August 30, 2009

Day34, Aug 20th 2009 – Of cracked radiators and broken exhausts…

Filed under: THE REAL THING — Tags: — arun @ 3:09 pm

Route : Olgy, Mongolia >>> A totally random grassland about 70km from Khovd, Mongolia

Approx Distance : 220km

Berjhan and his lovely family in their Ger

Berjhan and his lovely family in their Ger

We woke up to the smiling faces of Berjhan and family and took some photos with them! :) He generously offered to show us the bank and the supermarket (a slight overstatement obviously). He jumped into the cars and showed us around a bit…Olgy city ain’t much of a city really…it had a handful of concrete buildings and tons of Gers in a fenced plot of land. It was a bit funny to see…cos Gers are supposed to be the sign of nomadic life and yet here they were, like a cheap replacement of a concrete house in a fence…actually, i think that’s exactly what it was. Anyway, we finished our stocking up and tried to exchange some money in the bank…in the bank, this mongolian guy comes up to Rajesh and Raja and asks if they were indian…upon positive confirmation, he starts talking in Hindi!! Wow! After Kazakhstan, this is the next occasion where a non-indian has spoken in hindi..its always a nice feeling to see people from other countries learn ones language…

Anyway, his name was Khudhubudhin, a preacher of Islam. Hes been all around…Turkey, the arabic world and also has studied in Delhi. His hindi was not spectacular, but here was someone with whom we could communicate relatively well…he showed us this black market money exchange (it was a guy in a car parked in the shade) where we got a great rate and also the net center (which was not functioning at that time!)…nice guy. He was relatively well dressed and carried himself differently from a local trader like Berjhan. I dropped Berjhan at his workplace…he arrived in more than usual style of course…he even got a couple of cheers from his colleagues. Said goodbye and joined the others…

The wonderful Twingomisdudas...who helped us out with the cracked radiator

The wonderful Twingomisdudas...who helped us out with the cracked radiator

We did not loiter around Olgy too much…decided to head to the next town Khovd ASAP. As we went on, we ran into the Lone Star Chick. She was driving alone in the rally…not cos she wanted to…but cos the other lone star chick, her team mate, sorta eloped with another rally guy, cheated on him for another rally guy and is god knows where! Some girls! Humph! Anyway, Aya (thats her name) was fully sponsored by the GenghisGrill which was a restaurant chain in the US. Lucky her…till now at least. Her luck ran out cos she lost her car keys last night when she crashed a marriage party with the Swedish guys from the Milan launch!! Oh shit! Anyway, we really liked her and wished that she would find them…the Swedish guys stayed back to help her find the keys…

We set off in the meanwhile…wouldn’t have driven a few kms when we saw a huge convoy of 9 cars heading right for us from somewhere on the right…guess they must have slept in the hotel on the other side of town…well, good to know that we will have company on the drive. We kept going on…the road was wider…much much better defined than the roads prior to Olgy…but very very bad quality…typical Mongolian. There were these small bumps which repeat at an alarmingly high frequency…they are almost like the speed breakers in India…and imagine those for hundreds of kms! :) Anyway, we wouldn’t have gone about 10kms when i noticed the car overheating…we were dangerously close to the red line..we halted. We could still see Olgy town in the distance and could also see the convoy catching up. Upon a brief investigation, it became clear what the problem is…the clamp holding the radiator grill in place dug into the radiator body from the vibrations and cracked the radiator…the coolant couldn’t find its way back into the circuit and was leaking all over the place…hmmm…thankfully we caught the problem before it could turn malignant…

Trying to makeshift repair the fallen exhaust pipe...did manage to clamp it back in the end.

Trying to makeshift repair the fallen exhaust pipe...did manage to clamp it back in the end.

Had some sealant material with me…applied some of the black gooey substance at the spot and was waiting. It was then that i noticed that its hardening rate was 3mm per 24 hours….hmmm…not optimal at all given the circumstances. Anyway, by now the convoy stopped to ask us whats going on…some carried on…and some went back to Olgy (from the broken oil tank…major problems compared to ours)…and a few stayed back. Among them a team from the Barcelona launch…Juan and Nuria…Team Twingo Misdu das! They had this magic substance…mix up magic component a with magic component B and within minutes, we had this stone hard thingy which could be shaped into anything we liked. Perfect. We filled up the hole with the magic…waited for 10 minutes…and put more of my slow acting sealant on it just in case and started the engine…no leaks. Good news. We hoped it would hold though…lets see. We profusely thanked the Spanish guys…nice people…they headed back to Olgy to support their convoy mates though. We drove on…

Another 40 odd kms…and we heard this dragging noise. We stopped right on our tracks and hurried to see what it can be…as expected, the exhaust was on the floor. This was expected because it has traditionally been a popular problem among mongol rally cars in Mongolia. The rubber part holding it up was torn…there was no way we could stick it back together. We did have some metal clamps with us which are usually used to build rubber tube circuits for cooling liquid…we used a couple of those to clamp the exhaust back in place…and just in case, stuck in a piece of rubber tube to dampen the whole deal from the vibrations. To see Raja and Rajesh in their Schlumberger coveralls made them look like real mechanics…hehe. Those things came in real handy in the mongol terrain where air can be replaced by dust at road level…trust me…really useful those coveralls were.

The most picture perfect spot to have a flat...beautiful lake with snowed in peaks in the background and the distant dust trail of an approaching vehicle...perfect.

The most picture perfect spot to have a flat...beautiful lake with snowed in peaks in the background and the distant dust trail of an approaching vehicle...perfect.

We drove on…past this beautiful lake to our right. The scenery was awesome…the temp repairs were holding great. We built up good speed…Raja was driving…and he went over this scrub sorta shrub without paying much attention…i mean, it was a plant…but turns out it was as hard as rock…probably evolutions answer as protection against the  ravenous livestock of the Mongolian steppe…end result, car thrown up in the air on one side at high speed and we almost tipped over. Raja was too shocked to accelerate anymore and the engine died slowly as we were looking at each other with a mixture of shock and relief…we laughed it out of our systems and kept going. Good lesson learnt…avoid those things which masquerade as plants!

We kept on and on…it was not boring by any means…just repetitive. Sometimes it paid to get off the main road and the dirt on the edges provided much better cushioning to the car…we spent most of our times off the main road…strange eh…not so strange when one considers how many snowboarders go off-piste for precisely the opposite reason…but the similarity is not at all uncanny…to me at least. Anyway…it looked increasingly like we wont be able to reach Khovd that day…it was a solid 290kms from Olgy and the roads were not too conducive to a Peugeot Partner and a very very watchful Dingeman in the Suzuki. As we kept going, we saw another team fiddling around with their cameras in the middle of this very scenic spot with snow capped mountains around. It was the same team who we met at the Russian-Mongolian border…the french team. We carried on while they continued the fiddling…their skoda was already so low down to the ground (they were 4 guys), we were wondering if they would make it.

