Category Archives: Kazakhstan
Kazakhstan Part 2
I was the guest of Nurbek and his gang of adventurous Kazakhs. These guys were looking after me while in Almaty, chauffeuring me around, taking me out to lunch and dinner etc. The boys aren’t bikers but they do everything from parachuting to quad biking to all sorts of hunting and other assorted outdoor activities.
Almaty was my chance to service and freshen up the bike. Through the Kazakh bikers I had met in Tashkent, a pair of whom were bike parts importers, I had ordered a bunch of spares, which were waiting for me on my arrival in Almaty. Unfortunately, probably the most pressing part required, the new front brake disk, was the wrong part. I would have to fore go replacing that (or wait in Almaty 2 weeks.)
Still, I managed to get the other spares I ordered, of which the new chain was the next most critical thing.
One of the other Kazakh bikers from Tashkent, Marat from “Silk Off-Road” bikers, had booked me in with the club’s mechanic and with my spares I headed on down to meet Boris the Mechanic. Boris spoke enough English and me enough Russian to fully communicate the things that needed to be done and the quirks involved.
By the time I got back from lunch, Boris had changed the chain and front sprocket. The back one was still immaculate (its steel rather than alloy). I had chosen to go down to a 14 tooth front from now on. Since picking the bike up in Wales in February, I had been riding on the standard size 15T sprocket. The 14T front will be better suited to Siberia.
The chain itself was completely knackered. I had adjusted the tension for the first time in Murgab just 4 days earlier and now it was loose again. It was making funny noises and it was definitely time to go. The front brake pads were changed. There was a little more than I thought on them, and I will keep them as emergency spares, or platforms to replace the pad material. I had hoped to merely rotate the headset bearings to eliminate the severe notching that had set in over the last 5000 km or so, but Boris the mechanic said the bearings were too far gone. So in went the spare set.
With that all done, and after a couple of large evenings with the Nurbek’s adventure boys, it was time to head north. I had just over 3 days to meet with Tony, a friend from England, and seasoned Russia rider, in Siberia. He was heading due East from Moscow and I am heading North from Almaty, with a plan to meet up on the Russian side of the Altai border about June 6th. I squeezed in a couple of hundred highway kilometers late on the 3rd and overnighted in Taldy Kurgan.
There was one other thing I needed to do in Kazakhstan and that was to register. Any stay over 5 days in the country means to have to register with the migration police. I didn’t have time in Almaty, so decided to do it in Taldy Kurgan the next morning.
– – –
04-06-09
It took me some time to find the migration police, even in relatively small Taldy Kurgan, and after initially moaning that it should be done by the visa inviting company, they relented and gave me the required stamp for 10 further days in the country.
With that out of the way, I headed off he main northern highway to explore some of the back roads. It was an pleasant afternoon over some dirt’s and some minor asphalt roads that came to a sad halt just before Lake Balkhash, 15 km before the village of Lepsi. I had a flat tyre. I have never had a tube go flat on me in 15 years
of riding and kinda figured it wouldn’t happen to me, so I had not prepared well for flat tyres. In fact I didnt have a tyre lever. I removed the back wheel, on a empty road and inspected the tyre while I waited for a vehicle to come by that might be able to help. There was nothing penetrating the new tyre. Not sure where the flat could be then.
The first two cars to stop had no tyre lever, but one of the drivers suggested he would return with one from Lepsi, where he lived. After 30 minutes by the side of the road a third car stopped, and they did have a tyre lever. A couple of guys from Almaty visiting family out in the sticks. They warned me this was a dangerous place to break down. Locals were dangerous around here.
After getting the tyre off I saw the valve had sheared off the tube. I put in my spare tube and re packed the bike. I had also noticed my luggage rack was hanging on by only a few loose bolts. the others had come off. I suspect Boris had forgotten to tighten the luggage rack bolts when he refitted it in Almaty two days earlier. I would need to find a metal repair place and sort out my rack properly. It hadn’t been fixed since Beyneu, and that was a dodgy repair to start with.
As we are getting the wheel back onto the bike, the earlier local guy (named Abai) returned with a tyre lever, which he gave to me before insisting I stop by his place in Lepsi for some tea. I could use a chill out by now, so I accepted and followed him back to Lepsi.
