Crossing the Kazakh-Chinese border

On the day we crossed the border our initial plan was to camp about 20 km before the border and enter China the next day. We wanted to have sufficient time for leaving Kazakhstan, and thus Central Asia, and entering our 6th country on our journey. In the middle of the day, however, we decided spontaneously to enter China on the same day. The last few days were cold and we were really fed up with the poor food we had on the road. We imagined China, precisely Korgas as the first Chinese city behind the border, as our food paradise.

So we rushed to the border. We didn't know the business hours of the border station but we had something like from 7 am to 7 pm in our head. At 2 pm we were still 30 km away from the border. Suddenly we remembered that China has only one time zone, Beijing time. As Beijing is 2 hours ahead of Kazakhstan, so was Korgas. We were afraid that the Chinese would close the border at 5 pm. So we pedaled even harder. In total it was a 90 km ride to the border with a constant 1% climb on the last 30 km.

At 4:40 pm we arrived at the first Kazakh border post. They told us to hurry up. The border station would close soon. At that time we knew our assumption was right. From the first border post it was still about one km to the second Kazakh border post. The chief officer stopped us and contacted somebody on his walkie-talkie. We could pass but again we were told to hurry up. At 4:45 pm we arrived at the customs and passport handling. We handed over our registration card and got our departure stamp. At the customs they were expecting us. We were the last persons passing through the customs. Nobody showed any interest. They simply waved us through and the closed the border on the Kazakh side after us. The last Kazakh officer told us that the Chinese border would close in 10 minutes time.

On the Chinese side we were stopped by two border posts. The people at the last border post tried to explain that we couldn't go further to the customs and immigration building that was only 20 m in front of us. We didn't understand why and made an innocent face. They looked at the clock that showed 4:55 pm, didn't know what to do, sighed and let us through. The customs and immigration building was a modern building with all the security devices that you would expect at a border station. When we saw all that we realized how poorly equipped the Kazakh side was.

The Chinese customs officer were very curious but friendly. They were interested why I look like a Chinese, what my parents' name are and what they do. They checked our bags thoroughly. Very nice people!

We believe that our very late arrival made the border crossing very easy. Everybody wanted to go home what was to our advantage. There we were in China. We left Central Asia without paying any bribes! Yippiee! A new chapter has started with China and Southeast Asia.

Right after the border skyscrapers, very good roads and many cars welcomed us. What a difference! Only some minutes ago we still saw donkeys. We stayed a night in Korgas in a nice and cheap hotel and took a long shower. That night and the day after we ate at Chinese street rerstaurants. It was definitely the best food since we left home! We are finally in food paradise!

A sleeper bus took us 700 km over night to Ürümqi, the capital of the Xinjiang province. The beds were small but still ok for us. Standard Europeans would very likely have problems with the size. In the morning when we woke up, we were already in Ürümqi. Somehow we were sad that we missed that part of the road. What we had seen in the evening from the bus, had looked like a really nice road to ride by bike.

We need food! The long ride from Shymkent to Almaty

Total distance: 3864 km
Shymkent - Taraz - Merke - Korday - Almaty

Rolling hills

2 days in Shymkent were enough to see the city's highlights. One thing that we noticed immediately were the different faces in Shymkent. We saw many people with a Chinese face, others were more nomadic looking and again others looked like Russians. While we were walking around, we did not catch eyes like in Tajikistan and Uzbekistan. We could have been locals too.

We did get registered easily at the immigration office on Tuesday. No problems at all. There is one strange thing with German passports though. Whenever people look at our passports, they look helplessly because it's not written on the front where we are from. Swiss passports for example do mention 'Switzerland' on the front but German passports show only 'Bundesrepublik Deutschland'.

Before we left Shymkent we took advantage of the post office and sent a parcel back home. We are not sure what the French influence on the Kazakh post is or was, but our parcel got stamped with 'petit paquet' and 'recommandé'.

