Okan Intercontinental Astana

<br><br>After breakfast I'm walking along Respubliki when I hear a shout. It's Nikolai. He telephones Assel who tells me to go with him. We spend the morning bombing around Astana with Nikolai buying bits of motor stuff. We visit his pride and joy, a huge black Landrover which looks capable of travelling around the world a few times, if necessary winching itself all the ...

... compliments of an invitation from Astana Motors. I am twice the age of anybody else here. There is a variety of dancing entertainment hosted by a Russian woman TV presenter whose name I don't quite catch but who is known as "The Breasts of Russia". I try to figure out why she is called that. Still I don't care. I happily dance 'til 3am when fortunately Kuanysh, Assle's boss, offers me a lift back to the hotel. Gratefully I accept it.

... Lonely Planet, their recommendations do all seem to be overpriced, but it serves great plain food - cutlets, pilaf, meatballs and some great salads. It's quite comforting to come in at the end of the day no matter what the news has been to be greated by a cheery smile and hello and then go through the lengthy discussion on what I'm going to have. I even bought a dictionary today to supplement my phrase book so my meal is now less of a gamble than it has been.

... dining room with two other men, business men I think and help myself to the mysteries of the buffet table. It seems like a million miles from my trucker's cafe. No smiles, no attempt at find out a bit about me, no mime and breakfast is definitely breakfast and not an early dinner!

... in to the BMW dealership at 05.30. Unfortunately there are neither ramps nor banks available to offload the bike. Suggestions that the four of us - we now have the help of the security guard - can manhandle it gently down the 90 degree angle on the unsteady plywood sheets were met with a look on my face that said we've survived this far, we're not going to mess it up now, got through to Serge.<br><br>Back into the truck and after an exploratory tour around ...

... by, one with 70 wagons! Am I boring you? We arrived in Astana early in the afternoon and had a nosey around and a real coffee before settling into a nice pub. What an amazing city and one of the must do's for our trip. Tomorrow we look forward to exploring the 'New' city .<br><br>Footnote: Driving impressions. Maps in K'stan are few and far between and you can't just walk into a petrol station and grab one. All street/road names are in Kazakh ...

... Die Bereitstellung von persönlichen Kraftfahrern für einzelne Mitarbeiter. Falls uns also in Zukunft mal die Arbeit ausgehen sollte, mit spannenden Diskussionen über die genannten Themen lässt sich auch ein Tag füllen, ganz sachlich natürlich, und immer im besten Interesse des Unternehmens. Der Humor hier in Kasachstan ist mitunter etwas gewöhnungsbedürftig. Witze sehen unter anderem so ...

... vom Flughafen abholt. Zwei Dinge üb**raschten mich dann heute ein wenig. Erstens, dass Air Astana vor dem Start und nach d** Landung in ein** Endlosschleife die russische (od** kasachische?) V**sion des Beatles-Klassik**s "Yest**day" spielt. Und zweitens d** Temp**aturunt**schied zwischen Almaty (+15°C, Regen) und Astana (-5°C, Sonnenschein). Ansonsten besteht Astana im Wesentlichen aus zwei Teilen, dem kleinen, ält**n und dem größ**e, neu**en, dem Regi**ungsbezirk ...

... you move, there are a hundred eyes staring at you, looking at what you are reading, watching in amazement that you can use chopsticks, wanting to take photos of you when they think you don't notice. Kazakhstan, 85% of everyone is white, so they don't realize that you are a foreigner. So I was able to go about my morning business of using the bathroom and filling my cup with hot water unnoticed. UNTIL. The great passport fiasco of 2007 occurred. Well, the first one so ...

... this maybe be in your head?" ~Hansel Facts about Everest: Number of people to attempt to climb Mt. Everest: approximately 4,000. Number of people to successfully climb Mt. Everest: 660. Number of people who have died trying to climb Mt. Everest: 142. Corpses remaining on Everest: about 120 Height: 29,028 feet, or 5 and a half miles above sea level. This is equivalent to the size of almost 20 Empire State ...