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Sean Plamondon

Sean Plamondon

traveled in 82 countries Read more🇨🇦Ottawa
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    • Sean PlamondonSean PlamondonCentral Asia and Caucasus

      Baku - Day 1

      July 17, 2024 in Azerbaijan ⋅ ☀️ 33 °C

      I had a long trip to get to baku. 5.5 hours from bishkek to ankara, turkey. Then 2.5 hours from ankara to baku. My connection was only 2 hours, and my flight was an hour late arriving. I thought for sure i would miss my connection because in bishkek i wasn't given both boarding passes and i was thinking i would have to exit security and check in again in ankara. But fortunately i found desk inside the security zone to give me a boarding pass.

      Baku is both old and modern simultaneously. Really beautiful city. I wandered the old city a bit before relaxing at a place with great dolmas and a beer and extremely friendly kittens. Eventually wandered around some more and found a place with a great live band. And after that went to a small pub and met some really nice azerbaijan guys who shared my world views quite a bit surprisingly. We chatted and played pool for a few hours before ending the night      Read more

    • Sean PlamondonSean PlamondonCentral Asia and Caucasus
      Tim from kentuckyRussian friend

      Bishkek - Day 3

      July 16, 2024 in Kyrgyzstan ⋅ ☁️ 27 °C

      My excursion started at 830am. Aziz picked me up first and we had to wait for Kati's plane to arrive from Germany. Pretty crazy she is going from an overnight flight right onto an excursion!

      First we stopped at Burana tower. Not much left of the former city here. Climbed to the top and walked around the site a bit. Then lunch at a restaurant along the way and finally hiked into Kongorchuk canyon. Took about 1.5 hours to hike to the end which was spectacular red rock formations as a reward for the tiring effort. Hurried back because a big thunderstorm was rolling in and we got back to the car minutes before hitting us.

      Took a 3 hour nap and one last evening at Pivo where i met Tim from kentucky and a russian guy who is escaping the war.      Read more

    • Sean PlamondonSean PlamondonCentral Asia and Caucasus
      Kyrgyzstan stop signAwesome Navat restaurantMy $3 meal at NavatTijou from OregonMax from FranceAlina and co-bartender whose name escapes meRita from BishkekDavid from Quebec

      Bishkek - Day 2

      July 16, 2024 in Kyrgyzstan ⋅ ⛅ 28 °C

      Decided to not plan anything for this day and needed some sleep after the very late soccer match. Nice to slow things down a bit. Eventually got going and walked a few hours around the city. Lots of soviet era statues and monuments and soviet style buildings. Not the most creative architecture.

      Went to a traditional restaurant Navat and ordered something that was much more asian tasting with veal, vegetables, soy sauce and lots of different spices. Super tasty.

      Then back to the Pivo pub and chatted to the bartender Alina a lot plus met many other travelers. One guy from france drove all the way to Kyrgyzstan from Paris!! Crazy. My canadian friend david eventually joined me as well. Very social evenings in Kyrgyzstan.      Read more

    • Sean PlamondonSean PlamondonCentral Asia and Caucasus
      Ascension cathedral in almaty
      David, Marcus and Maria

      Bishkek - Day 1

      July 14, 2024 in Kyrgyzstan ⋅ ☁️ 30 °C

      Another travel day, this time to Kyrgyzstan. Visited a cathedral and also had an awesome meal called Ossobuco before heading off to the airport. Almaty's airport is easily the newest, nicest, biggest airport in central asia. Bit sad i didn't have more time in Almaty. Really nice city!

      Upon landing in bishkek, found out my norweigan friends were also in bishkek, and we made arrangements to meet up again. Another canadian, David, joined us too, who i met on a Facebook travel group. Had some really good craft beers at a place called Pivo (russian word for beer) and then we found a place to watch the Euro football final match between England and Spain.

      Game started at 1am because of the timezone difference.. so it was a very late night but such a fun time with friends.      Read more

    • Sean PlamondonSean PlamondonCentral Asia and Caucasus
      Charyn canyon
      Charyn canyonCharyn canyonCharyn canyonMoon canyonMoon canyonStone shelfStone shelfHorse meat meal

      Almaty - Day 2

      July 13, 2024 in Kazakhstan ⋅ ☁️ 27 °C

      Early start to the day for my canyons excursion. Sergey picked me up at 7am and off we went.

