Central Asia and Caucasus

juli 2024

Een 31-daags avontuur van Sean Meer informatie

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Armenië
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Azerbeidzjan
Kirgizië
Kazachstan
Tadzjikistan
Oezbekistan
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Alles weergeven (12)

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34,0kafgelegde kilometers

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Nieuwste eerst

Footprints
Foto’s

Sean Plamondon Central Asia and Caucasus
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- Dag 12
- zaterdag 13 juli 2024
- ⛅ 30 °C
- Hoogte: 790 m
- Kazachstan Koktobe 43.255863, 76.94502743°15’21” N 76°56’42” E
Almaty - Day 1
12 juli 2024, Kazachstan ⋅ ⛅ 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.Meer informatie
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Sean Plamondon Central Asia and Caucasus
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- Dag 13
- zondag 14 juli 2024
- ☁️ 27 °C
- Hoogte: 778 m
- Kazachstan Almaty 43.262933, 76.93983343°15’47” N 76°56’23” E
Almaty - Day 2
13 juli 2024, Kazachstan ⋅ ☁️ 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.Meer informatie
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ReizigerI cannot get over how beautiful the mountains are. Kudos to you for trying out the horse meal. I don't think I could of even attempted that.
16-07-2024ReagerenVertalen
Sean PlamondonYa it took me a few days to convince myself to try it. Wasn't anything special to be honest. And the fermented horse milk was sooo awful
16-07-2024ReagerenVertalen
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Sean Plamondon Central Asia and Caucasus
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- Dag 14
- zondag 14 juli 2024
- ☁️ 30 °C
- Hoogte: 763 m
- Kirgizië Bishkek 42.874369, 74.59627742°52’28” N 74°35’47” E
Bishkek - Day 1
14 juli 2024, Kirgizië ⋅ ☁️ 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.Meer informatie
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ReizigerBeautiful.
15-07-2024Reageren
ReizigerGreat pictures thanks once again.
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Sean Plamondon Central Asia and Caucasus
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- Dag 16
- dinsdag 16 juli 2024
- ⛅ 28 °C
- Hoogte: 917 m
- Kirgizië Iskra 42.83244, 75.44743542°49’57” N 75°26’51” E
Bishkek - Day 2
16 juli 2024, Kirgizië ⋅ ⛅ 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.Meer informatie
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Sean Plamondon Central Asia and Caucasus
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- Dag 16
- dinsdag 16 juli 2024
- ☁️ 27 °C
- Hoogte: 758 m
- Kirgizië Bishkek 42.874588, 74.59530442°52’29” N 74°35’43” E
Bishkek - Day 3
16 juli 2024, Kirgizië ⋅ ☁️ 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.Meer informatie
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ReizigerThe scenery on your hike was pretty amazing....
20-07-2024ReagerenVertalen
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Sean Plamondon Central Asia and Caucasus
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- Dag 17
- woensdag 17 juli 2024
- ☀️ 33 °C
- Hoogte: 1 m
- Azerbeidzjan Heydar Aliyev International Airport 40.463174, 50.0490440°27’47” N 50°2’57” E
Baku - Day 1
17 juli 2024, Azerbeidzjan ⋅ ☀️ 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 nightMeer informatie
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Sean Plamondon Central Asia and Caucasus
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- Dag 18
- donderdag 18 juli 2024
- ☁️ 31 °C
- Hoogte: Zeeniveau
- Azerbeidzjan Bukhta-Il’icha 40.369494, 49.83736240°22’10” N 49°50’15” E
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Baku - Day 2
18 juli 2024, Azerbeidzjan ⋅ ☁️ 31 °C
Spent the afternoon walking around the old town stopping occasionally for a glass of wine here and there. Popped into a lovely winery and found an awesome rooftop location.

It was a much less social day and just to to myself wandering around. As i headed back towards my hotel, i saw bunch of women cooking food in a park with their kids. I decided to sit down on some steps not too far away. They were so kind, bringing me a cup of tea, and then some bread, and then some pastries and desserts. All the with a kitten in my lap :) And they also insisted i do some purification thing in a smoke kettle of sorts. I was

Just before leaving, i took a quick snapshot, which they unfortunately didn't like. And some of the teens followed me for a few blocks insisting i dont publish that picture. So i will of course honour their request and omit it from this entry.Meer informatie
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Reiziger Pretty Cool....
22-07-2024ReagerenVertalen
Reiziger To cute....
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Sean Plamondon Central Asia and Caucasus
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- Dag 19
- vrijdag 19 juli 2024
- ☁️ 28 °C
- Hoogte: 419 m
- Georgië Tbilisi - Freedom square 41.695381, 44.80417341°41’43” N 44°48’15” E
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Tbilisi - Day 1
19 juli 2024, Georgië ⋅ ☁️ 28 °C
Arrived in tbilisi around 6pm and met up with my Brazilian friend Raquel who flew in from New York to travel with me for about a week. Had a quick beverage together and then we set off to find a good restaurant and later to meet up with Marcus and Maria once again (from Norway). They led us to a craft beer place and we all did a sampler flight.

After Marcus and Maria left, Raquel and i found a nice basement bar for a beverage. And then after that found a super packed street of all lounges and nightclubs. Popped in and out of a bunch and finished up at a really fun irish karoke spot where we met a ton of people.Meer informatie
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Reiziger Wow...I like this....
22-07-2024ReagerenVertalen
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Sean Plamondon Central Asia and Caucasus
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- Dag 20
- zaterdag 20 juli 2024
- ☁️ 26 °C
- Hoogte: 434 m
- Georgië Tbilisi - Freedom square 41.693464, 44.80144941°41’36” N 44°48’5” E
Tbilisi - Day 2
20 juli 2024, Georgië ⋅ ☁️ 26 °C
Slept in and met up with Marcus and Maria in the old town at a craft beer place they found. Raquel eventually joined us and then we all went to a wine tasting in a cool basement winery. All the wines we sampled were really good and different than the wines I'm used to.

After that, Raquel and i found a nice restaurant to grab a good meal at and while sitting there, a girl sat at our table with us. Turns out that restaurant was the meeting spot for a pub crawl and that girl thought we were part of the group. Fairly fortuitous so we decided to join the group.

Lots of dancing and socializing with a very diverse international group. Fun night.Meer informatie
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Sean Plamondon Central Asia and Caucasus
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- Dag 21
- zondag 21 juli 2024
- ☁️ 13 °C
- Hoogte: 1.790 m
- Georgië Chkheri 42.660083, 44.64608242°39’36” N 44°38’46” E
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Kazbegi
21 juli 2024, Georgië ⋅ ☁️ 13 °C
Taxi'd back to the airport to pick up our rental car and headed due north high up into the caucasus mountains. Stopping several times to take in the beautiful scenery and lakes and high lookout points. Much colder in this part of the country and a tshirt definitely wouldn't be enough.

Finally arrived in Kazbegi, and drove up to picture perfect Gregeti Trinity church and its amazing panoramic views. It was really hard to leave. But i was getting super hungry. So we drove down the mountain and to the town for food. Super yummy stew type meal. And then found a small hotel to crash at for the night. Early to bed to recharge our batteries.Meer informatie
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Reiziger Love this photo...
22-07-2024ReagerenVertalen
ReizigerBeautiful pictures....
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Reiziger Thank you Sean for the unforgettable memories
23-07-2024ReagerenVertalen
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