Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
afield - their websites are great information
sources. Typical local trip prices include:
English-speaking guide 7000T to 9000T per
day; horse 5000T to 6000T per day; three-
passenger 4WD vehicle to Aksu Canyon and
back 17,000T; camping in the reserve includ-
ing meals 7500T per person.
4
¨Sleeping¨&¨Eating
It's best to contact these places in advance to
give them time to make plans for your visit.
Misha¨Norets¨
HOmESTAY $
(
%
701-693 1547; norets_1969@mail.ru; Satpaeva
25-2, Tulkibas; per person with 3 meals 5000T;
pnW
)
In Tulkibas, 18km west of Zhabagy-
ly village, amiable, English-speaking Misha
offers homestay accommodation with good
meals in his simple family home with an
indoor hot-water bathroom. He can also ac-
commodate guests in a comfortable modern
home in Maityube (Michurin) village 3km
away. Misha is one of the area's best guides
(with a reasonable fee of 5000T per day) and
can take you anywhere in the region includ-
ing the highest parts of Aksu-Zhabagyly
reserve.
o
Wild¨Nature¨
HOmESTAY $$
(Dikaya Priroda;
%
775-793 2246; www.wildnature-
kz.narod.ru; Taldybulak 14, Zhabagyly; per person
with 2/3 meals 6700/8000T, 'couchsurfing' per
person 2000T)
S
This NGO runs one of Ka-
zakhstan's longest-running community tour-
ism programs, with comfortable homestays
in houses with hot showers and good local
meals. Wild Nature director Svetlana Baska-
kova also offers a 'couchsurfing' option in
her own home for budget travellers.
Svetlana is a highly knowledgeable biolo-
gist and great guide who speaks excellent
English, and offers a variety of short local
trips and longer nature-focused trips. The
latter include exciting one-week brown-
bear-spotting trips (€2250 per person) and
10-day snow-leopard-tracking trips (€3000)
in the reserve, and south Kazakhstan bird-
ing tours.
Tourbaza¨Ruslan¨
gUESTHOUSE, CAmPINg $$
(
%
72538-555 85, 702-528 4627; www.zhabagly.
com; Abay 24, Zhabagyly; tent 1000T, s/d
5000/8000T, 3 meals per person 4000T;
W
)
Run
by a Kazakh-Dutch family, Ruslan has six
good rooms at their main house in the vil-
lage, and four twin-bed rooms in a lovely
country property on the edge of the nature
reserve, 7km from the village (800T per car,
or two to three hours' walk). You can also
camp there in rented tents or (June to Sep-
tember) sleep in a yurt.
Meals are available at both places but it
also has good guest kitchens. The village
house has wi-fi too.
Zhenja¨&¨Lyuda's¨¨
Boarding¨House¨
gUESTHOUSE $$
(Dom Zheni i Lyudy;
%
72538-5 55 84, 701-717 5851;
www.aksuinn.com; Abay 36, Zhabagyly; per person
with 3 meals 8000T;
pnW
)
This cosy guest-
house-cum-small-hotel on Zhabagyly's main
street has rooms with two comfy single beds
and private bathroom, and vegetarian meals
can be arranged. Owner Yevgeny Belousov, a
highly knowledgeable biologist, speaks Eng-
lish, has been in the guesthouse and tour
business over 20 years, and knows the area
extremely well.
A wide range of trips in the reserve and
further afield are available. There's even a
hide for photographing birds in the garden.
8
Getting¨There¨&¨Away
marshrutkas to Zhabagyly village (400T, two
hours) leave Shymkent's Ayna bus station
around 11am and sometimes 2pm. Alternatively,
there are marshrutkas about every half-hour,
7.30am to 3pm, from Ayna to Turar-Ryskulov
(also called Turarkent or Vanovka; 350T, 1½
hours) on the Taraz highway, where you can
get a taxi from the market for the 20km trip
to Zhabagyly (200/800T shared/whole).
Transport to Tulkibas is also available at Turar-
Ryskulov.
From Almaty or Taraz you can take a train to
Tulkibas and arrange to be picked up there (usu-
al cost to Zhabagyly: 2200T). Train 33, depart-
ing Almaty-II station about 8pm daily, reaches
Tulkibas (3220T) at about 8am. Or come by bus
or taxi and get out at Akbiik, 7km east of Turar-
Ryskulov, then take a taxi (around 500T) for the
12km trip to Zhabagyly.
Accommodation options also ofer car trans-
fers from various pickup points - from Shym-
kent or Taraz costs 7000T to 9000T.
Sayram
-
Ugam National Park
This mountainous park abutting the Uzbek
border immediately southwest of the Aksu-
Zhabagyly reserve is less well known than its
neighbour, but offers similar attractions and
is generally cheaper to visit. A community-
tourism program provides homestays in the
villages of Kaskasu, Dikankol and Tonkeris,
in beautiful foothill country where grass-
