Okan Intercontinental Astana

... den Augen blinken sehen. Die Fragen, die dann gestellt wurden, haben dann aber doch positiv überrascht.

Ansonsten habe ich versucht die Arbeit der nächsten zwei Wochen in ein paar Tagen vorzuarbeiten. Was mir nicht ganz geglückt ist. So werde ich wohl mit schlechtem Gewissen und VPN die nächsten Wochen zubringen.

P.S. Nicht Vietnamese People's Navy sondern Virtual Private Network.

... established that the starter motor is okay. There is nothing else we can do today.

Assel picks me up at the hotel.

"The bike is fixed."

I cannot believe it.

"Yes, Dmitri says the problem is sorted. All we need is a new battery."

I will believe it when I see it.

I am in this loud brash totally refurbished palace at the grand opening of the new (it has been opened and shut 5 times before!) Main Disco ...

... to test it out. Ah well, something to do tomorrow.

There is the most torrential downpour for hours this afternoon flooding roads and disrupting the traffic but, fear not, my artist policeman is on duty and seeing to the smooth flow of his charges.

Assel has given me a cd she burned of Kazakh music but I'll have to wait until I get home before playing it.

I've become a regular at a cafe about ten minutes away from the hotel. It's not in ...

It may well have been Constitution Day for Kazakhs but my priority is showering, washing, showering, catching up on emails, showering, writing the diary, showering and making the most of my unaccustomed luxury. The hotel is a modern comfortable somewhat soulless. I share the ...

... asks me a question. It takes a long time before the penny drops. Do I have a pump? I get the small compressor from the pannier.

"No, no, a pump." Says Vladimir making furious pumping motions.

With infuriating superiority I said "Okay, okay, calm down, I know what you want."

They both fall about laughing.

Tyre pumped, fanbelt working Serge drives us through rain, mud, minor country roads and six laned carriageways and we ...

... a few still with their 'earth over battens' roofs. Internet is not all it's cracked up to be over here and many of the cafes boast WiFi that doesn't exist. Our last reliable internet was in Almaty and that was dial-up. I'd forgotten about dial-up! I found a real WiFi Cafe today and managed to download the recent blogs and send a couple of emails but it was too slow for photos so we will save them meantime and let you know when we download them.

... In welcher Tasche hatte Chruschtschow seinen Kamm?". Die lokale Fluggesellschaft AirAstana hingegen bespaßt die Fluggäste regelmäßig mit einer verstecken Kamera Sendung mit dem Titel "Joking Around". Maybe it's just me being used to the local sense of humor now, but it's just hilarious! Der dazugehörige YouTube Kanal ist mir gerade nicht zugänglich, falls der ein oder andere aber mal über die Sendung ...

... auch einen Abschied zu fei**n. Dazu v**sammelten sich die Kollegen in d** Teeküche, es gab den teu**sten Champagn**, den d** zu V**abschiedende irgendwo **stehen konnte, dazu ein bisschen Obst und Kuchen und dann durfte jed** im Kreis stehende einen Trinkspruch zum Besten geben. Für mich machte sich das natürlich besond**s gut; d** Kollege wurde mir g**ade am Anfang sein** Abschiedv**anstaltung vorgestellt. Ab** nutzt ja nichts. Und da ich heute offensichtlich pr ...

... yelling at us a little (Kazakh men like to yell. Maybe that is the natural volume of their voice?) We were told that they would have to decide what to do with us at the next stop. Probably just make us get off the train. No big deal. WAIT! WHAT? Get off the train in the middle of nowhere in Sub-Siberia in February, with no way to get anywhere else? ****! Frantically I plowed through my belongings until I could produce a better copy of my passport and the receipt from ...

Zhanara and I were invited to Astana (the Capitol of Kazakhstan) to attend a ¨Best Practices¨presentation. The Peace Corps chose 5 volunteers, including me and my counterpart, to participate. On April 18th we presented our HIV and AIDS project that we conducted in Zhezkazgan in December. We made posters of our event, presented our project and even had a small English lesson with the audience. The other volunteers included Brian from Ritter (Eco ...