WELCOME TO KAZAKHSTAN - like no where I've ever been

it feels like another planet this is this is complete this is like nowhere i've ever been well good morning guys and welcome to kazakhstan i'm in a place called aktau right now and i've got just a few days here to explore this part of kazakhstan and for any of you that don't know it is a huge country so i'm not really going to get to see the whole of kazakhstan for sure in next few days while i'm here but i am going to see this region and see as much of it as i possibly can let's go so we're in the city of aktau right now but the first thing we are doing is heading outside and i'm going to try and tell you as we're going because to be honest just like usual i have no idea where we're heading to straight away but we're going to find out so we're about to head out in a few four by fours and this one's mine all right that's what i'm walking towards now what you can see behind me is called karagia it's 136 meters below sea level and it used to be a huge ocean millions of years ago they found ancient sharks here they found ancient fish and seashells but now it is just a giant desert plain those camels okay right now we are in a huge oil field behind me you can see some pumps and there's 10 000 of these all around me so the area must be massive and it is the first time i've ever been in an oil field i don't know if that's something i'd usually look for in a destination but as far as ticking things off goes done well that was kind of mental we must have been driving for about an hour and a half and it was just endless nothing it was just completely flat until we just came down this dirt road and we've been off-roading for the last half an hour and now we have this epic view behind us i've got i've got to show you the view first and then i'll tell you in a minute so kazakhstan is a country oh we're gonna battle with the wind here really we're right on the top of this so it's just gonna be wind cutting across from me i'm gonna try and wait for my spot kazakhstan is a huge country it's actually the ninth largest country by area in the world and so there are giant sections of it that are just like we're seeing now it also only has 18 million people and almost half of those are living in the biggest cities so that means most of it is completely uninhabited like we've barely seen any other cars while driving in these three four by fours and the only way you could get here as well would be using four by fours so we've been off-roading going through dust up and down hills and eventually made it to here all right let me just give you the scale because this is what i'm looking at right now and it goes seriously as far as i can see i can't see any city town or any sign of civilization whatsoever we are completely remote it's also ridiculously hot like it must be 40 or something i'm sweating i think that's a camel skull yeah i'm gonna say camel skull that's this jaw there this is the head apart cool all right lunch time here we go this is how we have to do it there's no real shade so we're in the shade of the car right now just hugging the side of it oh it's the only shade it's either this or this it's the same thing it's just different boxes you see these rocks they're here to stop us from going off the edge right so this trail behind me you can quite you can't quite see it but it goes way off into the distance leads to an underground mosque at the bottom of this valley and there are lots of Kazakh studies that come here to do a walk down to it and to pay their respects and pray there and that's that's something you can do we're not doing it because i think it's about two and a half hours down there and back up and it is 40 degrees right now but we came here to see it and it does yeah it does even up here the view and having that at the bottom looks pretty spectacular i don't fancy running down here right now all right change of plan we're here let's do it yeah all right this is just like the marathon again guys let's go okay this is good training this is kind of similar remember your training wow by the way guys i'm definitely doing that again in april and i'm going to put the details out very soon so if you're interested in joining because this is what it'll be like this does bring me back it's kind of different this time there's no hordes of Chinese people shouting joy y'all which i definitely needed it is quite far down though it's like oh we're here now and then i realized we're not and here we are we made it now it's time to be respectful this is it okay well after all that we can film inside anyway which is completely fair enough and i understand wouldn't even want to people are praying and coming down here for their religious reasons so i don't need to film inside but it was still worth it to see and i'm glad i came down to see it myself this also feels like a good time to mention the china marathon too so if you are interested i'll put a google form in the description below click it register your details and we'll start working out for april right now i need to get back up made it all right well good bit of exercise and now i think we're heading to somewhere to camp for tonight there's meant to be an epic view and um we're gonna find out anyway but i do love getting around this area by jeep because it just feels epic we're going off it feels like off-road all the time and now we're gonna head to another spot out in nature all right well ignore the hair but check this out we've just pulled up to a spot for sunset and look at what's behind me look at those rock formations so that was that side and this is that side we stood on this little precipice in between and just all around is white cliffs yeah this is like another planet it's like looking at mars honestly it's it's like nowhere i've ever been before 100 i can say that without a doubt this is like nowhere else i've ever seen to the first day in kazakhstan serious i don't know what else to say it's just this scenery is crazy and this is where we're camping tonight initially they're going to camp right out here and they've just put it a bit further back so we're not so close to the edge yeah we're camping out here and we're going to wake up to this view in the morning too wow this is a cool way to camp got some tunes on the go got barbecue coming out from the camping of that view this is our camp we're just packing up now the stars last night were incredible there's absolutely no light pollution here at all and we had the whole milky way i was just laying there looking at it and that was amazing what a first 24 hours in kazakhstan i don't really know what else to say other than it's been incredible and check back for the next video to see what comes next for now thank you for watching and see you again soon