Okay, is this really happening? When we finally decided on our route to Australia, Kazakhstan was the first jewel. A vast undiscovered land with hidden treasures and camels! I spent a while ‘discovering’ Kazakhstan, usually before work at 4.00 in the morning on days I couldn’t sleep, and eventually I found somewhere for us to […]
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The Tien-Shan Mountains The rest of our train journey to Almaty was tedious. Long flat plains are okay if you have a comfortable seat where you can read and play cards, occasionally staring out of the window and spotting a camel chewing belligerently in the distance. Then, an air of romance might be kept in
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In search of a camel We boarded our next sleeper train at Atyrau in Kazakhstan, bound for Almaty in the east, and I had just got comfortable in my window seat when I noticed something crawling on my leg. A small brown praying mantis, instantly named ‘Manti’ – we have no idea of gender but
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Stroking a bat and shaking hands with a bear – Theo’s blog It’s not surprising that when we first arrived, without a hitch, in Southern Russia, we wondered for a moment if we were in some kind of artificial “Truman Show” set designed to enchant and deceive gullible western visitors with its loveliness. But it
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Brief encounters in Georgia – Theo’s blog I’m writing this in the little apartment we’ve rented in Atyrau for our first night in Kazakhstan, reflecting how nice it is to have a space of our own (even if the intermittent water from the kitchen tap is a toxic brownish yellow, unsafe to drink). But I
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The Tale of Kaz & Stan – by Rosa After the rough night on a sleeper train crossing the border between Russia and Kazakhstan (where it seemed like there was no end to the intimidating border guards who needed to check our passports or our phones), we arrived in Atyrau at 5:45am, sufficiently exhausted. And,
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From Russia, with love (…and if I’m honest a little bit of fear!) Halfway through the train journey that took us out of Russia and into Kazakhstan, I had to delete this post. At that point Theo had been being interrogated for nearly an hour by Russian security forces. Theo spoke quickly and
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Being Here Now – Theo I haven’t been travelling as lightly as I’d like. Our rucksacks seem pretty sorted, and I’m proud of us for that, but I’ve still been bringing a load of expectations and assumptions with me over each border we’ve crossed, and I hope I’m beginning to shed some of that as
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We made it into Russia! I am sitting outside a hotel (that isn’t ours) using their Wi-Fi…so I will keep this brief. More to follow soon of our Russian adventure, the rescuing of bats, and ‘The Prisoner of Astrakhan’…
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Keep your fingers crossed! Today we are heading to Russia. I vacillate (..don’t you think the word ‘vacillate’ sounds a little Russian, like a combination of Vladikavkaz (where we are going) and Vladivostok (where we are not going) …anyway, I vacillate between thinking crossing the border will be a formality, an easy trip, bored border guards
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