The first tree in Mongolia that we saw...it was the only tree we saw too in more than a couple of days and hundreds of kms of driving.

The first tree in Mongolia that we saw...it was the only tree we saw too in more than a couple of days and hundreds of kms of driving.

Turns out that they did make it…one of the reasons being, the Peugeot had a flat. Damn. Anyway, we fixed it and kept on…the french guys informed us about this big river which was coming up. Ok noted. One, camping next to rivers are usually great and two, this might mean than i have to cross some rivers…uh huh! And soon after, water…and more water…lots of streams started appearing across the road…the first few ones were ok…but we almost got stuck in the last one. We did power our way through the stream but couldn’t get traction on the gravel soon after. Nothing like man power eh…luckily for us, some Mongolian shepherds were close by…they jumped in as well and we all pushed the car out of the gravel trap! Phew… :)

Anyway, we passed this small…erm…a bunk village…with a couple of structures including a shop and a gas station (with very very low octane fuel). We stopped here to let the Suzuki catch up…the whole place was infested with kids…and what truly astonished us was the older ones among them spoke great English! Again, 12-14 year olds are the ones who surprised us…its been the story throughout this trip…they have the maximum shock impact…they usually leave us speechless (i didn’t know what to say when she asked me what i am doing here and where my friends are)…hehe. Anyway, my friends did turn up and we kept on for a brief while…i saw the FIRST tree in Mongolia now..by the river…interestingly it was a lone tree. It quite obviously caught the attention of many a traveller through these roads…it was draped in the blue scarves which are the tokens of shaman beliefs. Nice. We saw the french guys camping out a few kms from there and promptly joined them in setting up camp there…

Frogs go wild east...we camped with them alongside the river!

Frogs go wild east...we camped with them alongside the river!

The river with its crystal clear cool water made life easier for the cooking and the washing. The french guys, they call themselves Frogs go wild east btw, seemed to be a very well organised team. They had loads of gizmos, GPS trackers, cameras, laptops, food, camping gear etc. They have also worked on the car quite a bit although it was not  apparent in the first glance…wow. No wonder they made it through these roads…anyway, we got the campfire going and the pasta boiling. Raja stepped in with his instant paav bhaji masala…was heaven with bread and onions in lemon juice. Yum Yum! We got to know the guys better and hit it off with them really well…was a nice night. The stars were not too clear though…which was a bit odd considering that the air was almost pollution free…anyway, it got really cold really fast after a while and we crept into our tents with pull overs on and coaxed ourselves into sleep between the intermittent shivering…brrrr…

August 28, 2009

Day33, Aug 19th 2009 – MONGOLIA!

Filed under: THE REAL THING — Tags: , , — arun @ 4:04 pm

Route : Tashantha, Russia >>> Olgy, Mongolia
Approx Distance : 100km

Mongoli beyond those gates...

Mongoli beyond those gates...

Woke up to some wild horses right outside our tent…soothing somehow. Packed up fast and went through the Russian border quickly..in about an hour and a half i think. Really wanted to reunite with Kris and Dink. Came to the Mongolian side…and we were greeted by this semi drunk officer who was supposed to disinfect the tires…he also exchanged some money…at a half good rate…took it anyway to get rid of the 5000 Kazakh Tenge which i still had. Anyway, my Mongolian visa was still on my old passport…so was my Kazakh visa..but that went smoothly. Here, there was this female passport officer who totally refused to accept this…hmmm…since few people spoke good english…i had to roam around for an hour in the office running behind a million people until someone finally understood that i had to get the new passport because of the old one being badly damaged…in the end, i was stamped through…but not before making me write a letter explaining what happened…sheesh!

The teams at the border posing after successfully having won our freedom!! This was even bigger than the Milan lauch!!

The teams at the border posing after successfully having won our freedom!! This was even bigger than the Milan lauch!!

Anyway, it turns out that the Adventurists didn’t payup the import tax and the customs duty and all that for the import of the car. So our cars were impounded in this cage of sorts…some teams have been there for 5 days now! :( We were expecting some sort of delay…that was well known. People were of course allowed to walk into Tsaanganuur town to buy food, sleep in hotels etc. Some people simply played music out loud and played poker in the parking lot…some played frisbee…etc. Spirits were not high…but weren’t really low either…as we did reach the final country successfully. Some people did call the adventurists about this…and the guy in England actually asked us to keep the noise down because someone was there…hmmm…in the end, as usual, the guy couldn’t give any concrete answer…so we gave one concrete “Fuck You!” to the guy and hung up…hmmm…some of the guys were becoming really restless now…so some of them took their cars and blocked the border and about 40 of the guys walked into the office, hands locked and started demanding our “release”! It became a full blown protest and as with all protests, some people were man handled out of the room, a camera confiscated, a single handcuff produced (to arrest some 40 odd people…so that didn’t really happen), threats to call in the army (errr…) and much more. Eventually, the officials got tired of us and gave us a piece of paper with an official stamp on it explaining that we were allowed to pass through…it was not really the “pink slip” which we were supposed to get indicating the import status of the car…doesn’t matter, we just wanted to get out ASAP. We did have to pay up 17$ per car though. When questioned as to why this 17$ was not mentioned 5 days back, the official had the guts to say that he waited for more cars to pile up to lighten his load…hmmm…we were seriously agitated at that…but anyway, nothing really mattered anymore as long as we got out of that place…

Beautiful view from up there...this was after scaling the hill which the Peugeot couldnt really scale on its own power. R&R got out and pushed!!

Beautiful view from up there...this was after scaling the hill which the Peugeot couldnt really scale on its own power. R&R got out and pushed!!

Anyway, we got out of the border by late evening…synced up with the Suzuki and made our way to Olgy, the nearest big town. The initial enthu was high…people were racing about at speeds much more than recommended for the road quality which was frankly, shit. The word road was an overstatement…seriously…we were going at about 50 kmph max…there was no one designated path…the paths veered off into many branches…people seemed to take whatever direction they wanted in the end…leading to many “highways” to Olgy. The teams split up as a result of this…but for sure, all will reach Olgy. The Suzuki was very slow…so we waited for them somewhere and took in the scenery…very beautiful. Gentle slopes covered with greenish brown grass and not a person in sight…we were truly alone now (apart from the rest of the rally teams i.e.)

The road, as mentioned, was crap. At a point, it got so steep that the Peugeot couldn’t pull itself up anymore…we had to actually get out and push the car along. Clutch plates burnt as we made our way up the slope…man…but the view was worth it! Anyway, we pushed along until we hit this totally unexpected patch of tarmac after about 50km of non-roads…we almost fell on our feet and kissed the road. We made it to Olgy without any issues…but since we were let go from the border towards the end (last come last go policy), many hotels were full already thanks to the other rally teams…we really didn’t know what to do. We decided to go around asking people for accommodation…we turned off into this random street and asked this lady if we can find accommodation somewhere…to our surprise, she invited us in and offered a place to stay there. Wow!

