This is the man who welded a new shock absorber for Jim. He was also searing goat heads!
This is the view from our hotel balcony in Atyrau. In the distance you can see a sliver of the Ural River. It was amazing to cross both the Volga and Ural rivers in one day – so much history right under my feet!
It was REALLY HOT on that crap “road”. I mean, REALLY HOT. Even the camels needed a time out to deal with it.
The sump guard had accordioned up against the oil pan. Holy habanero batman! We pulled over later and took off the bolts that were threatening to pierce the pan, only to find that one bolt could not be removed because it was pinched in a wrinkle of the “guard” and we needed to get it up on a jack or hoist to remove it. We drive the last 250 kilometers with it hanging down dragging, probably sparking, clanging. We drove into a very sketchy looking village after midnight, looking for gas; clanging, dragging, and not remotely under the radar but callling all kinds of unwanted attention to ourselves. As if the car with it’s unique graphics does not call attention enough! There were HERDS of teenage boys in the town hanging out. Coming out of dance halls at closing time, congregating on low walls where they could sit. OMG I freaked.
A wider view of the repair shop, which was very neat and organized. It is so great having our family and firends’ faces on the car. Makes for a quick icebreaker when we start pointing out our babies and cradling our arms to ‘splain.
I do not even know where to start so much has happened. We’ve been here for 3 days. Jim sourced car parts and had rear shock absorbers MADE TO ORDER because he couldn’t find the right size. Couldn’t find the right spark plugs either, but he thinks the ones they put in will work. I hope so, since we are about to head into one of the hottest countries on earth… The nice gal at the front desk told me that she and her husband order all their Toyota RAV 4 parts from ebay in the USA. LOL!
We crossed into Kazakhstan from Astrakhan, Russia 3 days ago. The road from the border to Atyrau, the first city on our route was pretty rough, we thought then, if only we knew what was to come… Already just a few kilometers into Kazakhstan the view changed dramatically from Russia. Camels! Kazakh cemeteries, like little fantasy lands, dot the landscape. Sand as far as the eye can see and not a tree in sight. Atyrau is on the Ural river delta where it meets the Caspian see and weirdly, is surrounded by swamp lands and salt flats.
This country is amazingly diverse. It’s one thing to read a guide book and see that X% is Kazakh and Y% is Russian and Z% is Ukrainian… but then you walk the streets. Wow, every kind of person imagineable, color, hair, eye shape, height. In Ukraine it was pretty consistently fair haired mesomorphic type folk. In Russia you could see the Ectomorphic influence of Norsemen everywhere and here it’s a total mish-mosh of everyone imagineable. Nearly everyone speaks Russian, which is taught in schools but most speak Kazakh as well. The people are super helpful to us and smile a lot more than the Russians. Although Islam is the majority religion very few women (I saw one) are covered up head to foot, and a cold beer seems to be the afternoon drink of choice.
This was the first time in three weeks that Jim and I were apart :-(. He went to the auto bazaar and I went to the immigration police. It was fun to exchange stories of our encounters at the end of the day though :-). Last night, Jim was telling me something with hand motions and I had to remind him that I spoke english… we both got a good laugh out of that! I lost my Russian phrase book in Berdyansk and finally got another one yesterday so we are back on track trying to learn the alphabet and more words. Not many people speak English which forces us to at least attempt learning Russian.
If you have the opportunity to read some about the Khazak people, it’s worth it. This whole area (the Stans) suffered greatly under Russian domination with ethnic cleansing of millions via engineered famines by Stalin and destruction of their nomadic way of life through forced farming. Still, there is great pride in the Kazakh culture and traditions that have managed to survive and are being revived by this generation that has grown up without the USSR.
This is our hotel in Beyreu. About 200 kilometers south of Tyrau ont he way to Aktau. We stopped here after having an amazing dinner in the same town. It’s funny how we order food… we just point at anything and see what shows up. If we like it we learn the name of it so we can order it again. Manti, shashlik, pelemi, borscht, are all things we like! This hotel had one indoor toilet downstairs. The shower was shared and the washbasins, 2, were shared as well. I got the hairy eyeball from the male guests, didn’t see any females, but we all survived. It was spotlessly clean and even had a little restaurant inside. We didn’t have any money so only ordered tea for breakfast but I bet it was great. We met a guy who worked for an oil company and was out as the engineer drilling core samples and he spoke some english. When I asked him the room rate he told me. When I went in to the counter and got the room rate it doubled! It was still $45 for the night and perfectly fine. Like a hostel or dorm. We used earplugs that we bought in the states that were AMAZING. THey worked so well I tool one out during the night to make sure I didn’t miss anything I should have heard.
The view from our hotel in Beyreu. This truck was out drilling samples. We parked behind it and needed to get up with those two guys so we could move our car in the morning.
This is a Kazakh necropolis, or cemetery. They have minitature versions of traditional buildings. They are AMAZING. Today on the way to Turkmenistan I hope to get out of the car and get some close up pictures. I am really sorry we didn’t stop and pull over on the way in.
