I enjoyed my short stay in Uzbekistan, despite abundant police checks on the way in through the fergana valley! At every bridge/tunnel/dam they had police/army posted along the road and sometimes big no photography signs.
I went to the big Chorsu Bazaar (started to seem like I was doing a bazaar tour- from Osh bazaar in Bishket, to the Jayma Bazaar in Osh, to the Chorsu Bazaar, Tashkent! ) The Chorsu was biggest probably, though it would be close between it and Jayma... Jayma bazaar had the coolest atmosphere! They had a staggering array of spices and nuts, and dried fruit... Of which I bought some to snack on for the plane to India!
I went to the Medressa and the relgious centre of the old town, and there saw a 7th century Koran , that belonged to Osman, made from deer skin, which was huge, and amazing to see. I didn't think I was going to be amazed that much, but I was! The Medressa gave me a taste of what the rest of Uzbekitan must be like, but it must be better too I think! The Art gallery also gave me a snapshot of Uzbek culture on my whirlwind tour :)!
I made sure to try Plov, which I've had all over but is the best in Uzbekistan, and it was delicious- it is like a rice dish with grated carrot and other stuff in it (depending) all cooked in a big wok... Uzbeks are crazy about it, and they even say it is an aphrodisac! I had one with raisons in it that was very nice!
One night I had dinner in a small home-restaurant in the 'old town' (not always that old!), quite a nice spicey soup with meat and dumplings in it, and the mandatory nan, which is like a cross between indian naan and turkish bread, and is at every single meal and in the bazaars you see so many of them (round flat nans) and just on the street you randonly see people carrying a tray of nan covered in a cloth, or riding a bicycle load of nan around, or pushing a pram full of nans (this is the most common form of nan transport I think!... it is one of the stongest impressions I have of Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan( a brief imprssion I admit) is the abundant presence of nans (which are very nicely decorated with patterns on top).
Anyway, got to the airport OK and had a smooth flight to Delhi, over amazing mountain ranges... I am only guessing but I think we crossed the Pamirs and the Hindu Kush... I don't think we were north enough for Karakorams.... It was so dry, the landscape, didn't look very inhabited or inhabitable, except for a few river valleys! We went over Tadjikistan, Afghanistan and Pakistan! more Stans that I haven't been to!
Now I'm in Delhi... seem to have lost my stalker too which is good! Yay!
xxooxx
Monday, September 1, 2008
Osh (Kyrgyzstan)
Osh was a pretty cool town, and I think the most 'authentic' 'silk road' feel I got in Central Asia (granted I did not go to Samarkand or Buchara so...). For one people seemed more Islamic oriented- the women colourful in their headscarves and many men wearing scull caps or Kyrgyz hats. The bazaar selling everything under the sun gave the town that cross roads of Asia feel- which I think Osh is in a way- between China, Tadjikistan, Uzbekistan and Kyrgystan. Osh is in Kyrgyzstan but the people are 40% Uzbek and only 10k to the border. I couldn't tell the difference between Uzbek and kyrgyz except for the mens hats!
I climbed 'Solomans Throne' a big craggy hill in the centre of town where Mohommad once prayed and is now a fairly major pilgrimage site... I was on top when the Minarette calls went outall across the city for midday prayers- Osh was the first and only place I heard prayer calls (at 4am it wasn't quite as romantic). In Tashkent, and perhaps all of Uzbekistan they are banned...
I ran into Flo, the guy I trekked with in Osh again, and we had dinner at this also very atmospheric street of chaikanas- each with a sizzling smoking shashlyk stand out the front and 'topchans' tea beds, to sit on/ laze on :), and blaring Arabic pop with flashing lights. It was very lively at night, and close to my guesthouse.
So yeah all in all I enjoyed Osh...it was also a crossraods for me, from there I left Kyrgyzstan for a couple of days in Tashkent on my transit visa!
