Central Asia - Part 6 - Back to Nur-Sultan, and looking back

Finally the last part of my trip... Friday was again travel day, time to leave Tajikistan and return to our starting point Nur-Sultan. Again we got stamps to passport and our plane ticket (2 stamps), and you put your bags through x-ray 3 times, and your passport gets checked 4 times I think. We had a transfer in Almaty, and I got information from check-in that we have to do the immigration process and passport control in Almaty, and then transfer to domestic departures. So we filled the migration form for Kazakhstan for the third time and again we got stamp after stamp… after security check there is a desk, and the officials only job is to stamp the tickets! Passport gets checked about 5 times. I have 6 stamps in my passport just from Kazakhstan and of course 2 stamps fromTajikistan and 2 from Kyrgyzstan. Most of them are on one page.

It was very nice flight, just over an hour and we had our own screens (watched a couple of episodes of Big Bang Theory). In Nur-Sultan this time I got my bag really fast, the driver was waiting for us and took us to the hotel. For this last night we had booked a 4 star hotel, Aldana. Very beautiful hotel!

 

 

We had dinner at the hotel restaurant, a lovely place. One thing I noticed during this trip, that over there the restaurants are not full of tables, so there is lots of room to move.

The only problem in the restaurant was that they don't have a menu in English. That is something I didn't expect in a classy place like that, and our first waitress didn't speak a word of English. Using Google translate we managed, then we got a waiter who spoke English, except he didn't know what salmon is. But the food was good and so was the wine! That was the day when ice hockey world championships started, and we watched Finland beating Canada (suckers!!). My friend had an early flight but the hotel offered him early breakfast, and he left at 5 a.m. I didn't even wake up! I am a horrible friend… I woke up when it was daylight already (almost 8) and my first thought was he has slept in and missed his flight. It did not come to my mind that I didn't wake up :D. But he got to his flight, and so did I in the afternoon.

One very weird thing in the hotel happened... in the same building there seemed to be a clinic too. In the hotel elevator there was a screen, where they advertised the clinic as well, and they showed a woman having an ultra sound. Not exactly what you like to watch in a hotel elevator after breakfast. The only word coming to my mind is Why?

My flight was at 16.10, first to Frankfurt, 3 hour stop there and then to Dublin, that is 2 hours flight. Then I had to wait for my bus for 2 hours, and the last leg was 2,5 hours by bus. So it was about 3.30 at night when I arrived at home, I had notified my flatmate not to shoot me as burgler and she promised to unload her shotgun. Obviously she did that because I am still here. Time difference to Kazakhstan is 5 hours, so basically I stayed up all night, again. Why I keep doing these crazy schedules? I could afford and extra hotel night or the higher price for better flights, but I still rather spend my money on things to do, and not on the extra comfort on transportation. But the older I get, the more I appreciate that little extra comfort and these overnight travels just exhaust me, and the recovery takes more and more time. Which usually I don't have because I go to work the next day.

I got home almost two weeks ago, and I always have this weird feeling right after travelling, like was I ever even there? I know I was but the feeling is just funny. Now I have started to plan my next trips and I am getting very restless again. I have been pondering if I should stay here for another winter or should I move on after summer. I still don't know what I will do, so maybe I just check what is available and where. Here I have everything good, only the winter is horrible (I even missed Finnish winter). Maybe stay another winter, save as much money as possible, and then try to organise a few months off. I have many options in my head, and I already messaged my sister one evening because I had 6 o'clock existential crisis. Her reply "what crisis you have now again" probably tells you how often I ponder these things :D.

Anywyay, in July my sister and her hubby are coming for a visit, so I am also taking a couple of days off then. This weekend I am going to Dublin for one night, I just decided and booked it today. Just had to get somewhere. Right now I have no booked travel plans (empty feeling), so I have no idea what my next post will be about. I might post something about Dublin.

So that's it from my amazing trip to Central Asia. I absolutely loved it, and in that area there would be so much more to see.