      Took over 2 hours to reach beautiful Charyn canyon. Hiked the length of the interior red rock area and also hiked most of the upper rim for panoramic shots. Wow it was hot inside the canyon, over 40C. Super popular and teeming with people

      I thought that was awesome until we drove off road to the Moon canyon. Spectacular tight golden rock formations. Continuing off road, really off road, to Stone Shelf which was perhaps even better. We had lunch right there. And deeper off road to two spots Napoleon and Austrian viewpoints. Geez it really didn't seem possible to keep getting better, but it did. Came across a number of camels in our off road venturing and even some on the highway. All these off road locations we were the only souls anywhere.

      On return i briefly rested and then made my way to a craft beer place i had researched. Finally some really good beer 🍺 😋 From there went to a traditional kazakh restaurant that Sergey recommended and i hesitantly ordered the traditional horse meat meal. Pretty good but one time deal for me :) Also tried fermented horse milk which is also absolutely never happening again! Yuck!!! It was 100x worse than i was anticipating haha, and my expectations were super low.

      Bounced around town to a few other places, trying more kazakh wine in a few nice places, chatting with some locals and eventually calling it a night.      Read more

    • Sean PlamondonSean PlamondonCentral Asia and Caucasus

      Almaty - Day 1

      July 12, 2024 in Kazakhstan ⋅ ⛅ 30 °C

      Flight to Kazakhstan was rescheduled for 1pm but again by 3pm the flight showed "closed" on the big board and i was starting to think my Kazakhstan leg of the trip might not happen at all. But fortunately at 4pm we were in business and my 21 hour delay was over.

      Turned into mostly a travel day. By the time i arrived at my downtown apartment, it was well after 6. Then had problems finding a bank to pay for the apartment plus some difficulty coordinating with the apartment owner. Finally sat down for supper around 9pm.

      First impressions of Almaty are great! Very close to a huge mountain chain. Large boulevards with lots of trees and buzzing nightlife. I came across many pedestrian streets filled with street performers, shopping and restaurants. Very lively and safe city.

      Decided with my limited time to try out a local brewery for both some food and local craft beer. And also went to a winebar to sample some Kazakhstan chardonnay too. The beer was average and the wine was definitely better than i expected. And then off to bed for my 7am excursion.      Read more

    • Sean PlamondonSean PlamondonCentral Asia and Caucasus
      1

      Dushanbe - Day 2

      July 11, 2024 in Tajikistan ⋅ ☀️ 35 °C

      Got up and took some more pictures at Iskander lake before the 3 hour drive back to Dushanbe. Such an incredible drive. My pictures do not do it justice. We stopped by Hisor fortress on the way which was a cool hilltop walled fort. Unfortunately not much remains on the interior. But very scenic spot. But again the heat made climbing the fortifications extremely hard.

      Then just killing a few hours before my 7pm flight. All the airports in this part of the world are tiny and not somewhere you want to hang out for very long anyways. So i went downtown for a few hours to a couple different places. Got to the airport 3 hours early but i wasn't even allowed into the checkin area until 2 hours before my flight. Things are just different here.

      Disappointingly, my flight was delayed 2 hours and eventually got cancelled. And supposed to get rescheduled for tomorrow at 1pm. I'm really tired and don't really mind that much because i can sleep in now. I was supposed to have a 7am excursion which I'm relieved i was able to reschedule a day later too. Apparently the airplane struck a bird on its way to dushanbe so they grounded the plane.

      Got put up in a really nice hotel for free, paid me for my taxi and apparently i will be refunded my meal tonight too. Could be a lot worse :)      Read more

    • Sean PlamondonSean PlamondonCentral Asia and Caucasus

      Iskanderkul

      July 10, 2024 in Tajikistan ⋅ ☁️ 16 °C

      Farzona and her brother picked me up at 8am and off we went north into the mountains for another tour. Apparently Tajikistan is 93% mountainous and holds the world's second highest mountain chain after the Himalayas. And these details became apparent very quickly. Within 15 minutes of leaving the capital, we were entering some pretty crazy terrain. And it got more dramatic as we went.

      3.5 hours later we arrived at Iskander lake. Didn't really see the lake on arrival, and we had a big feast again immediately. Then farzona and I embarked on a two hour hike. First past the turquoise lake, and eventually to a canyon and waterfall. Beautiful throughout.

      On the way back, got even better shots of the iconic iskanderkul lake before hesding to snake lake. Bit of a challenge getting there but was a very nice place to relax for a while. Also went to some natural springs along the way.