I climbed 'Solomans Throne' a big craggy hill in the centre of town where Mohommad once prayed and is now a fairly major pilgrimage site... I was on top when the Minarette calls went outall across the city for midday prayers- Osh was the first and only place I heard prayer calls (at 4am it wasn't quite as romantic). In Tashkent, and perhaps all of Uzbekistan they are banned...
I ran into Flo, the guy I trekked with in Osh again, and we had dinner at this also very atmospheric street of chaikanas- each with a sizzling smoking shashlyk stand out the front and 'topchans' tea beds, to sit on/ laze on :), and blaring Arabic pop with flashing lights. It was very lively at night, and close to my guesthouse.
So yeah all in all I enjoyed Osh...it was also a crossraods for me, from there I left Kyrgyzstan for a couple of days in Tashkent on my transit visa!
Trekking around Karakol
I wrote this in my diary on 24/8/08... it makes reasonable sense as is (often they don't!) so I'm just going to transcribe it!
"
Writing the date I think I realise that the Olympics have been and gone- who knew they would come and go with such little impact (on me!)! After all these years of build up!
I am at a campsite between Altyn Arashan and Ala Kol lake... just over the Ala Kol pass. Today's walk, day 2 of the trek, was arduos- uphill nearly all the way and over at 3860m pass. At the moment it's 5:30pm and 12 degrees, the daily max/ min so far has been 31/6... 6 being at the top of the pass! (Florian had temp recording device).
I am rather exhausted! And getting ready for another cold night! The lake was amazing, a blue aqua colour you don't seem to see in Australia, it is glacial so maybe that has something to do with it? We had lunch there and afterwards the weather started to look bad- banks of clouds on the mountains and thunder rumbles, but we did not get rained on and now the tent's up it's OK if it rains a little. (which it did :) )
I was lucky to find Flo to walk with, we were sitting around outside at Yak House and we was saying how he wanted to go hiking but needed a tent, and I said I have a tent and I need a friend! and voila! We also walked with these two Czech guys (for the first two days) who are really nice.
"
Altyn Arashan was really nice, an alpine valley with forest, mountain views and stream. The walk there was easy after the previous two days! There are a few hot spring sanatoium places there, and I had a hot bath in a wooden chack by the stream. It was very good after three days of walking and not changing clothes(too cold at the times of day when it is convenient to change :)) to get clean!
As I wanted to get back to Bishkek, I took a 4wd back to Karakol rather than walk down the final valley, it was the only part of the trek accessable by road, the only short cut possible to take! :)
The days spent in Bishkek were enjoyable, and after I got my Uzbek visa I took a share-taxi to Osh, an impressive 10 hour drive that goes over two mountain passes.
"
Writing the date I think I realise that the Olympics have been and gone- who knew they would come and go with such little impact (on me!)! After all these years of build up!
I am at a campsite between Altyn Arashan and Ala Kol lake... just over the Ala Kol pass. Today's walk, day 2 of the trek, was arduos- uphill nearly all the way and over at 3860m pass. At the moment it's 5:30pm and 12 degrees, the daily max/ min so far has been 31/6... 6 being at the top of the pass! (Florian had temp recording device).
I am rather exhausted! And getting ready for another cold night! The lake was amazing, a blue aqua colour you don't seem to see in Australia, it is glacial so maybe that has something to do with it? We had lunch there and afterwards the weather started to look bad- banks of clouds on the mountains and thunder rumbles, but we did not get rained on and now the tent's up it's OK if it rains a little. (which it did :) )
I was lucky to find Flo to walk with, we were sitting around outside at Yak House and we was saying how he wanted to go hiking but needed a tent, and I said I have a tent and I need a friend! and voila! We also walked with these two Czech guys (for the first two days) who are really nice.
