The last week in Uzbekistan

Uzbekistan was probably the key to this trip. Since I saw photos of and read about Samarkand, it's remarkable and mysterious Silk Road history, I have always wanted to visit. So Uzbekistan was the one place I was really looking forward to seeing, so far it hasn't disappointed.

I won't write much as internet connections are so, so, so slow. Imagine going back to your 9.6 kbs modems at home, that's what it's like. Many internet cafes are also more like night clubs as the young kids working there blast out mp3 music at deafening volume.

So just to update; quick pass through Tashkent, central Asia's biggest city and fourth largest of the ex-USSR. Long train journey to Urgench in Western Uzbekistan and onto the ancient walled city of Khiva which has some remarkable buldings; minarets, medressa, museums and mosques, all in a small old town area "Ichon Qala". Visited some ancient Khorezm forts in the Amu Daryu delta and stayed the night in a yurt camp - which i shared with some camels - next to one of the forts in the remote desert.


Left: View of Ayaz-Qala citadel from my flying carpet
Right: Uninvited visitors at the camp.

Yesterday was a gruelling 7 hour minibus drive to Bukhara, most of which was across the Kyzylkum Desert, which was not the most interesting journey ever. In an overcrowded mini-bus along pot-holed roads, with temperatures soaring towards 40 degrees, it was a relief to arrive in Bukhara which is also full of similar old buildings, has a nice pool in the centre of town surrounded by cafes, plenty of mini bazars and lots of old town mazy streets to explore later.

Next stop will be Samrkand or Tashkent again, may go back there for the Independence day celebrations first, will decide later.

Aksu Zhibagly

Aksu Zhibagly nature reserve is a 120,000 square hectare area of mountains, rivers, waterfalls with a wide range of flora and fauna in the Talasky Alytau tange of the Western Tian Shan. I stayed a couple of nights in a homestay, home of 3 generations; Natasha, Emira (who is married to a Dutch guy) and little Nathalie. One day I spent being driven around the rough terrain of the nature reserve, across streams, past rivers and waterfalls all the time surrounded by peaks reaching up to over 4200m. The area was full of bird and plant life and includes some elusive snow leopards, but there was sadly no chance of seeing these without climbing to the most extreme points which would take a couple of days.

The village of Zhabagly had nothing more than a school and one store, population surprisingly was around 2500 (I have no idea where they all were), some 400 houses and a school that teaches around 600 children from Zhabagly and surrounding area. Vehicles were very rare along the roads, the usual mode of traffic being horseback clearly identified by the road through the village being constantly covered in horseshit. Twice a day a large flock of sheep would go by, sometimes there would be a stray cow wandering around lost.

Left & Right: In the Aksu Zhibagly nature reserve.

I was the only tourist in town at the time, as the peak time is April - June when the fields are filled with red and yellow tulips, this apparently being the home of the tulip.
Emira and Natasha looked after me well, far more food than I could ever eat. I don't think Natasha was used to cooking for one as I usually had enough food for two or more people, I think they usually cater for groups rather than the lone traveller.


Left: My hosts in Zhabagly, Natasha, Emira & little Nathalie.
Right: Nathalie again.

Leaving there was not easy, it took 7 vehicles and a bit of a walk to reach Tashkent! First Emira drove me to their local taxi stop, from there a shared taxi eventually drove to Vanovka having waited around a while for more customers, Next a mini-bus (called Gazelles in this part) to Shimkent Ozera station, from there a bus to Shimkent main bus station. Next another shared minibus to the Kazakh-Uzbek border (which broke down on the way! but was fixed), there you have to cross the border, through customs etc, which I did on foot and then find another shared minibus to Tashkent only to find they drop you nowhere near centre of town, so had to then get a taxi to my hotel. Seven legs to that journey, considering it was probably 200 km in total, across a border and included a breakdown, probably not bad that it took only around 5-6 hours in total.

Turkestan

There is just one thing to see in Turkestan, the mausoleum of Kozha Akhmed Yasaui. Touted as Kazakhstan's greatest building, the mausoleum stands on the outskirts of Turkistan and on the edge of the Kyzylkum desert. Built in the 14th century, it is another of one of the many great buildings of Timur (Tamerlane), more of which I will see later in Uzbekistan. So this is a bit of a taste of what is to come later in Samarkand and Buhara.

A 3 hour bus journey from Shimkent and a 40 minute walk in the wrong direction. followed by a mini-bus back to where i should have gone in the first place and I arrived at the mausoleum, where many Kazakh Muslims are also there to pay homage to Kozha Akhmed Yasui, the first great Turkic Muslim.



The now restored mausoleum is an imposing sight, looming high over the desert landscape to the west. Beautiful tiled artwork cover the walls on three sides of the building, in the Timur style so associated with Central Asian architecture of this time.



As usal at the cash desk, everyone just pushes in front of you as though you weren't there, something that happens at any cashier, shop etc in ex-Soviet countries. However much you get used to it, sometimes you just want to shout at them ! Maybe this isn't the time and place. Once inside locals kneel in prayer around the casket and at small prayer areas within the building, shame that as usual it is not allowed to take photos inside.

Shimkent & the next few days

Eventually dragged myself out of Almaty, having had a good rest from the moving on and on, form place to place that has dominated so much of my life recently. Not sure I if recovered much as I spent most of the time out and about exploring Almaty's cafes, restaurants and bars with Jon the cyclist I first met in Romania sometime ago. We found out we both arrived within a few days and the result was quite a few late nights out followed by early starts to take advantage of the hotel breakfast and often to go to queue up at consulates. But now I have my visas and have moved on to Shimkent.

My trip here was going to be a nice quiet sleep for me, but again my carriage companions wanted to talk more than I did. I thought I was well planned following the Russian way of bringing noodles, tea-bags and bread with you for these journeys, but it seems the Kazakhs make more of a deal of things. While I ate my noodles, they brought out pieces of roasted chicken, bags of fresh greek salad and fresh bourshak (made by Zhani's wife and it was very tasty I have to say). Later, while standing in the corridor, I was dragged into next door compartment by the lady in there and offered vodka and beer and introduced to her daughter. They had an even grander display of food with an entire roast chicken sitting on the table and sausages and bread all around, awaiting the arrival of here sister at a later station, at which point the feast would begin. After a beer I managed to escape, but the Kazakh hospitatility again was wonderful.

Shimkent is a bustling town with an even more bustling bazaar which seems to have absolutley anything and everything available. It is pretty large and is easy to get lost in, when you get out you find another similar area starts next door or across the road. Simplest thing was just to wander around and when I had enough, find a road and try work out where I had got to. Just like on the roads, the paths through the bazaar were full fo traffic jams of sellers moving products around on their trolleys and carts and when gridlock occurrs, they just stand and argue for ever about who should go first, while the situation gets worse and worse until noone can move at all... The roads are a little - but not much - better, mini-bus (mashrutnoes), busses and taxis are everywhere again, there is no shortage of public transport in this town. They block the roads, drive blindly and toot horns constantly all day long.



Left: Traffic jams all over Shimkent
Right: Kazakh costumes at the Shimkent bazar

There's not much else to see in Shimkent, the bazar is the highlight, but I will use it as starting point to visit:

• Turkestan, where stands Kazkhstan's greatest building; the mausoleum of the Kozha Akhmed Yasaui, the first great Turkic Muslim holy man.
• Aksu-Zhabaghly nature reserve, which for the 'cloggies' reading, is apparrently the real home of the tulip !!. It is located in the Tian Shan mountian range and has much beautiful natural scenery, I will find a homestay there for a couple of nights and enjoy the fresh countryside air again !

