Moon Canyon

Today's the day I finally explore the Kazakh steppes. I had joined a 2D1N tour because I really wanted a chance to sleep in a yurt, just like the old days in Mongolia.

My meeting place was at Ibis which was super convenient as it was only a minute away from the capsule hotel. I soon found myself inside a huge van with unfamiliar people, and as usual I wasn't really in a very social mood when put in these sort of situations so I put on my Sennheiser's and just let the tunes take me away.

Our first stop was a place called the Moon Canyon, which was aptly given its name due to its lunar-looking landscape. On the way, we stopped by an endless flower field of white and yellow poppies, it was my first time seeing this many flowers in one place which stretched as far as the eye could see. The smell was intoxicatingly resplendent.

When we arrived at the Moon Canyon, we did a short hike going deeper into the valley. According to our tour guide, this area, or the whole of Charyn used to be the bottom of the ocean as far as the Mesozoic era. Meaning where we're standing now was once a prehistoric sea bed which explains all the really unique rock formations and patterns.Read more