What a relaxing day! It was mostly smooth drive to Shymkent. The alternative to drive on to Taraz (175 km) was rejected so we were in town early. While driving in we looked for a shop to buy a smaller “Spanband”. While Rudy was wandering the shops Jamaliah got told to move the car. Obviously some panic when this was discovered. Jamaliah had sent an SMS but Rudi’s phone just had enough battery power to show that she sent a message. Fortunately everybody has a phone so a charger was found and Rudy could call her and discover that she was told to leave by the police and parked some 300 m further up the road. Shymkent is a modern pleasant city. No sights to see (the historical museum has some artefacts but all info is in Kazaks so we could not follow it) but it does have hotels and shopping malls. We found a 40Euro hotel with shower, internet and safe car parking. (Jamaliah desperately needed her shower, especially with all the sand blowing around and everything is sandy). The shower and internet were well worth it. Wondering the streets and malls was also pleasant. There were trees and the wind was not so strong so the 35 deg was not noticeable. In the evening we had a group meal in a nearby hotel.

DSC04995