I visited The Shimkent bazar again the next day and got completely lost again in a totally new part i had not discovered yesterday. I had just bought some new sandals, thinking I already seen the 'shoes' section yesterday when I came across a whole new vast sprawling area containing rows and rows of tables selling just shoes, I have never seen so many shoes in one place ever and doubt I ever will again. It would be amazing for anyone interested in shoes, but I was just trying to find a way out of there. Adding photos would in now way even start to describe the enormity and atmosphere of the Shimkent bazar, so I won't.

Kazakhstan

It dawned on me that most of you - except for 'wanderingwelshman' Mikey - reading this know little about Kazakhstan, so thought I'd pass on a little education from what I have learned before and during my time here.

Area: 2.7 million sq km. (9th biggest in the world)
Population: 17 million.
Capital: Astana (since 1997), previously Almaty.
People: Inhabitants of Kazakhstan, have historically been nomadic groups from the East, the first known of which are the Saka people who lived in Southern Kazakhstan around 500BC. Around 200BC, Huns and Turkic peoples form Mongolia and China migrated here and the area was the westernmost part of the Kok Turk empire. The southern cities of Otrar and Turkestan developed into major trading points on the Silk Road until in the 13th century, Jenghiz Khan took control, when the biggest Mongol army in history invaded Otrar and the now Uzbekistan cities of Samarkand and Bukhara. The area now known as Kazakhstan was then split into two regions and shared between Khan's sons when he died, Westerna nd Northern Kazakhstan was known as the 'Golden Horde' and the rest was known as the 'Chaghatai Khanate'.

The Kazakh people emerged from the descendants of the Mongols and Turkic peoples. A group of Islamic Mongols that originally took their name from a former leader named 'Uzbek' were in control of the Golden Horde when the area disintegrated in the 14th and 15th centuries. Disagreements led to a split where the southern areas ruled from Bukhara gave their name to current day Uzbekistan, while those in Northern areas becane known as 'Kazakhs' and remained nomadic, taking their name from the Turkic word meaning 'free rider or adventurer'.

Leader: President Nursultan Nazarbaev has been in power since 1989, before Kazakhstan's breakaway from the former Soviet Union.

Local Foods: (the ones I have tried)
shashlyk (kebab), laghman (noodles), manty (steamed dumplings with mutton/vegetables), plov (rice, vegetables and lamb), baurshaki (fried dough like bread), kumys (horse's milk).

Some more random photos.

Left: Sneak preview of terracotta soldiers, currently on display in the Moscow History Museum.
Right: Great subject, poor photographer ;) overlooking Almaty at evening.



Left: Muslim clothing stall in Kazan.
Right: Assumption church andbell tower in Vladimir, one of Russia's finest churches.




Left: Moscow's artisitic underground stations.
Right: Matroeshkoes of every kind available on Moscow's Arbat.




Left: A griffin plant carving in Kazan.
Right: Odessa's local supermarkets use 'Sainsburys' bags for some reason.




Left: My new friends from Romania, Moldova and Ukraine, Leah and Kristina.
Right: Spiderman and Batman in Odessa, of course.



Left: MySoviet block flat accomodation in Chisinau.
Right: British telephone kiosk in Odessa !! This town is full of surprises.

Visa Watch ! - Part 6 (Kyrgyzstan)

7 August: Get to Kyrgyzstan consulate in Almaty at 12:45, left it a bit late I know, but sign says 'Receipt of Documents 10:00 - 13:00' so should be OK. Security guard says it's closed; lunchtime. Point to sign and the time, no difference, they are all at lunch. Try to get him to at least confirm I can drop off docs this afternoon, even though sign says 'Collection of document 15:00 - 16:00'. Yes will be ok.
Back at 15:00, bit of a queue and get in after maybe 30 minutes. 'Come back tomorrow, visa requests only in morning, can't do it this afternoon'; 'But I was here this morning before 1300', I explain, 'No, tomorrow morning'; 'But I was here before 1300, you closed early, why can't I just drop these off now?; 'Come back tomorrow' is the continuous reply. Not wanting to endanger my chances of getting the visa later, I slope off and then have a rant once I am outside of the gates !