As I pulled into his yard I realised immediately that he was a metal worker. With it now being 6pm, I had a bright spark of an idea. If I stayed here the night, we could get to work on the bike and sort out all the metal issues that needed seeing to. It was almost 6pm by now in any case, and I wouldn’t get that far down the road.
After chai, we pumped up my back tyre a bit more (my hand pump didn’t have a working pressure guage and it was still too squidgy) and I explained my metal problems. “OK” said Abai, “Get all the luggage and the seat off” and away we went.
By the time it was dark (about 8:30) Abai and his son (the welder) had cobbled together some new drink bottle holders, and sorted out the luggage rack bolts, and we all sat down to eat a traditional Kazakh meal, which consisted of, among other things, cows stomach. I stuck to the regular beef.
– – –
05.06.09
When I awoke Abai had already headed off 250 km away in his car and I had breakfast with his wife, 2 sons and 1 daughter, all the kids in their early 20s. I didn’t stay long as I wanted to put in a lot of miles today and also to test out the new baggage rack.
The road north from Lepsi first heads to the edge of Lake Balkhash, the largest body of water in Kazakhstan. Its more like an inland sea than a lake – I couldn’t see the other side of it. From the lake north the road ends and a couple of tracks head towards Aktogay, one graded gravel and the other a pair of sandy wheel ruts. Yes the graded gravel seems the obvious choice, but no. It was heavily corrugated and very bumpy. No fun at all. I tried the sandy track and it was much better. Thrill seeking at times, but much better on the suspension.
Near Aktogay, the track disappeared all together and I was left with a dusty, soft dirt track similar to sand – the tyres sunk in a couple of inches, and riding thru it was a bit like being buffalo bill at the rodeo.. the bike was kicking thru this soft stuff like a bucking bronco.
With the need to meet Tony in Russia in about 24 hours, the recent shake up with the flat tyre and recent reports saying there is no ‘road’ heading north from Aktogay to Ayaguz, I decided to play safe and turned east towards the main road. An hour later I got to the main road and topped up with fuel.
By 3:30 pm I was just 30 km from Ayaguz when yet another dodgy quality repair from Almaty stopped me in my tracks. Not only had the valve stem sheared off (presumably from not being fitted correctly) my tube, leaving me a flat tyre in the middle of nowhere yesterday, nor the luggage rack that wasn’t tightened, this time it was the drive chain. It lost its joining link. How does a brand new chain (that cost me 200 EUR in Almaty due to customs fees) die less than 2 days into its life.?
Fortunately I was on the outskirts of a village. I walked the road and found the chain a few hundred metres back, but no sign of ‘the missing link’. A Kazakh local walking past told me there was a workshop jut a few hundred yards away near the village shop. I pushed the bike there.
There was a workshop all right, but no-one working in it. It belonged to the guy who ran the village store, and he opened it up and let me use whatever was in there, which wasn’t a lot. He did have some device which I was able to use as a chain-breaker
My idea was to take a pair of links out of the chain and to rejoin it, one link shorter, but it didn’t work. Boris had taken a link out of the chain in Almaty to give it room to stretch, so the chain was already near the minimum possible length. I needed a longer chain. With no other possibilities, I left the bike in the ‘garage’ of the general store guy and hitched into Ayaguz, 30 km north.
In Ayaguz, I was taken to an auto parts store where there had a couple of chains for Russian bikes. most were incompatible but one of them had links the same length as my own. The new chain itself was unfortunately too short, but it was just 15 EUR and I could cannibalise a few links from it and then use its new joining link to complete my masterpiece. I took it and began hitching back to my bike, in the village of Shinkosha.
Hitching back was a lot harder than hitching into Ayaguz and I waited a good 45 mins for a lift. but eventually I got my lift and was reunited with my chain less bike. Immediately I went to work, bashing pins out of the new chain and then joining up my old chain (2 days old) with the few links of new chain. My construction had to last about a week and 2000 km , when I would get a new chain sent out from England to Russia.
Finally it was ready and I fitted it to the bike and linked it all up. It all looked like it could work. Tools were put away, hands were washed and I thanks my friend in the general store and hit the road again, nervously.
