Where Is Ron?
Central Asia, October - November 2009
Ron and Ellen and Amir Timur (Tamerlane), Tashkent, Uzbekistan, September 2009
Shymkent and Almaty, Kazakhstan, November 14-17 2009
17 November 2009
To see the final few photos from Kazakhstan, click on the thumbnail at the left.
Almaty, KazakhstanHello, my dear -
In Shymkent I thought I could find transportation north to Almaty all during the day but no such luck. After spending most of the afternoon trying to find transportation, I finally just caught the 7 pm bus. I should have taken the train for double or triple the cost instead.
But while I was dealing with the bus drivers a lady in one of the buses stepped down to help with the translations. Turned out she and her husband were Uighurs, living in Charyn, a village of about 6000 in Eastern Kazakhstan, about 100 km from the Chinese border. She was a retired English teacher and he was a doctor (the head doctor for the village and a general practitioner, as best as I could understand, but there was also something about massage). They were both university-educated. They have four children, all grown up and married with children. The three daughters are all teachers of languages: English, Russian and I think French was the third. The son is a businessman in construction. They had planned on traveling from their village to Andijon, Uzbekistan, to visit her brother for his 68th birthday, but at the Uzbekistan border were turned away; the border was closed was closed for 10 days because of the flu. So they had turned around and were heading back home and said the only transportation they could find was the same group of buses going in the evening. At this point I gave up and joined them in the long wait. She said the next time they could visit would be his 70th birthday in 2011.
They invited me to have dinner with them and would not let me pay. I brought out our picture pack [note from Ellen: we carry a little photo album with pictures of our family and home] and shared the pictures with them, as well as giving them a new shiny penny for good luck and a Jefferson nickel and $2 bill for her daughter who was teaching English in their village.
This is just another example of the inconsiderate Uzbekistan government and their operation of their borders.
The weather has turned very cold. Below freezing with ice on the ground. When we arrived in Almaty early in the morning after the overnight bus ride, I could see snow on vehicles that had not moved and there was ice on most of the sidewalks. It did not encourage me to explore Almaty. But today, