After a long few days with very little sleep and a fare amount of jetlag, it was no surprise that I slept for a good 10 hours last night.
After going to bed super early at 8:30 last night, I didn’t crawl out of bed until 6:30 this morning.
Somehow, despite stupidly not applying any suntan lotion yesterday, I came out of it unscathed.
I do, however, have a nice big blister on my left foot so that’ll be fun over the coming days, I’m sure.
Anyways, I had booked a Horseback Riding and Archery tour for us today which was set to begin at 9am this morning.
I’ve only previously ridden on a horse two other times – one in Iceland and the other in Cuba.
And, archery, well, yeah, I’ve never done that so that’ll be fun.
Also, this is the first time in a long time where I woke up for a morning tour where I was totally refreshed and not all groggy and tired.
A hotel breakfast
Since we were up so early, it gave us ample time to get some breakfast before heading to the pickup point for our tour.
Figured we may as well just take a Yandex (their version of Uber) to the pickup point which was clear across town and then search for some breakfast around there.
Honestly, there weren’t many stores let alone restaurants around there but then Nathan had a bright idea to just pop in the nearby hotel and see if they had a breakfast available.
And, sure enough, they had exactly that.
In fact, it was a breakfast buffet full of western breakfast foods.
It was free for guests but we could order it all for a charge.
What that charge was? Well, with the communication problems, we couldn’t get an answer but we just kind of crossed our fingers and hoped they wouldn’t gouge us.
The buffet was great and it even had watermelon.
Mmmmm, watermelon.
Anytime I can score watermelon while I’m traveling I consider it a win.
Finally after finishing the meal, the man showed 5000 on the calculator which converts to about $15 each.
Expensive for Kazakhstan but cheap enough for us considering it was a breakfast buffet at a hotel.
10 in a bus
At 8:45 we arrived at the pickup point where our little mini bus/van was waiting for us.
It was one of those 14 seaters and today there’d be 10 of us along with a guide and driver occupying those seats.
There were actually one 4 of us at the pickup point, ourselves and a mother and daughter from Russia.
We would be picking up the other 6 who were all Malaysians from their hotel.
As we headed through the city I noticed that we were actually going to pass by where we were staying and then, shock of all shocks, the driver turned down our street.
And wouldn’t you know it – the 6 Malaysians are actually staying in our same Airbnb.
This Airbnb is a bit different in that there are several rooms on the floor so multiple guests stay here at the same time.
Funnily enough I had heard a group of people in the hallway around the corner last night when we came back home from dinner but we were so tired we didn’t bother to round the corner to see who was there.
Well, it turned out it was these six Malaysians!
Seriously, what are the odds that the people we were picking up for the tour were staying in the exact same please as us? Crazy!
The Malaysian Horseback Archery Team
Ah, but these weren’t just any Malaysians joining us on our tour.
Nope, they were actually here on their way to the Nomad Games next week in Kyrgyzstan.
The very same games that Nathan and I will be watching.
They joined our group just so they could have a bit of time to practice before the games began.
Well, this tour just took a whole new twist.
It wasn’t just a horseback and archery tour.
It was a horseback and archery tour with true athletes who would soon be competing for glory for their country!
And us noobs.
I made them promise not to laugh when my arrow would inevitably land on the ground a foot in front of me during my archery attempts later.
I chatted for a bit with their coach Nasrul who used to be a competitor himself and learned that, unlike the Olympics, they have to pay or fund their way to these games.
There are about 20 countries that participate in horseback archery and their team lands about in the middle but their juniors are the top team in the world.
So, when the juniors come of age in a couple of years, Malaysia should do even better in the next games.
It just made for a unique adventure and added experience being able to do this tour with them.
And, to think, I was very close to switching this tour to tomorrow just to give us a rest day today instead.
A stubborn horse
Oh, and of course, we mustn’t forget the actual horseback riding.
Among the vast mountainous landscape we rode 5km each way through the valley for 3 hours.
My horse, of course, was bringing up the rear.
Like, c’mon horse, you’re embarrassing me in front of all my new friends!
Don’t you want to catch up to your horse friends and hang out?
The answer, by the way, was a resounding no.
No matter what I tried, the horse was just taking his sweet ass time.
Oh, and as all the other horses just passed by a watering hole off the main path, well, mine just v-lined over to it and decided, yeah, I’m just gonna drink.
It wasn’t until the second horse guide who was behind us cracked the whip that my horse finally got going again.
And, boy, did he go.
We went from a simple stroll to a full on gallop in mere seconds.
So fast, in fact, that my water bottle just flew out of my backpack.
Thankfully the guide was still behind us and swooped down to grab it for me.
But, damn, that was quite a gallop.
See, he had it in him but just didn’t want to do it for me.
Meanwhile the Malaysians had absolutely no problem with their horses.
I swear the horses just know who the pros are and who the suckers like me are.
Archery
After a half hour break in a field to rest and take photos, we headed back and, one again, my horse brought up the rear.
And, again, he stopped at that damn watering hole.
Eventually we did make it back to the farm where we had started.
And now it was time for archery.
Well, what I meant to say was it was time for a couple feeble attempts at it and then a show of real archery from professionals.
To be fair, I did get a couple arrows pretty close to the target but, yeah, there were also a couple that landed a foot away from me too.
The Malaysian team, though, wow – they were amazing.
Their problem was they had too many arrows in the target and had trouble pulling them out.
I honestly can’t wait to see them in action next week along with all the other games taking place.
Each day, whether by social media or a chance meeting of a national team, my excitement and anticipation for the Nomad Games gets higher and higher.
Tired and sunburned
By 4:00 we had arrived back at our Airbnb and, boy oh boy, were my knees and butt sore from the horse ride.
Don’t get me wrong, I loved every moment of it. I’m just going to feel the after affects of it for a few days, that’s all.
I also, despite applying suntan lotion this morning, got a nice sunburn on my neck.
Yeah, I forgot to apply lotion there so that’s on me. My bad.
A couple hours later we rented a couple of ebikes and drove down to a pretty swanky restaurant offering up true Kazak dishes amongst other things.
We arrived at Navat around 5:30 and I sat down to a meal of Kuyrdak (tender lamb, potatoes, and onions) and Shirin Salad (crispy eggplant dressed in a sweet chili sauce) while Nathan had the traditional meal of Beshbarmak (their National dish made of flat noodles and horse meat).
It was pretty pricy at $36 each but it was well worth it.
And, honestly, I think we deserved it.
7pm rolled around and we were back home.
After possibly the best shower I’ve ever had, I sat in bed and typed up yesterday and today’s blogs before finally heading to bed at just after 9pm.
What an amazing day and I just can’t believe that we just happened to have the Malaysian horseback archery team join us on our tour just out of happenstance.
Hopefully there are many more adventures like this over the next month because, at the end of the day, that’s what traveling is all about for me.
