Kazakistan
Kazakistan
On the morning of 28th July, I said goodbye to Nura. Similar to my farewell bid with my previous hosts, it was hard to leave her too after spending unforgettable memories and adventures for two weeks together. Thank you Nura for the hospitality and for being my sister. I’m leaving you for now, but our family tie binds forever. I left Bishkek and crossed into Kazakhstan at Korday border via M39. Border crossing was very easy and smooth (five minutes on the Kyrgyz side and 25 minutes on Kazakh side). There’s nothing to pay on both sides. The road to Almaty was good. I was happy to see the same landmarks which I posed with DREAM in 2013.Since now is the middle of the summer season, the steppe was not as green as last time, and there were no wild flowers carpeting the grassland as I had seen before. The view was replaced with lots of locals selling apricots and strawberries by the road side. I didn’t buy any because I had enough of fruit tasting in Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan. The road after Almaty was good too, but there were some constructions nearing Taldykorgan. I reached the town after riding for 532kms.
Guido piano alla ricerca di un posto dove stare e mi imbatto in un centauro che è appena tornato da un mese di scambio come studente dalla Malesia. Mi aiuta a trovare un appartamento economico ma devo parcheggiare la mia GD in un posto a pagamento a 200m di distanza.
Il giorno dopo vado ad Ayagoz sulla A3. La distanza è di 552 km. È un percorso molto accidentato con tante buche. C’è anche un po’ di sterrato e la pioggia ha peggiorato la situazione. La strada per entrare a Ayagoz è molto fangosa. Questa volta non ho fortuna. La GD bacia la strada piena di fango, per la ottava volta dall’inizio del GDR.
La strada per Qalbatau è cattiva come quella di ieri. Ma la vista è molto meglio. La steppa e i campi di grano sono dorati. Il vento è forte a tratti mentre attraverso le vaste steppe.
Finalmente raggiungo Semey dopo aver fatto 380 km il giorno successivo. Sono stati tre giorni di tragitti lunghi e sono davvero stanca. Semey è una cittadina a circa 100 km dal confine russo. È facile trovare il Semey Hotel dove avevo deciso di stare, e ci resto per due giorni.
While in Semey, I managed to visit the Nuclear Victims Monument which was built to commemorate victims of the nuclear tests. The tests were conducted nearby this area by the Soviet government to see the effects of it on humans. It was reported that 456 tests had been done around Semey between 1949 – 1989. Few years later, cases of leukemia, cancer, and deformed babies rocketed significantly. It was estimated that 6000 Kazakhs died because of the tests. War or anything related to it, never does any good to ordinary people. Only very few shall benefit from it. It was sad for me to think of the victims and the torture they had to live with until they let go their final breath… We can’t change history, but we can prevent it from happening again We can’t change people’s attitude, but we can change our own for the better Every cruelty in this world started from sickness in the mind We can treat this sickness if we truly want to become a better person in life Believe me, we are able to change it if we really want to…
