Newsflash - Borat is not a documentary

• 110days's Profile
• About this blog
• Entry from Almaty

Trip Start Jun 26, 2011 Previous
Entry Trip End Dec 13, 2011 Next
Entry

  Almaty, Kazakhstan
Friday, August 26, 2011

We are now in Kazakhstan, a country that is much larger than I suspected - the 9th largest country in the world, I think, in terms of land mass. We are not doing very much of it. In fact, we were supposed to do almost none of it, as it is essentially a transit country to get us into Kyrgyzstan, but we've ended up having quite a few extra days to play with. This is because China has changed our entry date by about a week (apparently they do this), giving us time to come up to Almaty, the former capital and biggest city. China have also changed our exit date and closed the freedom highway, so much of September may be us bombing through 18 hour days in order to get to the other side in time, but that's the joy of overlanding - you never know what will be thrown at you next.

I rewatched Borat in preparation for Kazkahstan, and was reminded that the scenes in 'Kazakhstan' in the movie were actually filmed in a town in Romania, because Sacha Baron Cohen got the ethnicity of his caricature wrong. Kazakhstan is, as far as I know, an up and coming country with plenty of oil potential to lubricate its way up. They still haven't discovered that you can put doors on public toilets, though.

I am currently writing a murder mystery for the group, which is proving both fun and quite a lot of work. So far there are 108 pages making up the booklets for 18 people! Hopefully we can do it in China. Perhaps I will post a more detailed character list at some point, which includes the rock stars Jon Bovi and Janey Pinehouse and the bodyguard known only as 'Shoelace' because of the rumours to do with his ways of making people talk.

I am feeling rather sorry for myself at the moment, however, as a couple of days ago I developed a cruelly painful toothache that has not abated since. The very kind people I am with have given me about 5 different types of pain killer, which I use regularly, but in about half an hour I will attempt to go to a dentist. I am not scared of dentists, but I have noted that many people here have a faceful of gold teeth. I believe that the pain comes from my wisdom tooth coming in, so don't think I will need any gold - and doubt my insurance will cover it if I do, as it appears to be for up to 200 pounds (3000 for my funeral, though, so that's comforting).

Fingers crossed that there will be another post in the future!

Almaty hotels Share

Previous Entry Next Entry