It was 8pm and almost dark by now and I stopped at a cafe a few km north of Ayaguz for some food. I hadnt eaten anything other than bread all day so enjoyed a meal of shashlik and chai. I was joined by a Kazakh guy from Semey (Semipalatinsk) driving home after visiting his parents. He told me this was not a safe region. I had known from previous trips to Kazakhstan that the north of the country is very much each for his own. Its the only place in the world where I have had security problems on a bike. I was glad to not be staying the night in Ayaguz, but would need to find somewhere to stay. My friend recommended I go thru to Oskemen (Ust-Kamenogorsk) but that would take me thru to 1am and I wasn’t sure I had the energy for that.
We both hit the road, with him following me for the first 30 mins to make sure I didn’t have any problems, before his Mercedes sped off into the night. I was in no mood for speeding – still worried about my chain. I stopped at a petrol station after the chain had done a bit over 100 km to check the state of my bodge. It was still good. I was relieved and upped my speed from 80 to 90 km/h. About 11:30pm I saw a cluster of cafe’s by the road, about 15km south of Grigorievka, one larger than the others. I decided to see if they had rooms. Sure enough they did. I was feeling pretty tired and drowsy on the bike so I took a room for 5 EUR and took all my luggage in. To my surprise they had a garage and the security guy would let me use it for EUR 2.50. It was too much, but I took it anyway. I then had a lovely warm shower (extra 1.50 EUR) and a beer and relaxed after a long stressful day.
I cant get over how many things are failing, that were ‘fixed’ or fitted in Almaty. I have to find a good mechanic in Russia to give the bike a once over. Oh how I wished for Valera, the master mechanic from Yalta.
Route Thoughts
Tashkent: 09.05.09
(note track maps now updated in the Trip Data section)
One of the principles behind choosing the overall route was where possible I was going to try routes that I felt were lesser travelled or untravelled by western motorcycle travellers … in doing that, documenting them will expand the knowledge base on sites like Horizons Unlimited. I also had the chance to explore some regions that have had a long standing interest to me, like the North Caucasus, Kalmykia et al. So this is a chance to review some of those routes as alternatives for those planning on heading out on the great trek east, to Mongolia, Vladivostok, Magadan or wherever.
Lets start with the Balkans.
Its a bit out of the way for most people heading east thru Ukraine, but our experience in the Balkans was very good. Inexpensive food, accomodation, great biking roads, plenty of good fuel and a real sense of adventure going thru places like Albania give the Balkans a real thumbs up from me. Sure there are a couple of highlights heading thru Czech Republic and Slovakia, but in general its all over very quickly and its all very tame. The Balkans was better preparation for conditions in the CIS, while still remaining very close to EU countries in case of problems. Borders were no problems at all … very quick, and the only point I would make is definately take a green card from your insurance company.
Crimea:
Certainly more interesting that the Ukraine in general. Ukraine lasks the diversity of Russia and for me is just one of the countries I push thru on my way to Russia, tolerating the overzealous cops and border officials as par for the course. (in terms of dodgy cops and border officials, recent years has seen a marked improvement on the Russian side, while the Ukraine is still dodgy as you like … such that Russia is notably more transparent, open, efficient and less corrupt than Ukraine) Perhaps the main areas of interest in Ukraine are the Carpathian mountains in the east and Crimea in the south. I missed the Ukrainian Carpathians (having seen them in Romania) and the interesting scenery and ethnic history of Crimea definately helped break up the Ukraine. Travelling that way also allowed me to head pretty much directly into the Caucasus once I entered Russia. Also found a cracking bike mechanic in Yalta … that alone could be a reason to have Crimea on a route east. Any teething problems can be nipped in the bud there at Valera’s place.
North Caucasus:
This has largely been avoided by western bikers, partly because of a lack of knowledge about what is there and to a lesser degree a fear about safety. I hope this blog has shown how much interesting peoples and cultures can be found between Adegeya in the west and Dagestan in the east. On top of that you have Europe’s highest mountain range. Considering how dull a long ride across Russia can be if you stick to the main routes I personally thing taking in interesting regions like the North Caucasus should be compulsory. The last thing you want from Russia is an endless chore of just eating up miles for the sake of getting across the country … one of the most interesting counties in the world in terms of both peoples and geography. If I could only recommend one thing from this trip so far, its to go to the North Caucasus, with a bit of knowledge about the region and you will get a hell of a lot out of it.
