When we arrived at the shared taxi stand, at this Plus Code location: "5273+WX9 Zharkent, Kazakhstan", there was already a man waiting to go to Shonzhy. However, after 45 minutes no one else showed up. The driver offered leave with just the three of us if we all paid more. Off we went.
In Shonzhy we were delivered right to the Shonzhy-Kegen shared taxi stand (1st below), except there were no other passengers. When we offered to pay for all four seats, one of the drivers readily accepted our offer. Off we went.
When we arrived in Kegen, none of the drivers were willing to take us to the border at our price, but our Shonzy driver was game. In fact he seemed to be so happy with our business, he even bought us each a piece of chocolate when he stopped to get cigarettes. He dropped us off at the border and immediately turned right around to head back to Shonzhy.
The border formalities, getting stamped out of Kazakhstan and into Kryigstan, took no time. No man's land was only a few meters long. There was no taxi to be hired, so we proceeded to wait. In the next two hours, exactly two cars came through. Neither had room for the two of us. China is only 100km to the east. Even though borders are only political, it is amply clear that this side is run by pastoralists, and the China side agriculturalists. It's open country with snow capped mountains in the distance. It wasn't a bad place to wait at 6500 feet above sea level. We had warm clothes, and there was an outhouse a few hundred meters up the road.
Finally a number of cars came through. We were picked up by a German 6-person team in two SUVs. The rest of the way to Karakol was even more scenic, with hundreds of horses grazing in spots. It was like being in a National Geographic documentary.
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