9 August: Arrive at 11:30ish today, 5 people ahead of me, takes less than 10 minutes to get in and less than a minute once I am inside. But have to wait until 15 August to collect !

15 August: No queue, no waiting, 40 dollars and I have my visa :-)

Time to Process: 6 days (incl weekend), slow.
Total Time Spent: About 1 hour plus lots of travel time there and back.
Price: $ 40
Summary: Another success and an easy, painless process if you get there at the right time.

Some random photos

Here are some randomly selected photos I may or may not have published already.




Left: Young Montenegran in Kotor who wanted a photo.
Centre: In Romania 'Lays' are called 'Star' but it's still 'supermodel' Ronaldinho's photo that sells them!
Right: Live music in town square Brasov, Romania.



Left: Inside the cave monastery of Orheiul Vechi, Moldova
Right: Orheiul Vechi and Raut river, Moldova



Left: Sunset in Dubrovnik
Right: Portsmouth FC ? Are they really popular in Budva, Montenegro ?



Left: Cat asleep in the fortress walls of Dubrovnik.
Centre: St Basil's , Moscow.
Right: Photo shop in Herceg Novi. Don't take your photos here!




Left: Amphitheatre in Pula, Croatia.
Right: Perisan carpets in Mostar market, Bosnia.

Almaty (Alma Ata)

Surprisingly perhaps, I think Almaty is a pretty cool place.. You hear many bad comments, stories and yes maybe some bad things happen in this country, but it's hard to believe when you wander the streets of this extremely cosmopolitan and friendly city. There are of course many Kazakhs like in Atyrau, but here there is a far more diverse mixture of ethnic groups, many Russians, other Central Asians, Tajiks, Kyrgyzs, Uzbeks as well as Chinese, Koreans, Japanese and probably many many more nationalities. It really feels like - as some have called it - 'The capital of Central Asia'.

The streets are filled with cars, busses, mashrutnoes, people offering rooms or girls and dodging them is a new skill to learn, but within a fairly short walk you can reach one of the multitide of parks that are all over the city, some small, some large, all with water features of some kind ! I don't think I have ever been to a city with so many water fountains. And within these tree filled parks, it is so easy to forget you are in a fairly large city, the traffic sounds muffled by the forest of trees and the sprays of water around, the views of gardens and people of all types enjoying the summer weather. There is a wide selection of food available here too, cafes, bars, restaurants everywhere, as well as casinos. One of the best value is a food market on corner of Gogol/Ablaya Khan, where you can have all kinds of local specialities freshly cooked, manty (boiled dumplings), laghman (noodles with whatever you like), Plov (Uzbek national dish, of lamb, rice and vegetables) and shaurma (a tortilla wrapped shoarma with chips inside!!) at a very reasonable price. There is also of course "Mad Murphy's Irish Bar" where you can pay 3 or 4 times as much for some home cooked delights like sausage and mash !!



Left: Church in Almaty Park, made entirely of wood !
Right: Monument to commemorate 28 soldiers who died during World War I

Yesterday, took a cable car up to the hill in Almaty, Kak Tobe, which offers views of the city and to the South the mountains that divide Kazakhstan from Kyrgyzstan, some so high they are still snow-capped even when it's always in the mid-30s each day in Almaty.



Left: Views of snow capped mountians south of Almaty.
Right: One of Almaty's many fountains.



Left and Right: If you like fountains, you'll like Almaty ;-)

Visa Watch ! - Part 5 (Uzbekistan)

Before I left Amsterdam, I found a travel agency in Tashkent who would supply my official tourist invitation for $30. Then it should be a formality of requesting and collecting at a Uzbek consulate somehwere. Forward planning proved useless as the Uzbek Ministry of Foreign Affairs will not issue invitations to any organisations until one month prior to arrival. So, unable to organise this in the Netherlands, I arrange to collect in Moscow. Arrived in Moscow around 14 july and checked if the visa was ready to collect as had been arranged - was supposed to be ready around 18 July - but the agency had forgotten to put in my request. As it takes 8 days to process, it would not be possible to collect in Moscow as I had no intention of staying there that long.
Changed collection point to Almaty, Kazakhstan. Agency have now requested visa authorisation and should be able to apply for it in Almaty around 7 August. Fingers crossed again.

