Another day, another border crossing. This time from Kazakhstan’s largest city to Kyrgyzstan’s capital.

Yesterday’s scorching heat has continued, and I am hoping for some reprieve as I begin to ascend into the mountains over the next few days. I woke rather early as I am still adjusting to the change in timezone and ended up setting off at 9 AM.

Today’s route in blue

The first stop was a fuel station on the outskirts of town (it’s good to get away from the traffic, there tends to be fewer cars, and it’s an opportunity to ensure everything is ready before hitting the highway). I am still figuring out how filling up at petrol stations works here. From what I gather, you pay first, the station (or yourself) fills up your tank, and then you go back to get refunded the difference. I find that with each new place I need to relearn a few things:

• whether or not people are happy about motorcycles lane-filtering and cutting lines
• how flexible speed limits are
• how to behave at the petrol station
• how safely people on the road drive
• how friendly/unfriendly people are to motorcyclists

In Kazakhstan:

• people don’t like lane-filterers
• speed limits are flexible if no police are watching
• pay, then fill, then a refund
• pretty unsafe … I have never seen Toyota Camrys go at 160–170 kph until Kaz (I didn’t even know this was possible)
• people are neutral to motorcyclists

The route went westward, following the Ala-Tau mountains until their terminus, and then turned south to enter Kyrgyzstan.

Steppe

Ala-Tau mountains

Along my right-hand side was a vast steppe, of the variety I can picture nomadic tribes living in days of old. Every now and again, wild (I assume) groups of horses roamed together. As I rode, I listened to Lao Tzu’s Dao De Jing — I feel like it is important to listen to something that I can drift in and out of (unlike the other ebook I downloaded, The Dark Forest by Liu Cixin).

What I assume to be tombs on the roadside?

As I continued, I got very curious about riding on the steppe. After all, I’d come all this way… Eventually, I spotted my opportunity at the intersection where the route turns south. I would get off the road, ride a few kilometres along the steppe, take a few photos, and then get back onto the highway.

Riding in the steppe

This was great fun, although there were some very mean-looking insects (picture a 5 cm long flying wasp).

Once back on the highway, the route cut through the foothills of the Ala-Tau mountains, and I took the chance to check out some grassy hills as well.

Roadside monument as the highway turns south

On top of a grassy hill

As you might be able to tell, I’m very keen for some of the less-paved roads I’ll be travelling along over the next few days!

The border crossing was uneventful. A vehicle check, passport stamp, and then off to the other side to do the same. There is supposed to be a customs union, which could explain why this is so much faster than the Chinese → Kazakh border.

Then, Bishkek itself. It is a sprawling town (city would be generous I think), maybe 10 kilometres long, with mostly one-storey buildings. There is far too much congestion on the road relative to the driving population, and I attribute this to poor road/intersection design where bottlenecks are easily created and slow to resolve.

Dinner. The Kyrgyz are great at meat and onions.

Outside the restaurant there are yurts and other things to showcase Kyrgyz culture

I sorted out my laundry, had a bite at a nice restaurant on the outskirts of town, took photos at the city centre, before returning to the hotel to sort out my route for the next few days.

City Centre (yes I rode my bike into the middle of a public park for this photo)

Likewise for this one…

And this…

Some stats:

• 270 km travelled
• 27.4 L fuel added
• 20 g coffee consumed
• 2 unique interaction

Altitude map of today’s ride

Route to date