Adventure is not polished or dreamed up in a marketing firm, but it’s sweat and blood made with genuine friends. A close friend Lee and I had the crazy idea of buying not one but two UAZ Buhanka old-timers. We were naive and believing that we could rent out these old-timers to like-minded travelers…. What a joke!
Lee and I got the van in the German village of Rot Front. About 10 miles out of town the van ran out of gas. The 2nd breakdown happened 40 miles out of town. We broke down in a small village and a few drunken men came to our rescue. They poured around 20 L of river water over the fuel pump and said “Davay” which means go in Russian. This solved the problem for the rest of the ride home and it was the best possible start to our adventure.
Before I rented out the van I had it checked at the car bazaar and had seat belts installed in the van. That was a nightmare I tell yea. It’s really hard to find seat belts for sale in Central Asia and I had no idea what I was doing. Dina was a superstar to help me through the whole process! At the time I did not speak Russian that well and I did not have the vocabulary for car parts yet. In addition, the van was in quite a rough shape all around.
The first guest that rented the van were really crazy…. They took the old-timer over the Too Ashuu mountain pass at 3,180 m which is quite an epic pass to cross in Kyrgyzstan with such an old van. They were having a nice time beating up the van until they had the brilliant idea to drive the van into a fresh landslide and get the van stuck 100 km off the main road in the middle of nowhere. They were really special people, to say the least.
Then van became famous I tell yea! A family from Germany rented it and drove all across Kyrgyzstan and actually did not have that many problems because they had a Unimog to pull the van across the countryside. Check out their adventure here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OwcvX8h5zHw
Check it out! The front page of the Explorer Magazine!
Another really nice couple from England rented the van. They were a bit mechanically inclined and were the best guests ever! They had a few breakdowns along the way but they loved the experience of renting an old-timer camper van. The main problem they had was that the fuel system would overheat or the carburetor got dirty or it needed to be adjusted correctly due to the high altitude in the mountains. They really earned their vacation and got to experience a unique way to travel.
I tell yea what, I learned a lot about Russian vans that summer and a lot about people as well. After each rental, I learned a few new Russian car parts words and a few more ways to describe a broken car. Some of my guests could not drive the van down the road even 100 km before turning back and asking to rent a Toyota or some type of lame 4x4. All “good things” come to an end and I found out that a traveler wanted to buy a camper van in Kyrgyzstan.
After a season of renting out this “rugged” van for one season, I was lucky to find a group of crazy Dutch guys that wanted to buy the van for their trip back home. They were ready for a big adventure I tell yea! Check out the film they made about their trip.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r54CX7U219Q&t=176s
This was one of my favorite vans to drive and I do miss my first love….
END OF STORY
YOUR HOST
Alex
Kyrgyzstan
Adventure is not polished or dreamed up in a marketing firm, but it’s sweat and blood made with genuine friends. A close friend Lee and I had the crazy idea of buying not one but two UAZ Buhanka old-timers. We were naive and believing that we could rent out these old-timers to like-minded travelers…. What a joke!
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