Woke up fairly late in the morning because I was F-book-chatting until the wee morning hours. Ruslan and I had breakfast and then went around town for 1.5 hours trying to find lithum batteries so that my Spot tracking device would actually work.
Had a great tailwind leaving town and basically sprinted the 10km to the bridge to Asia, where I threw up ... my arms in victory amidst honks from surrounding cars (whether they were supportive or annoyed with my taking a lane I do not know...). 
Rode about 40km and stopped in a little village to have some breakfast and a liter of pineapple juice (I should know by now not to have pineapple juice on an empty stomach). Made it the 80km or so south to Sol-Ilisk in about three hours with nice north winds. Decided to skip the salt baths (rumored to cure lots of problems, sadly not velo in nature) and push on to the border.
Turned about 60 degrees to the east and rode to Akbulak, a smallish agricultural town. Grabbed a bad of pilmeny for dinner later and rode over rough roads over to the border. About 15km out, I saw a sign that said "Warning - Border Zone: Must have special permission and official documents." Further inspection and use of my dictionary found that it was special permission OR official documents ... much to my relief.Rode the last 15km to the border where I was the object of much photography by both the border-going traffic and the border guards themselves. The Russian guards were quite professional, up until the last document checker who signed that he wanted a little bit of cash to grease the wheels and let me through. I said I hadn't any money, he sighed, and let me go. The Kazakh guards were a little less professional. I had to sit with them for about 20 minutes eating sunflower seeds, spitting the seeds on the ground, and avoiding any discussion about money. They finally got a little tired of me and told me where to get my passport and visa stamped. The customs part was a little less official, where the border guard basically said that I could go through if he could ride my bicycle for a few minutes. This seemed like a pretty good deal, so I watched him wobble to and fro with all my gear.
The final border guard again checked all my documents and signed that he was interested in my few remaining dollars. I again argued that I was poor and couldn't help him out.
After the lengthy two hour crossing I was a little bit tired, and with the sun going down I found a spot somewhat in the open beside the railway in a small grove of trees. Put up my tent, put down the pilmeny, and went to sleep.
Nice :)
ReplyDeleteThe Kazakh guards were a little less professional. That's true. When i leave Kazakhstan in past week-end, i was very angry.
4,5 hours i have to wait, and sit with this consumer of sunflower seeds, when car, where i ride finish perquisition.
ohh, it is so great, when i pass this border, and came back in russia. Russian guards smiled me, and does his job quickly, so i passed russian border about 20 min.