Kazakhstan, you are beautiful!
Imagine a place so pristine, so untouched, so natural, so beautiful, so calm, so quiet that all you hear is the river rushing over rocks, the hum of flies across the lake, the flapping of grass in the wind, the crack of glacier ice falling in the distance. That’s what I experienced in Turgen National Park, a mere 2 hour ride from Almaty, Kazakhstan’s largest city. Pretty sweet, huh? When I said I wanted to do a visa run to somewhere in Central Asia, people looked at me funny but it didn’t stop me. Nature- I craved nature. And nature is what I got. Culture- I craved culture. And culture is what I got. New experience? Check. Challenging mentally? Check. Challenging physically? A million checks. Worth it? Of course! I'm going to start on day 3 of my 5-day trek with Trekking Club, KZ (highly recommended!) because that’s when I had the hardest day of my life, physically and mentally. Well, in the past couple of years. I was teary-eye...