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-eyed, walking slowly with cold, wet shoes on, foot cramps, wind wiping through my jacket, tired, hungry, alone, lost far behind the rest of the group, along a seemingly endless path across a mountain range. But somehow, with the help of the people I was with and my own mind, I pushed through and at hour 8, I made it back to camp safe and sound. 8 hours of trekking up to 3800 meters to see a glacier lake in the middle of nowhere, through white water rivers, rocky mountains, lush grasslands, wet bogs, deep moraines, a hail storm! (see video below) and all the way back to our lovely little base camp.  I had no trekking poles, no good rain gear, no energy. After two days of trekking up to this altitude, with our packs on, carrying everything we needed with us, I thought day 3 would be easy. Whoops! In the comfort of the small tent, I sat, soaked, exhausted, thinking why would I put myself through this! Why would I choose to do it! How does it start to hail after I was just cooling off in a tank top by a glacier lake in the sunshine! Why didn’t I save any chocolate!  But I made it. And it was so goddamn beautiful. It’s truly incredible what our minds and bodies cand do when we push ourselves.

Let me roll back to a few days prior. I arrived in Almaty with no idea what to expect. Even the plane ride to get there was another world- next to me two women speaking Uighur, across the aisle two men speaking Russian and behind me a couple speaking Mandarin. I realized I was going to be thrown into a true melting pot, Central Asia blends of peoples, languages, religions, cultures. Turns out my arrival must be what people feel when they arrive in China. No signs in English, people asking me for directions in Russian, I was totally lost! I went to a Starbucks where he asked my name and well… you can see how huge the language barrier was:

After a day to explore the city, I was picked up at 7 am to start my trek. At our ‘safety briefing,’ the soft spoken Dennis, KZ guide extraordinaire, told us one thing: “There are two kinds of snakes. One good One bad. Ok? Finish your tea, we go.” Ok? We loaded up our packs with sweets from the local market, chocolate, noodles. Dennis carried what appeared to be hundreds of cans of food, propane gas for cooking, multiple teapots, tents, who knows. We started to walk through beautiful pine forests and hills, stopping to refill our water bottles from the river (the best water I’ve ever had) all the way up 2000m to our first camp site. We relaxed, Dennis made tea, we had bread and cheese and meat, brushed our teeth with a view, and watched the sun go down.

And up! UP and at it early the next morning, the woods opened up to incredible vistas. In the distance, we saw some dark figures. What is that? We hadn’t seen anyone on the first day. Oh, no big deal, just a couple nomads with their pack of 100 horses crossing the countryside of Kazakhstan. The horses were just as curious about us, and all at the same time, poked their heads up over the hill to see what silly foreigners were trying to walk across this extensive land.

We made it to our second camp, facing a giant glacier and Turgen’s highest peak. After a dinner of ramen, tea and biscuits, it was time to sleep. 8 pm bedtime, not too shabby! 

After my epic day 3, I realized I could do anything. And so when Dennis said we were climbing to this place, I thought. Ummm ok!! 

As we started the ascent I really felt like a hobbit on the way to Mount Doom. It was slippery, rocks were falling left and right. I had no poles, bad shoes, bad form, but we kept going. Couldn’t quite get to the peak but again, what amazing landscapes. The way down was quite the rock scramble but I felt high on nature! We made it back to camp with time to sit in the sun, rinse off in the lake, nap, read, eat, sit, nap, read, eat, repeat. Sleep.  

And just like that: 5 days in the wild beauty with no phone, no electricity, no bathroom, no shower, and it was time to head all the way back down. On our last 20 minutes before civilization, we came across our first (and only) snake! Small but scary, we continued on and finished our journey all the way back to the beginning. When we had our final cup of tea, I asked Dennis- 'so was that a good or bad snake?' He looked me straight in the eye and replied “Bad. Very. Bad." Wowwee!! What an exciting last day indeed.

All in all, I’d say this was an adventure I signed up for but didn’t really know what to expect or how much it would change me. The nature was seriously out of this world amazing and the vistas while peeing were life-changing. But really, it made me realize just how much I can do with my legs and my brain. Go to Kazakhstan if you can- it will surprise you in the best ways!

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