Charyn Canyon

Another one-night stop, this time at Kazakhstan's answer to the Grand Canyon, Charyn Canyon. This is the second stop on Kazakhstan’s ‘Golden Triangle’ of sights, including Altyn-Emel (previous stop), and Kolsai Lakes (next stop). Dan navigated some dreadful roads to get us to the canyon, and an even worse parking lot on arrival.

Charyn is a massive geological feature in the middle of nowhere, with no towns nearby, meaning accommodation is very limited. We also know that it gets very busy during the daytime, especially on weekends, because it's doable in a long daytrip from Almaty. So we bit the bullet and paid for a glamping yurt right on the edge of the gorge, way over our usual daily budget, so that we could hike into the canyon early in the morning before the tourist buses arrived.

We went for a sunset stroll at the top of the gorge, Dan practiced archery (and hit the target!), wrapped up with a brilliant evening in the yurt, listening to oud music, playing cards and making decent head way on a bottle of vodka that a nice man in Zharkent insisted we buy. In retrospect, a rogue call to sink half a bottle of vodka before a 5.30am wake up for a hike, but wake we did.

The good news: the canyon is stunning. It's called the 'valley of castles' for a reason, with soaring towers and minarets of red, white and black rock, layered like cake and especially vivid in low light. So much so, it's a popular spot for wedding photoshoots and even music videos—we spotted one particularly intense clifftop dance routine (see video, which we may have ruined with our giggling). Luckily, the canyon is empty in the evening and early morning, meaning we could walk around at sunrise almost alone—it would never be possible in China! Plus, the inside of our yurt was cosy and had an incredible view across the canyon to enjoy in the evening.

The bad news: they hadn't told us in the booking listing that the toilet and shower block didn’t actually exist yet. So we had to use bathrooms in the visitor centre, which were 200m away, locked up overnight, and rammed with tourists during the daytime. There was only one staff shower, shared between at least 20 guests, and with no lock on the door 🙃 Not ideal, especially for the price tag! Dan is currently making a fuss with the manager to try to wrangle a partial refund.

All in all though, despite the bathroom debacle, a beautiful stopover. Now onto somewhere less expensive, but no less insane...Baca lagi