8 August: Get to Uzbek consulate in Almaty in the morning, "come back at 2", this is completely in contrast to any other consulate I have visited, where if there are restrictions on times for applying and collecting visas, it is always, apply in morning, collect in afternoon.
Anyway back in the afternoon at 2, there are around 8 others waiting already, couple of German lesbians, a French guy who I saw at the Kyrgyzstan consulate yesterday and some Central Asians. After about an hour, I get inside, wait about 15 minutes to be served, give my Telex number that the tourist agency gave me after they faxed all information to have visa processed in advance and within 15 minutes, I have a visa in my passport !! Wow, most impressive. Not only that but the two ladies at the desk both speak excellent English, and even the security guard knew some and was happy and smiling and chatting all the time.. Defintely the best consulate I have visited anywhere... 4 stars to Uzbek consulate in Alamty !!! (Could have been 5 stars if they didn't restrict visa processing to 14:00 - 16:30).

Summary: Easy, helped by the fact I had arranged LOI with tourist agency in Tashkent in advance.
Time taken: 2 hours + a few emails in advance.
Cost: $75 + $30 for LOI, rather expensive though !

Western Kazakhstan

Had no intention of stayting long in Atyrau. It is a business town full of oil companies, banks and modern hotels for businessmen, not much for the tourist. I had to stop off there as the train only went that far the day i left Russia, the next days trains went through to Aralsk, Shimkent, Almaty, but as my visa expired that day I did not want to take the risk and left Russia. So, stopped overnight in Atyrau; overnight turned into 3 nights, as it turned out, there were no onward tickets available in Atyrau towards Almaty, all sold out until Sept 1 I was told !! You mean August 1 ?? No Sept 1, over a month ahead. Mmmm

My first night I ignored all the safety warnings given to tourists in Kazakhstan - and especially in Atyrau - about not walking alone, drinking alone, especially at night, take taxis etc, I found a bar, then another and another and had a few drinks trying to decide how to get out of this town. Eventually after a few drinks, I walked and took a mashrutnoe back to the station and tried with every cashier to get train tickets to Aralsk, or even to Aktobe where I hope i could perhaps link to a Moscow - Almaty connection, but no luck. The only useful info I got was to try and pay a bribe to a provodnitsa. Meanwhile I popped to the cafe next to the station for another beer and was unfortunately stopped by police on my way out. Taken to a room and questioned as to why I was in Atyrau and why I was having a drink there. Was asked how much I had drunk 'maybe 4 bottles' i replied, 'vodka?' he asked 'haha, no beer', which was about half of the truth. Anyway threatened with injections to check alochol intake and having to stay there 12 hours as it was 'protokol, protokol' he kept pointing out, OK, no problem I said and I sat there talking as best as i could in my still pretty useless Russian. Lucky I was a little drunk, so was pretty calm about it and even thought it might be a good idea to do the same tomorrow as it would mean a free room for the night !! ;) Of course, visa registration checks were done and even though i had not yet done this, I had my train ticket as evidence I only arrived that morning, so no problems, no way he could bribe me there, as I know you have 5 days to register, which I of course informed him on.. Anyway, after answrering all his questions about my life, my job, my income, my reasons for being in Kazakhstan and my next destinations, a pleasant chat and good Russian practice for me, he let me go. The doctor in the white coat with needle never appeared - what a surprise ! - and the 'drunk tank' room was never offered to me. I wondered what happened to his 'protokol' ? surely if it was protocol, he should not have let me go so easily, he was clearly not doing his job, perhaps I should advise his superior ? But decided to leave that ;)



Left: The never-ending steppe lands between Russia and Kazakhstan.
Right: A young boy takes home his dinnner from the Ural river.