This is the view from our hotel balcony in Atyrau. In the distance you can see a sliver of the Ural River. It was amazing to cross both the Volga and Ural rivers in one day – so much history right under my feet!
In Beyreu we found a mechanic to help with the chekc engine light that was on. It started out with changing the fuel filter but devolved into cleaning a spark plug. This shop was in the backyard of someone’s house. That someone being the father-in-law of a man who pulled over to help when he saw Jim trying to craowl under the car next to the side of the road.
A wider view of the repair shop, which was very neat and organized. It is so great having our family and firends’ faces on the car. Makes for a quick icebreaker when we start pointing out our babies and cradling our arms to ‘splain.
Picked up this handsome hitchhiker on the “road”
It was REALLY HOT on that crap “road”. I mean, REALLY HOT. Even the camels needed a time out to deal with it.
What our car looked like after the bad road and getting stuck in a rut and being pulled out by 7 Kazakh guys who jumped out of a van. We were on a dirt road that paralleled the actual “road” and was a million times smoother than the road it’s self. We got stuck on a high berm between the ruts when the alleged sump guard, POS design, got caught on the berm and held us fast. We tried to rock the car off, no luck. Tried forward and back driving, no luck, tires spinning and didn’t want to get stuck deeper. Should have taken a picture of it but the sun was getting lower, we still had god-knows-how-much-of-that-dreaded road to go, check engine light on… Oy vez!
I cannot even begin to descrobe the nature of this silt and how it covered EVERYTHING. Every bag that was open even a crack had it inside. It exploded into the car like a bomb went off. We were hot. We were thristy. We were sick and tired of the freaking road and then we were covered in this stuff and just started to laugh our heads off. I mean, it had gotten worse! OMG, too funny. Then we got stuck, even worse!! One of those Kazakh guys rubbed the dirt off the picture of me on the hood, pointed at the hood and then pointed at me with a gesture like “is this you?” I gestured yes and he shook his head, motioned toward my incredibly disheveld state and in Russia I made out the words woman, American, but he was shaking his head like what a crazy woman to be so dirty like this. Truly funny!
Our hotel for the night after the road from hell. Pulled over at about 1:00 a.m. and after some restlessness actually fell asleep while covered head to toe in silt. Since it was overcast in the morning we slept until about 6:30 and then traffic on the highway started to pick up and we awoke.
The sump guard had accordioned up against the oil pan. Holy habanero batman! We pulled ovver later and took off the bolts that were threatening to pierce the pan, only to find that one bolt could not be removed because it was pinched in a wrinkly of the “guard” and we needed to get it up high to remove it. We drive the last 250 kilometers with it hangin down dragging, probably sparking, clanging. We drove into a very sketchy looking village after midnight looking for gas; clanging, dragging, and not remotely under the radar but callling all kinds of unwanted attention to ourselves. As if the car with it’s unique graphics does not call attention enough! There were HERDS of teenage boys in the town hanging out. Coming out of dance halls at closing time, congregating on low walls where they could sit. OMG I was completely freaked out.
Heaven= Aktau and the Caspian Sea with it’s velvet breezes and the Renaissance Marriot. HEAVEN.
This is the man who welded a new shock absorber for Jim. He was also searing goat heads!
This is a Kazakh necropolis, or cemetery. They have minitature versions of traditional buildings. They are AMAZING. Today on the way to Turkmenistan I hope to get out of the car and get some close up pictures. I am really sorry we didn’t stop and pull over on the way in.This is the view from our hotel balcony in Atyrau. On the left you can see a sliver of the Ural River. It was amazing to cross both the Volga and Ural rivers in one day – so much history right under my feet!This is our hotel in Beyreu. About 200 kilometers south of Tyrau on the way to Aktau. We stopped here after having an amazing dinner in the same town. It’s funny how we order food… we just point at anything and see what shows up. If we like it we learn the name of it so we can order it again. Manti, shashlik, pelemi, borscht, are all things we like! This hotel had one indoor toilet downstairs. The shower was shared and the washbasins, 2, were shared as well. I got the hairy eyeball from the male guests, didn’t see any females, but we all survived. It was spotlessly clean and even had a little restaurant inside. We didn’t have any money so only ordered tea for breakfast but I bet it was great. We met a guy who worked for an oil company and was out as the engineer drilling core samples and he spoke some english. When I asked him the room rate he told me. When I went in to the counter and got the room rate it doubled! It was still $45 for the night and perfectly fine. Like a hostel or dorm. We used earplugs that we bought in the states that were AMAZING. They worked so well I took one out during the night to make sure I didn’t miss anything I should have heard.
The view from our hotel in Beyreu. This truck was out drilling samples. We parked behind it and needed to get up with those two guys so we could move our car in the morning.In Beyreu we found a mechanic to help with the check engine light that was on. It started out with changing the fuel filter but devolved into cleaning a spark plug. This shop was in the backyard of someone’s house. That someone being the father-in-law of a man who pulled over to help when he saw Jim trying to crawl under the car next to the side of the road.
