Saturday, August 2, 2008

Almaty, Kazakhstan

Due to time constraints, we had to skip Uzbek and Kyg. We underestimated the distance and road quality. Surprised? We spent two full days driving 15mph on severly rutted dirt roads the locals in Maquat said were "unpassible". Ha! Team Best Intentions and the Micra proved them wrong, but we are very road weary. I've never driven on roads this challenging for so long. Guess that's why I have a few dozen grey hairs in my beard.

Yesterday we drove over 700 miles to make up time and stay on schedule. This doesn't even include all the corrupt police stops in the Ukraine and Russia. I'll have to elaborate on that later, but it's safe to say we've been able to hold our own and give a minimum amount of "presents" to the local police. They do things differenly over this way.

On a sad note, Bryan is leaving the Rally in the morning to fly home. Work duties call him back and we wish him well.

Justin and I press on toward Mongolia in the morning. He'll try to update again in the morning time permitting.

Sorry to keep you all in the dark for the past week, but there's zero internet in the desert. I wish I could write more now, but I need to sleep this afternoon and get ready for tomorrow's drive.

One last note: The Kazakh people are amazing. Friendly, helpful and curious. I've taken lots of pictures, but probably won't upload them until I get back.

3 comments:

Lee said...

What what what?? Bryan's coming back? What's going on?

Luray va accommodations said...

This is a very beautiful and very informative article about the very arrogant country Kazakhstan . This place is filled with all the attractive beauty of nature but it has never been an insignificant or an isolated or a primitive place. You can have all the amenities like, great restaurants, a rocking nightlife, and museums, art galleries and all the ancient and olden history of this destination can be seek out as well.

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