and then on to Kazakhstan
Well it would have been nice to go ‘on to Kazakhstan’, but actually I had to fly all the way back to Istanbul, transit for 14 hours in the airport (and despite what they advertise, Turkish Airlines did not provide hotel accommodation, merely two vouchers for the cheapest dishes on the menu at the cheapest eating establishments in the airport), and then fly back over Turkmenistan to get to Almaty, Kazakhstan’s largest city and former capital. There my friend and I met our tour group, were given a tour of the city’s highlights, and finally were able to get some much-needed sleep. The next few days mostly focused on what for me were the highlights of this country – the spectacular mountains and canyons of its natural scenery. We visited several different sites within the 4,600 km2 Altyn-Emel National Park, walking for several hours in both the stunning Charyn Canyon and the almost-as-stunning Katutau Coloured Mountains, and also visited the Black Canyon, a couple of lakes, and the Ak-Ta