Wow what a first 24 hours, thing that happened: collected bike, road out of town, found hotel, invited to wedding, got drunk went to bed.
Woke up in the flee pit of a Turkmenistan Hotel and packed and got ready to be collected to collect the bikes at 10:00. The car did not arrive but we got a phone call can’t collect bike yet! Wait two hours. Then two hours later wait another hour eventually at 14:30 two taxis for 13 of us turned up and they spent the next half hour trying to squeeze us in nearly got 6 of us in on taxi but had to give up and wait for another taxi to turn up.
The drive to the shippers was manic they drive like lunatics’. Arrived at shippers and waited two hours why? No one knows. The a manic unpack and rebuild of the bike with the shipper saying faster faster we close in 1 hour you carry you bike out to the car park we close. So with crap everywhere in the car park we start to sort gear.
Teamed up with 3 Dutch riders Ad, Martin and Jan. A dangerous ride out of Almaty and finally into the quieter country roads an hour out of Almaty and looked for somewhere to stay found a hotel with no guests other than Jan, Martin, Ad and myself. The owner got the staff to let us have some leftovers, horse, bread and Vodka.
After the meal went for a walk, there was a local wedding next door and we got invited to join the festivities. A very affluent family. The hospitality was incredibly. All the Kazaks wanted to dance with us, as soon as you had a sip from the glass they filled it back up! Can’t really describe how welcome we were and what a unique experience.