The Beyneu Route:
The two main routes to central asia for western motorcyclists are to go via Azerbaijan and Turkmenistan or to go down Kazakhstan thru Aktube to Chimkent. There are plenty of reasons to look for alternatives, such as the Beyneu route I took. (a) the ferry from Baku to Turkmenistan has no schedule. Its not unheard of to wait 3-4 days for the ferry, spend a day or more on the ferry and then wait in harbour at Turkmenistan end for another 2 days before unloading. On top of all that uncertainty, Turkmenistan may give you a 5 day transit visa, and may insist on a tourist visa. The Tourist visa requires you to be escorted thru the country at great expense. in any case, the visas are not that easy to get, and the only thing worth seeing in the country is the Darvarza burning crater, I can think of 100 reasons not to travel thru Turkmenistan.
(b) travelling via Aktyubinsk (Aktube) means you miss the highlights of Uzbekistan. You wont see Khiva, Bukhara or Samarkand. You wont see Khwarezm or the Karakalpaks. Of the 5 central asian republics, 3 are countries I reckon you definately want to see … Uzbekistan for the culture and food, and Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan for the mountains and mountain roads. Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan are (in my book) “missable”.
Putting that all together, and the route through Beyneu should be the main route. The route of first instance ! I would recommend it. The Kazakh side is pretty dull, but you do get to take in all the interesting bits of Uzbekistan without going out of your way. And it is a route that is reasonably well used by Russian and Kazakh bikers!
The Karakalpaks
Karakalpakia, 02.05.09
As promised, yesterday evening the two Russian bikers, Max and Andrei, turned up in Beyneu. Mad Max is technically a Kazakhstani, hails from Uralsk in the far North West of Kazakhstan, but is a Russian. Speaking of Uralsk, its a city I went through 15 years ago and I remember it as its on the Ural river, the river that marks the border between Europe and Asia. In the North, its marked by the Ural mountains, further south its marked by the Ural River. Atyrau, which I passed through a few days ago, is another city that straddles the Ural river. Uralsk and Atyrau, both in Kazakhstan, are evidence that Istanbul’s claim to be the only city to span two continents, to be a Turkish fantasy. Both Aralsk and Atyrau have monuments to Europe and Asia on both sides of their bridges.
Max turned up on his 1995 vintage BMW G650 Funduro, and Andrei, a Russian from Samara, on a similar vintage BMW R1100GS. Max is a veteran of touring around central asia, and Alyosha assured me he knows all the good petrol stations, cafes, hotels etc en route. Petrol Stations?? Apparently yes. Both Max and Alyosha told me many Uzbek fuel stations (especially out in the sticks) dilute their fuel with anything from urine to straight water. After a dinner of plov and beer, Max, andrei and I deecided we would travel the 400 km to Kungrad (Konghirat in some transliterations) together and work it out form there. We were all going to Tashkent, but I wanted to go to the Karakalpak town of Muynak, on the former shore of the Aral Sea. But one thing was for sure, the route was the same for the first 400 km, so we will do that distance and think about it after that.
We left at 7:30 the next morning, topping all the fuel tanks in Beyneu, and the 10 litres of reserves each carried by both Max and Andrei. It was about 60km by gravel road to the last Kazakh town of Akjigit, where we would again top up the tanks (only 3 litres each) with 80 octane fuel. Uzbekistan is not flush with petrol like Russia, Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan are. There would be no fuel for almost 400 km, at the Uzbek town of Kungrad. (Uzbekistan has ‘gas’ but no oil, and many cars, particularly in the north west, run on LPG … every fuel station has LPG or gasoline as they call it, but ‘benzin’ or proper petrol, is very hard to find in the north west. Bukhara, Samarkand, Tashkent etc fuel is no problem)
The border opens at 9am and we timed it such that we arrived at 5 mins past 9. The border was probably the most primative border crossing I have seen in years, and it was in the middle of nowhere, but the uzbek side was still full of money changers, chaikhanas and photocopy wagons (many doncuments need to be photocopied before they will be accepted by the Uzbek officials. I think we did well and were through by soon after 11 … a mere 2 hours. Max recommended a chaikhana that he always used when he crossed at this border and we were served chai by the Korean lady who ran it. Uzbekistan (and to a lesser extent Kazakhstan) has a huge Korean population. This goes back to Stalin’s times. To avoid any potential conflicts of interest, he moved the Korean population within the USSR’s borders from near the Korean border areas to Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan.
