To Shimkent,

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Arrived at Camal bus station at 7.45am in the morning and the sky is still pitch black. Had to wait until almost 8.45am to see sunlight.

Shimkent is the 3rd largest city in Kazakhstan. The city is not far away from Tashkent so the city has both Kazakhs and Uzbeks.

Today is still an official holiday so most shops were closed, including the museums.

Bazaar

Different parts of cow

Pig’s leg?

Took a shared taxi (100 Tenge ~USD$0.6) to Sayram which is a small town 10kms away heavily populated by Uzbeks.

Mountains around the small town

Making Camca (Pronouce as Samsa)

Took another minibus to Taraz at 4pm (3 hours ride, 700 Tenge~USD$4.6).

Took another overnight bus to Almaty at 10pm. The further away the seats from the front, the cheaper it is. Paid 1200 Tenge for the 8 hours ride.

Dec 10th

Went to the Kazakhstan embassy in the morning to get back my passport. Took 4 marshrutkas to the embassy because I got on a wrong marshrutka. It’s funny that the guy in the embassy still remembered me since he didn’t give me receipt when I submited my passport.

Bishkek

Met Farizat, a friend I met few days ago at the American University in Central Asia and she brought me a restaurant which has one of the best laghman called Faiza (take bus 35 towards the north west part of the city, on Jibek Jolu).

Went to Tsum (meaning central department store in Russia), a big department store to find someone who can fix my camera but unfortunately that person was not there.

I planned to go to Almaty the same day after getting my passport, so took bus 35 to the bus station at 2.30pm and waited for 2 hours for the minibus to be full before leaving for Almaty (4 hours, 200km, 300 Som~USD$7).

After an hour on the minibus, we reached the border of Krygyzstan and Kazakhstan. Crossing the land border of Krygyzstan-Kazakhstan wasn’t that difficult and was quite fast. Arrived at Almaty Sayran bus station at 9pm. I didn’t realized that it was Sayran bus station until later. Since the public transportation system in Almaty shut down after 9pm, I took a taxi to the 3rd Dormitory which was listed as the cheapest option under lonely planet. It’s actually a university dorm which is open for travellers.

I made a silly mistake and paid the driver 4000 tenge~USD$26 (1USD~150 Tenge) instead of 400 tenge that was agreed upon. He didn’t say anything and I even thanked that guy for the ride. I realized my mistake when the dormitory receptionist told me to pay her 1000 tenge~USD$6.70 for the first night. I immediately rushed out but the driver was gone. This reminded me of a Japanese trader who bought stocks for the wrong price, with more zeros than the correct price.

Met some Chinese students at the hostel. They are not Han Chinese, but Chinese Kazakhs who live in China. In Chinese, they are called Ha.
Chinese Kazakh family

There was an uprising against Russia in 1916 when Russia tried to mobilized Kazakhs for World War I. Many Kazakhs moved to China in around 1916 after Russia violently surpressed the Kazakhs uprising and killed hundread thousand people.