Hotel Mukammal Astana

... of. <br> At around 5pm Sergei, Dmitri's landlord and neighbour arrives. Katya, Sergei's wife, brings more fish, including delicious slices of sturgeon from Magadan, bread and butter. The beer is constantly being replenished.<br> "Peter, have you ever had Russian bath?" <br> "Can't say that I have."<br> "You will have Russian bath with us!"<br> Even if I hadn't wanted to, no or nyet, was not a word on the agenda. Katya is despatched to light the fire for the bath and we carry on ...

<br><br>I get up at the crack of dawn, have breakfast and take my 65 tenge bus ride to the workshops. No, it doesn't seem to be the starter motor. Head scratching. Almost by magic as soon as I am in the workshop Assel appears to translate. I think she will have a lot of catching up to do on her normal work by the time this is over. If it ever is. She did mention something about experiencing Kazakhstan in the winter. Don't make jokes Assel!<br ...

... at the busiest junction yesterday. The traffic lights were suspended and a policeman was directing traffic. An artist if I ever saw one. And the flow of traffic was as efficient as you are ever going to get.<br><br>There is neither an overweight person in sight nor a Macdonalds or KFC or Pizza Hut! Is there a connection?<br><br>There has been no word from Sasha. Bad news?<br><br> <br><br>

... and handshakes all round we headed south across, yes, your right, more steppes to Astana and, through the help of Denis and Sasha, a rather more expensive hotel for the night than I would organise myself. But hey, I've saved all that money camping!!! And I AM a BMW customer after all! I might as well await the verdict on the bike on Tuesday in comfort, Monday being Constitution Day. It's a bit unfortunate that of all the places to end up in I have ...

... around Belarus if we can avoid it, although we don't need visas to do that. We now know we can get a transit visa in Moscow, and we are just hoping that we can do it without having to get an 'invitation' from a tour firm. We will drive it non-stop if necessary just to cut the corner and the paper work. We'd rather spend the extra couple of days in Poland because we don't have much info on Belarus. So after that, it was another of those real ...

... langsam ab** sich** auf die schon aus England bekannte Somm**modelänge umzustellen; nenne man es Textilblindheit od** d** Königinnen neue Kleid**. Ab** wenigstens ist in Kasachstan d** Nahrungsmittelüb**fluss nicht so offensichtlich, vielmehr könnte man fast denken, dass Futt**mangel besteht. Dabei fällt mir ein: Einem Fly** zufolge hat diese Woche das **ste Pizza Hut Kasachstan in Almaty seine Türen geöffnet! (-:

... Als er nach einer unruhigen Nacht mit viel Kopf hin- und herschmeißen aufwachte hatte er die 1.200 Seiten fertig geschrieben (und da sich die Typenhebel hin und wieder verhakten nebenbei auch gleich noch ein neues Alphabet erfunden). Da ihm die Wort- und Buchstabenkombinationen, die er da erschaffen hatte, nicht alle gefielen hat er sich einen Spaß gemacht und sich Aussprachen ausgedacht, die nur im Entferntesten etwas mit den niedergeschriebenen ...

Privet everyone! I'm back from France and I'm glad to be back in Almaty. The weather is great here. I got a bicycle!!! I will send you some photos when I have a chance. It's an old Soviet road racing bike. It's fantastic! For those of you who don't know, I am writing for ...

... Kyrgz Embassy. I shoved them at our helper who rushed them down to the office. She returns and says it is probably OK, and not to be afraid. And while I wait for the decision, why not join her and her friends? So I did. There were about 6 women around me that were all between maybe 45 and 60. I became their pet for the next 9 hours. Their English was poor, and if you know me, you probably have some idea about my Russian (rrrrRusky), but we communicated well with sign ...

... Terry from Uralsk (International Business Center), Greg from Aktobe (Invalid Project), and George from Taraz (Youth Organization Development). The Peace Corps are moving their headquarters to Astana in 2007 and they initiated this presentation. Astana is the new Capitol and Peace Corps is following the Embassy there. They want to start to build relationships and show the administration what Peace Corps volunteers can do. Some of the people that ...