We also managed to buy some Uzbek currency, the Sum. Uzbekistan is a long way behind Kazakhstan in terms of economic development and bankomats are not at all common here. (I am told there is one in the country, in Tashkent.) In any case, we were 500 odd km from the nearest city and over 1000 from Tashkent. There are about 2500 Sum to the EUR, and the largest note is 1000 sum. Any money you carry is therefore effectively in 40 EUR cent pieces. I changed enough money to last me 4 days or so and felt I needed a backpack to carry it.
While it may lack in terms of economic development in comparison to old sparring partner Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan makes up for it in terms of culture. Khiva, Bukhara and Samarkand are old silk road cities with well preserved historical sections, and Uzbek food is both tasty and well known in the former USSR. There are hundreds of Uzbek restaurants in Moscow, but I have never seen a Kazakh restaurant there.
By the time we left the chaikhana it was midday. We still had well over 350 km to cover to get to the nearest fuel, over a boring straight flat road. We had decided over our chai that Andrei and Max would join me in going to Muynak, and I would stay with them till Tashkent. So first step was to get to Kungrad and Muynak. But not before the Uzbek police pulled us over at the first town to pay the Uzbek ecological tax!
60 km before Kungrad, Max spotted a possible shortcut to Muynak. It was not marked on any of our maps, but Max had a hunch that the side road would get us to Muynaq. We asked a passing uzbek motorcyclist if he could confirm any of this, but the guy just kept nodding. He was either illiterate, stupid or both. We had a vote. Max and I were in favour of giving it a go so we took the turn. 40 km later we came to the edge of the Ustyurt Plateau. All day we had been between 120 and 150 m above sea level on a completely flat plain hundreds of kilometers long, but once we hit the end of the plateau, it dropped like a cliff, 100 metres lower. this cliff extended as far as the eye could see in both directions. It was a really dramatic sight. Soon after the cliffs, the road petered out. We had to go in a different direction anyway and began looking for tracks. Muynak was 55 km away in a straight line and as the largest population centre within about 100 km, there had to be a track there.
Muynak is a Karakalpak town that was once on the edge of the Aral sea. The sea is now over 150 km away, thanks to a failed soviet development plan. The two great rivers that drain the Pamir and Tien Shan mountains, the Amy Darya and Syr Darya, (known to the ancients as the Oxus and the Jaxartes) fed the Aral sea with fresh water. The soviets diverted most of the water to develop a cotton industry in Uzbekistan and at times no fresh water reaches this sea in the middle of the desert. Not surprisingly, since about 1960, the sea has shrunk dramatically, the salt levels in the remaining water have become so salty that fish can no longer survive in it.
For centuries, the Karakalpaks have lived on the south shore of the Aral sea, fishing and living off the sea. Now that is all history and the Karakalpaks have become among the poorest people in Central Asia. The Karakalpaks (literally Black Hats) are notably more mongolic / oriental than the average Uzbeks, and despite having their own autonomous republic, they are a minority here – most of the people who live in Karakalpakia are Khoresmian Uzbeks. 
Karakalpaks are closer to the Kyrgyz and the Tuvans than they are to the Uzbeks. I wanted to see Muynak as it is a proper Karakalpak town and its also the home to the Aral Sea fishing fleet, now rusting ship hulks in the desert.
Max, using his central asian experience and intuition, found the track and we headed off for the 50 km thru a no-mans land that was once at the bottom of a sea (only 50 years ago). It was a challlenging track and Max’s chain came loose (as I have seen happen on F650s before – Andy P, diring the 2007 Pyreknees Up) jamming into his engine housing. A bit of brute force and the chain was back on, but his cheap chinese rear sprocket had a unpleasant kink in it that was constantly threatening to derail his chain again. We limped the last 25 km into Muynak, passing a few Karakalpak villages on the way before catching up with the rusting ships.
