Almati, Aug 14

We set off again with an alpine start for Almati, just over 500km away. Things go fairly well and we get close in about 9 hours of driving, then run into a police checkpoint where the military tries to do nothing short of rob us, making up fines and taking things from the cars. After a long while of back and forth we leave down about 5 dollars each and one guy had a multi tool stolen. We are getting better at dealing with the police and army guys but we still have a lot to learn! In Almati we check into our budget hotel that is an ancient concrete bunker from the soviet days - quite the place! It is downtown however and we meet up with a bunch of people including an extremely nice Kazakh who studies in England and is in Almati for a few days by himself. He became our tour guide and translator. Had a great night, met a bunch of people and few of us went to bed before the sun came back up.