"
Altyn Arashan was really nice, an alpine valley with forest, mountain views and stream. The walk there was easy after the previous two days! There are a few hot spring sanatoium places there, and I had a hot bath in a wooden chack by the stream. It was very good after three days of walking and not changing clothes(too cold at the times of day when it is convenient to change :)) to get clean!
As I wanted to get back to Bishkek, I took a 4wd back to Karakol rather than walk down the final valley, it was the only part of the trek accessable by road, the only short cut possible to take! :)
The days spent in Bishkek were enjoyable, and after I got my Uzbek visa I took a share-taxi to Osh, an impressive 10 hour drive that goes over two mountain passes.
Lake Song-Kol
OK, so it is hard to keep up with this blog, but I have been making traditional ol' diary notes along the way... haven't had a huge amount of internet time and when I do a certain person tends to hog it :). Now I am in Delhi, and this day seems like a good day to relax, not do much, and wait until Mum and Dad arrive this evening! I have crossed two country borders in last three days and there hasn't been much down time!
Anyways.... Kyrgyzstan, which I have finally learnt to spell, was really really cool!
I went to this Lake called Lake Song-Kol which is up in a big 'jailoo'- summer herding pasture... I know why they only stay for summer, it is at an altitude of 3000m and in August it was pretty chilly there!
It was very beautiful- big blue lake in a yellow valley...There were yurtas all around the lake which was huge- takes three days to ride a horse around apparently, and we stayed in a family yurt-stay organised by Community Based Tourism. I was with two Italians and one Spanish, all avid photographers! They took much nicer photos that me, which I consider slightly unfair as we went to the same place! :)
We saw edelweiss growing in abundance, horses being milked!, and loads of seagulls though we were as far as any sea as you could get probably!
The Yurt-stay family made us fish from the lake, which was a nice change! They also had fantastic ultra fresh bread- which they call nan and it is a it like naan, and the most delicious apricot jam!
I tried Kymys, fermented horse milk, which I thought would be like airag- the fermented horse milk in Mongolia, but it was totally different! Airag is clear and has been distilled, so it is more like vodka... well not really but Baga, our horseman at the 8 lakes Ger-crawl called it Mongol vodka! I could drink a few cups most of the times, it wasn't strong in alcohol, though the flavour varied...
Kymys on the other hand, is a full bodied milky drink... and has a VERY POWERFUL flavour! It is hard to convey how strong the taste is (not alcholically but... cheese-ily). I could only drink the tiniest sip and definitly not finish the cup! Horse milk is very sour, I guess there's a reason we drink cow-dairy products!
The people at Song-Kol are semi-nomadic, meaning they move basically from summer to winter... using the high pastures in summer and low in winter... I think that's what it means anyway!
Anyways.... Kyrgyzstan, which I have finally learnt to spell, was really really cool!
I went to this Lake called Lake Song-Kol which is up in a big 'jailoo'- summer herding pasture... I know why they only stay for summer, it is at an altitude of 3000m and in August it was pretty chilly there!
It was very beautiful- big blue lake in a yellow valley...There were yurtas all around the lake which was huge- takes three days to ride a horse around apparently, and we stayed in a family yurt-stay organised by Community Based Tourism. I was with two Italians and one Spanish, all avid photographers! They took much nicer photos that me, which I consider slightly unfair as we went to the same place! :)
We saw edelweiss growing in abundance, horses being milked!, and loads of seagulls though we were as far as any sea as you could get probably!
The Yurt-stay family made us fish from the lake, which was a nice change! They also had fantastic ultra fresh bread- which they call nan and it is a it like naan, and the most delicious apricot jam!
I tried Kymys, fermented horse milk, which I thought would be like airag- the fermented horse milk in Mongolia, but it was totally different! Airag is clear and has been distilled, so it is more like vodka... well not really but Baga, our horseman at the 8 lakes Ger-crawl called it Mongol vodka! I could drink a few cups most of the times, it wasn't strong in alcohol, though the flavour varied...