 

 

 

 

Central Asia - Part 5 - Iskanderkul

Wednesday was the daytrip to Iskanderkul! We booked it from Advantour. They picked us at 9, or actually they were at the hotel already at 8.30. It was a private tour, and we had a driver and an English speaking guide. We stopped several times so we could take pictures and we sure did… I took 130 pictures that day :D. If you don't want to see lots of pictures of mountains, you should stop reading this post right now.

It is 130 km from Dushanbe to the lake and it takes about 3 hours to drive. The road in the mountains is really serpentine road, up and down, and at some places in quite bad condition that you can hardly even call it a road. But the scenery is just breath taking all the way! The day was sunny, didn't see one single cloud all day. Bottled water was also included. The guide told us a lot about the history (he had studied foreign languages and history at uni), and also about the present, and answered our questions. They really took good care of us the whole day :).

Pics on the way there

 

 

 

 

 

We walked first to the waterfall, that is 38 m high, but you can see only a part of it. It is a bit of a hike to get there, mostly rocky narrow trail, so bring good shoes and watch your steps.  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

After that we had lunch in the small restaurant in the tourism centre, included in the tour, we were served traditional tajik dishes (3 courses meal), tea and water. And this is the view we had when having lunch

 

This was at the wall in the terrace



 

Lovely tea pot... in Central Asia people drink hot tea with meals, no matter how hot it might be outside.



 

More pics of the lake and the tourism center 

 

 

 

 

 

They had nice wall paintings there 



 

 

 

 

 

After lunch we walked to the Snake Lake, that is just a short walk from the tourism centre. Didn't see any snakes (in that case I would probably still be screaming), but I was told there has been a lot of snakes, that's why it is called Snake Lake (finally something logical).

 

 

 

From the tourism centre they can also take you to the lake by boat, but unfortunately I didn't have enough cash with me :(. The price for the boat tour is 25 USD. So we started to drive back to Dushanbe.

The guide told us that the highest peak in Tajikistan is 7400m, and there are many 6000 and 7000 meter peaks there. Easy to believe… 93% of Tajikistan is mountains. I would think it is a heaven for mountain and rock climbers. There's also lots of lakes and rivers. I have never seen that high mountains, and they were just everywhere around you all the time. It made me feel so small, those huge mountains that have been shaped for millions of years, not giving a crap if humanity exists or not.  

When I saw this cow in the middle of the bridge (we had to cross that), the first thing that came to my mind "YOU SHALL NOT PASS!!".

 

 

We were back at the hotel after 17, so it was a long day… and at the hotel we realised we had lots of sunburns. I burned my arms and I never burn my arms! And also my shoulders, but didn't burn my face, which usually burns first. Weird. We needed a little rest before going to dinner, and to update travel diaries and upload photos etc. And to have a beer. We walked to Rohat teahouse, because we wanted to have traditional tajik pilaf, which we tried to order at that one cafe but they didn't' have it. And Rohat didn't have it either. They recommended the national soup, which we already had for lunch. We ordered something else then, and wine. And soon the waitress came back that they don't have that wine. Then I asked about other wines if they are red or white, but she didn't know! And they had just 5 wines on the list, shouldn't be too difficult to know even if they are red, white, rose or sparkling! She finally brought all the available bottles to the table, and I chose the lovely Georgian wine I had already in Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan. I also brought a bottle back to Ireland, and shared it with my flat mate.

My friend waited for his beer, and finally had to remind them. He got his food a lot before I got mine, had to remind them about my food. So the service was not that great, they just forgot our orders or they didn't have what we wanted. Too bad because it is a lovely place! Thursday was the Victory Day, so the rest of the stay in Tajikistan is in Part 4.

 

If you are into mountains, this country is a dream destination for you; mountain climbing, rock climbing, river rafting etc. According to our guide there's a lot of possibilities for extreme sports. Nature is just amazing, me and my friend just sat in the car quiet because we were admiring the gorgeous mountains. And because we're Finns.