Monday 15 May 2023
Highlights: Border crossing, Exploring Kolsay Lakes National Park

Today we left Kyrgyzstan for the next stop in the tour, a short visit to Kazakhstan. From Karakol it took us a few hours to reach the border with a several stops in between. Border control was very strict, I had my passport checked for powder and with a literal microscope.

While I eventually got though one of our drivers was held up for almost an hour but eventually we got into Kazakhstan.

We arrived in Saty Village around 3.30 pm and after checking in and a short wait we got into 4×4 vehicles to get us to Kolsay Lakes National Park. Once in we transferred to a Russian van, maybe even from the Soviet era to get further into the difficult to access park. The ride was an experience in itself.

After a short hike we reached Kaindy Lake also known as the sunken forest. The lake and forest is both peaceful and majestic.

We did go hike a little further up for a better overview of the lake.

The trip back was as good an experience the second time. The guest house, which is almost like an hotel, then provided a large and tasty dinner for us all as I spent my first night in my 74 country.