Kymys on the other hand, is a full bodied milky drink... and has a VERY POWERFUL flavour! It is hard to convey how strong the taste is (not alcholically but... cheese-ily). I could only drink the tiniest sip and definitly not finish the cup! Horse milk is very sour, I guess there's a reason we drink cow-dairy products!
The people at Song-Kol are semi-nomadic, meaning they move basically from summer to winter... using the high pastures in summer and low in winter... I think that's what it means anyway!
Friday, August 15, 2008
Dancing in Kyrgyzstan at an Afghan-Turkish wedding!
Yesterday standing outside the Uzbekistan embassy, a fantastic opportunity came up, and I had to admit that SOME good comes out of visa applications. In Kazakhstan in the hell that was trying to get a Chinese visa (for Liam) during the Olympics, (or rather trying to get into the Chinese embassy to get a Chinese visa during the Olympics... which proved just as impossible), we made friends with a very nice Australian/British couple who are cycling from London to Australia, and met up with them lots while in Almaty for coffee, drinks, dinner, and chats.
The man I talked to outside the Uzbek embassy was from Afghanistan, but he and his entire family had lived in diverse places like Germany, India, and Australia for over 15 years. He himself lived in Germany for 9 years, and Kyrgyzstan for the last 4, and hopes to go to Australia. I'm not exactly sure what relation he was to the bride and groom (presumably groom, as the groom was Afghan), but he was in the closer circle of the few hundred people at the wedding and just randomly invited me as we chatted outside the embassy. I mentioned that I had 2 friends, and so he invited them too!
Zaymai picked us up at 5, and then we drove around "looking for the wedding". Since we got to the stan's, and even in Olgii in Mongolia, we have seen a ridiculous amount of weddings, it is obviously the season for this sort of thing (wouldn't fancy a winter wedding in this neck of the woods!). Weddings are especially conspicuous cause people drive around town in a big chain of cars decorated with colourful streamers, balloons, flowers etc, honking their horns alot!
Zalmai didn't know where the wedding was ... at that moment... it turned out it hadn't started yet, we drove out to the Turkish district a bit out of town and joined the wedding from the beginning. At first we loaded into a mini an with our own travelling band, playing loud beaty Turkish music with some kind of flutey horny thing, and a drum...we arrived at the grooms house drank some vodka outside, and nibbled on some food laid outside the door, and then out came the groom and everyone started dancing outside the door (at this point the party was maybe 15 people including us).... then we walked down the road and women from the brides family, including her mother were walking to meet us and dancing along the road .... all the while the band was playing and walking... and we all walked behind... back to the brides home... I think we seemed to pick up a few people as we went too, as by the time the bride came out of her house, we were about 10 cars loads... one of which was a limo, the rest followed behind, honking and yelling all the way back into town...
we went to a park for photos, and then the band started playing again and the women of the brides family started doing a dance...fingers linked and kind of going round in a circle... then the men started dancing, and my, they were AMAZING! (blushes) ;)
Randomly we stopped again, danced again, and they pulled a briefcase of flat fried bread and a whole chicken from the limo which was shared around, everyone getting a small bit of chicken and bread... tried to find out the meaning of the tradition... something to do with a good marriage.. ? ! :).
By this stage Lenore and I had been pulled up for a women's dance, liam and I randomly got made to dance around too (I was having a laugh cause they pulled Liam up to dance on his own and the next thing I know I'm pushed in myself!... Thank goodness Zalmai and his girlfriend came and danced with us too!).
Then Liam had a bit of a dance off with this guy whose name was told to me but I;ve forgotten... anyway this guy was definitely cool! He was a fantastic dancer and had been dancing since about 5:30, full on leaping around and jigging it to the band when we were waiting for the groom and walking around the neighbourhood even no one else was dancing!
Liam did a pretty good job too :)....
Anyway, by this stage our uncertainly about whether there would be alcohol at the wedding (being Muslims) had been answered, the vodka shots were flowing and when we arrived at the brides home again it was packed with around 200+ people sitting at long tressle tables in a tent in the backyard. The tables were covered in food and strategically placed bottles of soft drink and vodka... The food we were informed, was not dinner though.... (salami, cheese, bread, fruit, sweets, biscuits, chicken)...
There was a stage in the middle of the tables and people danced alot... when the women danced people came up and put money in their hands which was all put into a suitcase at the end of each song... presumably to give to the happy couple... who did not dance at all while we were there (we had to leave at midnight... but the party was just getting started then!)
When the bride and groom came out they enacted some kind of story, the bride had a big veil on and wouldn't remove it, and acted all upset and made crying gestures, and the groom did this dance with knives around her... then all these people came up and gave money and when there was enough money she took off her veil, but then she stood there while people danced around her and more money flowed in (given to the dancers) and eventually they went together to the special table on the stage for them... with a huge cake, but it looked lonely up there to me!
All in all it was an amazing experience... The music was Loud, 'BIG', Turkish sounding, and all live (more musicians now, and keyboards and singers too... the dancing was cool, I felt very privileged to share the experience! In the end we got up on stage and said a few words in the microphone and the we had to dance, but the music they put on for us was this wierd pop, and I had no idea how to dance to it, (couldn't do the whole pseudo turkish dance we did before!)... after a few awkward minutes we were joined by some of the younger crowd... phew! (you feel very exposed up there on the stage!)
We left at 12 as our guest house had a curfew (of 12), which we were late for, oops, but the party was just getting rolling... the Plov had only come out at 11:30 and it was delicious, as was the beautifully spiced meat soup we had at around 10:30-11... It had been cooking since 5:30 when I saw they lady putting the meat into four huge (and I mean huge) woks, each with it's own fireplace beneath it. They killed four goats so I presume one wok, one goat!
Zalmai was beyond driving (shooting 40% vodka does that to you, needed the soft drink chasers for these!), and we asked to get a taxi, but the family got a guest who was a taxi driver to drive us home as a favour, which we paid for, but it was a very nice thing to do as he had to come all the way back afterwards. Probably for this reason, he hadn't been drinking (much at least), which I was gald of, as I was starting to wonder how Zalmai was going to drive us home!
So yeah, that was my awesome, bizarre party evening last night at an Afghan-Turkish wedding in Kyrgyzstan (although I suspect it was more Turkish as the brides family organised the wedding but Zalmai said many traditions overlapped).
The man I talked to outside the Uzbek embassy was from Afghanistan, but he and his entire family had lived in diverse places like Germany, India, and Australia for over 15 years. He himself lived in Germany for 9 years, and Kyrgyzstan for the last 4, and hopes to go to Australia. I'm not exactly sure what relation he was to the bride and groom (presumably groom, as the groom was Afghan), but he was in the closer circle of the few hundred people at the wedding and just randomly invited me as we chatted outside the embassy. I mentioned that I had 2 friends, and so he invited them too!
Zaymai picked us up at 5, and then we drove around "looking for the wedding". Since we got to the stan's, and even in Olgii in Mongolia, we have seen a ridiculous amount of weddings, it is obviously the season for this sort of thing (wouldn't fancy a winter wedding in this neck of the woods!). Weddings are especially conspicuous cause people drive around town in a big chain of cars decorated with colourful streamers, balloons, flowers etc, honking their horns alot!
Zalmai didn't know where the wedding was ... at that moment... it turned out it hadn't started yet, we drove out to the Turkish district a bit out of town and joined the wedding from the beginning. At first we loaded into a mini an with our own travelling band, playing loud beaty Turkish music with some kind of flutey horny thing, and a drum...we arrived at the grooms house drank some vodka outside, and nibbled on some food laid outside the door, and then out came the groom and everyone started dancing outside the door (at this point the party was maybe 15 people including us).... then we walked down the road and women from the brides family, including her mother were walking to meet us and dancing along the road .... all the while the band was playing and walking... and we all walked behind... back to the brides home... I think we seemed to pick up a few people as we went too, as by the time the bride came out of her house, we were about 10 cars loads... one of which was a limo, the rest followed behind, honking and yelling all the way back into town...
we went to a park for photos, and then the band started playing again and the women of the brides family started doing a dance...fingers linked and kind of going round in a circle... then the men started dancing, and my, they were AMAZING! (blushes) ;)
Randomly we stopped again, danced again, and they pulled a briefcase of flat fried bread and a whole chicken from the limo which was shared around, everyone getting a small bit of chicken and bread... tried to find out the meaning of the tradition... something to do with a good marriage.. ? ! :).
By this stage Lenore and I had been pulled up for a women's dance, liam and I randomly got made to dance around too (I was having a laugh cause they pulled Liam up to dance on his own and the next thing I know I'm pushed in myself!... Thank goodness Zalmai and his girlfriend came and danced with us too!).
Then Liam had a bit of a dance off with this guy whose name was told to me but I;ve forgotten... anyway this guy was definitely cool! He was a fantastic dancer and had been dancing since about 5:30, full on leaping around and jigging it to the band when we were waiting for the groom and walking around the neighbourhood even no one else was dancing!
Liam did a pretty good job too :)....
Anyway, by this stage our uncertainly about whether there would be alcohol at the wedding (being Muslims) had been answered, the vodka shots were flowing and when we arrived at the brides home again it was packed with around 200+ people sitting at long tressle tables in a tent in the backyard. The tables were covered in food and strategically placed bottles of soft drink and vodka... The food we were informed, was not dinner though.... (salami, cheese, bread, fruit, sweets, biscuits, chicken)...
There was a stage in the middle of the tables and people danced alot... when the women danced people came up and put money in their hands which was all put into a suitcase at the end of each song... presumably to give to the happy couple... who did not dance at all while we were there (we had to leave at midnight... but the party was just getting started then!)
When the bride and groom came out they enacted some kind of story, the bride had a big veil on and wouldn't remove it, and acted all upset and made crying gestures, and the groom did this dance with knives around her... then all these people came up and gave money and when there was enough money she took off her veil, but then she stood there while people danced around her and more money flowed in (given to the dancers) and eventually they went together to the special table on the stage for them... with a huge cake, but it looked lonely up there to me!
All in all it was an amazing experience... The music was Loud, 'BIG', Turkish sounding, and all live (more musicians now, and keyboards and singers too... the dancing was cool, I felt very privileged to share the experience! In the end we got up on stage and said a few words in the microphone and the we had to dance, but the music they put on for us was this wierd pop, and I had no idea how to dance to it, (couldn't do the whole pseudo turkish dance we did before!)... after a few awkward minutes we were joined by some of the younger crowd... phew! (you feel very exposed up there on the stage!)
We left at 12 as our guest house had a curfew (of 12), which we were late for, oops, but the party was just getting rolling... the Plov had only come out at 11:30 and it was delicious, as was the beautifully spiced meat soup we had at around 10:30-11... It had been cooking since 5:30 when I saw they lady putting the meat into four huge (and I mean huge) woks, each with it's own fireplace beneath it. They killed four goats so I presume one wok, one goat!
Zalmai was beyond driving (shooting 40% vodka does that to you, needed the soft drink chasers for these!), and we asked to get a taxi, but the family got a guest who was a taxi driver to drive us home as a favour, which we paid for, but it was a very nice thing to do as he had to come all the way back afterwards. Probably for this reason, he hadn't been drinking (much at least), which I was gald of, as I was starting to wonder how Zalmai was going to drive us home!
So yeah, that was my awesome, bizarre party evening last night at an Afghan-Turkish wedding in Kyrgyzstan (although I suspect it was more Turkish as the brides family organised the wedding but Zalmai said many traditions overlapped).
