{"id":23089,"date":"2025-05-06T14:06:30","date_gmt":"2025-05-06T04:06:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ourpangaea.net\/?p=23089"},"modified":"2025-05-06T14:06:31","modified_gmt":"2025-05-06T04:06:31","slug":"the-stans","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ourpangaea.net\/?p=23089","title":{"rendered":"The Stans"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Our body clocks were on 3am and we were standing in a narrow alleyway surrounded by rundown buildings in the pitch dark.  I found myself arguing with our taxi driver who was in the process of scamming us for some big bucks on the ride from the airport to the apartment we had booked for the night.  Language was definitely a barrier because we didn\u2019t speak very good Russian or Kazakh.  Yes, we were in Almaty, the largest city of the Central Asian country of Kazakhstan.  Not off to a great start on our adventure through the Stans.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Our hotel in Almaty and the scene of the taxi scam where the driver had a meter that sped so fast it made my wallet spin<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Pedal backwards for a second.  Where is Tramp, our beloved truck\/camper which we have used to explore five continents of the world?  Sadly, he is still resting in California.  So yes, we\u2019re doing things differently this time, very differently, including travelling with four other friends, all seasoned travellers, as we spend the next six weeks exploring Kazakhstan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan, otherwise known as the Stans.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Dave’s Tours started off with three days on airplanes but the group was keen – from left to right myself, Jan, Dave, Warren, Nichole and Julie<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Central Asia, as it\u2019s more broadly referred to, is the missing link in our Follow the Sun journey around the world.\u00a0 In 2023 we set off with Tramp from Europe, visas in hand, to cross T\u00fcrkiye, Georgia and the Caspian Sea by ferry and explore this mysterious part of the world.\u00a0 But the remnants of Covid and the growing conflict of the Ukraine meant borders were either closed to vehicles or countries were no-go zones so we couldn\u2019t complete this leg of our journey.\u00a0 But now we are back, travelling a different way but keen as mustard to finally see this part of the world.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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A map of Central Asia and particularly where we’re going – Kazakhstan, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Our journey starts in Seoul, South Korea, of all places, where the six of us spent the night in transit on the way to Almaty.  We had time that morning to take one of the free walking tours of this fascinating and vibrant city before our evening flights.  Seoul was at it\u2019s sparkling best, sunny blue skies, clean and modern but ample speckles of a rich history scattered throughout. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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In South Korea everything was slick, including the train from the airport to the city<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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We also had to catch the metro to our hotel – the underground network was really quite easy to figure out once you got the hang of it<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Celebration beers in Seoul on the first night of our three month adventure which will eventually cover seven countries<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Our walking tour gave us a great introduction to this city and primed us for our three day stop here at the very end of our travels this northern summer.  We normally don\u2019t hang out in big cities but we loved the vibe of Seoul.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The historic South Gate of the old walled city of Seoul – very cool<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Of course there was shopping in the open markets…<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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…and there was always street food, our favourite<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Our walking tour took us to many of the main sights in downtown Seoul and gave us a good introduction to this buzzing city<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Including a ‘river’ which flows through the downtown area and provides space for locals to do their thing<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Seoul featured a number of statues commemorating their heroes like this proud guy – 16th century Admiral Yi Sun-sin <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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The biggest of the heroes in South Korea’s history is 15th Century King Sejong the Great who also invented the Korean alphabet<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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The handsome Gwanghwamun Gate, part of the massive Gyeongbokgung Palace which we’ll visit when we return to Seoul at the end of our trip<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The morning after enriching our taxi driver in Almaty we had a chance to get some fresh air and walk around the gritty light industrial neighbourhood we found ourselves.  And we immediately recognised the scenes, signs in the Cyrillic alphabet, tired Russian-built factories, old battered cars, grim-faced people going about their business without taking much notice of these wide-eyed visitors.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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A familiar scene – unsightly yellow gas pipes provide an essential service to every home and business<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Julie is ready to explore all aspects of this corner of Almaty<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Julie and I found a couple little shops to buy yummy savoury pastries for brekkie and two different places to have coffees while we watch the Kazak world go by.\u00a0 We loved this stuff.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Ah yes, coffee, served up at this early morning kebab shop<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

But exploring Almaty in more detail will have to wait because we were on a mission which involves another flight.  More background is needed here.  Our great friend Dave, a fellow traveller without par, has organised almost all aspects of this trip and he knows how to pack a punch.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

But Central Asia is huge, absolutely massive, and the only way to see every corner is to take a few domestic or short haul flights.\u00a0 So back to the airport it was where Dave, Julie and I plus our fellow intrepid travellers Warren and Nichole and Jan all jumped on the not-so-well known domestic carrier SCAT Airlines to catch a flight to the far western Kazak city of Aktau on the shores of the Caspian Sea. It was a little disconcerting after we landed when our fellow passengers all applauded the pilot as if perhaps they weren’t expecting this outcome.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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SCAT Airlines and their sister airline Sunday Air have some colourful planes<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Aktau plays a significant part in our Follow the Sun journey even though we had never been there.\u00a0 In 2023 our plan was to drive Tramp across T\u00fcrkiye, Georgia and Azerbaijan to catch a ferry across the Caspian Sea which would have dropped us off in Aktau.\u00a0 From there we would have started our exploration of the Stans in style, the way we like to travel.\u00a0 But Azerbaijan was still closed to visitors crossing by land and we were not prepared to drive around the Caspian Sea via Russia or Iran so we never made it to Aktau.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Aktau in the morning light – Soviet-era apartments but also many modern business and housing complexes<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

But when we woke up in our hotel in downtown Aktau, a sprawling if somewhat bland city with a mix of rundown Soviet buildings and shiny new structures built with post-petro dollars, we knew we had to head down to the shores of the sea.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The distinctive World War II monument in downtown Aktau<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

After checking out the impressive World War II memorial we walked along the main wide boulevard to the shoreline and took in the ambiance, if you could call it that, of this vast briny sea, the largest true lake in the world. We hadn\u2019t crossed the Caspian Sea as we had originally hoped but this was a major milestone for us nevertheless and our exploration of the Stans was about to begin in earnest. Bring it on!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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We finally made it! A mission which started two years ago was finally fulfilled when we hit the shores of the Caspian Sea<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Julie the international ambassador made instant friends on a sea wall jutting out into the Caspian Sea<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Absolutely! We love being in Aktau at the start of this big adventure.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Our body clocks were on 3am and we were standing in a narrow alleyway surrounded by rundown buildings in the pitch dark.  I found myself arguing with our taxi driver who was in the process of scamming us for some big bucks on the ride from the airport to the apartment we had booked for the night.  Language was definitely a barrier because we didn\u2019t speak very good Russian or …<\/span> Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":23120,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[106,105],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-23089","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-kazakhstan","category-south-korea"],"jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.ourpangaea.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/PXL_20250501_025144865-scaled.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ourpangaea.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23089","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ourpangaea.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ourpangaea.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ourpangaea.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ourpangaea.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=23089"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/www.ourpangaea.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23089\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":23131,"href":"https:\/\/www.ourpangaea.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23089\/revisions\/23131"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ourpangaea.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/23120"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ourpangaea.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=23089"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ourpangaea.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=23089"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ourpangaea.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=23089"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}