Visiting the Taliban. Part 1.

Let's go!

The new highway M12 Moscow-Kazan is just great

800 km of fully illuminated perfect asphalt in 4 lanes, modern gas stations, markings, electronic information boards - it is a pleasure to drive along it. It is a pity that the speed limit is only 110 km, for me it is possible to set 150, anyway everyone violates it. )

Today, at 8.30 am, our small team of three motorcycle travelers has set off on a new long and, hopefully, very interesting adventure.

There are many countries and thousands of kilometers ahead, but for now the first stop is in the beautiful city, the capital of Tatarstan — Kazan.

Kazan-Samara.

The second day of the trip began with a cultural program.

Kazan is a beautiful city with a thousand-year history, where there is a lot to see, eat and relax. But there are some must-see places, one of them is the ancient grad-museum Sviyazhsk, located on a small island at the confluence of three rivers 50 km from Kazan. The white-stone monastery with golden domes of temples and high impregnable walls is very similar to the Kremlin in Rostov the Great. In 1551, Ivan the Terrible built a fortress on this island, which became an outpost at the capture of Kazan.

The views from the high banks are amazing!

We also accidentally found a unique "Temple of All Religions" in Kazan. Honestly, I have never seen such a thing before! It is a very beautiful and unusual structure from an architectural point of view.

Imagine Orthodox, Catholic, Muslim, Jewish, Buddhist and even ancient Egyptian temples in one structure!

And inside it's the same, you can go from one hall to another and get acquainted with all the world's religions in an hour. At least with their outward appearance.

After lunch, we moved further to the southeast and after 500 km we reached Samara, another very large and beautiful city on the Volga.

Samara.

Have you ever sat in the chair and office of a head of state ? In a real one, not a fake one ?

I've been there a couple times. But, to be honest, it didn't evoke any special emotions.

This time, to virtually climb to the pinnacle of power for a moment I had to go deep underground.

Это This unique especially secret construction was built in 1941-42 in Kuibyshev for the leaders of the USSR and personally for Mr. Stalin. It is so called "Stalin's Bunker".

The bunker is 37 meters deep, which is equal to a 12-story house. A fully self-contained bomb shelter with life support systems, working offices, a conference room, a canteen and other necessary elements that allowed the country to be led even if bombs fell on it.

Together with the Leader of All Nations, 118 other people could be in the bunker.

If you're in Samara, stop by Joseph Vissarionovich's place, it's quite interesting.

(53.196781, 50.098068)

Samara - Uralsk

Having overtaken a long line of standing vans we approached the checkpoint on the border of Russia and Kazakhstan.

The rain intensified and then stopped for a while, so we had to put on raincoats. And from somewhere there was a gnat swarming all around us

We stood at the border for over an hour and still forgot to get motorcycle insurance.

And Literally after 50 kilometers we were stopped at a checkpoint by valiant Kazakh policemen.

- Where are you going? License, documents for the motorcycle. Is there insurance?

— No, we haven't had time to register yet

- Well, then, let's go to the post - answered Comrade Senior Lieutenant with a smile. - All three of us. The girl can stay

He rejected the offer to pay the fine on the spot and, taking out a tablet, began to enter the data of our documents into it. One by one. Then I signed the protocol directly on the tablet screen, and after a few more minutes the smiling and very friendly traffic police officer handed me a long and narrow, like a roll of toilet paper, printer-printed protocol.

The result - 37000 tenge fine. Which is approximately 7600 rubles.

Though

But there is good news, which the lieutenant told me with a smile. If you pay within 7 days, you can get by with half the amount.

Yes, the fines in Kazakhstan are really big!

Uralsk - Atyrau

I've never seen a flood of this magnitude in my life!

Thousands of square kilometers of flooded areas, hundreds of kilometers of embankments, roads, houses and entire villages under water.

Today at 10 am we left Uralsk south to the Caspian Sea. After the town of Inderbor the main highway A-28 is blocked due to flooding.

Police squads are on duty around the clock and send everyone to detour along the M7 highway running along the left bank of the Ural River.

In some places, the flooded vast expanse resembles the sea, as one cannot see the opposite shore.

In the evening we reached Atyrau, a large city divided by a river into two parts.

Atyrau, as well as Istanbul is located in two parts of the world at once and you can pass from Europe to Asia by the bridge over the Urals in 5-10 minutes.

Which we did several times that evening

Tomorrow we will continue our journey south-east towards Beineu.

Beiney

Yesterday we reached Beiney, the largest village in Kazakhstan with a population of over 50,000 people.

I don't think there are such huge villages in Russia either.

This is the southernmost point in the south-west of Kazakhstan at the intersection of three directions — to the north of Atyrau and Astrakhan, to the south-southeast of Uzbekistan, where we are heading today and southwest of Aktau, a port on the Caspian Sea.

Yesterday we passed 440 km on an excellent free highway from Atyrau to Beineu without any adventures, talked to the local population, camels and horses.

Fortunately, it was not possible to communicate with the police.))

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