Graeme:
Checking out of the hotel this morning, I asked the receptionist 'Can you drink the tap water? to which his reply was "nooo no no no you can't drink the tap water, you need to drink bottled water here". Oh cool - that information would have saved us a miserable and expensive experience. In Chita, there were signs at the taps saying don't drink the water, and provided four bottles of water for you.
As a result of the illness I'm feeling a bit fragile. Longing for the consistency and reliability of home. Reliable food, water, bathrooms and healthcare. Although we have not needed public healthcare, the thought of relying on it is something I sincerely hope to avoid. In a moment like this, it's easy to get down. It's still crazy hot which leaves us annoyed that we're too tired to drive, yet it's too hot to relax or sleep.
I can't help but wonder if we're a bit over the trip, or is this just typical of half way blues. Surely it's wrong to travel through a country simply for the purpose of 'getting it over with'? I just hope that our high spirits return and we don't waste the time we have left by feeling miserable.
I'll pull out the stops for once and say what I really think. The police here are pissy noncontributing zeros. On a lone stretch of road there will be a speed sign, way too low for the road conditions only to find a police man with a laser speed gun - nice! Every town has a checkpoint entirely devoid of process, but you do a courtesy stop to avoid trouble. If you do get stopped, there is no interest or excitement in where you are from or where you're going, they just ask for a piece of documentation that they can't read, purely to justify their miserable existence and then send you on your way without so much as a smile.
I'm going to even go as far to say the people as a whole are not very good. EVERY time I've tried to make eye contact with a smile, is instantly snubbed with a turn of cheek. The only people any good were the hotel staff, but then again they are paid to smile and nod. I'm first to admit, I might have it wrong. Their culture may deem it invalid to smile here, or nod, but I don't have to think 'oh goodie! Isn't it awesome how we got snobbed again! this culture is so amazing!' Other countries to your north and east are much nicer and not so inconsiderate. Perhaps we're seeing another reason why people don't come here? Initially I just thought it was the roads, but perhaps the people are a big factor in it. I don't think I'm just ranting because I'm hot and tired, I'm ranting because it's only now that my inhibitions are down.
I am genuinely excited at seeing if western KZ'ers are nicer than easterners.
Onwards!
We did 319KM today, 7KM over quota - NICE! And that was only half a day!
Cassie:
We've both been really sick these past couple of days, as Graeme mentioned, most likely from the water in Almaty. Either that or we just caught a bug. We're not quite 100% yet, but I'm sure the next 24-48hrs will see us back on track with our health.
It's so hot here. The past few days have been well over 30 degrees celsius and there's still no shade to speak of. Today we saw a temperature gauge that read 37 degrees. It's just like our trip through the outback of Australia almost a couple of years back now. It was terribly boring in parts and bloody hot because we had to do it during the Christmas holidays when we both had the opportunity for time off. We both said we would never do that trip in summer again. Unfortunately, I didn't count on the tail end of the Kazakhstan summer being just as hot. I asked the concierge at the hotel what the temperature range was during the year in Kazakhstan. He said 40+ in summer and down to well below -20 in winter with snow (in Almaty at least). Wow, I had no idea the temperature ranges were so drastic. If they get snow here, I'm very surprised at the extremely hot temperatures at this end of summer. It's autumn here in a couple of weeks and it's still nearly hitting 40 degrees. Finger
s crossed the temperature cools down enough for us to sleep tonight. We need a good night's rest! I'm envying all of you at home going through winter. And yes, I know Canberra's experienced the coldest winter in 50 years but to me that sounds like bliss! Call me crazy, but I love winter.
Unfortunately, because we were so sick we didn't really see any of Almaty other than what we managed to walk through on Sunday afternoon and what we drove through to get in there and out again. It seems nice enough. Seems to be lots of nice places to eat at and go shopping but we didn't get a chance to do either of those things.
