The last two rest days we’ve stayed in really nice hotels which definitely adds to the relaxation factor. Last week in Gorno, Russia I got a week’s worth of washing done for 100 RUB (which is roughly $3 USD). This week in Semey, Kazakhstan I got more-or-less exactly the same set of clothing washed and it was 16,250 KZT. So far on this trip I’ve paid more than that for laundry (17,500 MNT in one of the Mongolian hotels) however on this occasion 16,250 KZT works out to be just under $50 USD. Ouch…!!
Because we had to go to register with the local police I was up far earlier than I would have preferred for a rest day, and while the hotel may be nice, the breakfast was somewhat lacking – certainly in comparison to last rest day in Gorno.
As I expected the trip to the immigration office turned out to be a ‘hurry up and wait’ process which dragged on for more than an hour and a half, and even then the job was only half done – thankfully the (very) helpful Regine is taking care of filling in the forms in Cyrillic and now that the police officer has seen each of us we get to leave.
Regine filling in my application form in Cyrillic.
From the immigration office I drifted round town for a while, including checking out the market where I was able to buy a piece of fabric, then find someone to sew it into a cover for my thermarest – the only potential issue is that it’s ended up quite bulky so fitting it in my daily bag could be something of a challenge on longer stages where I need more kit – we’ll see how it goes, it ended up costing about $5 USD so if it’s too bulky I’ll get rid of it and look for something better when I get to Almaty.
From there I wandered back to the hotel to give my bike a good clean and get Jordan to take another look at my front hub which is making some ‘interesting’ noises. I also did a couple more blog posts, spoke with Adam for a while and took care of a few other items of administrivia which required my attention.
It also turns out the Semey (or Semipalatinsk as it was known when Kazakhstan was part of the USSR) has a pretty grim history as a nuclear test site. There’s a memorial known as “Stronger than death” which I went to take a look at (more photos in the gallery below) this afternoon. There’s more about Semey’s nuclear past in The Atlantic.
Stronger than death memorial
Back at the hotel again and I collected my passport along with the necessary slips and stamps to allow me to stay in Kazakhstan for the duration – given that I thought they were trying to encourage tourism they don;t exactly make it easy…!
The week ahead is an odd mix of distances, I’m looking forward to the logic of these ones being explained to me!
The plan for the next stage
As expected we’ve also got a stupidly-early start in the morning with bags in the hotel lobby by 0450 so I’m going to finish this post, get my bags sorted and take a shower before calling 2000 bed time.
Tomorrow I’m planning to ride with Michael, Charlie and Will because 188km of ‘nothing’ on my own would likely have me throwing myself under passing trucks by about km 120 – we’ll see how that goes, but it’s got to be better than solo. Even Andreas has admitted ‘this is the boring bit’, (from here to Almaty) so I expect it’s going to be pretty dull.
All going well I’m going to be connected to the world much more over the next couple of weeks since I’ve got a confirmed-to-be-working Kazakh SIM card, and we’re assured that there’s “pretty good” mobile coverage on the highways and in all the towns along our route.
View from my ‘tent’
Looking out from the end of the hotel corridor.
