Last week in Kazakhstan

With our time in Kazakhstan drawing to a very rapid close we tried to
make the most of the last week. Of the long list of things we wanted
to do whilst in Kazakhstan three tasks remained.

The first was a hike in the Tian Shan mountains that we could see from
our kitchen window whenever the weather (and smog) cleared. Saturday
morning the CR crew along with a visiting team from Belguim boarded
our 'marshuteka' and headed for higher ground. The road is pretty bad
in Shymkent and by the time we got to our start point it had well and
truly deteriorated to the point where we had to disembark numerous
times so our poor little van could get the extra clearance required to
negotiate potholes. After a harrowing journey we decided to break
early for our picnic lunch. On the whole Kazakhstan isn't a
particularly beautiful country but the mountains are certainly one of
the exceptions to this. We found a clearing by a river with grass that
would challenge the St Andrews greens for a putting surface and set up
a feast of a picnic. It's always a little hit and miss when everyone
is told to bring something, fortunately this was definitely a hit all
the way down to toasted marshmallows for desert.

Post lunch a few of
the party decided to take the low road while the Starrs (regulars in
the mountains) and the Snows (who are training for Mount K) decided to
take the high road. With nothing to follow but winding animal paths we
rumbled most of the way through waist high thorn shrubs and patches of
snow in a straight line towards the summit. With time against us it
became more of a work out than a stroll with the last few hundred
meters up a sheer hill, precariously destabilised by recent rains and
melting snow. Once on top of the massive peak it became apparent that
we had taken the hardest possible route. It was a bitter sweet victory
and needless to say the descent down the south face of the mountain
took a fraction of the time of our northern acsent.

The second task required much less physical strength but was proving
just as difficult - trying to get our hands on some horse. Horse is
more of a speciality of steppe dwellers so getting our hands on some
Horse sausage and Besbarmak was tricky. I thought all was lost until
on our last day at work Nat was given the day off from cooking and a
specialist was called in. I can happily say horse is a lovely meat. It
has a distinct yet understated taste similar to venison and the
portion we got was very lean. The horse sausage, which is served with
a healthy dose of fat, was also very tasty but the spices kind of hid
the flavour so it could have been any meat really. All in all two
thumbs up from us. A big thanks to Sar for making my equine dreams
come true.

The third task of getting a Kazakhstan Trackie was proving dificult in
Shymkent but I'm pleased to say I have acquired a horrendous shinny
tracksuit in Almaty. I'll try to post a photo of the afore mentioned
outfit in the next post. Something to look forward to

The biggest bummer about leaving Shymkent was that we had to cut our
last week short for medical reasons. It sucked to have to say bye to
such an awesome loving group of people in such a rushed way. Hopefully
it's not the our last goodbye and we will get a chance to see everyone
again sometime. The good news is everything appears to be in working
order and as a bonus I got to experience the full extent of the Kazakh
medical system. I won''t go into too much detail but this is what's
been going on over the last few days. I noticed a lump. I talked to a
doctor friend from Shymkent. Let me say now that dropping your pants
in front of someone is much harder once you have had lunch with
them.... Anyway she recommended we head to Almaty for an ultra sound.
There is a good international clinic in Almaty and so we first we
headed to them for a referral. After dropping my britches for a second
time I was sent to the local hospital for the ultra sound after being
told 'whatever they tell you and whatever they want to do, don't let
them do anything!'. I was taken to the office of a local doctor with
very cold very firm hands and ordered to drop 'em for the third time.
After testing my pain threshold I was sent to a large Russian woman
with an even larger peroxided hairdo. There was a long queue as I
entered and whilst I had my pants down for the fourth time my doctor
decided to join us barging in exposing me to the next victims who were
of coarse curious to see how I was getting on. My Kazakh Doctor
decided that my predicament was due to the cold and recommended a
coarse of "physical heating". Ahhh, I'll pass this time thanks. We
headed back to the International Medical Clinic with the printouts and
after one more pant drop I was given antibiotics and told that I would
need to get myself checked in a week's time. At least the South
African Doctors should have warmer hands... Sorry, didn't get a soft
copy of the ultrasound so no photo's.

Only a few more days and we head to Africa (via a Big Mac at Heathrow)

Sure I'm flattered, maybe even a little curious. But the answer is no!

Lots of love
Ev and Nat