Long-awaited for, crossing the China-Kazakhstan border!
Our first test if all our paperwork is in order. Our visa, our car papers, our ATA (Chinese Carnet the Passage, which is the bottle neck in the mind blowing amount of paperwork) and of course, the stuff that we take with us. With proudness we can say, we succeeded!
There were only trucks. There were very little (or actually none) private cars going from China to Kazakhstan. We felt special and insecure. Is this going the right way? After some back and forth between different booths on Chinese side, a little walk back into China for the ATA (Maren was for a good 3 hours illegally in China), some more administrative work and we could continue our journey across the 7.5 kilometer of no-men’s land between the two countries.
Waiting… waiting… waiting…
Some last 3G-We Chat messages to girlfriend while we are in China
At the following checkpoint a Kazakh border guard asked for our passport and after checking the papers he said ‘Welcome to Kazakhstan. I wish you a nice stay!’ Those words resembled in our head…we made it!
Or actually, not really… Many more checkpoints to go through but thankfully all without hassle. Unpacking our entire car while being watched by Kazakh border guards and a burning 40 degrees sun on our heads, was stressful to say the least.
The guards happily went through our stuff and collected some BYD key-chains and we played some ‘jianzi’ (shuttlecock) kicking at the border. Who would have guessed these gifts came in handy for border guards while they were meant for children in countryside villages?
Welcome to Kazakhstan. I wish you a nice stay!Border guard
Rogier and I walked to the next booth to have our own personal visa checked. A very friendly, helpful and attractive lady checked our papers. She asked if we’re boyfriends. We said ‘no’ with a big smile on our face. ‘Are you sure?’ she asked with a big smile in return.
Apparently two guys travelling with the Dutch nationality makes many people assume we’re gay. At least it brought a smile on everybody’s face.
After the last formalities with the car we drove through the final checkpoint. We made it to Kazakhstan with our Chinese BYD car!
We made it! Kazakhstan!
‘The road ahead is empty’
Camping in Kazakhstan: check!
Comments 1
Prachtig,jongens, en wat amusant dat de douaniers voetbalden met jullie jianzi, maar of the shuttlecock alleen voor kinderen bedoeld is, betwijfel ik, gezien ons reisje naar Wuhan….
Voort….lieve groeten Nella