• Chelsea & Dan’s Gap Year 2025
    The 'minaret'
    Mosque interior, wood, no nailsIs it a temple or a mosque?In the naveKazakh Fashion circa 18--Inexplicable bird costumeCars that remember glastnostSoviet bus stops are a whole thingThey go hard on town signsHorses on the highwayEagle statues aboundHalf naked men directing roadworks2

    Zharkent

    5–6 Eyl 2025, Kazakistan ⋅ ☀️ 30 °C

    We divided a long drive with a single night stop at the town of Zharkent, the last town before Kazakhstan's eastern border with China. Zharkent only has 40k residents, but it has a supermarket, many gas stations, more than one hotel, and at least one cafe with one English-speaking server. Which makes it a megalopolis compared to our previous stop, which was just three tumbleweeds in a trenchcoat masquerading as a village.

    Zharkent's main (only) attraction is the wooden mosque, which was built entirely without nails in the 1880s, and is a mix of Islamic and Chinese architecture. It’s a Chinese Buddhist temple masquerading as a mosque, and also a mosque masquerading as a Chinese Buddhist temple— genius work on the part of the designers.

    Honestly though, we don't have much to say here, so we'll mostly just use this post to share pictures of the weird and wonderful we've seen on the roads of Kazakhstan so far. Enjoy!    Okumaya devam et

    Çeviriyi gör