Stats

Hitchhiked distance: 4555 kilometer

Number of lifts: 57

Average waiting time: 11 minutes 56 seconds

Waiting time total: 11 hours 20 minutes

You can download the log here. But be careful, it contains as well a short stage to Bishkek, that I did.

My Route

I hitchhiked from the chinese border to Amlata and did a little trip do Kirgistan, before coming back to Almata and going the long way towards Aktau at the Caspian Sea. Check out the route here.

People

It is a bit difficult to describe the typical Kazakhztan. The country is a cultural melting pot. The native Kasach person has blond hair and blue eyes, as I was told. And some day Dschinghis-Khan came along and made everyone become Asian. Or somehow like that it happened. If you walk through Almata it is impossible to see, if that person ahead of you is Kazakh, Chinese, German, Russian, or even a Turk. People look so different. I loved that.

People in Kazakhztan are kinda chummy and warm. Not as rough as the Russians. Kazakh‘s are like the Colombians of the UDSSR. Many of them speak some German, even if it is just a few words. And every second person is driving an (old) German car. You will get invitations for drinking fairly easy and people seem honestly interested in you.

What I recognized as well is, that you can have a quiet and relaxed time in Kazakhztan. Because everyone is looking so different, nobody seems to be alien and you can assimilate yourself pretty good. Very pleasent.

One thing I should mention and which regards mostly the woman who are going to hitchhike through Kazakhztan. Kazakhan men are very macho.like and I heard an above average number of stories about tried rape and sexual harrasment from my female hitchhiking friends. I can not really evaluate this, because I am a man and I was not molested by myself. And I don‘t want to put all Kazachans in one pot or create unneccessary fear. But Kazachztan follows some kind of reputation in this regard and I want you to be aware of that. It does not mean you will be in any kind of trouble or in the need to go nuts, if you visit Kazachztan. There are lots of wonderful people to meet. I just want you to take care of yourself guys.

Roads

The roads. Thats a very special topic in post sovjet countries. First I should say, that you will find big and well maintained roads between the major cities and moving around here should be not a problem at all. But i wouldn‘t say that about every region in Kazakhztan.

When I came from the chinese border to Almata I already crossed one of those wrecked roads, which can be a bit tough to deal with sometimes. But what I encountered in the center of the country was even for me a new level of apocalypse. Allthough I hitchhiked on the worst roads of our planet before. I mean, streets are there to make movement easier and open up new territories. In Kazakhztan they more seem to be an additional obstacle with a special feature which is: They are make your life a living hell and you might be faster walking or taking the dirt-road which wriggles aside the main road. Something I only discovered in post sovjet countries, btw.

I had a very interesting hitchhiking tour from Qyandiyaghasch to Makat. Three cars in eight hours and directly through the Kazakhan Steppe. People prefer to do a 1000 km detour instead of going this 400 km long stretch. For a reason, how I had to find out. This road is probably the worst I ever encountered in my hitchhiking life. But beautiful! Worth it! In its very special way.

Besides be aware of the fact, that Kazakhztan is mostly Steppe, just little mountans but mostly wide wastelands. Until the horizon. A little bit like Argentina but with less people. I really liked blasting through this. Because hitchhiking was super easy.

Tactics

Right in the beginning I gotta break a lance for Kazakhztan. I had so much fun there while hitchhiking. Fuck yeah. People just know whats going on. Basically every car is a taxi here, which is a bit problematic for your movement. But if you are clear from the beginning and tell them right away, that you won‘t pay/have no money, then most of the time they gonna take you anyway. But a clear communication is very important and so to know some basics in Russian. Also mention, that you do Autostop and most people will get what you do. It is definitely a different story than in Japan where everyone thinks you are absolutely lost and need help. In Kazakhztan you will get more of this „Ah another hitchhiker!“-feeling.

Another point I really enjoyed: You can hitchhike basically everywhere along the road. Sometimes you need to walk a bit to find a better spot, but positioning is straight forward and uncomplicated. You will also find good onramps at the bigger junctions and roundabouts in the cities. I would not recommend to position yourself at bus-stops, because people will think you wait for the bus. Also because the locals are hitchhiking here and they usually pay. Don‘t get into that sharktank.

Thir point about Kazakhztan is night-hitchhiking, which works fantastically. There is no difference between day and night-time. Cars stop equally fast. Very comfortable. But I guess my hitchhiking suit and the reflectors did a good amount of work here.

Kazakhztan is a super easy and straight forward hitchhiking country. Just use the bypass roads, when going through bigger cities. They are existing almost every time and you don‘t want to end up inside the cities. Because there is Moloch time.

Impressions

Specifics

I told already that Kazakhztan is pretty flat but at the border with Kirgistan you will find some nice mountains and in Almata you have a nice view on them. Almata is a beautiful city anyway, if you like grey Sovjet prefab estates, which I do very much. But mostly because of the people. I thought the Kazachan people are really friendly and nice and I definitely gonna head back one day and visit some friends there.

Culinarily I could connect very well to Kazakhztan as well. Beside the good old Plow (rice dish) and the omnipresent Samsa (filled pasties) we also made a very delicious summer soup with potatoes, chives, eggs, some kind of yoghurt drink and sparkling water. Sounds strange but tastes terrific. Also you got some Kwas, which is some kind of a light beer, made of fermented bred and the good old Kumis (rotten horse milk). Not made for everyone but people in this region seem do like a sour taste.

If you head towards Kazakhztan you will either cross Russia or through Central Asia. In the latter case it could get a little complicated, because getting visas in countries like Uzbekistan or Turkmenistan can be quite a hustle. I by myself took the cargo boat through the Caspian Sea to Azerbaijan. Was a funny tour that I can only recommend. If you need more infos about this passage you should check in with Caravanistan.com, which is btw. by far the best ressource for informations, if you wanna travel Central Asia.

Der Beitrag Hitchhiking in… (20) Kazakhztan erschien zuerst auf Warm Roads.

If you go hitchhiking your speed is all about your technique. In day-time the advanced and not-advanced hitchhiker might move with more or less the same speed. But with the right equipment and technique you can also move through the night without any problem. There is less traffic, but therefore the cars will go further. More experienced hitchhikers use the night for their movement as well as the day.

On my „Royal Stage“ from New York to Alaska I achieved a very good time while rushing through Canada. I had one of my best runs going from Thousand Islands border USA/Canada to Otter Falls/Haines Junction in Yukon Territory. I did 6071 km in 107h 8m; Ø56 km/h. I think this is faster than driving by yourself. And since this tour had a acceptable length, I would like to call it my personal best time.

In the Russian hitchhiking school you calculate an average speed of 50km/h during summer-time and 40 km/h during wintertime. This counts for most of the developed countries like Iran, USA, Kanada, Russia, Germany, Argentina, etc. The calculation has to be adapted if you move through mountainous territory with serpentines. In general the road is getting slower the higher it is. In technically more difficult regions your covered distance can drop down to 200-300km per day. I experienced that, when I hitchhiker through the Bolivian high plateaus.

The longer your tour is, the harder it is to keep up the speed. If I would have traveled only 3 km/h less on my Canada crossing, that would have meant in the end 321 km less distance. 3 km/h less sounds not much, but it really makes the difference in the end.

When I started hitchhiking we always calculated with twice of the normal driving time (if you drive by yourself, including rest and sleeping breaks). For beginners this is a good landmark, which is easy to achieve. If you fail this, you do something wrong. But in my covered routes through Asia, as South and North America, you can see, that the Russian calculation is realistic, especially if you move a longer distance.

If you hitchhike alone you will always be slightly faster than going as a couple. With three person your average speed will drop significantly. Border crossings are always different, but you can calculate an average delay of one our, when getting into a new territory. Crossing cities is a big issue and you should calculate around two hours more, than the normal driving time, especially if you need to fight your way through a Moloch like La Paz or Panama City. With or without public transport. Crossing cities is one of the hardest things to do and you can lose much more time here, if you are an unexperienced hitchhiker.

The more experienced the hitchhiker is, the less will be the difference in the movement speed between each other. And this is independent from age or gender. Who argues, that you hitchhike faster with a woman, just because she is a woman, has not enough own experience to convince drivers to stop. And if one of my female hitchhiking comrades is hitchhiking faster than me, then it is about her advanced technique and not about her pussy.

In general I want to show with this article, that hitchhiking is able to be scheduled and your speed is most dependent on your skill. This includes body language, clothing, attitude, gesture, facial expression, how good your communication is and how charming you can make cars to stop. Also your positioning is very important and that you avoid tactical mistakes like, letting the driver decide where to put you or taking rides that won’t bring you any advantage. All that are parameters which affect your speed and they are much more important than pure luck. Who argues that hitchhiking is about luck might not know how to hitchhike properly.

Der Beitrag Personal best – How to calculate your hitchhiking speed erschien zuerst auf Warm Roads.

It felt like i had hitchhiked the most time in Argentina, when i was in South America. Like an eternity. Maybe also because hitchhiking in Argentina is just a huge fun. Pleassure time. Far roads, convinient for long distance hitchhiking. Perfect infrastructure. In the north you also have some nice countryside, in the east the Andes, in the south fallow land and of course the „End of the world“ in Ushuaia. Big fun to explore all the different faces of the country. And its so huge!

Statistics

Hitchhiked distance: 8045 kilometer

Number of lifts: 84

Average waiting time: 34 minutes 50 seconds

Waiting time total: 47 hours 13 minutes

As always you can download the log here: Log Argentinien

My route

I went through Uruguay to Buenos Aire via land. Afterwards i hitchhiked from Buenos Aires to Ushuaia and back, as well as from BA through Mendoza into Chile. Here the route. It was a big fun and especially my Ushuaia tour turned out to be a huge intoxication. I had so much fun, that i did not leave the road anymore for several days.

People

I think Argentinians are THE travel nation of South America! The whole continent seems to be packed with them. No clue why it is like that, but they are everywhere. Especially in Uruguay. Since i got a long beard people think permanently i am Argentinian.

I found a sciety which was impressed by idealism and a new gained self confidence since the insovlency a couple of time ago. Similar to Chile there was a high value for the collective. Many people like President Kirchner, case she seems to carry the symbols of the new argentinian liberty, which makes people proud. I found many people who follow this thought. Many praises. But of course there is another side of the medal also.

The „picking-up-mentality“ especialy in the South is very good. I think one reason for this are the long, empty and straight ways. I had drivers that didn´t wanted me to sleep, which i now understand, because i make them getting sleepy as well, when i take a nap beside them. At the beginning i was not concious about this. But if your crossing the South, be clear, that people also might pick you up to ave company and stay awake on this boring straight roads in the middle of nowhere. Especially if you have long-distance lifts over a couple of hundred kilometres. I also think this is not an exception but a regularity.

Beside the usual encountering along the road i also had a special relationship with the argentinian man culture, which tends to be very unsympathic to me (no offence my argentinian friends, more a general observation). In Argentina dominates a culture of provocation, which was my impression. One of my Trustroots host explained this in a good example of his favourite football club. He said that his friends are more happy, when their arch-enemy loses, then when their own club wins. Significant. But this is, in my humble opinion, first of all a man-to-man thing. In general Argentinians have the reputation in South America of being arrogant and feeling superior. I think arrogance is not a bad thing and can be furthermore really sexy. But sometimes it is also annoying.

Roads

Like in a dream. Street quality is okay, but you ALWAYS find a good position to hitchhike. Argentina has lots of space and the hitchhiking is very pleassurefull. There was no reason to walk. Lifts came relatively easy and fast and went always a decent distance.

In the South you have alot of „Campo“, flat land with lots of wind, which can be quite cold also. Roads are straight for hundreds of kilometres. It is somehow attractive, cause you can make alot of distance there. But it also gets boring after a couple of thousand kilometres.

There are alot of animals along the road. Seems like a big petting zoo. A big petting zoo which is permanently crossed by 40-ton heavy trucks which drive with maximal speed. Or experiencing Postal 2 in real. In case of a roadkill the animals are not just flat, but get distributed in all directions. Here a leg, there another body part. A bit different from uruguay, where i also encountered alot of dead animals along the road.

Beside all that Argentina has a big advantage, which makes travelling super pleasent. You got free Wi-Fi at the gas stations. Regulary. Which means, whenever you buy ice-cream you can have Internet. One reason for me to stay on the road. Food, Internet, Lifts….. Here you got everything you need to live. What a blast.

Tactics

Well, to be honest, there is not much to consider while hitchhiking in Argentina. There are nice ring roads with roundabout traffics to make city crossing pretty easy. Just take a visible position and give your hitchhiking sign not to early. I personally let the cars often observe me, what i am doing here beside the street and when they approach me i raise my hand. Especially in straight roads with good visibility.

In the South you can make long distances without any problem, also in the night i made really good experiences there. Especially in the big, bright lighted roundabout traffice which seem to be made for night hitchhiking. Much space, much light and a perfect scenario. It is also very usefull to develope some Mate-Serving-Skills for lifting in the night. Many drivers expect you to make the Mate for picking you up in the night.

Pictures

Specifics

Argentina is a meat nation. If you eat a typical Parilla, there is mostly sausage, kind of rips (Asado) and other pieces of pure meat. Beside that, almost nothing. Maybe a bit bread. I slept very bad after thos meat feasts, but it was somehow delicious. Meat is one of the most cheapest foods, the quality is quite good but (and this you mustn´t offer any Argentinian, if you dont want to hurt his honor) that the quality isn´t as good as in Europe. Imho of course.

Ushuaia is the end of the world. Looks like an Alp-Town. Very nice down there and a worth waypoint to gain. Who can say he was at the end of the world? Allthough there is a chilenian village, which is a bit more South. Can be approached also.

The North is a bit more livable. From mendoza you will have good wne, the terrain frutiful there and everything is nice and green. I was suprised how much plane land is in the South and that you got nothing there, except some animals which survive more or less good. No Plants, no fruits, no trees there. With so much sensless fallow land i can understand a bit more, why there is so much meat.

West of Mendoza you got the Andes and wine. Hostels have happy hours every day, where you can drink as much as possible for 1-2 hours. Time to get wasted. Also some tours through the wineyards can be booked. Pleassurful area. The mountains are near and if you need some different terrain it is easy accessable. But the whole Mendoza area is a bit contaminated by good fellas.

Buenos Aires is one of the most amazing cities which i ever visited. Great architecture, bit french influenced. Very european, beautiful people, much confusion and great parties. For sure i will come back.

Der Beitrag Hitchhiking in… (9) Argentina erschien zuerst auf Warm Roads.

General

Since 20th October 2014 i hitchhiked more than 36968,2 km. I had more than 405 Lifts, had to wait in average 23 minutes and 34 seconds and waited in total 182 hours and 39 minutes (which is about 7,5 days). I don´t wanna miss any of those minutes.

The Best

Is…Tenerife. 21 lifts i catched together with Hanna on this beautiful island. 8 minutes and 12 seconds we had to wait in average. I think Lanzarote was even better, but it was before i started with my documentation.
For South America the country with the best statistics is Ecudaor. 14 minutes and 30 seconds in average, till a car stopped and picked me up. 21 lifts in total and nearly 1000 km might not be that representative. But anyway.

The Positive Suprise

Brazil felt like Spain and Italy together. Totally shit. But the numbers speak another message. 15 minutes and 15 seconds average waiting time are close to the values of Ecuador. I catched 44 Lifts and did 6550 km through Brazil, which has definitely a higher represantation than Ecuador. Feelings might be wrong, numbers aren´t in this case. I don´t know how this can be so good, but during my Brazil crossing i felt like i had to walk at least one hour for every lift. Seems like i didn´t.

Mistaken

Totally overrated was Argentina on the other hand. For me one of the best country for hitchhiking in South America. Probably because of the Free WiFi in the gas stations and the comftable mix of warm roads, acceptable food, long ways and Internet. But the numbers are quite sobering. 34 minutes and 50 seconds average waiting time is the second worst for all my countries so far. I have to add, that i did alot of night hitchhiking in Argentina and this might have affected this value. With 8045 km it is also the country which i hitchhiked the biggest distance in. Also 84 lifts represent a big part of my catched cars so far.

The Worst

Definitely Colombia. Not even in the stats, but also how it felt. Don´t get me wrong, Colombia is a beautiful country, nice people, stunning landscape but moving here is just a pain in the ass. 48 minutes average waiting time. Can´t get worser. Allthough i had only in Venezuela less lifts than in Colombia. 943 km is the least distance i did from all countries in South America. But honestly, i doubt that this stast would get better if i make more distance here. Just a feeling. The reasons for this „hitchhiking-disaster“ im going to discuss in my „Hitchhiking in… – Colombia“ article.

My Secret Favourite…

…for hitchhiking in South America is not Chile…..but Uruguay. 88 Lifts: Its the country where i had the most cars and with 2689 km we find it in the upper midfield of the distances. The average waiting time was with 19 minutes and 42 seconds quite good. Even better if we take in account, that most of the time i was with Ralf together as a men/men team. Fucking good time, good job buddy. Also the country where i hitchhiked my first Cargo Train (hitchhiked and not hopped) and beside Syria the place where i got the most of my lovely Pick-Up rides. Unfortunately riding with Pick-Ups is freshly banned by the government, but let´s hope, that the Uruguayans take this law with the same „We don´t give a shit“-attitude as they take the rest of their lifes and still stop to pick up hitchhikers. Just so much fun there.

This table is fucking nice, isnt it?

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Der Beitrag Hitchhiking in South America – Statistically conclusions of my South America crossing erschien zuerst auf Warm Roads.