To the border

The good cycling feeling returns quickly, although it seems to be going less smooth then it used to be. Probably because the road goes up, while I think it is flat, at least I hope that is the reason. At my first stop, a yurt on the side of the road, I order tea. Next to that I get shashlick and camelmilk. Camelmilk is very sour but when you don't swallow to often it is ok. Outside of Almaty the prices are reasonable, at other places where I do have to pay for my tea they only charge around 25 Tenge. When I ask an old man for directions he invites me into his shop and offers me 500 Tenge. I try to refuse but he is determined and smiles from ear to ear when I accept it. He also shows me a book in which a German guy has written his name in 2000, apparantly he was cycling too. I put my name and address in the book as well and leave in the indicated direction. When the little km signpost on the side of the road indicates 97km I steer my bike in the shoulder and continu until I am out of sight of the road. I do some light repair work on my Guru shirt, the holes keep on falling into it, so I have always something to do.

The next morning I am woken up by cows walking passed me and soon after I am cycling again. After a short while I reach a little village where I can replenish my empty water bottles and get some bread. Afterwards I stop at a little cafe to drink some tea. The cafe is closed, but the owner invites me into het shop to have breakfast. I get 2 sorts of bread, butter, honey, sausage, cheese, cakes, sweets and tea of course. The daughter speaks some English, so I even am able talk a little, what a treat. When I leave I get a get a bottle of pepsi for the road. Cycling goes slow, I feel like stopping all the time and give in to it.

The busstops are nicely ornamented, but in this case only donkeys seem to have an eye for it. The scenery gets more barren. Left and right of the road are small herds of cows and horses accompanied by a cowboy and his dog. Halfway the day I am cycling through a small mountainous section, fortunately I can go through it on the bottom of the hill, so I do not have to climb. When I stop here for dinner I get everything for free again. The cost to me was that I had to drink a mug of horsemilk, which is even worse than camelmilk and smells like horse (manure).

I already saw them alongside the road in Georgia and Azerbaijan, but also here there are tombs of someone who has died on the road. I have not seen any accidents, but by the number of tombs I see there must be quite a few of them.

On August 30 I meet a fellow cyclist. He came from the opposite direction and had already visited China. He was a real diehard one, who cycled everything, not such a baby like me who skips pieces when he can. After a short stop we say goodbye and with increased morale I continu on my route.

Sometimes the horses do not stay on the side of the road but feel like taking part of traffic. The 31st I try to cross the border. Rob the cyclist I met the other day, had warned me it could take a while, it had taken him 10 hours, so I was prepared. For me it was not so bad it only took me 5 hours, it consisted mainly of waiting at the Kazakh side. First for the border control, at one they all went for lunch for an hour and than for a bus who would bring us to the Chinese border. I pleaded I could cycle but was not allowed. Instead I had to make a lot of efforts to carry the bike onto the bus and then get in it my self. In the bus they even asked for money to take me, but I indicated I did not have any money, which was almost true after which I drove for free. The Chinese side was smooth and efficient and I was through in 15 minutes.