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  Almaty, Kazakhstan
Tuesday, August 12, 2008

Leaving Ulaanbaatar, we got our worst scam yet.  It was only fifteen dollars, but this guy really really worked us over to get it. I actually wrote out the whole story for you, but this Kazakh Internet cafe blew the breakers twice now.  Writing it again would take too much time.  If you really wamt to know how to scam passengers as a taxi driver, though, asl me and I will tell you in person.

We boarded our train to Ulaanbaatar early Thursday afternoon.  Our compartment had one other lady who was Mongolian and middle-aged.  As our trip wore on toward Russia, other ladies kept pouring in and out of our stall trading various goods with our lady.  It soon became apparent that they were just dispersing black market good among eachother to make passing through the border a little easier. It worked and they managed to pull a brand-new laptop and cellphone across along with eight fat sausages. 

They say there was a study made indicating that 60% of Russian border patrolmen at the Mongolia border are unstable.  I will atest to that, because only one of the several patrolmen in our car seemed to be all there.  We made it through without incident, though it took a really long time.  Once we made it into Russia, most people left the train. Alban, the smuggler lady and I were the only ones left in our entire car.  Apparently east to west on the Trans-Siberian is unpopular.  A couple days after leaving Ulaanbaatar and traveling by Lake Baikal and several Russian villages and feeling like we were closer tp home, we arrived in Novosibirsk. where nobody speaks English.

First thing in the train station, Alban and I wrote out dates, train numbers, and the Cyrillic equivalent of Almaty to pass to the lady at the ticket window.  I paid with my card (a first in a long time) and hoped that we ended up with the right tickets, preferably in a sleeper.  The tickets indicated that our train left the following day, so we had to find a place to sleep.  This is really rough without a lonely planet, people that speak our language or at least Internet connection.  We ended up paying way more money than I would ever like to for a room, but it was right across from the train station, had a delicious continental breakfast, and was the only option we had--aside from the street.  The nicest thing was, we were able to watch some Olympic events, including Michael Phelp's first Gold medal.  We proudly (out of sight from any Russians) held our hands to our hearts as most of the national anthem was played.  The next day we wandered all day looking for an Internet cafe, which finally presented itself after about three hours of walking.  We then purchased some groceries and boarded our train to Kazakhstan.

The train turned out to be a sleeper, but it was crowded with about 70 people per car.  Alban and I settled down to play hours and hours of card games.  Instead, halfway through our first game a 12 year-old Russian comrade presented his cards to us and taught us to play an Uno-style game, without the fun of reverses and skips and draw fours.  We added these to his game, and soon we had made three new friends who hardly spoke English.  It was a party.  As we slept that night, however, the party left, and it was just Alban and I again.

There were new people in the car the next morning after passing into Kazakhstan by Semey.  And they were even more fun.  The lady on the top bunk by mine shared her sausage,bread and tomato with us so that we could feel loved.  Then, the two sweetest little Kazakh girls interrupted our card game to play a new one (same Uno-style game, our rules). The girls were 12 and 8 years old and they were learning English, the twelve year old was getting a pretty good grasp on it, and they both made the whole train ride worth it.  At the end they gave us their emails and told us we had to write to them.  Pretty heart-warming, really.

When we arrived in Almaty we had no clue where to stay, or how far to find a place or where to get money.  Five miles and three hours later we popped our heads into a nice hotel and now I am fresh out of the coldest shower of my life.  That's the latest.

Oh yeah, and the Georgia/Russia problem messed up our plans of getting to Turkey.  Obviously, compared to their problems our's is minor, but still frustrating.  We will probably go up to Moscow and St.Petersburg afterall, and then split around the 26th.

The Beatles were right.  I won't lie, I actually went completely weak at the knees in Novosibirsk at least four times--in the first ten minutes!  Mercy!  Do they only let the pretty girls on the streets?

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