      Returned to a rustic spot by the lake where we they rented us a house but with food and beverage service too. Big family operation. Me and Khurshed had some beer together on the dining table and then moved things to the lakeside. For a brief period the lake was so still and we unwittingly got some crazy awesome pics. Followed by endless food and then just relaxing on the cushion table until bedtime. I'm starting to get used to relaxing on pillowed tables haha. Life is rough 😁      Read more

    • Sean PlamondonSean PlamondonCentral Asia and Caucasus
      My private museum tour guide
      Tallest flagpole in the world. Super random!The white houseParliament1Crazy spice options at the marketNuts for nutsSitting ON the table :)My spacious hotel room1Looked like i got cat food with my beer hahaLocals i met before the soccer game. Super curious about me

      Dushanbe

      July 9, 2024 in Tajikistan ⋅ ☀️ 35 °C

      Got up at 5:45am to make my 8am flight to Tajikistan. The international terminal in Tashkent is pretty chaotic but the organized chaos kinda works at the same time. Entering security depends on your flight time. I had to wait until passengers with much more pressing flight times got through security first. Getting there super early has no benefit.

      Hired a guide for a tour of Dushanbe. To my surprise my guide (Farzona) offered to pick me up at the airport which was super nice. Farzona's brother Khurshed was our driver for the day while we chatted and walked around.

      First stop was the National museum of Tajikistan where farzona had hired a museum employee (kasymova) to give me a private tour of the entire museum. Wow. Extremely detailed.

      Then Farzona walked me through beautiful parks to several monuments and both the parliament and president's "white house". After that we went to a massive food market and farzona chatted with many different vendors and got me samples of tons of different fruits and nuts there without ever giving anyone money. I must ask her more about this tomorrow

      After filling up on fruits we went to a traditional restaurant and had a huge feast in a private booth. I really wish i hadn't just come from the market because i was pretty full from so much sampling. Very different "table". Basically, we are sitting on the table with cushions and all the food in the middle. Food was soooo good. Especially the creamy dish.

      And after 5 hours together i was dropped off at my hotel. Where I napped for 3 hours. I really needed that. Plus the heat was intense again. Looking forward to some mountain temperatures tomorrow. The city is really nice and almost feels like a big american city like Washington. Huge avenues, lots of flowers and monuments. Very safe and comfortable.

      Got going again around 6pm and found another huge monument near a pub i was trying to find and then sampling some Tajik beers at a great outdoor spot. Not finding any real craft beers yet here. At least not any Tajik ones. But enjoying the city. Its definitely not what I expected. Very modern, and western feeling. I would never know i was in central asia right now. Very few girls wearing headscarves and most dressing in stylish garb. Even the ones who are much more conservatively dressed often look really sharp and bedazzled :)      Read more

    • Sean PlamondonSean PlamondonCentral Asia and Caucasus
      I had to navigate a km of this by foot. UghInsanely beautiful subway platforms. And each one completely differentMarcus and Maria from Norway

      Tashkent

      July 8, 2024 in Uzbekistan ⋅ ⛅ 32 °C

      Day started with a 730am drive from Khiva to the Urgench airport which took about an hour. Then a 2 hour flight to Tashkent, Uzbekistan's capital.

      Couldn't check into my hotel until 2pm, so I went for a long walk to the main bazaar and eventually to the massive muslim spiritual complex with tons of different ornate structures - mosques, madressas and minarets. I had no idea it was so huge. And they are just about done building the biggest mosque I've ever seen. Pictures dont show it properly at all. Shame it was closed still because i really wanted to check it out.

      My walk there wasn't so great. I decided to take a route through residential streets and get off the big noisy roads. Big mistake. Those residential streets were under massive construction and took me forever to navigate them. And because of road closures and also making a wrong turn, cost me an extra 45 minutes in the heat.

      But i did walk all the way back in a much more direct fashion to the hotel. Quickly checked in and then had earmarked a few nice restaurants to check out. Decided to try the subway. Wow every station is an elaborate art piece. Just beautiful. I wish they put that level of detail into signage though haha. Super hard to know which direction each platform is.

      Messaged my Norwegian friends i met in Samarkand for some ideas about a good beer place here in tashkent. Turns out they had just arrived in Tashkent too! So we agreed to meet up for a beverage later that night.

      First place i tried was more of a store with tables. Second place was super nice and more of an expensive lounge restaurant. But the third was amazing. Beautifully situated along a river and prices were good too. Met up with Marcus and Maria and shared stories for a few hours. Nice finish to a bit of a frustrating day. Will see them again in 10 days haha. Fun!      Read more

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