I know the formatting on this entry is terrible. The internet connetion at our hotel is awful. This is the best I can do for now.
Stop one of our 2022 summer advertures was Aktau, Kazakhstan. We flew Scat Airlines to get here and their name was befitting. There were drunks puking in the bathroom and vaping on the plane. It’s all part of the adventure though right?
We stayed in the Renassaince Hotel in town. It’s the older part of town. All the newer development has moved to a different area but we wouldn’t have known that while booking. The service was so-so but we weren’t expecting much since we cut our summer travels two weeks short two weeks due to how awful customer service was in western Kazakhstan last year, and we weren’t anywhere near this far west.
We were only here two days. Yesterday and today, tomorrow we leave for Istanbul bright and early. I’ll tell you about yesterday last. First, today!
We went on a private tour to see the Valley of Balls. I’ve been dying to see this place since before even moving to Kazakhstan. I was really bummed when we cut our trip short last year, but it was a mutual decision. This year we flew directly here. A 3 hour flight was much more tolerable than a 50+ hour drive with the ever looming fear of running out of gas.
What’s the Valley of Balls? Good question. It’s a valley full of huge ball shaped rocks. No one is sure what caused them. I’ve read several different geology websites about them and no one knows the answer. Here are some of my pictures.
They ranged in all sizes from tiny to gigantic
There are even still shells proving this used to be the bottom of the ocean. They were all over the place up there.
Along the way we stopped to see some other cool things too. We saw an old Mosque complete with a caravanserai for traveling visitors. Apparently it used to be strictly off limits to tourists but some famous imam from some holy place came to visit and inscribed on the wall it was no longer haram for vistitors to come there.
Honestly, the most interesting part to my about this place was one the tradtions our tour guide told us about. He said the Muslims in this region have a tradition where the burn the fat of a goat outside the door of the mosque then before they go in the mosque they “rub the fire” on their bodies and it cleanses their minds.
The tradition predates Islam and you see religious syncreticism from the traditional Tengri religion, maybe even mixed in with some Zoroastrianism which I know was practiced in the region. On an interesitng note, we learned in our travels through Uzbekistan last year no one likes talking about Zoroastrianism. It’s dare I say taboo? We were very interested in its history in the region and tried to engage many people in conversation about it last year but every one clammed up immediately. But, our tour guide had no problem mentioning the connection to Tengri traditions. Here’s a little academic page I found with some extra information.
There was a caravanseria outside the mosque for pilgrims. 
