film set, national parks and china

just north of Almaty there is an old Film set, just for the Nomad movie. I have never seen it, but aim told its the best movie made in Kazachstan. (an rating of 6 on IMDB) I wont give my opinion about the movie, but the set looks amazing. it has been used for other movies since. also is located in a very beautiful Vally. that has an river that is the exact the right temperature or swimming. (the Ilii river) so did just that, and decided to stay the rest of the day here. leafing my foot in the water all day.

the day after i drove to Altyn emel National park, a few hundred meter up the same river. besides very bad roads there is al lot of wildlife there. so camped inside the park for 2 nights. Saw an rabbit like animal, an big bird ( that flew away when I passed had to brake hard), a.small deer, and my second snake on this trip. besides the wildlife there are some nice mountains there and a singing dune. unfortunately when I was there it stayed quite. but climbed to the top for an nice view. after I found an campsite with the same tables as last night in the park, so tough this is the campsite. I thought wrong a ranger came at dusk to collect me, had to camp 15 further. so had to drive a bit at night.

I heard about an economy free zone in china nearby, a tax free zone between China and Kazachstan. and you don't need a visa for china. so obviously went there, paspoort in hand parked the car. crossed the Kazach border. you get an stamp on a small paper and in your paspoort. then a small bus ride to the actual border where the shopping begins. the real fun is the china side so went walked that way. only getting stoped by chinees security guys, they didn't like my beard. And didn't make it a secret, they profiling me because I didn't shave. heard about stories in this area about possible humantary crimes against Muslims and false imprisonment. So didn't feel on ease. nevertheless they let me go after 30 min. and after having an second lunch I walked around. its a several big malls next to each other. mostly clothes and other textiles. still not feeling on ease so headed out again.

Direction Kyrgyzstan!