aksu-zhabagly reserve

My husband and I traveled from Shymkent to Zhabagly village by marshrutka where the views of the Tien Shan range were stunning.We were there in late March 2014 so there was still snow at altitude and we were unable to go too high into the mountains, however, Svetlana Baskakova (Wild Nature) was an excellent guide and we horse trekked through beautiful scenery up to the Kshy-Kaindy Waterfall. The following day we were driven in a 4x4 Lada through mud and snow melt up to the amazing Aksu Canyon, the journey itself was an off-road adventure but the Canyon was a real highlight - we walked into the canyon and it is a truly stunning part of Kazakhstan. We also visited the an old Soviet era mine (stalagtite cave) in the Karatau mountains, again an amazing trip.Svetlana is a friendly and incredibly knowledgeable guide for anyone traveling to Aksu-Zhabagly.

We decided to make the Kazakhstan trip simply and took a local tour organizer. We found contact of a local nature tour organisors (Ecotourism Information Resource center) contact details from Lonely planet and thought it was a good choise as it was there. The communication with the organisor went well before the trip. Although they knew only russian/kazakhstan and we both were using google translator to commucate. We agreed on the tour plan and price. We were supposed to pay the many in the country. There was a driver and a translator waiting for us when we crossed the boarder from Uzbekistan. After that there was the first thing that went badly wrong. They told us that they had made a mistake with the price and our trip would be a lot more expensive. According to them we would have needed to pay more for accommondation, and also pay two extra rooms for the tour people. That would have tripled our accommondation expences.After a quick thought we decided that we will change the travel plan and go to shymkent to a hotel and stay only couple of nights at the mountains.We were driving around the town and they showed us nice places. Our driver was a regular staff for the tour operator and the translator just did this one job for them. The translator was very nice person.The second problem came when we went to the mountains. We were supposed to be accommondated to a guesthouse with an en suite bathroom. Instead we were taken to a home, were put to sleep in the home owners bed, with no shower possibility. And the mointains were far away. This was in Tonkeris village. The home was owned by a friend of the driver. We said that we are not going to stay for two nights, and will leave the next day after seeing the aksu canyon. At the same time we wanted to make sure what we had to pay for the driver to take us from shymkent to tonkeris. They told that the driver had a place to stay so we dont need to pay for her to drive back and forth two times.Next day when we got to the canyon we also checked the charges for that trip. It should have been clear, but they still demanded us to pay more than they told after the trip. We did not want to fight and paid. When the driver came to pick us up she had a fight with the house owner. The drived would have wanted the house owner to pay her money for bringing us up there. I don't know if the owner paid, but they were fighting quite a long time. Anfter the firght the driver took us to our hotel, the same one we stayed earlier. Then she wanted money for the transportation she had made. They were charging all the kilometres back and forth, to the boarder and back and twice to tonkeris and back and the kliometres they drove when they returned home as well. This bill was about twice as big as it should. Originally they had confirmed the kilometre charges differently by email and orally. When i refused to pay, the driver tried to steal our luggage. She was also threatening with a police.There was also the hotel personnel trying to sort the issue out. According to them, as we were foreigners, we could not win if the police came, so eventually we paid. The funny thing was that the local taxi was many times cheaper than the tour organisor. They found us a nice hotel in shymkent and showed us around the city

Hiked with friends in early May. Tulips were still out as well as multiple other flowers. I saw perhaps 15 different types of wildflowers. We had a great guide who drew our attention to the Ibex. In the end we saw over 20 Ibex coming down the mountain to a stream. We hiked the Kish-Kaindy trail. We saw the waterfall and continued up to a meadow.

Rented a car from Europecar at Almaty airport and drove from Almaty to Aksu Zhabagly. The drive is possible to do in one day.Stayed at Bogat guesthouse. Big tradition Kazakh house and clean rooms with food provided. For accommodation at Aksu, please book in advance as it is often limited.Had a 9 hours horse ride into the nature park the next day. Great experience to see the natural park from horseback. Pls contact Svetlana Baskakova at +7 012799155 for horse riding and accomodation. The horse and also tamed and trained so it is possible and safe for people without prior horse riding experience. The horses will follow the guide.

Казахстан - родина тюльпанов. В этом заповеднике весной они цветут! И сами места красивые. Там и синяя птица водится, жаль, не довелось увидеть...