Almaty to Shymkent was 730 kms, so an early start again (5am).\u00a0 The roads were passable for most of the way although there was a stretch of about 20kms where you literally had to swerve around these potholes that could have swallowed a small vehicle! Arrived in Shymkent to a rather grubby looking hotel where Craig and I plus two other gentlemen went into what we thought were the office for getting our keys……they could speak no English and on showing them our number..69.. there were a few anxious nods by them but an affirmative…before we realised that perhaps the scantily clad girls around the place possibly weren\u2019t the cleaners and that actually we\u2019d stumbled into some Bordeaux!!!! A few embarrassed laughs later we managed to extricate ourselves!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Almaty to Shymkent was 730 kms, so an early start again (5am).\u00a0 The roads were passable for most of the way although there was a stretch of about 20kms where you literally had to swerve around these potholes that could have swallowed a small vehicle! Arrived in Shymkent to a rather grubby looking hotel where … <\/p>\n