So stayed one night in the train station hotel, which was cheap, but showers did not work and by the next day toilets did not flush either, so not having showered for a couple of nights i decided to splash out on the cheapest hotel I could find, which was 10,000 Tenge (about Euro 65).
Sadly, against all desires I then succumbed to teh fact I was going to have to fly somewhere, flights to Shimkent were full for 10 days, but I could get to almaty 2 days later, so that's what I did. Since I have also met Jon - originally met in Romania and Ukraine - and he had same problem from Aktobe, as have many others it seems.

So two more days in Atyrau: Wandered around streets, along the river, to the visa registration dept where it turns out I did not have to register as it was already done for me at the consulate in Moscow ! Nice one Moscow consulate ! Found a nice bazaar where I was constantly clung to by one young girl who just would not leave me, she didn't ask for money or anything, just clung to me and hung on to my arm for ages. But not much to see/do here.
The old town is a crumbling mass of wooden houses many that look deserted, but just hundreds of metres away, the main streets are lined with new shiny, glass fronted office blocks belonging to Chevron, Gazprom, Agip, international banks of many varieties and big business hotels, a real contrast of old and new surrounds you as you wander the wide tree-lined streets of Atyrau.

Final night was a complete surprise, after a beer or two at the usual Irish bar that follows ex-pats around - this one was called not so originally 'O'Neills - I wandered back to the hotel. There I saw the guy who I had guessed was the owner/manager of O'Neills at the hotel bar. Turned out that Ashok was the manager and had come to Kazakhstan 11 years ago from Bombay to open a restaurant, he also worked in catering for Eurest (who I think used to do the catering at ABN Amro offices in Netherlands) and then after opening La Cabana in Atyrau, took over O'Neills one moth ago. So chatted away with him and his friend Richard and a little later we were invited over to a table in the corner by one of the ladies at a table of 3 ladies and one man. Turned out she was the manageress of the hotel, so it would have been rude to say no.
With her was her restaurant manageress and 2 friends from Almaty who were visiting. It was a rare event that they all got together, perhaps ebery 3 months, so it was for them a special night.
Turns out she was aware of who I was as had seen me earlier in the day, but did not recognise me as a regular customer, so seeing a strange face had enquired with staff as to who I worked for. It was a little of a surprise to them that I was just travelling, I don't think they get many of that kind of tourist in Atyrau. We shared many, many drinks, snacks and were then invited into the VIP room, where we had to sing Karaoke!! hmmm, not always my favourite activity, especially when having to do so alone. Well it was lovely evening, much chatting, many drinks, snacks and songs and it turned my visit to Atyrau into something a bit special, the hospitality and friendship shown was very beautiful. At 4am, I retired to bed for a couple of hours sleep before heading off to the airport (urggghh i hate the thought of airports and flying now after months on buses trains).

The Road to Astrakhan

Sometime in my younger days I heard the name Astrakhan somewhere, a book, article, documentary, film I dont know, but it always fascinated me, so always fancied going there. I left Moscow on a Thursday lunch time armed with noodles, tea bags, fruit juice, water, beer, chocolate, books and music for the 28 hour train journey. I really love these relaxing Russian train journeys, the longer the better..

