Day 40 & 41: Turkistan, The Holiest Place In Kazakhstan
Day 40: Almaty to Turkistan (Overnight train)
I am leaving Almaty for Turkistan today. My overnight train leaves in the late afternoon and so I spent the whole day in an internet cafe blogging, sorting out my photos etc. When I left the hotel in the morning, I saw some snow on the mountians in a distant away. This is a sign that the weather is turning cold.
I was so engrossed with blogging that I almost forgot about my train. By the time I realised it, I am already running late. I went to the busstop and try to catch a bus. But the thing about the transportation here is that at the busstop, there are no signs telling you which bus number comes to this stop. There are also no information about which bus number goes on which route. You just have to ask around. Thankfully, it did not took me long to find the right busstop and the right bus to take.
However, the bus took ages to come. So long that I am running very late. So I decided to take a taxi instead. Almost all cars here is a taxi. You can bascially flag down anything with wheels, tell them where you want to go, settle on a price and they will send you to your destination. However, you might not be the only customers onboard. Most of the time you will be sharing the "taxi" with others that the driver picks up along the way. It is just that simple. But there is still one problem, I DO NOT SPEAK THEIR LANGUAGE.
Look around the busstop, went forward to a girl, asked if she could help me. So happen that she was also heading to the train station and she was also running late. So we shared a taxi there and upon arrival, she refused to take my money. She said its ok. It was a kind gesture of her toward a tourist. Kazakhs really love vistors. I do not have to repeat that again.
At the train station.
As the train leaves the station and out of the city, I realised that Kazakhstan is a relatively flat country. This was the view outside my window for 99% of the time.
Travelling on the train is a great way to meet the locals. Here a few people that I met on the train. They were all interested in me. Where I come from, where am I going etc.
A cabin is shared between 4 person. This is the guy who stayed in the same cabin as me. He does not speaks english and so most of the time we were communicating with the help of a very basic English-Russian translation book.
It is also common to share food with fellow travellers in your cabin. The locals always prepare lots of food which last them throughout the whole 2-3days journey on the train. This guy was with his wife and so there was no lack of food. Needless to say, Kazakhs, people who are well known for their great hospitality, offered me their food ofcourse.
Day 41: Turkistan
Woke up quite early and saw the sun raise.
The terrian still remians flat and empty with occasionally something structure in sight.
This little girl was also in my cabin and she was so shy to interact with me yesterday. But today, she begins to smile.
Soon, the trains arrived at Turkistan and I realised that all train stations look the same in Kazakhstan.
It was only about 7 or 8 in the morning when I arrived. So I decided that I should buy an onwards ticket to my next destination and should leave Turkistan tonight on an overnight train. This way, I saved money on accomodation and I save time as I am sleeping and travelling as well. It is also easier to kill time on an overnight train as all I have to do is sleep. One day is more than enough to see Turkistan, so why not?
Took a minibus(all time favourite transport in Central Aisa) from the train station to the small Turkistan town. Realised that there are no fixed stops for the minibus. they go on a fixed route and you can bascially get onboard and off the minibus anywhere along this route.
As it was very early, all the cafes were still closed. It took me very long before I found a place to have breakfast. This is the place. Later then I realised that ACXAHA means canteen.
This is what I had for breakfast. All meals come with bread and a pot of tea. Kazakh loves bread. You will see more breads in my later photos.
Kazakhstan is a Muslim country. The whole purpose of making this trip to Turkistan(a small town in Kazakhstan) is to see the greatest architectural monument and the most important site of pilgrimage in Kazakhstan, The Mausoleum of Kozha Akhmed Yasaui, the first great Turkic Muslim holy man.
The rose garden outside this holy site.
Since this is the holiest place in Kazakhstan, many Muslims come here to worship.
Not only the Kazakh Muslims come here, many muslims from all over also visit this place.
Of which I met 3. From left to right other than me, from Xinjiang in China, from Arab and from Uzbekistan. The girl from Xinjiang started to talk to me first as she thought that I was from her country.
One of the unique sight of this place is that there are 12-15 century semi-underground mosques. Too bad no photography is allow inside. This place gives me a secretive feeling.
This is the main building, the place where Yasaui is buried.
I cant help but notice these poles sticking out from the walls. What are they for?
More pictures outside the Mausoleum. No photographs are allowed inside.
Like many other great ancient site, it was being protected by a perimeter wall.
Some views from the walls.
More pictures.
Just as I was looking around the area to see if there are more beautiful sight to capture, I spotted a guy carrying a DSLR camera. HE MUST BE A TOURIST!! I thought to myself. I must go and talk to him. I haven see a backpacker for ages. So rare. And Bingo!! He is from Hungary and is planning to travel for a year or so. I asked him if he is interested to visit sauran, a place where I wanted to go next. There are no public transport to this place and so I had to book a cab for a few hours to get there and back. It would be expensive and if he also wants to go to this place, we can share the cost. He replied yes. Great!!
It was through talking to him that I found out that the poles that are sticking out from the walls are actually ancient methods for people to climb higher as they build this building. It was for them to climb higher so that they can carry on building. I asked him how does he know and he replied that he is an architect. No wonder.
Then we left this mausoleum. This was taken outside the mausoleum.
Since this is the holiest site in Kazakhstan, many people love to have their wedding photos taken here and to get the blessing. There is a huge difference between the rich and the poor. The rich are really rich. One look at this wedding car and you can imagine how rich the rich can be.
The hungary guy asking for direction.
When we finally got a taxi and arrived at Sauran, we had a great laugh. What was discribed as the best preserved and most atmospheric of all the many ruined Silk Road cities in SyrDarya valley is not as good as it sounded. But since we were already there, we walked around the area and made many jokes like "Hey look, this was where the castle was", "I can tell from the rock that a fight broke out here", "The princess lived here" etc.
Our "taxi".
We were so hungry by the time we got back to town and so we went for our lunch at Nauryz restaurant.
The hungary man and me.
Our food. Can you see the bread and the pot of tea again?
Then it was time for me to leave. I bid goodbye to him and left. Went to the train station and boarded the train. Like before I got to know many local onboard but this time round, there were more conversation and interaction. Not beacuse there were no language barrier but because there were more youngster. So even though we dont speak each other's language, somehow or other we still managed to send our messages across to each other. Then they started to give me some gifts and so I gave them something back in return. It was interested.
This guy is doing IT and he gave me a round thing to exercise my fingers. I gave him a china postcard.
The guy in white singlet is a soldier doing peace keeping mission. He showed me many of his photos. Amazing. I gave him a tshirt and a postcard from china. He wanted to give me something back in return but he dont know what to give and so he took out his uniform, tore out his country tag and gave it to me.
Then at night, these guys saw a girl sitting alone in the corridor and began talking to her. When they realised that she can speaks chinese, they were so excited and got me out from my bed and asked me to talk to her.
Anyway, they are a bunch of very helpful guys. They help me called the hotel of the next place where I will be staying at, translated the address into english for me etc. I did not even asked them to do it for me. What can I say. Kazakhs are so helpful.
Looking out of the window, I can see that it is going to be full moon again. Which means that another month will soon pass. How many more full moons will I see before I go home?
*Click HERE to return to the Main Page of The Cold Journey.*
I am leaving Almaty for Turkistan today. My overnight train leaves in the late afternoon and so I spent the whole day in an internet cafe blogging, sorting out my photos etc. When I left the hotel in the morning, I saw some snow on the mountians in a distant away. This is a sign that the weather is turning cold.
I was so engrossed with blogging that I almost forgot about my train. By the time I realised it, I am already running late. I went to the busstop and try to catch a bus. But the thing about the transportation here is that at the busstop, there are no signs telling you which bus number comes to this stop. There are also no information about which bus number goes on which route. You just have to ask around. Thankfully, it did not took me long to find the right busstop and the right bus to take.
However, the bus took ages to come. So long that I am running very late. So I decided to take a taxi instead. Almost all cars here is a taxi. You can bascially flag down anything with wheels, tell them where you want to go, settle on a price and they will send you to your destination. However, you might not be the only customers onboard. Most of the time you will be sharing the "taxi" with others that the driver picks up along the way. It is just that simple. But there is still one problem, I DO NOT SPEAK THEIR LANGUAGE.
Look around the busstop, went forward to a girl, asked if she could help me. So happen that she was also heading to the train station and she was also running late. So we shared a taxi there and upon arrival, she refused to take my money. She said its ok. It was a kind gesture of her toward a tourist. Kazakhs really love vistors. I do not have to repeat that again.
At the train station.
As the train leaves the station and out of the city, I realised that Kazakhstan is a relatively flat country. This was the view outside my window for 99% of the time.
Travelling on the train is a great way to meet the locals. Here a few people that I met on the train. They were all interested in me. Where I come from, where am I going etc.
A cabin is shared between 4 person. This is the guy who stayed in the same cabin as me. He does not speaks english and so most of the time we were communicating with the help of a very basic English-Russian translation book.
It is also common to share food with fellow travellers in your cabin. The locals always prepare lots of food which last them throughout the whole 2-3days journey on the train. This guy was with his wife and so there was no lack of food. Needless to say, Kazakhs, people who are well known for their great hospitality, offered me their food ofcourse.
Day 41: Turkistan
Woke up quite early and saw the sun raise.
The terrian still remians flat and empty with occasionally something structure in sight.
This little girl was also in my cabin and she was so shy to interact with me yesterday. But today, she begins to smile.
Soon, the trains arrived at Turkistan and I realised that all train stations look the same in Kazakhstan.
