The Chagala 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.

Great to be leaving.

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.

Went to pick up my bag, I didn't make it over there last night. Glad I left another bag at the hotel.

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.

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.

Plus, there aren't as many distractions. And I can take breaks to go swim or exercise when it isn't very crowded.
Did reconfirm my massage with Olga, so I should go home in pretty good shape.

Now I just have to wait for my bag to show up.

Finally on my way down to Tengiz.
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.
Decided I wasn't going to walk between Europe & Asia on this trip. But if you want to see the bridge photos, check out the other Kazakhstan trips.

Well - because work was finishing a little quicker, I scheduled my massage with Olga.

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.

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 ...

Back in the country. As usual, the wonderful delays of getting the visa at the airport. And the conveniently always go two or three pages past the last used page in your passport. Why can't they just use the next open page? On the flight, I was able to get some nice photos of the moon. But the Sunday flight in is definitely less crowded than the Tuesday/Thursday crew change days. Well off to the Renaissance. At least I get to stay in a hotel for the entire trip.

è domenica per tutti e, a una certa, giretto.ero convinto che la città nascondesse anche un centro storico trascurato.con un borgo, dei vicoli, tracce di identità.l'interesse degli espatriati per il posto in cui stanno è tale che poteva benissimo essere.ma non è. atyrau resta immutabilmente, imperdonabilmente così come si presentava. per la verità più consunta, cadente e sgraziata di come pensavo. rahat market ...

oggi e' festa nazionale in Kazakhstan. E' il capodanno musulmano e hanno fatto le cose come si deve. La piazza centrale e' piena di chioschi di shiashlik (spiedini di carne), suonatori di mandolino e iurta piene di ogni ben di Dio (soprattutto alcolici). Anch'io con il mio collega Fabio siamo andatio a fare un giro e a sondare la movida kazaka.

... nel festeggiare l'arrivo dell'anno nuovo e' stato il mio collega Luca. Uscito di casa per recarsi al lavoro si e' imbattuto in un tipo lungo disteso nel pavimento dell'ascensore, attorniato da alcune bottiglie di vodka......a me non e' capitato, probabilmente solo perche' non c'e' l'ascensore nel mio palazzo. buon San Silvestro a tutti!!!