First thing in the morning, we took a bath. I don’t know how clean you get by trying to wash in those lakes, but we probably won’t see a shower in a couple of weeks.

We were headed for the border now, and made a small stop right before. Fredrik wanted to make sure all the screws was tightened, and we also wanted to eat lunch before trying to get over the border, as you never know how long it will take. Some military/border police people showed up and wanted to see our passports and car registration, but seemed pretty happy and nice overall.

   
Photo by Henric Fröberg

 

Photo by Joakim Johansson

Getting over the border was pretty easy, and did not take that long at all. When asking a really hard-looking military what we would do next, as we wasn’t sure of the process, he waved at us and said ”bye-bye”.

After we crossed the border, we had to get insurance for the cars. I do learn many things about getting vehicles over the border, as I did not know there is green card countries where the insurance from home is valid, and countries where you need a local insurance.

Back at the cars, the others had found a small problem. Pontus, who is going both trips, had applied for a visa with two entries, but had only gotten the same as the ones coming on the second trip. The dates started at 1 of July, but we guessed they did not look really close, as he was illegally standing in Kazakstan now. We decided not to go back to the border, but to solve it in another way, as he may have gotten kicked out back to Russia otherwise. Now, worst case scenario, he will stay in Kazakstan while we pop into Kyrgyzstan for a few days, and then we will meet him in another city again. First, we will of course try to fix this!

It was time to refill diesel again, and as it now was even cheaper, we also refilled the gas canisters on the roof so we had diesel for many kilometres! Tha gas station looked pretty nice and “vintage”.

  
We headed into the city Uralsk, where we first went to get money and I also bought a SIM card. Hopefully, I will be able to blog more frequently, and not have to try to upload four posts in the same time. It is a little bit slow, though, so the pictures will be a little lower quality! When buying the SIM card the cashier had problem with the SIM cutter, and therefore used a scissor and a nail sharpener to get it small enough.

When finally done we went out on a small walk on the city’s main street.

  
Photo by Joakim Johansson

We tried to find a place to eat dinner at, and it seemed pretty hard to find a normal, cheap place. We ended up on a really fancy expensive places, which meant the prices were as normal McDonalds price at home. All of us felt really dirty when placing ourselves in the chairs, and also ”showering” in the basin in the bathroom. We really are hobos!

   
Photo by Fredrik Arnell

 As everything is flat and there is not many trees we took our chances and went out to a place with a small collection of trees. Someone seemed to live in there, though, so we went back a kilometre and just set camp in the open. There were no mosquitos, but some small bugs.

Everyone is actually nicer here in Kazakstan, and there are less cars. People are driving more sane, and seems to be smiling here. I like it more already, and if I make a new try on biking to Japan, I think I will still try to pass through here. The adventure mood is up!