We're on our way to Shymkent and may or may not get there tomorrow, depends on what the roads are like. We were fortunate to have maybe 250km of normal, smooth roads today. Then from there on to Turkestan where there's a temple we'd like to see. From then on it's just a matter of driving across the country to the border. The words we've both used to describe our feeling of this country is "distinctly underwhelmed". Russia and Kazakhstan represent the biggest chunk of our kilometres and time on this trip because they're just massive countries. It's unfortunate that they also have some of the worst roads.
There's four weeks left on our temporary importation for the car for Russia. We've estimated another two weeks from here to get across Kazakhstan which leaves us a comfortable gap of maybe a week to get across the other side of Russia in time before the temporary importation expires. This also has to include a hotel stay at some point in Russia because we have to register our passports at a hotel to ensure there's no problems when we exit. It's feeling a bit like work at the moment and I'm sure being unwell hasn't helped our attitude towards this part of the trip.
Let's hope we still have enough time and energy left after all of this to enjoy Europe.
Oh and another thing, we saw horse meat for sale in the supermarket. The weirdest part was, we think it was boy horse parts vacuum sealed in a packet. Ummm, ew.
Position: 12-08-21 18:47:46 +0600 +0000
http://maps.google.com/maps?&ll=43.45624,73.65993&q=43.45624,73.65993&z=16
Tuesday, August 21, 2012
Video
I forgot about the dash cam footage of the Altai region and KZ roads.
We’re just packing up ready to leave on our 3144KM trip across Kazakhstan. Here is a link if you’re interested: https://maps.google.com.au/maps?saddr=Almaty,+Almaty+Province,+Kazakhstan&daddr=Kotyayevka,+Atyrau+Province,+Kazakhstan&hl=en&ll=46.331758,66.291504&spn=8.60193,21.643066&sll=43.255058,76.912628&sspn=0.567097,1.352692&geocode=FRIFlAId9JeVBCmry8UWfW6DODF2bZitj2ZEPQ%3BFSYsxgIdbT3oAilNMMXOV5OoQTEVivzUBHoWbw&oq=kotyayev&t=h&mra=ls&z=6
We’re both feeling pretty good after breakfast, we’ll duck to a supermarket and hopefully a map store, then we’ll be on the road. We estimate it’ll take us two weeks to Volgograd – wish us luck.
Mobile post
Just a quick post to keep you all updated. We went out to dinner Sunday night. Afterwards Cassie felt full, but by half an hour of returning that full feeling became nauseous and she proceeded to vomit no less than 10 times before dawn. We were both so tired. I felt ok, but I had a meal with considerable quantities of chilli in it which resulted in less than perfect output. After breakfast where we both hardly ate a thing, we thought wise to replenish our fluids with some of those orange effervescent tablets. I drank mine in one go and chased it with another full glass of water, but Cassie feeling fragile, sipped hers very slowly, having only had 1/4 by midday. By mid day I was feeling very seedy but unable to vomit anything. I ventured to the car to get a known good bottle of water. By the evening I had a massive spew and felt immediately better, but still too tender to drink anything. I'm still really dehydrated and as a result really sore. I've drank maybe 500ml since my spew but it's only a drop in the ocean to how much I lost. Cassie is feeling much better but still tender, so we'll leave here today. After all that, we think it was a result of the hotel water. Cassie had some before we went out and It wasn't until I drank any that I became sick. It's felt an epic waste of time and money staying here, but no doubt this would be miserable beside a road somewhere...
Sorry for all the gross details, but without them, there is no story.
Sorry for all the gross details, but without them, there is no story.
Sunday, August 19, 2012
360’s and photos
Viewing on the PC means you miss out on seeing the texture of the earth, so viewing on a handheld device may be more immersive. You do have to wait a few moments for the pictures to become clearer.You may prefer to click ‘Flat view’ on the top right hand corner.
~20KM from Semey: http://360.io/mh8R5
~50KM from Semey at our ‘bomb site’ camp spot: http://360.io/sj7Kt2
-Mid way between Semey and Almatay: http://360.io/CunyXt and http://360.io/kV6AAW
-Kafe: http://360.io/KzabuN
~250KM from Almatay: http://360.io/EV6pBw
That ‘oughta do it, I told you I went overboard.
