One Night In “Noman-stan”
Monday, June 21, 2010
After finally getting the Kazhak visas in the nick of time on Friday afternoon, before we needed a visa extension as our Uzbek visas ran out on Saturday which would have dented the wallet a fair bit. We rocked off towards the Uzbek border which to our surprise was simple passing through… well the Uzbekistan side anyway as the Kazhakstan side decided to close.
Literally in “No Mans Land” 10 metres from Uzbekistan and 10 metres from Kazhakstan (also apparently 10 metres from land mines) we set up camp! Can’t imagine this being advertised for a holiday – “Visit Nomanstan where we have many famous sites for personal illumination like the land mine exhibit (danger loss of limb is likely) or relaxation station/concrete bollards”
All part of the fun of the trip though as the following morning we gained passage to Kazhakstan and within our 1 day transit we had to bribe a police officer who was on the hunt for some more money for a nicer Mercedes we think. Also a wee bit of road rage as another local tried to claim we had hit the side of his car even though the damage was red and nowhere near the colour of our big blue truck. The problem was resolved after he noticed everyone racing out of truck, especially the raging Kiwi!
Anyway now holed up in Bishkek the capital of Krygzstan and gladly there is no uprising or ethnic clashes here just now. Went on a bar crawl last night to some very traditional places...British, Italian, American and a Mexican. Today we are heading to the mountains and lakes of Krygzstan for a spot of hiking, horse riding and goat polo, far away from the possibility of being shot.
P.S We shall have limited to no access to the internet in the mountains as surprisingly enough there is no computers hidden in trees, or yurts which have been turned into internet cafes. Mobile reception is almost non existent so don’t worry if we aren’t in contact for a while….. in this case no news is good news!
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