Rare piece of tarmac which materialised out of nowhere...thats Olgy in the background btw...

Rare piece of tarmac which materialised out of nowhere...thats Olgy in the background btw...

There lived a family there…the head of the family was called Berjhan. He was a goatskin trader…was not rich or anything by any means. He lived with his children and the family of his brother in law in a compound with 2 Gers. We checked them out…they were awesome! Very colourful..fully carpeted…with small beds all around the perimeter. We loved it. We were given cushions to sit on while something was brewing outside…tea, as we later found out. We were invited for tea…we went into this smallish dining room kind of place to see a table fully laid out with all sorts of stuff…forgot their names now…but basically cheeses, some hard stuff which resembled the indian dish called boondhi, some sweet powdery sugary stuff, bread of course…was really nice. Tea tasted very good. Meanwhile…the neighbours came in to peek at us and the brother in law arrived. In the meanwhile, dinner was being prepared apparently…Kristie didn’t really feel like sampling the Mongolian food…so she settled for the soup we carried along…the rest dug in to the lamb meat Berjhan offered us. It was crudely offered…grabbed by the hand, carved out with a dirty knife…but tasted delicious. We were served the flat noddles with meat in it for dinner…delicious too.

Sunset over Olgy....

Sunset over Olgy....

All through, we were trying to communicate using the russian phrase book (they spoke little russian) and the mongolian language index at the back of the lonely planet…hehe. We did get through somehow…and vice versa. We were so happy with these people that we offered both remaining bottles of vodka to them. Interesting to note is…they very vehemently stated that they were Kazakh (which is typical of this region) and NOT mongol. So i guess we have to wait a bit for real mongolian food and people. Anyway, one of the kids performed this dance…she danced similar to one of the dances we saw in the wedding…Kazakh it was! :)

Anyway, more talking and laughing later, Berjhan showed me his skins drying out in a shed on salt. Looked cool. Meanwhile, the guys got very interested in the Suzuki and wanted a ride…tomorrow is a new day eh. So on that note, we crashed off in the Ger with the family sleeping around us…was a very peaceful night and we were really happy on meeting these people. :)

August 25, 2009

Update

Filed under: THE REAL THING — arun @ 6:48 am

Hey guys,

Because of the really crappy internet situation, we couldnt update the blog often. Sorry about that. We left out the pics for now to save on time…but for sure, once we reach Ulan Bataar tomorrow, we shall update some more…and for sure in the coming week, the whole story shall be all yours! :)

Thanks for the support!

~Arun

Day31-32, Aug 17th-18th 2009 – Russia!

Filed under: THE REAL THING — Tags: , , , — arun @ 6:46 am

Route : A random grassland 30kms outside Semey >>> Tashantha, Russia
Approx Distance : 1300km

A random church in Semey, Kazakhstan

A random church in Semey, Kazakhstan

Yo! This entry is a double day entry because…we didn’t sleep on the night of the 17th…Yes! Our first night out on the trip…all out driving! We took turns at the wheel and at sleeping. The brilliant Russian roads was no impediment to crashing in the car…even in the Suzuki.

Anyway, lemme start at the beginning…so we woke up from our resting place. Packed up everything quickly and set off. We wouldn’t have gone for a couple of kms when the road became much much better…hmmm…looks like we stopped just at the end of the shitty roads last night. Damn! Anyway, the roads got really good…a speed sign limited us to 50kmph…for some weird reason…i was driving at around 65…and of course, we got stopped by the police for speeding. These guys had some cool equipment with them…a portable speeding camera with an inbuilt display where one can see ones vehicle with the speed it was traveling at! So caught pretty much red handed…and to add salt to the wounds, the Suzuki behind us was also stopped…the charge, not having their headlights on!! ermmm…! anyway, we played our dumb foreigner bit…worked well enough for the guy to ask if we spoke anything other than English (he didnt speak any thankfully)…Kristie could speak french..and so could the chief guy sitting in the police car…so they got acquainted. Kristie shot me a slightly desperate look within a couple of seconds…she rolled down the window and went “Arun, this guy is asking for my phone number…what do i do?”…i said “Dont give it to him!” Straightforward…but eventually she did give him a phone number…of her friend in America! It turns out that they guy was least interested in the offenses…he kissed her on the hand and asked her out for a night of dancing…he also apparently had porno on his cell phone! Ugh! Anyway, we got off without paying anything…phew…

Early morning light in Siberia...we saw this after a nightout of driving...

Early morning light in Siberia...we saw this after a nightout of driving...

We reached Semey pretty quickly…stocked up a bit (we bought their entire stock of instant noodles!)…fueled up…withdrew some money…and decided to have a good breakfast. We were directed to a cafe which also had WiFi connection…as we pulled up, we spotted a couple of rally cars from Sweden parked outside. Skodas…but strangely and also in a very cool way, both had their rear suspensions raised way beyond normal. Looked cool we thought. We stepped in, met the guys…and eventually found out that their original suspension broke down and this one was actually from a Lada. Awesome! That was quite a bit of work…all for 80$ i think. Cool. We also met one half of an irish team we rode with to Samarkhand…hardly recognized the chaps as they were clean shaven now. Exchanged some stories and carried on…

Semey was the spot where the ex USSR did lots of nuclear bomb testing…the region is still suffering from the effects of this disturbing past…there are still regions around Semey which still had high levels of radiation afflicting it. Anyway, we figured that the greenest of the green grass and slightly extra bright sunflowers were cos of the radiation (kidding!)! After a couple of wrong turns, we were on our way to Russia…we followed the signs for Barnaul which were all over the place. After a couple of hours, we were at the border.

Team KnightMicra kicking the whatever little dust they could find on the russian roads...

Team KnightMicra kicking the whatever little dust they could find on the russian roads...

We must have waited for about 2 hours…in this time, the Suzuki had to buy an insurance for itself…the Peugeot was  not forced to…for some reason. We fixed some issues with the cars, burnt the in-car appliance charger we had thanks to a wrong fuse replacement, played some frisbee and managed to naturally take photos with the police officers! After the procedure, we found ourselves out of Kazakhstan and at the gates of Russia! It was a bit ominous…Russia…the country…and it became even more ominous when we saw the Swedish team from yesterday waiting there…for 3 hours!! We managed to borrow their guitar and keep ourselves occupied a bit…hehe…anyway, they were flagged in and we resigned ourselves to a long and arduous wait…the books came out, the laptops out…but somehow in a half hour, both the Peugeot and the Suzuki were flagged in…hmmm…maybe the guys decided to do his job before going home…the sun was setting with a brilliant orange hue! After a couple of hours more of red tape, we found ourselves driving fast towards Mongolia!