Photos: https://picasaweb.google.com/twomagadan/BarnaulToAlmatay?authkey=Gv1sRgCK_71ZH897HTdg
Reply to comment from Mike and Sue Broadbent:
You may find the post where we arrived in Magadan here: http://twomagadan.blogspot.com/2012/07/two-in-magadan.html You also may also find dates either side of this this by choosing the ‘July’ month on the left hand side.
Saturday, August 18, 2012
Nat Geo? BBC?
A few times on this trip we've been asked if we're with National Geographic or the BBC which is hilarious. That would be awesome, but alas no, we are not adventure journalists. Just adventure wannabes.
Thanks for the info on Semey, Denise. I had read that somewhere but totally forgot while we were there that it was the place they tested nuclear bombs. Well, we definitely didn't eat any of the dirt at our campsite so I'm sure we'll be right. Looking back, I wonder if it was some kind of old gravel pit for roadworks. Still not sure, but would be interesting to see it on Google Earth.
Today has been great. It's only lunch time but we've stopped for a bit of a rest. It's been a more interesting day today. The scenery hasn't really changed which is weird because we're so used to the scenery changing hourly as we drive, but it hasn't changed for the past few days since we've been in Kazakhstan. We did see snow-capped mountains in the distance. Can you believe that!? I obviously have no idea about this country because I did not expect to see snow-capped mountains. Our altitude is ~600m but we're not sure how high those mountains are in the distance.
There's a bit of farming going on in this part of the country. Cattle, goats, sunflowers, wheat and some other type of crop farm but I can't figure out what they're growing. MumC you would love all the fields of sunflowers! We got some pictures for you.
We've stopped outside a town where we had lunch at a cafe. We're now resting in the shade of the car with doors and windows open to let the breeze through. It's pretty hot out there in the sun and again, with no trees to stop under, we're very thankful for the shade of the car. Graeme's having a nap and I'm obviously typing up this edition of the blog.
Late this morning we stopped at a little town to have a break. We decided just to get a tea or something at a cafe, because it's a good excuse to stop. We pulled up at a small, glaringly pink building with a blue roof. There were lovely flowers out the front and it looked quite cute. We walked in and it was very apparent that cleanliness wasn't high on their list but catching the multitude of flies was. There was old fashion fly paper full of flies on the table we were to sit at and the sugar bowls had quite a few flies having a great ol' time in them. Oh well. We ordered tea and sat down to await what would come out. First of all, the young girl brought out two cups, two teaspoons, a little jug of warm milk, a bowl of cream (what the!?), a small plate of biscuits and lollies (sure, ok), and a box - yes a box - of bread. Hmmmm, we were wondering what the hell do we do with all of this, and ummm, where's the tea? We thought, oh well, this must be how they have their tea, just
milk and whatever cream stuff this is in the bowl. We put a teaspoon of the cream into the cups and poured in the warm milk. Was a bit gross but we thought we really should drink it so we're not being impolite. Five minutes through struggling with this dilemma, out comes the girl again with a pot of tea and a pot of boiling water. We both burst out laughing after she walked away. What a couple of western tools we were in this place! So, we ended up with tea afterall and we're assuming the cream was for dipping the biscuits and bread into? Still not sure, and we still sound like we have no idea what happened. We couldn't stop giggling the whole time. It was a great stop, thoroughly enjoyed it!
