02
Aksu-Zhabagly
4 days
A marshrutka to Tyulkybas and a difficult to arrange taxi ride later, we arrive at the farm of Ruslan and his parents. We unwind with the views from the farm and the books on Kazakhstan and the park that are in the dining room. Natasha, his mom, surprisingly speaks some Dutch. One of her daughters lives in the Netherlands. The mix of Russian, English and Dutch allows us to understand her effortlessly when she gives us a tour of the grounds.
We walk the 14 km to and from the visitor centre in Zhabagly to arrange the mandatory (?) ranger to enter Aksu-Zhabagly National Park. This was the first national park of the Soviet Union. It is not tulip season yet and because of the snow further down the track (or our idle ranger) we can only hike 4 km into the park. Although we see an enormous herd of ibexes balancing on the park's stunning rock faces, the hike itself was rather underwhelming. Walking to the visitor centre was more challenging.
We especially arranged to stay in Zhabagly on the first day of Nowruz to see a game of kokpar. The idea of a smaller village celebration is much more appealing to us than festivities in the big city of Shymkent. But as it turns out, the game is cancelled. Instead of staying, we say goodbye to the lovely farm and take the shared taxi to Shymkent.