Japanese's front tyre

On our way from Shymkent to Almaty we met the first non-European and non-Australian cyclists. One Thai guy was on his way to Uzbekistan. But truly the craziest cyclist we have met so far was a Japanese. We saw a rolling something, him on his bicycle, coming towards us on the other side. From far he looked like a someone with 2 m of baggage behind him. He only introduced himself as "Hello, I am Japanese". Well, ok, Japanese has been on the road since 2003 and has cycled nearly the whole world. He told us that in the Sahara he carried 40 l water, i.e. 40 kg additional weight! He was on the way to Monaco and had pedaled 97000 (ninety-seven thousand!) km! Have a look at his front tyre - if you can still call it tyre. He was already riding on the Schwalbe Marathon Plus interior protection layer. By the way, we (Sarah with her Schwalbe Marathon tyres) have had only two punctures so far - both on the same day because we had lunch in a field full of thorns. Well, we learned a lesson from that ;-) All cyclists who we met picked Schwalbe tyres. Locals love to touch our tyres and are surprised how hard they are. One Kazakh pointed at our tyres and asked "Germanski?'"... "Da! Germanski" we replied. He smiled, was satisfied and explained with gestures how Chinese tyres would explode after only a few kilometers.

We made a stopover in Taraz and stayed at Hotel Taraz, our only hotel and shower during the 9 days from Shymkent to Almaty. Sarah dared to get a haircut in Taraz. For less than 4 € and without any Russian she managed pretty well, don't you think? In Taraz we met a German retired couple in their German camper-van. They drove from Germany via Russia and Mongolia to China and were on their way back home through Central Asia. It was an organised tour with many German camper-vans but still quite an adventure.

When Cat and Adam had cycled from Almaty to Shymkent they had headwind. Knowing that we hoped to have good tailwind, as we were going exactly in the opposite direction. But the day we cycled out of Taraz there was such a strong headwind that we gave up after only 30 km. It was a real fight to cycle at only 6 km/h. So it was useless to continue. Our frustration was high. This was probably our shortest day on our bicycles so far.

Our idea to enter Kyrgyzstan from the north won't be feasible anymore. Our visa runs out on 15th September, not enough time to discover some parts of the country. Still we were in Kyrgyzstan for about two hours. One stretch of the way led through Kyrgyz territory three times. The Kyrgyz border guards - or were they Kazakh? - at one watchtower tried to stop us but we only greeted friendly and rolled away quickly. We didn't feel like getting into trouble and we heard stories of a cyclist who was sent back by the guards on that road. In Kazakhstan, however, we got stopped by police for the first time in Central Asia. They didn't want to see our passports. Their only interest was, as usual, where we are from ... "Germania. Ah, Guten Tag! Good-bye!" and we could continue.

We were lucky with the weather (sometimes still over 40°C) and the landscape was beautiful. The vast steppe, a herd of sheeps here and there, the proud Kazakh men on their horses, and the huge and impressive mountains always to our right. We actually find the Kazakh people to be really nice! It happened more than one time that after we had set up our tent in the evening, a rider on his horse came by, bringing his sheep home for the night. They stopped said hello, asked if we had enough water and if everything was alright, refused our offer of a cup of tea, wished us a good night and were gone again. We guess that this must be their nomadic roots. In the end we are not so much different from them, nomads as well - just on bicycles instead of horses.

It was easy to find a good place to camp in the evening. We were never far away from the main road but always hidden by rolling hills, trees or high steppe grass. The rolling hills in the evening and morning sun were amazing. The only creatures that woke us up were either mice looking for food inside our tent or horses.

The main reason why we got rabies vaccination is dogs in Kazakhstan. Many dogs along the road love to chase cyclists. We usually carry stones ready in our pockets. When we met chasing and barking dogs, we stopped and shouted back. A human, deep "wroaaaaaaaaar" can be scary too, we can tell you! Actually we never had to throw a stone. Imagine that, us on our bicycles barking back at dogs :)

The last kilometers to Almaty were painful. Although the road was good, we didn't know anymore how to sit on the saddle. Wrists, neck, back, legs, ass: everything hurt. When we found the Hotel Manas, we enjoyed a long and refreshing shower. A lot of dirt, layers of dust, came off our bodies.

Here we are, in Almaty, extremely exhausted after 9 days and 700 km of cycling but totally happy to relax in a big and modern city with all its advantages: good food and a shower! It feels like paradise!

---