With only a transit visa, I'm unfortunately limited to passing along the southern road of Kazakhstan to Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan, but it follows along one of the Silk Road routes, so I'm happy. Kazakhstan is such a vast country and the most Russianized of Central Asia, it's almost its own trip. From what little I see, it seems the revenue from huge gas and oil resources is fixing things up. My guidebook tells me in the northeast, pristine countryside nature reserves and a few eco-resorts are springing up. Environmentally, Kazakhstan has its own mess on their hands--a legacy from the 20th century--from the Aral Sea disaster to the depleted soils of the steppe--thanks to Khrushchev's Virgin Lands campaign. Kazakhstan, too was where 467 nuclear bombs were exploded (I'm quoting Lonely Planet here). Fallout contaminated some 300,000 sq. km. In one village, they figured it was "one Hiroshima for every inhabitant." There continues today all the accompanying horrible sicknesses from the radiation.
Today's series of taxi rides takes nearly 8 hours. We pass through more steppe, and occasionally, snow-capped peaks of a mountain range to the south appear. The Kazakh pop music the driver listens to doesn't seem as obnoxious as the Uzbek variety.
Some hours along, I hear a pop and us passengers instinctively lower out heads as the car fills with dust. We've blown a tire. More delays along the way are another border crossing (this is a good time to mention that the crazy jigsaw-like borders of Central Asia comes from a deliberate "divide and conquer" policy from the 1920s and '30s, delineated without any regard to ethnicities, geography, or common sense), and three police checks once in Kyrgyzstan.
As each hour passes, I look in my guidebook for a hotel in Bishkek with a few more amenities. Screw the price. The Silk Road Lodge will do. I beg for a room. Yes, I'll take the suite. The A/C works, the TV works, the plumbing works. A sparkling clean bathtub has a plug. There's a breakfast buffet with food you can actually eat. There's high-speed Internet. There's a coffee maker. There's a library of paperback books, videos even. The sheets aren't scratchy. I see no reason to leave for a couple of days.
On the steppes of Kazakhstan
Self-explanatory fun
3 comments:
You've earned a posh hotel room by this time (particularly after the Visa hassles and the cab ride). A couple days of regular bubble baths should get you back into the rigors of the unravelling silk road (do love the title of this site). tu amiga querida
you'll need that posh hotel after the tire change......which one is you>>> :) :) The cabs sound like an E-ticket ride but happy you are able to check in so we know you're still movin' along!/Penny
This has simply taken our collective breath away, Pam.Gwyn is , as you know, still a stranger to the virtual world but my lap-top and Sue's hard copy are easing her into second half of the 20th century.We're hoping she'll post her own comment before you get back home!Keep on moving (or should that be movin'?)J&G
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