We were stopped by a policeman with an AK47…just like that…for no reason…he tried to create some issues…everything was in order…he reluctantly let us go. Anyway, from now on…we took turns and just kept going on and on through the night punctuated by a single stop for dinner at a gas station where we got ripped off! Damn! Armed with a handful of Redbulls, we set off into the night. The roads were amazing…western European standards easily. It took us by surprise…somehow i thought that Russia was struggling as much as the ex USSR countries to its south…but if the roads in this small region can be so good, it shows how awesome they would be around Moscow or St.Petersburg. Anyway, we made very quick progress…

Weird and slightly scary furiously rotating antennae like things close to the border...

Weird and slightly scary furiously rotating antennae like things close to the border...

Day rise…the landscape was hilly, green trees, early morning fresh air…it was very refreshing. Rajesh told me that this is the southern edge of Siberia…wow…and the next few hours were very very cool on the nerves. Spectacular snow capped mountains rising dramatically over green forests with sparkling rivers all through…we had to stop at one of those streams and take a dip! We also met another rally team in the hills…Craig and Dave of the team KnightMicra. They were a cool bunch and we stuck together till the Mongolian border. The only hitch was in this smallish town where we wanted to fuel up…we didn’t have any Rubles left…so had to go to a bank. A local led us there with his car…that was nice of him…until he demanded 500 Rubles for that 2 km ride!! He was not even a taxi! We offered 50 instead…and he left without accepting it! In spite of its relatively developed nature, Russia wanted to swindle us at every opportunity…maybe the people are suffering due to the communist system…hmmm…

Anyway, we were really enjoying this part of the drive…we wished we could stay here for a couple of days in the mountains and hike and jump into the river and all that…but not this time. We drove on pretty much the whole day…saw some scary looking antennae scanning the skies…looked like some kind of military equipment. Anyway, we knew that the border closes at 5pm…so that was the deadline for the Kris and Dink (the rest had visas until the next day) to get out of Russia. A couple of hiccups almost left us short of the mark…but we reached Tashanta and the Suzuki did make it through at exactly 5pm! Just in time! The Peugeot couldn’t make it through unfortunately…we  stayed back to help the Micra dudes with their car issues..they needed fuel to  couldn’t start their car as their fuel filter was clogged a bit…we lent them our reserve fuel…but in all the excitement, we missed the border crossing. So had to camp out on the Russian side…was not such a bad deal…by now the trees disappeared and was replaced by endless miles of gentle grassy hills with livestock grazing all over…not bad at all.

Camping out with Knight Micra on the russian side of the border...the fire roared and yet our bones shivered till the joints! brrrr! Siberian summer is not pleasant...

Camping out with Knight Micra on the russian side of the border...the fire roared and yet our bones shivered till the joints! brrrr! Siberian summer is not pleasant...

We parked the cars by the side, interacted with the couple of words we knew in russian until we got some beer, some green peas, onions, tomatoes and some wood for the campfire. Of course, we really didn’t feel like camping by the roadside…so went onto those hills mentioned before…the micra made it through. But i sorta screwed up…drove into soft ground and one of the front wheels got stuck in about 25cms of mush! The micra had to pull us out with 3 guys pushing as well! In the end, no issues…didn’t burn the clutch at all. By now the sheer mass of the Peugeot was beginning to make its conspicuous…it must weigh more than 2 tons fully laden and with all 3 of us…couldn’t help but wonder how this would make our time more interesting on the Mongolian un-roads!

Anyway, we had some fun at the camp…got the fire going…Raja whipped up his famous green peas masala…beer to go…and finally, after 32 whole days, some music! So SO liberating it was…the guys left the car on and they had some decent stuff on their ipod, their speakers were half working…but cool! Heard some Floyd and Led Zep after ages…felt really nice. Soon it got freezing cold…so cold that we kept the fire going by pouring gin and vodka in it…damn! Anyway, we couldnt stand it anymore…and said goodnight and crept into our tents and shivered ourselves to sleep…so SO cold!! Brrrrrrrr…

Day30, Aug 16th 2009 – Flat as a pancake!

Filed under: THE REAL THING — Tags: — arun @ 6:42 am

Route : Taldyquorghan, Kazakhstan >>> A random grassland 30kms outside Semey
Approx Distance : 840km

Today was going to be a race against time…we HAD to leave Kazakhstan by tomorrow and it was a shade above 1000km to the border…furthermore, we HAD to get out of Russia the by the day after because Dink and Kristie’s visas ran out and one would not want to overstay Russia! So we were prepping for some all out driving the next couple of days…

Um...yes, it is flat.

Um...yes, it is flat.

We drive and drive and drive…nothing spectacular about the landscape…there were some low hills for a couple of hundred kms and then it flattened out. Pancake flat. Crepe flat. Flat as the word gets…which obviously made driving a bit of a bore. After a while, we could see just nothing above sea level or ground level or whatever that may be…soon even random abandoned cardboard boxes by the roadside started grabbing our attention. I sorta saw in action how the human mind works now…i mean, if left idle, our mind really gets bored. Thanks to evolution we the human race are now at a point where we HAVE to be occupied…more chaos…entropy…we will only have more and more chaos…which is why world peace and all seems to be a bit of a concept and nothing more really..under the assumption that peace reduces the chaos of course. Ok i diverted a bit…back to Kazakhstan…

Soon we saw this train running parallel to us in the distance…was mesmerizing in a way. The train was almost at the horizon and the heat waves threw at us an illusion of the whole train melting away and yet moving…it was so cool that we actually stopped at an overhead bridge (the only point in miles which was above ground level) to watch the train pass below and take some snaps…to be honest, it was not much of a snap…but the break was good.

Chugging on...

Chugging on...

We let the Suzuki pass now and had to catch up…the road was decent enough..so made good speed…we caught up to a BMW in front and were just about to pass when he braked…we braked…and then before we could react, this HUGE bump on the road passed right between the wheels…in the BMW, the effect was a ton of sparks at the under body…for us, a huge scraping noise from nose to tail…! The car was still running…we waited for a while…didn’t seem to have a problem. We were now really thankful for the “Duduk Rally” metal plate which the mechanics at my company bolted on underneath the engine…phew!

We didn’t see any rally cars today…kept going…there was no dearth of gas stations…so were pretty comfortable. Soon the sun was setting and it started chilling up a bit…Raja took over the driving for a while…it was the first time he took over. He was getting a bit restless i think with sitting at the back…he did request that he drive in Turkmenistan in a particularly traffic-less stretch…but i didn’t give it to him cos we were a 5 car convoy then. Now it was a bit dark…but Dink promised to keep an eye on him…so from now on Raja shared the driving responsibilities as well. As long as we were keeping an eye on the road, this was good news for me and Rajesh. I managed to start watching a movie in the back…but couldn’t complete it…

The Kazakh Steppe...

The Kazakh Steppe...

