Hotel Atyrau

Made the reservation for the shuttle. Will make it to the airport before the 5 am crew change bus shows up. Can't believe it is first come, first served seating. But I'm going to get a window.<br><br>Great to be leaving. <br><br>That's what I get for posting before actually flying. Small delay - plane ...

Wrapped up my work real early. Some pics of the mosque from a different angle.<br><br>Went to pick up my bag, I didn't make it over there last night. Glad I left another bag at the hotel.<br><br>Went over to one of the 'malls' just to get outside for a bit. Of course, not much there. But still interesting to walk through one of their grocery stores. <br>

Sure was nice of them to let me check-in at 9:10 in the morning. Much easier to work in the room, then to get dressed up to go into one of the offices.<br><br>Plus, there aren't as many distractions. And I can take breaks to go swim or exercise when it isn't very crowded.<br>Did reconfirm my massage with Olga, so I should go home in pretty good shape.<br><br>Now I just have to wait for my bag to show up.<br>

Finally on my way down to Tengiz.<br>I was lucky enough to get a window seat. Got some good pictures of the city of Atyrau. You can see the resident's 'camp' on this side of the hotel/mosque, as well as the square, all the way down to the bridge. <br>Decided I wasn't going to walk between Europe &amp; Asia on this trip. But if you want to see the bridge photos, check out the other Kazakhstan trips.<br>

Well - because work was finishing a little quicker, I scheduled my massage with Olga. <br><br>Looks like I might be able to get another one next week when I pass back through. It's good to be on the right side of the exchange rate. And she does a good job working out the knots that always seem to pile up when I travel.<br><br>

Spent the early morning getting my bag ready for its truck ride down to the field. Of course, the biggest issue is getting a laptop bag down to 5 kg (~10 lbs) for the flight. Basically, it is the laptop, my passport, and sunglasses. All the power cords get send in the other bag ...

... there are parts of fish out there. Can't imagine ice is the preferred landing spot. Of course, we are smart enough to know not to go out on the ice. I think I found the center spot on the bridge - it is the only place that has two posts next to each other. So one foot in Europe, one in Asia.

... Much nicer to stay there. But at least I got a single room for the night. I was also able to move up my departure, so I will be going back to Aberdeen a day early. Maybe I will be finally able to figure out what I am going to do for Christmas with the extra time.

Mi ha detto un mio collega che ad Inder c'e' una statua del Lenin che hanno buttato giu' nel '91 hai tempi della controrivoluzione. E' in un vecchio deposito di ferraglie. Mi ha fatto venire subito in mente Buona Notte Signor Lenin di Terzani, che ho finito di leggere un mesetto fa ...

I kazakhi prendono i festeggiamenti per il capodanno molto seriamente. Lo dimostra il fatto che gia' da diversi giorni prima della fine dell'anno sono in pochi a lavorare e di giorno si vedono poche macchine in giro. Quelle che si vedono sono dirette per la maggior parte ai supermercati a comprare vodka e cibo per i festeggiamenti. Piu' ci ...