Home » China » From Russia to India (part III: Travel Notes from free country China)

Many of you may be surprised to read such a heading, but this is what I felt as I escaped from Kazakhstan. But let me to continue in chronological order.

From Russia to India (part III: Travel Notes from free country China)

Alex Mumzhiu
2006-03-22 19:24:12

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I left Almaty on June 11 and went by train and taxi to the town of Zaisan near Chinese border. After bad experience with miserable neighbors on my Trans Siberian route two years ago, I prefer platskart to kupe (open compartment versus closed compartment) in Russian trains.

However conductors allows so many passengers to travel without tickets, that train car had twice as many people than it supposed to have. These un-ticketed passengers were everywhere. Surprisingly nobody complains. Kazakh people used to live in cramped conditions in their yurts and they obviously were not upset. Un-ticketed passengers pay cash directly to the conductors. This is why conductor is considered a very lucrative job here.

In Zaisan I stay in a local hotel which provides addition registration in addition to that one which I already had in Almaty. Anyhow in the middle of night uniformed boarder guard came to check on me.

Next day on the border, the lady in charge of document checking demanded the AIDS and cholera medical certificate from me. Bearers of tourist visa are not supposed to have them. They are required only from the long term visitors, but the lady was unmoved. Even the offer of a considerable bribe did not help. Manager of border crossing was in Zaisan and he was not reachable, because they do not have telephone at boarder crossing!

If they do not let me go, I probably will have to return in Almaty and try another boarder crossing. It was a terrible situation, and I launched a PR campaign with boarder guards. I told them about my trips, showed them my card with all my routes in it. You can see it at:

http://www.foldabikes.com/CurrentEvents/Story/TravelStories.html

They get interested, asked me questions, mainly on how can I afford it. I answered: "I travel by bike, stay in a tent. In truth it is not always like this, but it sounds believable."

"Every man has an inner child"

My PR campaign ...