Kazakhstan

Cassie:
Our border crossing this morning took one hour total. There was no customs clearance for the car or us to be done on either the Russian or Kazakhstan side. So all we had to do was get our passports/visas stamped out of Russia then into Kazakhstan and we were done! We were in Kazakhstan by 10am Russian time, 9am local time. Woah! We got to the border just before 9am anticipating yet another whole day of border crossing. The border back into Russia should be an interesting one because I think we need to get a barge over the Volga River. Anyway, that should be in a couple of weeks' time, in the meantime we've got a new country to explore.

So far we've visited the city of Semey today. It's quite a large city and we spent a good deal of time there to have some lunch, get some local currency from an ATM, and a road atlas which isn't the best in the world but will hopefully get us around ok. And we had a good ol' fashion waffle icecream cone on our walk back to the car. It's fairly warm here today and the sun's shining so it was a nice treat.

For the second time this trip we feel like the land literally changed at the border. The first time was when we went from Russia into Mongolia. This morning on our way to the Russian border we were driving through grassy land with trees dotted here and there (seemingly most of it had been cleared for farming). When we crossed the border into Kazakhstan we noticed that sure, there were still open fields that were being farmed and trees here and there but somehow it appeared more barren and the ground turned from dirt to sand. The roads have been asphalt so far but they're pretty rubbish. You wouldn't want to drive any faster than 70-80km/h. So with almost 5,000km to traverse across this country it's again going to be slow going. I also suspect that we'll hit sand/dirt roads soon enough, particularly as we head further west.

We stopped really early today because we're both pretty tired. It would be nice to go home for a week, rest up and sleep well then come back and continue. For some reason, resting at a hotel is different to resting at home. Our camp is off the highway sheltered from view by an area that's been dug out. Not sure if it's natural or manmade. Either way, as the sun gets lower it should provide us with some shade too. There's no trees in this area and the ground is very dry. Again we're very thankful for the solar shades we can put up on the car windows to block out the sun.

Our next main stop in Kazakhstan will be Almaty. It's interesting how much english is spoken here in Kazakhstan so far. The Russian border guard this morning spoke quite good english and he told us not to expect any english at the Kazakhstan border, or in fact in Kazakhstan itself. That really didn't worry us. Obviously it makes it super easy for us when people speak english but it has never been much of a problem if neither them nor us can speak each other's language. Funny thing was, the first Kazakhstan border guard we had to liaise with spoke fairly good english and was so excited to be able to speak it. He was so helpful. Then when we got into Semey we haven't had any trouble communicating with the locals because they spoke either bits of English or Russian. Again, that may change as we leave the major cities and head further west, but it still won't be a problem. All the way through Mongolia the only two words we knew were "hello" and "goodbye" and strangely that was en
ough. However, we don't know a single word of Kazakh because I couldn't find a Kazakhstan phrase book and ran out of time to order one online before we left. It should make for some interesting miming and hand gestures to explain what we'd like.

We're now 4hrs behind home time. An advantage of traveling overland rather than flying across all these timezones is that there's no jetlag. Quite the opposite, we gain an hour every few days or so as we set our clocks back an hour. It'll all catch up with us on our way back home, but oh well, at least we'll have time to recover at home.

Graeme:
I've just been introduced to a new application for my phone which takes 360 degree panoramas - thanks David. Oh how I regret not having this application earlier. There have been so many breathtaking locations which can never be captured with just one photo. Creating one perfectly is a bit tricky, and I have botched a few of them so far, but the last one I got of our camp today is pretty darn good. Capturing 360' panorama's isn't anything particularly new, but with this application, no longer do you not need a special tripod head to capture it, but moreso, replaying the image on a handheld device is so intuitive. You just pan around as if you were there! Look up, it looks up, turn left, it turns left - all as if you were taking the photo yourself. Hopefully this adds another level of depth to our journey. You guys will be sick of them by the second one, but hey, you don't have to look at them ;-)

As Cassie said, the border crossing was seamless today. I was concerned with it's ease and clarified with the border guard that this would pose no problem whatsoever when reentering Russia - 'nope, none whatsoever, it's just because we don't have facilities here for sniffer dogs etc, otherwise it's all normal' - orrite. I sure hope so.
I have a perspective on Cassie's topic of why hotel rest isn't as fruitful as home rest. I think when you're paying for accommodation in a brilliant place that you'll never be again, watching TV seems like a waste of time and money. So you go out. You wash clothes, you upload videos, you Skype people. It's all gotta get done.

Yeah, fuel is less in KZ - 57 cents a litre today - Dammit! As we've come west, the cost of food however has felt like it's increased. As you know, previously we'd both be fed for $12 now it's more like $30. Lunch today was very ordinary and it cost $21 It's not that it's particularly expensive, but when it's rubbish, just like at home you feel jippped.

Oh and these roads are rubbish... deceptively rubbish. It looks normal and lovley, with a few sets of skid marks the only clue as to what's in store. The undulations in the road surface build up in some kind of rhythmic waveform that compound one after another. One bump's ok, then the next two have you out of your seat. Very weird stuff. Going slow is the only cure and the trucks are the best proof of that. They go slow... real slow. Like 20kph.
I'm excited to be here, but I think the roads have come as a suprise. 200k/day might be the max again. Due to the heat of the day, I think we'll be starting earlier and finishing earlier. OK cool, I'm off to change the fuel filter. It's funny how they seem to tighten themselves. When I installed it with only one hand, it was only justtt compressing the seal, still quite loose. Oh well.