This holiday was our last holiday in Kazakhstan so we decided to spend it exploring Altyn Emel National Park. As we have a poster of this national park on our bedroom wall and we have never been, it seemed like a good idea to visit before we make the move back to Malaysia (the less said about that the better at the moment)!

Altyn Emel is about 4 hours away from Almaty city and this is considered close by Kazakh standards. We stopped off at Konaev (Kapchagay) on the way for some fake beach time. Kazakhstan being far, far away from the ocean is something I’ve really struggled with. As the lake at Kapchagay is large enough to have a tide, you can almost pretend you’re at the proper beach! We joined our friends for this roadtrip along with their two and a half year old daughter, teenage son and dog. All in one car! I was sat in-between Leia and Ayla, which is obviously the best seat in the car if you want to describe every single mundane thing you can see out of the window, or lose all your snacks to snatching fingers!

We stayed in the village of Bashi as our base for the trip in a nice guest house. The local shop looked like it was from World War Two as it had no electricity and everything was hand written as there was no proper till. Fear not though, they had beer.

On our first day we travelled around 1.5 hours to the famous Singing Dunes. Some say they sing, some say they don’t. I wouldn’t know because I never made it up high enough to find out due to our excitable toddler bombing it down the dune at full speed at every given opportunity. Much more fun to go down than up.

The road to the dunes is incredibly bumpy and dusty. Everything is sand and it was really hot but such a beautiful, interesting landscape. It really feels like you’ve entered the desert and are miles from anyone. We found some discarded sledges and we had some fun sliding down the dunes on them. There were some really cool plants and there really wasn’t many people visiting at all. I heard from those who made it to the top that there was in fact ‘singing’ in the form of a whooshing noise. Sadly I’ll never know myself.

Definitely worth a visit if you have a sturdy car and a lot of patience for that road!

On our second day it was even hotter and we decided to brave the 2.5 hour drive to the Aktau mountains. Did we have regrets? Maybe. First we visited the 700 year old willow tree (oooh) and found a marijuana farm by accident. The landscape around this tree was so beautiful. The willow tree was maybe three separate trees or one very odd tree, we weren’t sure.

We peaked at the willow tree because after this it was another hour and a half of non existent road to the Aktau mountains. At one point Asraf said “We can see them in the distance I think it’s good enough” …but we persevered. The mountains were beautiful but it was oh so hot so we only did a short hike.

Again, such a stark contrast in landscapes from the mountain ranges we have near the city. A really beautiful place with a lot of potential for exploring and camping.

Our guest house was great because it had breakfast, dinner and a cute dog. They served vegetarian food and the rooms were nice and clean. I really don’t know what it is called but it’s basically down the road from the ticket office where you need to buy your park tickets from. You need to pay to enter the park and register your vehicle before you enter. We paid less than £20 for all of us to enter the park.

If you have an opportunity, visit this national park. It’s out of this world landscapes and the history of the area is really interesting too. Make sure you take cash as there’s no phone signal and always travel in a reliable car with a spare tyre!