Tengri Hotel Astana

... with more friends coming and going. I am introduced to everybody and the is a constant stream of animated discussion. Regrettably I find out that Macdonals are already here in some of the shopping malls. Nothing is sacred. Dmitri, a former MIG pilot and then a commercial pilot learned his English to cope with the exigencies of flying but it is more than passable. We drink toasts to his future success, my continuing journey, friends, engines and anything else any of us can ...

... the battery cage to take the one Nikolai found. OK. I will pick the bike up on Monday and head south. Hopefully. How much is the battery? HOW MUCH? Still by comparison to the cost of the whole episode it is chicken feed. I can safely say that this is the most expensive battery I've ever had to buy, or ever will.<br><br>I end the day back at the hotel catching up on mail.

... Astana is the creation of President Nazarbaev who decided to move the capital from Almaty in 1997. Just like that. And why not? It is incredibly clean and people seem very law abiding, they cross at traffic lights only when they are green, vehicles stop at pedestrian crossings. But rush hour here is exactly like anywhere else. Thousands of cars honking their way home. I did see a novel ...

... my face.<br><br>A bulb flashes. Vladimir races over to the field and finds a bank Serge reverses the truck back to the bank and with the tailgate supporting the plywood sheets and the windscreen removed we manhandle the bike onto the truck. Well, its on, the questions are whether it will stay on and will it ever come off? I tie it to some unsteady stanchions with straps I have been carrying and hope for the best.<br><br>With a final goodbye to my two lady ...

... road hadn't come to an end! <br><br>Thurs.18th Jun. Astana.<br><br>A badly needed solid sleep was had last night without any worries about the truck which was in a guarded carpark. A quiet hotel is a rarity over here as the locals love to party well into the night and a lot of hotels have bars attached with very loud music. So a couple of refreshed travellers set off for the Belarus Embassy for some info on transit visas. We don't really want to ...

... See bei bestem Sonnenschein und ein paar netten Minuten Aussicht folgte eine Flucht im Hagel steil b**gab üb** Steine und G**öll. Hat es sich trotzdem gelohnt? Ja, wenn man dann im Auto sitzt, Pizza ißt, Tee trinkt und sogar die Straße, die schon teilweise von Schlamlawinen aus früh**en Unwett**n weggespült wurde, noch befahrbar ist, weiß man was man hat.<br><br>Das hin und wied** gute Wett** v**anlasst die lokale ...

Die Woche bisher: Drei Tage im Büro, einer mit Russischunterricht. Dieser hat mich mittlerweile ein bisschen in die Ecke getrieben. Da ich ja hier auch andere Dinge zu tun habe als Russisch zu lernen komme ich mit der Sprache bisher noch nicht so wirklich gut zurecht. Die Sprache, also jedes einzelne Wort, das ich mir hier merken soll, ist meiner Einschätzung nach so entstanden: Kyrill von Saloniki ist bei der Bibelübersetzung mit dem Kopf auf seiner Schreibmaschine ...

... t dazu war Trinksprüche zu halten hatte ich dann gleich auf dem Rückflug noch Stanislaw neben mir, d** mich, ohne dass wir uns irgendwie v**standen hätten, p**manent belab**te. Halt, das heißt nicht p**manent. Eigentlich hat ** während des Fluges p**manent v**sucht irgendjemanden mit seinem Handy anzurufen und sich imm** wied** darüb** geärg**t, dass ** keinen Empfang hat. Erst kurz vor d** Landung hatte ** dann Glück und konnte seinen Gesprächspartn** **reichen.

... 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 ...