Thursday, August 14, 2008
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!
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!
Saturday, August 2, 2008
Mongolia!!!!!! Part 3!
By this stage I am up to writing... more amazing scenery out the window, more eagles, more camels, more desert plains, more alpine valleys, more green steppe, more nights camped under the stars, more bowls of tuna and pasta for dinner.... :) The trip continued to be very cool as we journeyed across the North!
New developements included flat tyres, salt lakes, sand dunes and a few meals in Guanz (small restaurants) where we got Tsuivan- fried dough and meat,or meat with rice and mabe a fried egg.
Oh yeah and there were the wolves... :). One night our drier pointed off into the sand dunes and made woo woo wooooo wolf noises, that night I woke up and I could hear wolves howling in the (hopefully) distance! I heard then quite a lot at night for the second half of the trip!
We stopped at Uvs Nuur which was cool- an enormous salty lake (looks like the sea as you can't really see the other side), which is 5 time saltier than the ocean. It was hot and we were in the desert, and swimming was irresistable! Lenore and I had walked a bit from the an, and didn't have our things with us, but just went in in tops and undies, possibly scaring off Michael, (our 4ths person in the van, who seems to have issues with the female form), by the time we'd laid around and had lunch our clothes were dry anyway! That was a fun afternoon!
Then we stayed with a family in a mountain valley (Turgen Uul) in their Ger for two nights, as it was chilly at night in that area and uncomfortable sitting around in the evening outside. The family told us they only stay in the valley in summer, and even then, at night I had my long johns, merino wool layers and beanie on!
Gers are amazingly insulated- something to do with thick layers of felt I think! We did a day hike up to see a glacier and get a view of the mountains, which was fun, but we took a hard route up this hill covered in scree, which was not easy walking! the return journey in the bottom of the valley took 1-2 hours, whereas going there took maybe 5!
This family was really lovely, and they especially warmed to us after I gave the kids textas and colouring in books. We got to try camel yoghurt, (even though they were goat herders, they somehow had camel yoghurt), which was really really nice! I took loads of photos, the boys especialy were showing off on their horses and promised to post them some, must do that soon!
On the way from this valley to Olgii, the main centre of west Mongolia, we had an interesting river experience. Some rain earlier and snow on the hills had made all the streams full of water, and we'd had a few hairy crossings but the most show stopping was when we got to a river that went over the road. It was clearly the only place for miles to cross, as there was a bit of a bank up of traffic waiting at this spot to cross ( a few cars a two trucks). The trucks had a long wait on their hands I'd say, as the river was full and flowing fast, and the snow'd keep melting for days...
We wouldn't have made it if an enterprising local with a tractor hadn't been there monooplising the river crossing business! He towed us across, which was ScAREY, you could feel the water pushing us around and it was coming in the doors! We made it, and the engine still started, but the next jeep across in oposite direction was not so lucky, they had like 15 people in a 5 seater jeep, and got stuck on a rock in the middle, I suspect it was the jeep drivers fault, he seemed a little drunk! There would have been lots of water in their car!
The final bit of Mongolia was our excursion to the Altai National Park, which 'straddles' the border with both China and Russia :) . (I like the word straddle... it has a kind of cool sound).
It was very much sound of musicness there, green valleys and hills, snowy peaks- which were just beautiful...we did an overnight hike to the base camp of Tavan Bogd, and hiked to the Russian border, to get a cool view of the Altai peaks of the Russian side... and on our way back to Olgii we stopped at a Kazakh family ger for the night. They were also amazingly friendly and made us beshbamak- a kazakh dish of meat and pasta sheets which was delicious.
The western region of Mongolia is mainly Kazakh and Olgii was very different to other towns we went through. The people dressed more like central Asia- head scares, and felt fez-like hats for the men, and the Ger's are decorated with the most beautiful embroidered wall hangings and felt carptets. This area is more traditional-Kazakh than Kazakhstan, where nomadism was stamped out by Stalin.
yeah, the ending of Mongolia you know from the Appednicitis post, we evacutaed with a medical emergency!