There were 2 huge fresh water lakes in the map en-route. We were wondering if the highway would take us along the coast of these…unfortunately it didn’t. But we realized that we must be close when we saw people selling fish by the highway…imagine, right in the middle of the Kazakh Steppe, people selling fish! They had these fish shaped pieces of cardboard which they just waved at any traffic which passed…and of course, the produce itself usually was to be found either in a motorcycle sidecar or a box behind a bush. It was quite a sudden thing…especially when there were absolutely no other shop (apart from gas stations now and then) for hundreds of kilometers. Anyway, We were stopped at this check post…seemed more serious than a random stop by the police. He really gave our papers a good thorough scan and let us through…but not before giving us a handful of “STOP DRUGS” stickers! We stuck a couple on each car and carried on…as we went on, we realized why the checks were done…the town seemed to be some sort of army base…hmmm…anyway, we kept going on…sunset was complete. It was now totally dark…and just in time, the road got worse..and worse…and worse. Soon we were going through patches of smooth cruising at 60 or 70 kmph broken VERY VERY abruptly by huge craters on the road. We took quite a few bangs on our wheels as we kept going…jarred us to the bone it did. This went on for more than a couple of hours…on coming traffic and the very rash local drivers didn’t help matters much…

We got quite fed up with the roads eventually and gave up on our plan of reaching Semey that day…after some deft searching, we veered off the highway onto the rocky Steppe…couldn’t go too far…and didn’t really want to either. We setup the tents amidst big rocks…was not too comfortable, but had to suffice. The roads really ground us to the bone and we just wanted to sleep. We did that eventually…but not before admiring the milky way and the countless stars all over. The sky was really clear and i could see the universe in all its glory…was the clearest sky i have seen on this trip (and probably in my life) till then…was quite a nice treat after the gruelling day. Zzzzzzzzzz….

Day29, Aug 15th 2009 – The Marriage!

Filed under: THE REAL THING — Tags: , — arun @ 6:34 am

Route : Almaty, Kazakhstan >>> Taldyquorghan, Kazakhstan
Approx Distance : 270km

Today was the day of the marriage. Yes. The marriage.

The fruit girls on the highway!

The fruit girls on the highway!

You heard me right…one of Dink’s colleagues by name Asset was marrying his sweetheart who they call Aseel. Asset weds Aseel. We were all invited by his family! :) The marriage was at this town called Taldyquorghan about 270kms from Almaty. Thankfully it was on our route to Russia…we reckoned we could make it out of Kazakhstan on the 17th (which was when my visa was running out)…so we agreed to really check this marriage out instead of just passing through. We did head back to Cafe Delia for some morning juice/coffee and to do some stuff online…didn’t spend too much time but spent enough to make the drive to the marriage a not too gentle one.

Checked out quick enough and we must have gotten 10m from the hotel when a policeman stopped us…hmmm…apparently we were going the wrong way in an one way street…he took Rajesh’s passport and just started walking away…! Wtf! So it was a a bit weird to see a policeman sauntering in front, a slightly puzzled Rajesh following him and the Peugeot bringing up the rear. Anyway, another car came screeching in…the policeman throws back his passport, jumps into the car and takes off. Hmmm…anyway…

Our welcoming party at the gates of Taldyquorghan!

Our welcoming party at the gates of Taldyquorghan!

The Suzuki was not in sight by then…we called Dink and agreed to sync up later on the highway. So on the road again after 2 days. Felt good to be driving again. We stopped by a fruit shop to pickup an honey melon. The fruit shop people were a couple of girls…as expected, they wanted a photo with us, we obliged. Nice girls. We drove on until we see this water body…i call it a water body because it was split in pieces and very scattered. Water looked calm and deep…very blue. Formed a brilliant contrast with the dull red earth. We saw people sunbathing and swimming in there…later on we see a dam. Ahhh. We stopped at a tree and cut up the melon…delicious. Kris and Dink arrive, more melon..and off we go.

Our table at the marriage!

Our table at the marriage!

The drive was ok…roads not too bad. But it looked increasingly tough to meet the deadline…we pushed it a bit and made it to Taldyquorghan at just about 6..or maybe it was 5…don’t remember. Anyway, we were waiting for Asset to pick us up…he generously offered to do that. We were just outside town…and it was quite obvious that it was marriage season. We seemed like a fish out of water amidst 3 huge stretch limos…a bunch of white Mercedes cars, extremely well dressed people (our clothes have changed color almost by now)! As we were waiting, a coupla marriage processions arrived there as well…with their stretch limos of course. Hehe…looks like we were at the ending point of the standard marriage procession. Made sense though…to drive from one end of town to the other…as we were expecting by now, Asset arrived in style…with his sparkling bride, his and her family and of course, the ubiquitous (at least during marriage season) stretch limo.

Guess what this is...horse meat. The main course!

Guess what this is...horse meat. The main course!

Asset was this shortish guy who appeared as if there were a thousand things on his mind…he shook hands with us but didn’t make eye contact. Maybe he is the shy type…anyway, we didn’t have time to loose. He found a taxi for us to lead us to a hotel and to drive us back to the marriage. We made haste…checked in…freshened up a bit…became more presentable…and drove to the wedding. We were clearly outsiders there…and we got stares from almost everyone. I didn’t feel all that comfy with the whole thing…anyway, we hang around the place for a while. The marriage hall…was actually a smallish hall with a platform where the DJ hung out, some microphones and some rooms on the outside for other purposes.

Part of the package...belly dance!

Part of the package...belly dance!

At the time of our arrival, there was this traditional Kazakh choir playing some local folk music…was very nice. After a while, we were asked the enter the hall. There were medium sized circular tables all round with food on it…but strangely no one was sitting down yet…of course, the bride and groom were missing. Anyway, suddenly this man in a tuxedo made out of what looked like cheap leather jumps out of nowhere with a mic in hand and starts sing-talking something!

A glimpse into the merry making... :)

A glimpse into the merry making... :)

This guy is like the master of ceremonies…compere…or something like that. He was more or less like the director/manager for the whole evening…anyway, a lot of Kazakh sentences later, the bride and groom walk in with some fanfare…a granny even showered them in chocolates! We were announced at some point in time…we had to walk up to a piggy bank kind thing setup in the middle and drop in some money! This was getting interesting…anyway, we were guided to a table and sat down.

It was quite visibly the foreigner table…apart from us, there was Kevin, another colleague of Asset…Paul and Fiona, a british couple. Paul was the boss of Aseels boss. After about 2 minutes, a guy drags a local girl to our table and makes her sit down. She speaks english we knew as we were speaking to her earlier…but the poor thing was deposited at our table in an attempt to make things comfortable for us. Very nice of her father…but too bad for her.

This one has been aptly named "Sudanese Drug Dealer" :D

This one has been aptly named "Sudanese Drug Dealer" :D

She was NOT enjoying it. Anyway, her name sounded like Tolkein..and she was studying business in London. She wanted to come back to Kazakhstan as soon as possible she said…i tried to keep her engaged in conversation for a while before decided to let her be…

Drinks came out…people took coke, juice, wine…and i tried Khumis. The local drink. It is fermented horse’s milk. As exotic as they get. Raja did sample its cousin…horse milk cheese in Kyrgyzstan…he said he would have preferred bilge water to that stuff…hmmm..so its was with a mixture of apprehension and excitement that i tasted it. It was not bad at all…it grows on you i would say….it tasted like liquefied strong smelly cheese of a certain kind. Tolkein said that it was alcoholic..but just mildly…anyway, we started to eat…awesome spread of tons of good stuff to suit most palettes. Apart from the staple drink, there was of course our shot glasses…those are special…reserved just for vodka which was drunk by the gallon that night. Since we were sort of guests of honor, the head guy or women from many families there walked up with their glass, toasted us and waited until all of us dunked our shots! :) I really don’t prefer drinking hard alcohol…but i took it as i didn’t want to offend these very nice people. Rajesh faked it though with some soda every time….

Anyway, we were getting drunk quite nicely…when the cultural program started…it was going on throughout the night. A Georgian all male dance group performed this very fast dance. A folk singer. A local player of a 2 stringed guitar. A more modern pop singer. A solo dance to represent eagle hunting…was very good. Anyway, representatives from every family walked up and spoke directly to the bride and groom conveying their wishes…they did that with a microphone on the stage. To our surprise, we were asked to do the same too…was a bit touching…Kevin, Paul and Kristie had something to say…we of course spoke in English, but whatever we said was promptly translated into Kazakh by a local girl! :)

Last but not the least, us with Asset and Aseel. Congrats to the couple! :)

Last but not the least, us with Asset and Aseel. Congrats to the couple! :)

Then the party started…the floor was cleared…dancing…more dancing…and more dancing…everyone jumped in…from the old grannies to kids! :) Raja set the floor on fire with his enthu…while the rest mingled in glee! It was a bit embarrassing to say this…but my jeans became terribly loose and i didn’t bring along my belt…so dancing was really not an option. I volunteered to be the photographer! :) We were in the end, given gifts…local hats, some coats, sweets, a ton of vodka (it was very good btw), bread, loads of the left over horse meat and more food! :) We felt very very warm at the end of it…none of us expected that we would be treated like this. It was awesome!

Anyway, Asset finds us another taxi for the way back…we congratulated him for the dozenth time and peacefully went to sleep…totally content with the evening. I was initially a bit sceptical about this as i was afraid that it would waste time…but in the end, it all worked out AND we had a ball! No regrets! :)

Day28, Aug 14th 2009 – Reunited again!

Filed under: THE REAL THING — Tags: , — arun @ 6:30 am

Route : Almaty, Kazakstan
Approx Distance : 0km

War memorial at Panfilo Park

War memorial at Panfilo Park

Rajesh and Raja did arrive at 6am…had to drag myself out of bed to guide them to the hotel…they got the cheap 20$ rooms as well. Didn’t say much…everyone was sleepy. Anyway, we woke up at 10am or so…got ready and headed out for breakfast…now that the lonely planet (which was on tow with Rajesh) was back…we had a map in english and some places we wanted to check out. According to the book, there was this Doener Kebap place that deserved special mention…hmmm…we thought we should give that a shot. I was not too impressed by the idea as i am usually right in the middle of a Doener overdose in Germany..but thought why not anyway. As it turns out, this one was VERY different from the ones back home…

City Tram...it had to jostle with the pedestrians as much as we had to at the Green Bazaar!

City Tram...it had to jostle with the pedestrians as much as we had to at the Green Bazaar!

The filling was the standard strips of meat shaved off the big rotating mass of meat…but its further processed with some peas and cooked a bit i think. Then on the Yufka bread comes paprika, cucumber, carrots, onions and some salad leaves…hmmm…then finally ketchup and mayo…hmmm…mixed feeling to be honest. Tasted ok though…we would have liked a more meat heavy one…but yeah, a good breakfast it was. Then we headed for Cafe Dalia, supposed to be one of the best places for pastries in town…and more importantly, WiFi! After some slight struggle, found it still where it was supposed to be…and the book was totally right. I had this chocolate cup filled with chocolate cream, Raja had the same but with mango cream instead and Rajesh had an eclair…wow. Good stuff this. Those 2 left back to the hotel to sleep a bit more…i was hanging around in the cafe for a bit more than 4 hours…felt good. Heard loads of English speakers there…looks like one of the favorites for the allegedly huge expat population of Almaty.

Anyway, as i was headed back for the hotel, a really drunk Kazakh stops me and asks “Why are you so black?” :) This is by no means racism in its negative connotation…but genuine curiosity. So i told him where i was from…something made him think i am a student and he goes “What is your future job?”. I said “We drive to Mongolia!”. I think he decided i was a nutter at that point and left me. Hehe…anyway, didn’t do much the rest of the day until dinner time. We headed for the lonely planet pick…Safran…an Arabic restaurant supposedly. The ambiance was brilliant, prices high, the soup was out of the world delicious but the main course was a bit touchy…the oil had this very weird taste to it…hmmm…anyway, we did get a message from Dink in the meanwhile…they started from Bishkek and would be in Almaty around midnight…good stuff.

Coffeedelia...the best pastries we have had in some time!! Good place.

Coffeedelia...the best pastries we have had in some time!! Good place.

They had a very activity filled time in Kyrgyzstan. In short, their time involved some rafting, some kayaking, getting stuck in the tent during a full blown storm, watching desperate kayak guides dive into the raging river in search of a broken Kayak part, almost miss getting their Kazakh visas (they needed a new one as they used up their single entry one in getting to Bishkek from Tashkent)…hoho! Anyway, they made it alright…they and the car looked fine. A double room for them was booked in the same hotel…and went to crash togehter..as a team reunited! :)

Day27, Aug 13th 2009 – Major Ushakov!

Filed under: THE REAL THING — Tags: , — arun @ 5:41 am

Route : Almaty, Kazakhstan…why leave this awesome city!
Approx Distance : a million in my dreams…0 in reality.

The people in this hotel…Hotel Uyut…were not really the best. They seemed very eager for me to leave and were not too helpful when posed with questions…hmm…a huge difference between the 3 guys from last night. Anyway, Rajesh managed to message me the names of some low cost hotels…got online, got their addresses and some other hotels to check out. Took my time though…so it was about noon when i checked out and loaded up the car. Armed with a map of Almaty in the Russian language, i thought my chances were not too bright at finding those hotels…hmmm…Anyway, there was a smallish parkish space…so sat down for a bit and was trying to make sense of the map…when a guy close by started talking…

Major Sergey Ushakov...he wanted to hitch a ride to Mongolia...

Major Sergey Ushakov...he wanted to hitch a ride to Mongolia...