Due to the distinct lack of trees and decent shrubbery in this country, it's very difficult to do a bush pee. So unfortunately I often have to use the public latrines. "Latrine" is polite for "poo splattered hut". When we stopped to get fuel this morning I went to use the "latrine" outside (no indoor toilets round these parts). The human crap and urine dotted along the path leading to it like land mines was my first clue that the "latrine" must be horrible. How bad must it be that I'm dodging crap along the path TO the toilet!? Not even the locals want to use this one. Yikes. Curiosity got the better of me, I just had to know what was so terrible that people were crapping on the path. Woah nelly! It was horrible. Thankfully the door was wide open so I didn't have to touch it to observe it. There was literally poo splattered up the walls and covering the floor. What are they eating!? Aw it was horrid. I dodged my way through the land mine path again back to the car and Graeme
said, alright then, I had better go too. Ummm, no you don't want to. We laughed and laughed. Everyone loves a bit of toilet humour. Needless to say, there's a small tree up the road from that place with my name under it.
I also realised today that a lot of the town names in the road atlas we bought in Semey don't match the spelling on the signs. That makes it a bit difficult. It's almost as if the road atlas is in Kazakh and the road signs are in Russian, or vice versa.
Graeme:
Heaps of Mazda's in this country. I can't figure out why!? Maybe the vintage of the cars is somehow related to the end of the soviet era? The distribution of cars would be:
10% Ladas
40% Mazdas (626, 626 v2, 626v3, the one that the eunos was. Hatch back, sedan, wagon and family mover. No new Mazda 1/2/3/6's though!? Every variant you can imagine, but it's gotta be mazda)
20% Audis (Weirdly only the 20 year old models)
20% Mercedees
10% All Others
Yes - the cafe was a laugh. It's so funny how quick we tried to look normal by combining the seemingly incompatible ingredients and how quick we were content with the results. Thankfully there was no one around, we would have looked mighty weird.
Sorry to disapoint, but we've hardly taken any photos and videos. Hopefully the ones we have took will give a fair indicator of why. It's just that there's not been anything to take photos of! I've been playing with the camera of a night, shooting stars, roads etc while it's cool and still. I've taken some more 360's (my totally favorite new thing) which will bore the socks off you, but oh well. They do give an amazing perspective of time and place. No longer do you look at a static photo any more, you see the ground beneath you, the sky above, and the tumbleweeds in the behind you. I can't wait to upload some to get your feedback.
I changed the fuel filter a couple of nights ago. It was pretty dirty I guess. I drained most of the contents I could into a clear cup. About the top 2mm looked purplish like water (that's if diesel isn't as dense as water, I can't remember!?), followed by a cup of dirty brown diesel, then half a teaspoon of silty rust. Naturally my first reaction is 'Oh the car is going great now' but in reality nothing would have changed :)
I guess I underestimated how much digital media we would collect because the laptop is now close to full. In Vladivostok I bought an 500GB external hard disk purely to backup the laptop, figuring that the laptop's hard disk is 500GB, so why would I need more space? The backup hard disk stays in my back pack, whereas the laptop stays in the car or at hotels. I suppose I've got to buy another external HDD and store stuff on there and hope it doesn't fail or get stolen? They are not expensive, but it means putting the second half of our holiday's eggs (digital media) in only one basket which I don't like the sound of. I might start uploading the better photos in higher quality photos to picasaweb as a rudimentary online backup. The video's are way too large to backup online, but then again the best bits are likely to be in our Youtube videos anyway. Anything else would just be a waste of space... like today's example: Busting out to 'I said I loved you but I lied' by Michael Bol
ton
Today's been darn hot which is cool (lol @ english language), but a decent wind cools you down real fast provided you're out of the sun. We've got ~250K to Almatay which we will probably knock over tomorrow. We'd done 200KM by lunch time today. As a bit of fun, I googled the existance of a McDonalds in Almatay - evidently not, but there is KFC and Pizzahut. Immediately I didn't feel like either of them, but I suspect I could be swayed by salty chips.
Tonight's camp (pictured) is atop beautiful 'fields of gold'. Kazakhstan is looking much more interesting today. Not so flat, dry and dead. Today's driving has passed numerous mountains, blue fast flowing creeks with aquaducts, towns and generally more life. The roads have been much better too. We dropped a bit of tyre pressure which is making a positive difference.
The other picture is me dunking biscuits in cream - I'm not sure if that was what the locals do?