New developements included flat tyres, salt lakes, sand dunes and a few meals in Guanz (small restaurants) where we got Tsuivan- fried dough and meat,or meat with rice and mabe a fried egg.
Oh yeah and there were the wolves... :). One night our drier pointed off into the sand dunes and made woo woo wooooo wolf noises, that night I woke up and I could hear wolves howling in the (hopefully) distance! I heard then quite a lot at night for the second half of the trip!
We stopped at Uvs Nuur which was cool- an enormous salty lake (looks like the sea as you can't really see the other side), which is 5 time saltier than the ocean. It was hot and we were in the desert, and swimming was irresistable! Lenore and I had walked a bit from the an, and didn't have our things with us, but just went in in tops and undies, possibly scaring off Michael, (our 4ths person in the van, who seems to have issues with the female form), by the time we'd laid around and had lunch our clothes were dry anyway! That was a fun afternoon!
Then we stayed with a family in a mountain valley (Turgen Uul) in their Ger for two nights, as it was chilly at night in that area and uncomfortable sitting around in the evening outside. The family told us they only stay in the valley in summer, and even then, at night I had my long johns, merino wool layers and beanie on!
Gers are amazingly insulated- something to do with thick layers of felt I think! We did a day hike up to see a glacier and get a view of the mountains, which was fun, but we took a hard route up this hill covered in scree, which was not easy walking! the return journey in the bottom of the valley took 1-2 hours, whereas going there took maybe 5!
This family was really lovely, and they especially warmed to us after I gave the kids textas and colouring in books. We got to try camel yoghurt, (even though they were goat herders, they somehow had camel yoghurt), which was really really nice! I took loads of photos, the boys especialy were showing off on their horses and promised to post them some, must do that soon!
On the way from this valley to Olgii, the main centre of west Mongolia, we had an interesting river experience. Some rain earlier and snow on the hills had made all the streams full of water, and we'd had a few hairy crossings but the most show stopping was when we got to a river that went over the road. It was clearly the only place for miles to cross, as there was a bit of a bank up of traffic waiting at this spot to cross ( a few cars a two trucks). The trucks had a long wait on their hands I'd say, as the river was full and flowing fast, and the snow'd keep melting for days...
We wouldn't have made it if an enterprising local with a tractor hadn't been there monooplising the river crossing business! He towed us across, which was ScAREY, you could feel the water pushing us around and it was coming in the doors! We made it, and the engine still started, but the next jeep across in oposite direction was not so lucky, they had like 15 people in a 5 seater jeep, and got stuck on a rock in the middle, I suspect it was the jeep drivers fault, he seemed a little drunk! There would have been lots of water in their car!
The final bit of Mongolia was our excursion to the Altai National Park, which 'straddles' the border with both China and Russia :) . (I like the word straddle... it has a kind of cool sound).
It was very much sound of musicness there, green valleys and hills, snowy peaks- which were just beautiful...we did an overnight hike to the base camp of Tavan Bogd, and hiked to the Russian border, to get a cool view of the Altai peaks of the Russian side... and on our way back to Olgii we stopped at a Kazakh family ger for the night. They were also amazingly friendly and made us beshbamak- a kazakh dish of meat and pasta sheets which was delicious.
The western region of Mongolia is mainly Kazakh and Olgii was very different to other towns we went through. The people dressed more like central Asia- head scares, and felt fez-like hats for the men, and the Ger's are decorated with the most beautiful embroidered wall hangings and felt carptets. This area is more traditional-Kazakh than Kazakhstan, where nomadism was stamped out by Stalin.
yeah, the ending of Mongolia you know from the Appednicitis post, we evacutaed with a medical emergency!
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