It was only about 7 or 8 in the morning when I arrived. So I decided that I should buy an onwards ticket to my next destination and should leave Turkistan tonight on an overnight train. This way, I saved money on accomodation and I save time as I am sleeping and travelling as well. It is also easier to kill time on an overnight train as all I have to do is sleep. One day is more than enough to see Turkistan, so why not?
Took a minibus(all time favourite transport in Central Aisa) from the train station to the small Turkistan town. Realised that there are no fixed stops for the minibus. they go on a fixed route and you can bascially get onboard and off the minibus anywhere along this route.
As it was very early, all the cafes were still closed. It took me very long before I found a place to have breakfast. This is the place. Later then I realised that ACXAHA means canteen.
This is what I had for breakfast. All meals come with bread and a pot of tea. Kazakh loves bread. You will see more breads in my later photos.
Kazakhstan is a Muslim country. The whole purpose of making this trip to Turkistan(a small town in Kazakhstan) is to see the greatest architectural monument and the most important site of pilgrimage in Kazakhstan, The Mausoleum of Kozha Akhmed Yasaui, the first great Turkic Muslim holy man.
The rose garden outside this holy site.
Since this is the holiest place in Kazakhstan, many Muslims come here to worship.
Not only the Kazakh Muslims come here, many muslims from all over also visit this place.
Of which I met 3. From left to right other than me, from Xinjiang in China, from Arab and from Uzbekistan. The girl from Xinjiang started to talk to me first as she thought that I was from her country.
One of the unique sight of this place is that there are 12-15 century semi-underground mosques. Too bad no photography is allow inside. This place gives me a secretive feeling.
This is the main building, the place where Yasaui is buried.
I cant help but notice these poles sticking out from the walls. What are they for?
More pictures outside the Mausoleum. No photographs are allowed inside.
Like many other great ancient site, it was being protected by a perimeter wall.
Some views from the walls.
More pictures.
Just as I was looking around the area to see if there are more beautiful sight to capture, I spotted a guy carrying a DSLR camera. HE MUST BE A TOURIST!! I thought to myself. I must go and talk to him. I haven see a backpacker for ages. So rare. And Bingo!! He is from Hungary and is planning to travel for a year or so. I asked him if he is interested to visit sauran, a place where I wanted to go next. There are no public transport to this place and so I had to book a cab for a few hours to get there and back. It would be expensive and if he also wants to go to this place, we can share the cost. He replied yes. Great!!
It was through talking to him that I found out that the poles that are sticking out from the walls are actually ancient methods for people to climb higher as they build this building. It was for them to climb higher so that they can carry on building. I asked him how does he know and he replied that he is an architect. No wonder.
Then we left this mausoleum. This was taken outside the mausoleum.
Since this is the holiest site in Kazakhstan, many people love to have their wedding photos taken here and to get the blessing. There is a huge difference between the rich and the poor. The rich are really rich. One look at this wedding car and you can imagine how rich the rich can be.
The hungary guy asking for direction.
When we finally got a taxi and arrived at Sauran, we had a great laugh. What was discribed as the best preserved and most atmospheric of all the many ruined Silk Road cities in SyrDarya valley is not as good as it sounded. But since we were already there, we walked around the area and made many jokes like "Hey look, this was where the castle was", "I can tell from the rock that a fight broke out here", "The princess lived here" etc.
Our "taxi".
We were so hungry by the time we got back to town and so we went for our lunch at Nauryz restaurant.
The hungary man and me.
Our food. Can you see the bread and the pot of tea again?
Then it was time for me to leave. I bid goodbye to him and left. Went to the train station and boarded the train. Like before I got to know many local onboard but this time round, there were more conversation and interaction. Not beacuse there were no language barrier but because there were more youngster. So even though we dont speak each other's language, somehow or other we still managed to send our messages across to each other. Then they started to give me some gifts and so I gave them something back in return. It was interested.
This guy is doing IT and he gave me a round thing to exercise my fingers. I gave him a china postcard.
The guy in white singlet is a soldier doing peace keeping mission. He showed me many of his photos. Amazing. I gave him a tshirt and a postcard from china. He wanted to give me something back in return but he dont know what to give and so he took out his uniform, tore out his country tag and gave it to me.
Then at night, these guys saw a girl sitting alone in the corridor and began talking to her. When they realised that she can speaks chinese, they were so excited and got me out from my bed and asked me to talk to her.
Anyway, they are a bunch of very helpful guys. They help me called the hotel of the next place where I will be staying at, translated the address into english for me etc. I did not even asked them to do it for me. What can I say. Kazakhs are so helpful.
Looking out of the window, I can see that it is going to be full moon again. Which means that another month will soon pass. How many more full moons will I see before I go home?
*Click HERE to return to the Main Page of The Cold Journey.*
posted by ZeeVinCeZ at 6:25 AM
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