The Tombs of Turkistan

As I write this, I'm on my way back to Almaty, after spending a few days seeing some of the more accessible highlights of Kazakhstan.

It's hard to appreciate just how huge this country is. They say it's bigger than Western Europe. A train ride from Almaty (a little over 100 miles from the Chinese border) to one of the western-most cities takes about 70 hours, at which point you're just as close to Moscow and technically already in Europe.

Needless to say, I wasn't really expecting to see much of Kazakhstan. It wasn't even on my list, due to the time commitment, vast distances, complicated visa, and general lack of historical sights. Probably their two most interesting spots, Baikonur (NASA's only place to launch astronauts now) and the Polygon (aka Semipalatinsk, the Soviet's main nuclear treat site, which the US just finished removing the plutonium from for them) are both effectively off limits (short of spending a ton with a politically connected tour company).

After talking to one of my fellow American travelers in Iran (Karen), who is planning to visit the Stans layer this year as part of her year sabbatical, I decided to give Kazakhstan another look. She mentioned they were doing a visa waiver for one year (ending this month), and there were a few accessible Silk Road sights relatively close by.

I headed towards Turkistan, the most interesting spot, roughly 600 miles west of Almaty. Since the only buses run at night (probably because 14-17 hours with no A/C at 100+ degrees during the day would be unbearable), and flights here are kinda cheap, I splurged on a $70 ticket.

I ended up on a pretty decent airline with a really unfortunate name, Scat Air. I know picking names can be hard, and English isn't the primary tongue here, but you'd think someone would have said something. At least they own up to it in their logo, which clearly involves something hitting the fan (see below). Kazakhstan's #2 airline indeed (sorry, I'll stop now).

I flew to the nearest city with an airport, Шымкент (or Shymkent if you don't read Kazakh). It had a few attractions worth seeing, and probably the best hotel/restaurant of my trip, Orbita Boutique Hotel. For <$60/night, they put me up in the African Suite  (every room is unique), decorated with African art and not a leopard print in sight. It even had a solarium attached.

The hotel's restaurant was the real highlight though. Their menu was very extensive, with lots of local, Central Asian, and Korean specialties (more on Koreans in Central Asia later). She also kept bringing local snacks for free to try after dinner, including some kind of cheese that I swear had the texture and flavor of smoked, pulled chicken (not sure I've had that either, but best I can describe it). It sounds weird, but it went perfect with the local beer, Shimkentskoe. Instead of the usual service and cover charges, they offered me a hotel discount, and tried to refuse any tip (tipping is expected here).

The second night, she also brought out their extensive sushi menu. She hadn't shown me before because it was all in Russian, but by sounding out the Cyrillic letters and remembering my Japanese, I managed to order some of the best sushi I've had. I tried not to think about how fresh raw fish could have made it to a far corner of the world's largest landlocked country safely.

From Shymkent, it was a simple matter of finding the right bus station, find a minibus going to Түркістан, negotiate the price with the driver, and sit there patiently for over an hour, with the windows rolled up and no A/C, while the driver sells every last seat (minibuses never leave with unsold seats). I had an ice cold 1,5l bottle of water, which was almost enough to make it to Turkistan.

As it doesn't look like my photos of Turkistan will finish uploading over airport wifi, I'll let the ones in this article speak for themselves. It was definitely worth the effort to get there.

Oh, and the Scat Air logo I promised: