We have now been in Kazakhstan, a country where kidnapping is still a form of courtship, for just over 2 weeks and its been a very weird experiance.
We went trekking in the mountains after we'd both recovered from the squits where we were interviewed for TV talking about ecotourism in Kazakhstan. Roz talked about the ecology of Kazakhstan and I talked about how to better advertise tourism in Kazakhstan to the outside world. We managed to maximise our screen time by saying exactly what the interviewer wanted to hear; Waxing lyrical about how wonderful a country Kazakhstan is ect. My comment about 'Borat' hit the cutting room floor though. We whatched the resulting program (with our interviews translated into Kazakh) two days ago in Almaty which was cool. (Roz has discovered how to do photos and put one on her blog- see the link to the right).
Following the mountains we left on an expedition to visit the Aral sea- it took about 2 days to get there. Hardly anyone speaks anything but Russian here but luckily everytime things become really frustrating a helpful english speaker miraculously appears or someone calls someone on their mobiles who can help translate. So, through the kindness of strangers, We were taken to soemones house for lunch, discovered a bus station and the right bus and at the other end stayed in a pilgrims rest place in Turkistan (where theres a mausoleam- the slightly lazy muslims here have worked out 3 trips to here is equivalent to one to Mecca and you dont have to take the plane).
Someone then helped us bribe our way onto a train where we spent 12 hours playing cards and talking to the most of the carrage through the 2 guys who spoke broken English. Our answers where then relayed through the carrage around the piles of contraband and luaggage to the other passengers promoting much debate.
In Aralsk we stayed in the home of Gulmira a local teacher that a nice Russian ecotourism person had called for us. We ended up sleeping in her garden and she got two of her friends to drive us (in their 4X4 lada) out to whats left of the sea (remember the Aral sea- GCSE geography?). Enroute we saw camels picking at the scrubby desert around the rusting carcuses of ships. Lunch was in someones house in a tiny village (camel meat and potatoes followed by camels milk). Our photos of home where passed around reverently and all the local men popped round to see the foreigners.
This was followed by swimming. Our little lada raced accross salt flats and bounced enthusiasticly across dunes to the sea shore and our guides stripped off and raced to the water (gold teath flashing in the sun), waded out and splashed about. We followed rather more gingerly, but it was the first time we'd had a good soak since Tiblisi and rather welcome.
On the 30 hour train Journey to Almaty I met a guy called Jon who spoke great English and tried to sell me oil (they have lots in Kazakhstan) at the equivalent of $100 a barrel but I declined as we already have too much luggage as it is.
Almaty is like Europe, at least to our eyes, they have western shops, western restaurants and western prices. It also has greenery (after the dessert its amzing how much you miss greenery). When you order a couple of beers the one for Roz always comes with a straw. We are just typing this out before skipping to the border and the high mountains of Kyrgistan.
hope everyone is good at home- I owe lots of people emails, internet is not so hot here so will try in Bishkek.
Tuesday 24 June 2008
Wednesday 11 June 2008
Kazakhstan
Hi
we've now crossed to Kazakhstan and are living it up in Shymkent. Tashkent was a cool city althuogh a world away from the rest of Uzbekistan; full of wide boulevards, people who looked like expats, police and blond/bottle blond russian girls in spray on clothing who may or may not have been prostitutes. The police were slightly more vigilant here and stopped you everytime you used the metro to check your papers were in order (given we used the same 3 or 4 stops the whole time they were just stopping us to say hello by the end).
We spent a load of time in the Bazaar mainly perusing the aftershave stalls- I'm trying to find a souveneer sized bottle of "pure Cigar", "Mafia don" or "cash" (available in doller or Euro versions) but as yet have only found them available in large vats.
Unfortunately we both made our selves ill for the first time so have been largely lieing low. However Tashkent is a good place to recover as we found an italian restaurant that surved up Pasta and pizza dishes that were a fair approximation of what you can find at home (with real cheese!!!).
We limped acoross the border yesterday and Kazakhstan feels really different, much richer and slightly cooler. Hopefully will be fully better and we can head off to the mountains tomorrow. have updated the map so you can follow electronicly in our footsteps.
Tom
we've now crossed to Kazakhstan and are living it up in Shymkent. Tashkent was a cool city althuogh a world away from the rest of Uzbekistan; full of wide boulevards, people who looked like expats, police and blond/bottle blond russian girls in spray on clothing who may or may not have been prostitutes. The police were slightly more vigilant here and stopped you everytime you used the metro to check your papers were in order (given we used the same 3 or 4 stops the whole time they were just stopping us to say hello by the end).
We spent a load of time in the Bazaar mainly perusing the aftershave stalls- I'm trying to find a souveneer sized bottle of "pure Cigar", "Mafia don" or "cash" (available in doller or Euro versions) but as yet have only found them available in large vats.
Unfortunately we both made our selves ill for the first time so have been largely lieing low. However Tashkent is a good place to recover as we found an italian restaurant that surved up Pasta and pizza dishes that were a fair approximation of what you can find at home (with real cheese!!!).
We limped acoross the border yesterday and Kazakhstan feels really different, much richer and slightly cooler. Hopefully will be fully better and we can head off to the mountains tomorrow. have updated the map so you can follow electronicly in our footsteps.
Tom
Thursday 5 June 2008
been through the desert on a donkey with no name
sorry for the rather lax efforts here. We are currently in Uzbekistan having motored through Turkmenistan- internet is rather sketchy so we have been blissfully unaware of the world, hope everyone is ok.
we got our money's worth on the boat to Turkmenistan as we got stuck on it for 2 days and ended up having to beg for food along with the rest of the passengers as our supplies; 2 snickers bars got eaten at the port
Turkmenistan was a weird weird place thanks to the ex president who called himself Turkmenbashi (Father of the Turkmen) and plastered the country with his slogans, the most popular being "people,nation, me".
He turned the capital into a vision of white marble, resplendant with fountains and golden staues of himself. the centre piece was the 70 meter "arch of neutrality" topped with a gold statue of the president in a busienss suit and a flowing suoperman style cape. the statue rotated so it was always facing the sun.
after a few days of pottering we headed up north, camping in the dessert next to a burning gas crater formed when some soviet oil prospectors stopped for a cigarette. The resulting explosion left a 10 metre deep, 30 m across pit that has been burning for 30 years.
Uzbekistan is more conventional in it's attractions although just as hot; summer has come early and its already 30 degrees at 9 am. We're in the silk road proper now loads of gently crumbling dessert towns resplendant with blue tiled mosques. They have a fairly relaxed attitude to Islam here though, taking elements from zoastronism, buddism and mixing it up with liberal quantities of alcohol.
Given they refuses to revalue the currency in the face of rampant inflation the highest value bank note in circulation is worth less than 30p and changing money means bringing along a carrier bag. Even paying for dinner becomes a bit of a palava and with the huge wad of notes that you have to carry around in your pocket it looks as if you're very pleased to see everyone.
Roz and I also seem to rank as popular attrations as at most of the sights we have had to pose for photos with huge families of Uzbeks. we're learning to scowl as photos are a serious business here and my jazz hands don't go down too well.
Just got back from a few days in the sticks where we went donkey trekking. we wern't that good as Roz's one kept running off with her and my geriatric one just wanted to eat things. Anyway off to get our evening kebab and beer. we cant put photos on here as the only internet is dial up- will endevour to do so in Kazakstan
we got our money's worth on the boat to Turkmenistan as we got stuck on it for 2 days and ended up having to beg for food along with the rest of the passengers as our supplies; 2 snickers bars got eaten at the port
Turkmenistan was a weird weird place thanks to the ex president who called himself Turkmenbashi (Father of the Turkmen) and plastered the country with his slogans, the most popular being "people,nation, me".
He turned the capital into a vision of white marble, resplendant with fountains and golden staues of himself. the centre piece was the 70 meter "arch of neutrality" topped with a gold statue of the president in a busienss suit and a flowing suoperman style cape. the statue rotated so it was always facing the sun.
after a few days of pottering we headed up north, camping in the dessert next to a burning gas crater formed when some soviet oil prospectors stopped for a cigarette. The resulting explosion left a 10 metre deep, 30 m across pit that has been burning for 30 years.
Uzbekistan is more conventional in it's attractions although just as hot; summer has come early and its already 30 degrees at 9 am. We're in the silk road proper now loads of gently crumbling dessert towns resplendant with blue tiled mosques. They have a fairly relaxed attitude to Islam here though, taking elements from zoastronism, buddism and mixing it up with liberal quantities of alcohol.
Given they refuses to revalue the currency in the face of rampant inflation the highest value bank note in circulation is worth less than 30p and changing money means bringing along a carrier bag. Even paying for dinner becomes a bit of a palava and with the huge wad of notes that you have to carry around in your pocket it looks as if you're very pleased to see everyone.
Roz and I also seem to rank as popular attrations as at most of the sights we have had to pose for photos with huge families of Uzbeks. we're learning to scowl as photos are a serious business here and my jazz hands don't go down too well.
Just got back from a few days in the sticks where we went donkey trekking. we wern't that good as Roz's one kept running off with her and my geriatric one just wanted to eat things. Anyway off to get our evening kebab and beer. we cant put photos on here as the only internet is dial up- will endevour to do so in Kazakstan
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