting ready to drop the anchor in Baku, but he was just another passenger wandering around the open de

This entry was written by Steven Shoppman, posted on January 9, 2008 at 4:05 pm, filed under Kazakhstan, New Photos and tagged , , , . Post a comment or leave a trackback: Trackback URL.