by timshazz | Jul 5, 2021 | Backpacking, Destinations
Where is Bishkek-Kyrgyzstan? (And why would you want to visit?) Bishkek is the capital of Kyrgyzstan. If you’re traveling the silk route it’s about 240 km southwest (ish) from Almaty; 270 km east of Taraz, and about 600 km northeast of Osh. If you’re...
by timshazz | Jul 4, 2021 | Backpacking, Destinations
Where is Taraz? (And why would you visit?) Taraz sits on the route between Tashkent and Shymkent, and Bishkek and Almaty. So if you’re going between any of these destinations by road, it’s a logical stop off point. Taraz is one of the oldest cities in...
by timshazz | Jul 4, 2021 | Backpacking, Destinations
Where is Turkistan? (And why would you want to visit?) Turkistan, the city, lies around 160 km northwest of Shymkent in Kazakhstan.It’s the capital of the Turkistan region of Kazakhstan and the home of the Mausoleum of Khoja Ahmed Yasawi. Yasawi was the...
by timshazz | Jul 3, 2021 | Backpacking, Destinations
Watermelon pink walls – Ouch! The overnight train trip to Shymkent, Kazakhstan’s third-largest city, was fairly uneventful and almost comfortable if it wasn’t for the fact the Air-Con only worked when the train was moving rapidly and that wasn’t all...
by timshazz | Jul 3, 2021 | Backpacking, Destinations
Green Market – Almaty As much as we would have probably liked to sleep till midday, we had lots of things to do in Almaty (AKA Alma – Ata) before we could start to enjoy ourselves. After our somewhat traumatic 23 hour crossing from China, I was totally...
