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Ürümqi, China
Arrival date for everyone is the 4th-5th. I will be arriving in Urumqi on the 4th to do some tourism through the city and figure out the bus situation to get to Koktokay ski resort.
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Si Chou Zhi Lu Guo Ji Hua Xue Chang, China
Our first ski stop is a super small, but very close to Urumqi ski resort, has like 2 interesting runs, but will be a great warmup for the trip.
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Koktokay, China
Koktokay ski resort or also known as Altai Mountains Keketuohai Ski Resort.
Super new (built in 2020, has no website on western internet). but man the map looks good, videos on youtube really sell the place,
It's one of China's largest resorts.
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Ürümqi, China
Back to Uriumqi, we will try with the busses to arrive just before our flights.
If not possible we will have to leave the previous resort a day early to arrive back in time.
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Almaty, Kazakhstan
Flight to Almaty, were we will be doing some tourism before heading up to the local resort
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Shymbulak Top, Kazakhstan
Shymbulak Top is Kazakhstan's largest resort and by far the most developed for non china Central Asia, hopefully Gaston can organise us to stay in a Yurt hotel which is Ski in Ski out, but no promises yet...
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Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan
Bus to Kyrgyzstan, Bishkek the capital does not have many touristy things to do, the local markets are interesting and seeing some of the statues and buildings from the USSR is very cool, but otherwise we will just be getting our car hire asap and then jetting across the country to Karakol as soon as possible.
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Karakol, Kyrgyzstan
After a long drive (6hrs non stop of avoiding all the cows on the road) we should arrive in Karakol, the mining town which has a ski resort 20 min drive from the city centre is dominated by the mountains which surround it, super fun and has some nice bars.
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Fairytale canyon "Skazka", Kyrgyzstan
A stopover on our way to either back country skiing or horse riding, one of the most beautiful places to explore, if weather is nice and if we have tents would be a cool place to stay the night.
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Song-Kul, Kyrgyzstan
Attempt to back country ski untouched mountains within this range, otherwise we will be doing a horse back riding tour.
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Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan
Drive back to the capital, hope to the gods the car still works after the mixture of good and terrible roads, keeping our fingers crossed the bond is returned (absolutely no chance), then after that we can kiss each other goodbye and return back to our countries.
If you are flying back to Australia direct from here, the flight should set you back about $1000 and is usually via Dubai or Istanbul, depending with which airline you choose.
Or if you want to stay or continue your trip to Uzbekistan or Tajikistan (BOTH HIGHLY RECOMMENDED) then go for it! Gaston is going to head to Europe for family things so from this point on the adventure is all yours!