We had hoped to get to Khiva today, but the “special” stage across the wilds near Muynaq meant we had added a few hours to the day. The sun set as we made our way into Kungrad, and we headed for a simple place Max had stayed at before. It was the second water-less place we had stayed at in a row (Alyosha’s place in Beyneu had no running water). Mobile access has not really existed since we crossed into Uzbekistan. Foreign sim cards are mostly not working out here. Andrei and I are both considering buying Uzbek sim cards tomorrow to keep up with the world.
Kazakhstan – Part 1
29.04.09, Atyrau, Kazakhstan
Today was a really boring day on the road. Basically I spent 2 hours crossing a border, and 4.5 more hours riding 365 km on some mind numbingly boring roads that can only be descibed at “transit roads”. There is no other reason to be on them.
I would have gone further but decided to stop in Atyrau, a wealthy Kazakh oil city, as its the last sign of civilisation for several days.
Since the scenery was pretty boring, and the only thing that stopped the roads being boring was the terrible state of them making it impossible to relax or travel at more than 90 km/h … and the 50 km/h constant sidewind blowing in across the Caspian Sea. I was kept amused by odd thoughts and listening to a mix of Swedish group Kent, Mongolian group ‘Altan Urag’ and Kate Ryan. Strange mix to say the least.
On a day where the travel is so boring, my mind began wandering and several bizarre thoughts crossed my mind. The first was … how did I get to be riding a modified X-Challenge? When I first thought of this trip, the F800 had just been announced and I always assumed I would do it on one of those. 3 things turned it all around in favour of an X Challenge. (Well 4 really … as I was surprised how heavy the F800 weighed in at – might as well stick with the 1200.)
First .. about this time last year I was following the blog of Niccolo and Cyril – a couple of guys who packed it all in and took off on very short notice from London to Mongolia. Niccolo (not the tallest man in the world) on a 1200 GSA and Cyril on a Transalp. At the end of their Blog (eurasian motorcycle adventure link on the right) Niccolo commented “next time I do something like this I will do it on an X Challenge” … or something to that effect. I had always looked at the X Challenge as a dirt bike and was thinking “What is he talking about? – he must be mad.” But the thought stuck in my mind because subconciously I was looking out for X-Challenge stories. Next step was hearing Simon Pavey taking one to Beijing on his transorientale rallye and planning to use on in the 2009 Dakar. The bike finished easily and reliably and I spoke with Simon on his return from the transorientale, learning he had no mechanical problems. Third, as I searched for information about the bike, one guys name kept coming up again and again on forums. A chap out of Holland calling himself “MaxKool” … So I wrote to Max and asked him plenty of questions, and Max had plenty of answers, mostly all positive. So the decision was made. A BMW X-Challenge it was.
The other thing I worked out today while puttering along in the wind, on the Kazakh Steppe, was thanks to some information Max gave me. I worked that even assuming I travel the whole 45,000 km in 5th gear, my one cylinder is going to have to do its funky little thing 108 million times, pretty much faultlessly, to get me to the end of this trip. That’s a lot of jiggling about.
Other news from today … I am over 50 degrees east now. I have entered my 24th country. I clocked up the 9,000th kilometre of the trip today. The oil leak attended to yesterday morning by Zhenya the Kalmyk Biker is sorted. The animals out on the steppe are changing – on the Nogai Steppe there were cows and sheep. On the Kalmyk Steppe there were cows, sheep and horses. Now on the Kazakh Steppe there are horses and camels!
Some bad news. The screen on my Eee has a problem. It was jammed up against a bolt in one of my panniers and I guess the pressure of the bolt against the lid on the laptop has created a leak in the LCD screen. About 5% of my screen is a black splodge. I can live with it … but its a pity. I have been very happy with this little beast. I should have packed it better.
Nasty surprise when i went down for breakfast at 9:15 am on the 30th … I have moved forward another hour… breakfast closed at 10am. it was now 10:15 am. I am 4 hrs ahead of London now.