Kurytogay

In line with our previous country wrap ups here are our random facts about Kazakhstan:

First of all: People are extreme friendly and welcoming. Some experiences we had:
-> Right after the border we stopped at a river. We hadn’t even parked yet and a very excited man waved at us to stop. We met his whole family and got invited to a barbecue.
-> People frequently waved at us friendly on the road, talked to us from their car and wished us best of luck on our journey.
-> I was looking for a part for the car. The Toyota dealer in Astana didn’t have it but one of the staff asked for my phone number. An hour later I was contacted by someone in Almaty who could organise the part. Three days later the same guy delivered said part to our hotel and even only charged a reduced price!!
-> We spent our last night in Kazakhstan in a beautiful canyon on the way to the Kyrgis border. In the evening a family of four parked next to us to have a picknick. They not only walked over to us to say hello, they also brought bread and apples and invited us to sit with them!
=> If only everybody was as welcoming towards foreigners as the people here are (yes, I’m also looking at you Germany. Including myself)

Other things we noticed:

Horse meat is a national dish.

We saw a few graveyards next to the road. They're clearly depicting the Muslim heritage of this country with many graves looking like tiny mosques or at least carrying the moon symbol on top.

There are a lot of trucks with German signage around.

We met a lot of people that spoke great English and some even spoke German.

Watermelon seems to be the national fruit. It was sold along the road almost everywhere.

Around Almaty there are a few 3000m high mountains that can be climbed fairly easily.

And last but not least: lots of supermarkets sell German products! Flour, pasta you name it.

P.s.: nature especially in the South is much more beautiful than we expected!Read more