Friday, August 17, 2012
Road rage
.not driver rage, rage at the actual road. It's RUBBISH! We were treated to 50KM of bliss today. Super wide, super smooth, 110kph road. The memory of which is shattered by 350 kilometers of miserable, bone shattering, hate filled crap. Call me slow, but I think I've figured out why no one else goes through Kazakhstan, these roads are so rubbish that I couldn't tell you if we drove through forests or open plains. Ugh - so over it! and only another 4500km of it to go! We're ~1/8th through distance wise.
I said last night that we would have an early start and cover some distance, well a more fruitful approach was starting early, stopping for a good hour for lunch, then back at it. It's like two half days. We stopped at just before 5PM but realistically it's still too early to stop as it's hot and windy. Oh well, better to be hot and bothered than drive till you snap.
Tonight's dinner is some kind of beef cubes, mashed potato (peas corn and cruton variety) and gravy.
We were helped by a lovely empty-nester couple who's kids have moved to London. They called their son to translate to us. Effecively we were given directions to Almatay. Through translation confusion we didn't get his number, even though he said get it from my dad so you can call if you have any trouble. It would have been nice to meet them in London - oh well. They drove 30KM out of town to show us where the turnoff was. They may well have been going that way anyway, but it was still kind. Our map is just a basic street atlas, the kind you'd get at a service station. It's getting the job done, but not knowing our exact location on it, combined with no street signs is making navigation difficult... even here! I did buy a Khazakstan physical map online but even with three plus months to deliver it they didn't come through. I bet it still hasn't arrived actually. I bought a digital version online from this same mob and thier website broke three times over the course of a month.
ugh.
Dinner was fantastic and hit the spot real good. Tomorrow will no doubt yield much of the same, but at least it won't come as a surprise.
Cassie is like a baby giraffe. I can't beleive how many times shes hit her head, elbows, knees and feet in the car. Although I'm taller, I obviously haven't confused the interior of our car for a jumping castle. What's weirder is that has just resigned to the fact she will bump into things, rather than changing her behaviour. What's that about?!
Position: 12-08-17 18:13:41 +0600 +0000
http://maps.google.com/maps?&ll=47.18012,80.68827&q=47.18012,80.68827&z=16
I said last night that we would have an early start and cover some distance, well a more fruitful approach was starting early, stopping for a good hour for lunch, then back at it. It's like two half days. We stopped at just before 5PM but realistically it's still too early to stop as it's hot and windy. Oh well, better to be hot and bothered than drive till you snap.
Tonight's dinner is some kind of beef cubes, mashed potato (peas corn and cruton variety) and gravy.
We were helped by a lovely empty-nester couple who's kids have moved to London. They called their son to translate to us. Effecively we were given directions to Almatay. Through translation confusion we didn't get his number, even though he said get it from my dad so you can call if you have any trouble. It would have been nice to meet them in London - oh well. They drove 30KM out of town to show us where the turnoff was. They may well have been going that way anyway, but it was still kind. Our map is just a basic street atlas, the kind you'd get at a service station. It's getting the job done, but not knowing our exact location on it, combined with no street signs is making navigation difficult... even here! I did buy a Khazakstan physical map online but even with three plus months to deliver it they didn't come through. I bet it still hasn't arrived actually. I bought a digital version online from this same mob and thier website broke three times over the course of a month.
ugh.
Dinner was fantastic and hit the spot real good. Tomorrow will no doubt yield much of the same, but at least it won't come as a surprise.
Cassie is like a baby giraffe. I can't beleive how many times shes hit her head, elbows, knees and feet in the car. Although I'm taller, I obviously haven't confused the interior of our car for a jumping castle. What's weirder is that has just resigned to the fact she will bump into things, rather than changing her behaviour. What's that about?!
Position: 12-08-17 18:13:41 +0600 +0000
http://maps.google.com/maps?&ll=47.18012,80.68827&q=47.18012,80.68827&z=16
Thursday, August 16, 2012
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.
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.
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