Kazakhstan

I write now from Bishkek, the capital of Kyrzgystan... where I most relied to be, and not in Kazakhstan anymore... where we didn't have good luck at all. It is harsh to blame it on the country itself (well entirely on the country itself)... some things just happen, but many experiences of Kazakhstan were intensly frustrating.
I, (and only half in jest), commented one day, that you would not want to be suicidal in Kazakhstan, as trying to get through just about any 'process' at all, would have you reaching for your knife before you a) reach the front of the queue, or b) never reach the front of the queue.

So I guess story number one is how we arrived in kazakhstan... for 7 days prior to our flight out of Mongolia, Lenore had been mentioning a pain in her side, first as an abdominal sort of gassey pain, (at this point Liam and I both sugested appendicitis as a possibility and suggested the doctor as we happened to be in a town... but she refused, being a stubborn bearer of pain... and so we left twon for the remote Altai region that borders Russia and China)... and later the pain beacem stabbing, and when we got back from climbing mountains in super remote areas, she visited the hospital in Olgii.
They ultra sounded her, and said it's appendicitis, lets operate now! The hospital was less sanitary than standard dorm rooms around here, and a little hysterically, Lenore laughed and said, can it wait 2 days?

Our visa's expired the next day, and we had flights to Ust Kamenogorsk aka Oskemon the next day too. In hind sight it was a bit irresponsible, despite legal issues of staying in the country. The doctors looked at her like she was crazy, and prescribed some super strong anti inflammatory antibiotics, which she had to have injected (by Liam) in her bum every 8 hours. Then we flew to Kazakstan, and not getting onwards flights the following day, Liam and Lenore waited another 24 hours for a flight from Oskemon to Almaty....
At this point, lenore is so much pain she can barely walk, (I was stuck in Ust Kamenogorsk for a few days waiting for a bus), we were extremely worried!
Liam and Lenore went directly from the airport to International SOS, a private international standards clinic, and the night doctor diagnosed her with appendicitis, called in the English speaking doctor Dr Heinrich, from South Africa, who said yep, it's definitly appendicitis, who makes her an appoitntment at the hospital for a surgical consult. After 3 medical diagnoses (and our own internet/no experience diagnosis) , the surgeon comes in, finds out she was in Mongolia, did you eat meat?, you've got an intestinal infection and travellors diarrhoea, and gives her some medication and sends her home!
Surprise surprise, the next day the diarrhoea is gone, but the stabbin pain in the side hasn't. Dr Heinrich calls and finds out, and rings another hospital, around 24 hours after Liam and Lenore saw him last. The surgeon in the next hospital gets right on the case and within half and hour she's on the operating table! By this stage it has been 10 days on her saying she ahd a pain... yesterday we met someone whose friend's appendix burst after less than 48 hours of noticing pain.... She was very very VERY lucky! ( OK, so maybe Kazakhstan was a lucky place?? )

Yeah... so meanwhile, the next 10 days we spend in Almaty.... meeting people with stories to tell (and there ALOT of those stories here... passports stolen, passports melting (both these people have had to end their trip and go home :(!), people denied exit from the country at the last minute at the airport due to the lack of a stamp (wouldv'e happened to us too...), people trying to get through China on a bike before winter, but being denied entry to the Chinese embassy let alone get a visa and cross the borders which are allegedly closed... (alot of frustration stories reoled arount eh Chinese border actually, or the russian border, or... : ) )
So we sit around in the only cheap place to stay in town, the 4th floor of a Univerisity dorm, which is sort of a hotel... and complain, and subsist on kebabs and self cater cause Almaty is so expensive, and WAIT (everyone was waiting for something, and everyone wanted to leave!)!

I have more to write about Kazakhstan, but right now I'm off for lunch!