He was in his mid forties, clean clothes, bespectacled, had a newspaper in hand and was smoking like a chimney. Hmmm…seemed like a nice  guy though…anyway, he offered to help with finding the hotel of second choice…he jumped on…didn’t take too long…a few minutes later, there i was navigating on the wrong side of the road with trams jostling just as hard with the pedestrians as the cars! The green bazaar! The most lively spot in Almaty…pretty much at the city center. I was headed for Hotel Turkestan…cheap room, clean sheets, a shared shower…20$. Not a bad deal…so i settled in…but the guy was still around. He kept saying the word for beer…and i liked him. So i thought why not head out for a beer…it was lunchtime and here i was looking for beer…never did that before. We headed into the Bazaar…it is an awesome place. One can find ANYTHING in there…from electrical items for the household, lingerie, meat, money exchangers and totally random people selling random stuff…i liked it a lot.

Oh btw, his name was Sergey Ushakov. He was a police major…retired…gets 230$ each month as pension…has a 21 year old daughter who is a student…and was totally impressed with the concept of the rally. He SO badly wanted to come along…i had to unfortunately disappoint him. Would have been useful to have a local dude who could speak the language and help us out…Anyway, a coupla beers and some smokes later, we were at Panfilo Park where the all wooden Zenkov Cathedral impressed me a lot. Sergey took me in and made me genuflect a bit…he didn’t seem very impressed when i told him that i am a hindu though. Anyway, we walked around a bit…and i was getting tired of this…might as well use this rare free time to update the blog i thought…so, headed back to the Hotel…another beer with Major Ushakov, made a video of him, took a photo and said bye to him. Nice guy…too nice sometimes…he actually offered me a prostitute which i politely refused. As it turns out, Kazakhstan is a very prostitute friendly country…after Sergey, the hotel reception guy offered us one! The stuff about Borat’s sister seems very believable now eh…

Zenkov Cathedral

Zenkov Cathedral

Anyway, thought i would crash off a bit…but i guess it was because of the weeks or starved sleep and relentless driving, i crashed off for 6 hours! Woke up sometime around dinner time…headed out for some chicken and rice meal. Interestingly, the restaurant which served this meal was run by extremely devout muslims. The ladies were covered from head to toe, pictures of Mecca all over the walls and arabic hymns running in the background…wow…such a huge contrast to the other muslims on the street with hip hugging jeans and stilettos. Was pretty much awake after that…so had a quiet evening in the room with the breeze blowing in, the local MTV as the background…and brought the writing upto date on the blog. Did get a message from Rajesh that he would be arriving at 6am…contemplated staying awake until then…4am…the contemplation gave way to a dreamless and very real stupor. Short but very relaxing day.

Day26, Aug 12th 2009 – Drive, drive, DRIVE!

Filed under: THE REAL THING — Tags: , , — arun @ 5:39 am

Route : No mans land between Uzbekistan and Kazakstan >>> Almaty, Kazakstan
Approx Distance : 920km

Woke up, rushed into the border post and was looking around where to go when i heard “Jimmy Jimmy…come here!” it was one  of the guys from yesterday…hehe…i breezed through the Uzbek side..in all of 15 minutes! Now lets see what the Kazakh side has in store for us. Met up with Dink and Kris who started their process just before i arrived. Slow…slow…very slow…zzzz…then finally after some million minutes we were through without issues.

Just outside the border we halted for a breakfast of greasy eggs, some local sausage and some tea which tasted like soup. We also opened our melon in tow…overripe by now but tasty all the same in this summer heat. Today was going to be a race against time…Kris and Dink had to reach the Kyrgyzstan border before it closes and i had to reach Almaty. Almaty was a good 900 odd kms from where we were…so its going to be pretty much all out driving. So we set out…

Fueling up in Kazakhstan

Fueling up in Kazakhstan

The landscape was at first flat. Kazakhstan is known for its really flat steppes…and it didn’t fail to disappoint. There were some beautiful looking horses grazing about and the sun was shining mercilessly on us. It was so clear that we stepped into another country…the people were dressed differently, they looked slightly different, the roads, the buildings…cant put my finger exactly on what was different but it was something else. Anyway, we drove for about 160kms before we switched drivers…i wanted to drive the Suzuki a bit…and man…the Peugeot was heaven compared to the Suzuki. Dink had put in an extra leaf in the front suspension for off-road…as a result, it made the suspension way too hard and i could feel EVERY small bump on the road. I was bouncing along the whole route…and i am seriously impressed at those 2 for having got this far on this car. I had to constantly look at the road as compared to the roadish horizon when i am driving the Peugeot…was stressful.

We noticed petrol bunks with way too many octane level fuels..was a bit funny to see 98, 96, 95, 94, 92, 91 and 80 octane all at the same bunk. We tanked up on 96 and kept going. Then we entered this small mountain range…the steppes continued and it was beautiful to see. Wish we could have stopped and taken some pics though…anyway, for a good distance, we saw huge snow capped mountains to our right…it was essentially there throughout our drive until the point where we split…on the other side was another country. First Uzbekistan…later on, Kyrgyzstan. Dink was thinking how it would be to simply trek across this mountain and get into the other country… :)

Mepki, where we split up. I went to Almaty and K&D went on to Bishkek...

Mepki, where we split up. I went to Almaty and K&D went on to Bishkek...

Nothing eventful occurred…just plain driving…and at around 6:30pm we reached Mepki. Right, Bishkek..left, Almaty. So bid goodbye to Kris & Dink and was taking a longish break at the junction….when 2 kids walked up. The older one spoke very good English and asked to know where i am from. Once he knew that i was from India, he started speaking in Hindi! I was amazed…till date, i haven’t met a single person in Kazakhstan who spoke English..now heres this 12 or 13 year old who speaks English and Hindi. His name was Mohammed Amin and his friend’s name was Oljas. Apparently he went to an English school (probably an Indian one) in Dubai for a couple of years and even revealed the fact that his father spoke Malayalam! Wow! Anyway, the sun was still up and i wanted to make some good distance while i could drive fast…

Without the Suzuki on tow, i was able to drive really fast. Avg speeds around 120kmph…sometimes even hit 140. I am seriously impressed with this vehicle…one could hardly hear the motor and it soaked up every bump on the road with effortless ease…maybe i will buy a passenger version of this once i am back in Germany. Anyway, i did copy out Dinks map at the hotel yesterday for reference…i didn’t use it much though…i was afraid that i might go on a route which, on the map, seemed to pass through Kyrgyzstan for just a bit…didn’t happen. So it was pretty much all out driving with lots of breaks until Almaty…was pooped at the end of it.

The mountains seperating Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan...

The mountains seperating Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan...

