Cycling Day 5: Maldybai to Taraz
I was out bright and early. It was supposed to be 110 today, and it was already in the 90’s when I left at 5:30AM. I made a quick stop after about 20km for a breakfast of sunny side up eggs and Russian sausages, or possibly hot dogs. I just asked for “завтрак”, Russian for breakfast and that’s what I got. It was the only thing available and I needed to eat to keep myself from bonking. This was my third straight day riding and I was about to finish up 200 miles on this stretch.
The road is ok, a little stressful because I’m still on the highway. The distances between villages are very long and I’m riding with the vast prairie on my north side, and the mountains to the south.
I rode into Taraz at about 10AM and went to the center of town where I met with my Couchsurfing host, Alexander. Alexander is 51 and owns several local businesses; a couple of supermarkets and a restaurant. His demeanor in general is a bit nervous and distracted - I think he might have a slight addiction to online sports betting. Regardless, he was a magnanimous host. He told me to follow him in his car and he took me to a hotel. “Don’t worry, it’s my friend’s hotel, no payment.” I guess I wouldn’t actually be staying with him at his house. The hotel was modern and clean. My room just consisted of two single beds, the bathroom is shared and located on the same floor, and the shower is in the basement. But I appear to be the only guest.
I noticed that Taraz seemed pretty developed and vibrant for a small town. Alexander said that the town is built around a giant phosphorous chemical production plant that employs over 10,000 people. Aside from that, there are a large number of “international” people living in Taraz, by which I kind of drew the conclusion that he just meant settled ethnic groups - including Kazakhs, Russians, Koreans, Poles, Kyrgyz, and Uighurs. I asked what he thought attributed to the city’s attractiveness to these people. He shrugged and said “well, the city is on the road between Bishkek and Tashkent.” Nothing like being a transit stop!
I took a shower and went with Alexander to his restaurant, Basilicum. It’s a large restaurant serving primarily Kazakh traditional and local foods. Since it was his restaurant, I told him to order for me, since he would know what was best. I got an order of plov and a tomato and eggplant salad.
After lunch it was scorching, 110 degrees indeed. Alexander took me back to the hotel and said he had some business to take care of and we would meet up later. Just as well, I promptly passed out and took a nap.
Alexander came back around 5 with his friend Oleg and we all went to the Zerbulaq aqua park. Going to the pool was perfect on a day like this. There were a couple of large children’s play areas. Otherwise, there were a couple of pools for adults as well as lounge chairs and sail covers. We hung out, drank tea and took turns getting into the water to cool off.
Alex and me at the water park
After the pool, we went back to the town center and went to their favorite place for Russian barbecue, shashlik. This did not disappoint. Oleg’s girlfriend, Elena joined us as well as well as another one of Alexander’s friends, Edgar, a competitive power lifter. We hung out and told stories for a while, supplemented by photos from our respective phones. It was a short walk back to the hotel and I promptly fell asleep. Tomorrow I will take a rest day and explore Taraz.
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