Through Kyrgyzstan to Kazakhstan

After fixing Marcin's bike in Dushanbe we rode along the Pamir Highway through Tajikistan to Kyrgyzstan. With the second suspension strut about to break we chose the better road and crossed some nice passes, the highest one taking us 4655m above sea level. Finally we found some quiet spots in the mountains, perfect campsites, not too many people around, just a few marmots lurking behind the rocks. It was a nice change after being too long in Dushanbe. Tajikistan was one of the most beautiful countries we have seen so far, and Kyrgyzstan turned out to be equally impressive. Mountains everywhere, but the country is a fair bit greener than Tajikistan and with yurts, yaks and high plains it starts to look like I am expecting Mongolia to be like... We had a full day feast with a (huge) Kyrgyz family, eating two goats (cut into pieces in front of our eyes) besides many other things and drinking freshly made kymys (fermented horse milk). I didn't expect a goat to taste well, but it does! I took a lot of photos, so tomorrow I'll try to get some of them online. While you see only Daewoo cars in Uzbekistan, you will hardly see any other cars than Mercedes, Audi, VW or BMW in Kyrgyzstan. I was always wondering where all the cars from the 90ies have disappeared to. Here they are. Unfortunately we had to leave Kyrgyzstan because my visa was about to end and an extension wasn't really worthwhile. So now we are in Almaty, Kazakhstan's former capital. Waiting for the next suspension strut to arrive at BMW. Tomorrow we will hopefully get our registration done, extension of our visas to Kazakhstan and get the visa for Mongolia.