Did SMS Rajesh asking for the lonely planet pick in the budget hotels in Almaty. He sent me the mid range pick instead. Since i didn’t have any other lead and was way too tired to spend time looking, i made for this. Till now, in every country that we passed through one could see signs and boards in the local language and in English. It was Kazakhstan where it all changed…everything was in Russian…everything! So i didn’t even have a starting point…so was asking people where this hotel was and was more or less driving on instinct. finally i stopped at this rather shady looking junction and asked some people…what happened next surprised me. The big fat guy who was obviously in charge comes up…tries to make sense of what i am saying…he couldn’t. So he calls up some lady who spoke English and let her translate my request. Then he tried to tell me how to get there…but it proved too much of a task…apparently too many twists and turns…so he ordered someone to bring out their car. A big shiny new landcruiser…and they lead me to the hotel. After we reach, he didn’t even hang around…just smiled, said bye and drove off. Nice people really. :)

Saw a rally car here…a Hyundai Atos…this was driven by a couple of older english guys…Sam and Henry. They wanted to raise their suspension a bit before the seriously hard part…Mongolia. I have a feeling that the Peugeot will make it…if the tires hold out and we don’t cross too many rivers. Of course, this was a midrange hotel…so they wanted 93 USD a night…woooaaa! I was tired and exhausted, but i cant pay that kind of money for a nights stay…so went to the neighbouring hotel and managed a room for 45 USD. This was still too costly considering that i am going to stay in Almaty for the next couple of days…so i pretty much decided to checkout the next day and scout around for really cheap places. Anyway, i patted myself on the back for the marathon drive…and retired to bed inspite of the stinking curtains and musty carpets…

August 15, 2009

Day25, Aug 11th 2009 – Of Gramophones and wild dogs in no mans land…

Filed under: THE REAL THING — Tags: , — arun @ 6:00 am

Route : Tashkent, Uzbekistan >>> No mans land between Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan
Approx Distance : 70km

We headed for the embassy a bit late than we would have liked…and found out that today the visa section is open only from 14:30 onwards. That  gave  us a bit of time…so we went back to Al Delphin…showed Kris and Dink the lovely food and we had a very pleasant lunch…this time under a shady tree. We went back to the embassy soon and met the Consul…we tried some more, pleaded, begged…the gramophone remained stuck. We called up the Consul in Ashgabat and he was very helpful…he informed me that its within the scope of his responsibility to figure this out with the government office which approves these letters. But the gramophone kept playing the same shitty line again and again…that i had to go to my travel agent who made the letter. They needed at least 4 days and 300$ again for a new letter…so…its with a heavy heart that i gave up on the Kyrgyzstan visa. Apart from Mongolia, this is the one country which i wanted to see really bad. Guess it has to be another time…i think i can combine it with Tajikistan (drive along the world famous Pamir Highway) and  maybe Iran too…and just maybe…even Afghanistan! Oh btw, the Consul in Tashkent…a total asshole. Never seen such an irritatingly unhelpful guy.

Kristie...with a real ass. The Kyrghyz Consul was just another normal ass!

Kristie...with a real ass. The Kyrghyz Consul was just another normal ass!

Anyway, it would be unfair on my part to ask Kris and Dink to miss Kyrgyzstan. They were looking forward to this even more than me. So they left. Hmmm…alone again. I like my solitude but not being left alone like this again and again. Grrrr! But yeah, its only fair that i don’t spoil Kyrgyzstan for them. Anyway, i go to a nearby shop and upon return see Dink there. They came back!

Change of plans…they decided to drive to Bishkek (capital of Kyrgyzstan) through Kazakhstan. The upside, faster travel time thanks to the flat Kazakh roads and easier on the Suzuki. The downside, they will miss the spectacularly beautiful drive to Bishkek through the mountains. I was not complaining…at least i will have some company for a distance before we split. We met this Danish student of the Russian language at the embassy now. A very nice guy…hes studying Russian at Bishkek and he traveled to Tashkent all the way from Denmark overland! He had to extend his student visa…and funnily to extend the visa he had to get out of Kyrgyzstan and go to one of the embassies elsewhere….a strange and slightly stupid rule. I hope the Consul would have been more helpful to him.

Anyway, we head out…the Kazakh border is about a dozen kms drive from Tashkent city center. We had enough time to cross over…or so we thought. We get there and find out that the border is closed thanks to renovation of the building! WTF! There were 2 points close to Tashkent where we could cross over and both were closed!! Same reason! Anyway, we find out that there is this border crossing post at a place called Chinoz, some 70kms west of Tashkent. We set the highway on fire to head there…we didn’t have enough time to cross over now…these borders close at 7pm or so usually.

Anyway, we make it…this was a very small post. Just half a dozen trucks and a handful of cars. No rally car to be seen. We had to wait a bit though…meanwhile the usual routine with Jimmy Jimmy and Mithun Chakraborthy!! And it is here that i finally figured out that this Jimmy Jimmy was a song…with someone playing a guitar in it. One step closer to solve the mystery. By now the guards and officials were so deeply into it that they started calling me Jimmy! :) They usually get impressed when i tell them my surname and they call me that (sorta like the good old BITSian days) but this is taking it to another level…hehe! Anyway, Kris and Dink didn’t extend their Uzbek visas…they figured they would pay the penalty at the border. They get in first and start the process…about 5 minutes later i am flagged in…but i never got beyond the gate…

At the Uzbek-Kazakh border at Chinoz

At the Uzbek-Kazakh border at Chinoz

It turns out that i was right about the missing 11th on the visa. The idiot at the airport goofed up! How thick can someone be…even after pointing it out to him! Grrrr! Luckily the chief of the border post understood what happened and he accepted that it was the airport guys mistake.  But he was unable to help me anyway…he said i should stay in Uzbekistan until tomorrow when my visa becomes valid again. :( Meanwhile Kris and  Dink almost made it through…at the last minute an official noticed that Dink’s visa ran out and they were stopped…in fact Kris had crossed over into the Kazakh side of the border with the car…she had to turn back! By now this has turned into a big fiasco…to add more fuel to the thing, it turned out that the papers said that our cars entered Uzbekistan on the 7th, one day before us, the drivers! So more running about…anyway, it didn’t make much of a difference now because the Kazakhstan border was closed anyway by now! Shit! We so wanted to drive some distance today…

Anyway, i told the chief that the Suzuki broke down in Samarkhand and that caused the delay. He was a nice guy in the end and helped  us out. He didn’t charge any penalty for Kris and Dink and cleared the paperwork. Since the Kazakh border was closed and they cannot enter Uzbekistan, they had to crash in no mans land between the 2 countries. Dink crashed on the roof of the car in the end while wild dogs were roaming around…much more interesting than me crashing on the Uzbek side on our spare tires and ice box! Anyway, i couldn’t go to sleep immediately in spite of being very tired because of the people were walking about, driving in and out and the half dozen armed guards patrolling and frequently flashing their torches right into my face through the car glass…sigh…at least one good thing is, i will be the first to cross tomorrow and by now everyone knows me at the border post…so Jimmy says good night to the world and zzzzz….

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