Nur Sultan is approx. 1300 km from Almaty (I still call it Astana, the name was changed a couple months ago), on the way there are a lot of constructions and speed restrictions. Even where it is completely unnecessary. This results in you, after a while that you just go as you please. So did I, easy 80s tempo which is good for the car and the fuel. Yes, they were blinking in front of me. The Kazakhs are constantly blaring, blinking, and I have no idea why. So I ignored … So it happened that for speeding the Kazakh police put me off. They didn’t know English, German, so they called someone to translate. They wanted to take 200 Euros. Well, no, I told them. Rather show me the video and how much I went, if at all. Unfortunately, there was a video, but only 62 were scored, instead of the claimed 73. Thus the penalty was halved immediately. Well, but that’s a half-monthly Kazakh average salary! I told them it I can give 30 Euros. They took the money and released us without any kind of proof paper. In Astana, it was then enlightened that for such a speeding, I should have paid 15 euros … Next time, I won’t even give them anything. What a bribe!
But we still didn’t get to Astana without problems. One of the joints in the new brake pipe was not sealed properly, so we ended up at Mitsubishi Service again, this time in Astana. Of course, there is no connection between the two repair shops, and they do not guarantee the work of the other dealership. However, I only pressed them for a free diagnostic, and then the installation costs were released as we are guests. It was nice, especially after the police fine!
Astana is a beautiful city, especially because it was planned twenty years ago and has a lot of space with a lot of new buildings … Kazakhs are very curious, this helps to get to know each other. At six in the morning, the appearance of a golden-toothed rider in the middle of the wilderness is not so enjoyable. Especially if we don’t understand a word of what he tries to say.
I, even on such occasions, do not even dress up to go out because they don’t hurt you, you last have to wait them to go away.
In Astana we met two siblings from them we learned a lot (most of which we say in the video!). They spoke English very well, the guy was a Pajero fan, he knew the services and what to do. And the sister offered to wash and shower at her place, which was very good, because it was quite difficult to wash, we could shower properly (not saving water).
Astana was the last attraction we planned to see in Kazakhstan, now we are heading east again! Through Russia, we enter Mongolia. We do not expect food and drink dumping, good fuel or internet, so for a while we may not give signal of ourselves, but we will check in from Ulaanbaatar at latest!