Went through the usual settling in habits in my kupe cabin which i was sharing with Max from somewhere in the Volgograd region. His young daughter lives there still, but he is based in the navy in the far northern city of Archangelsk. When he got off it was a lovely sight seeing his young daughter run over the tracks to him with arms wide open to give him a big hug. Next I was joined by someone else who was Chechan and went on a bit about Chechnya, though I didn't get much of what he was saying, I've not yet - and probably never will - reached the stage where I can discuss politics in Russian. So, instead I decided to try out the restaurant car, where I was granted a free meal for some reason, I hadn't asked for it but seems it was included in my ticket price. Sat in what I thought was a quiet seat until Jean-Paul Maret started talking to me and invited me to join, he was with his 2 lovely children, Diana and Imesh (?) and was clearly rather drunk. His voice grabbed the attention of everyone in the restaurant car who then couldn't help but stare and wonder who this strange foreigner on the train with him was.. After a couple of beers together he went back to his carriage to join his wife. Within minutes, Daniel was sitting with me, a Russian policeman from Astrakhan, I was a bit wary at first as you generally always are with police in any ex-USSR state, but he turned out to be a top man, his colleague, Emir also joined and they even gave me their mobile to call in case I had any trouble in Astrakhan. Two days later as I walked along the platform to board my train from Astrakhan to Kazakhstan, Emir spotted me and ran over, he was on duty there, but helped me to my carriage, carried my bag etc, and then - in case they were not aware already - introduced to me to everyone on the train as 'innostranets', foreigner! but a really nice guy. Once they left, Elena - the banana seller - joined me and started asking me everything everyone else asks too, where I was from? what was i doing there? was I alone? why am I alone? how old am I? am I married? why am I not married? etc etc. She was lovely and clearly rather gobsmacked at my travels, my freedom, a British passport, a kazakh visa ("my language" she pointed out), the sight of a 20 euro note - she had never seen Euros - and seemed so much in awe of so many things we see as normal. I bought 5 bananas from her and she was so, so happy, I even gave her one back to eat herself and she appeared to enjoy it so much, I can only assume she could not normally even afford to eat her own business assets.. It was so nice to be able to help make someone like her so happy for a day, with such little effort.

At Astrakhan, I discuss hotels with a taxi driver, I had called one teh day before and found it was under renovation, another I asked the driver about was also closed, he took me to another one that he recommended as cheap, but when I got there they were 'not allowed' to host British citizens, but the lady at least suggested another and came out to explain to taxi driver and then even called them for me to confirm I could stay there. I got to the 'hi-ish hotel' - is the best translatation I can come up with - which was more like a large appartment with a few rooms, I was offered a ludicrously expensive room and after i explained i am a poor backpacker tourist and wanted something cheaper was offered a more reasonable option. After accepting the taxi driver helped me with bags and didn't ask for any extra for the extra trip. The lady working there was patient and helpful with me, giving me bus details to centre and train stations, directions, address for OVIR (registration) - because they would not register me there, I guess because they also were not allowed to have foreign guests, but here, were happy to take the risk - and even walked me across the road in the morning to hail a mashrutnoe to where I wanted.

In summary, my memories of the day and Astrakhan up to this point are full of helpful, kind people.

Next day after buying a train ticket - the last one ! - to Atyrau in Kazakhstan, I explored Astrakhan. It is a wide open city on the banks of the river Volga. The Kremlin here is quite impressive from outside, with a tall white tower entrance and typical orthodox church inside that give an attractive scene from the treelined walk alongside on Leninskaya ulitsa. All afternoon, a stream of wedding parties strolled through the Kremlin grounds and out to the peaceful park opposite the entrance, where wedding photos were being taken by one party after another. Meanwhile I joined in the relaxed lifestyle of many of the locals, who were sitting around chatting and relaxing amongst the trees, flowers and fountains on this hot, sunny, Saturday afternoon.



Left: Lenin statue and Kremlin tower in Astrakhan.
Right: Church in the Kermlin grounds.

The evening I spent in various cafes dotted along the Volga, where young and old Astrkahaners (?) strolled along the promenade, watching the sunset, eating, drinking and later dancing. Along the river two large, full, passenger boats depart in the evening - to where I do not know - and also a number of warships were moored in the centre of the river. A very easy-going type of life here it seems and at the end of it, I am very happy that I have at last seen with my own eyes, what was to me, the mysterious distant city of Astrakhan.



Left: One of the many wedding party cars, (I liked the 2 big golden rings on top!)
Right: Naval ships in the Volga at Astrakhan.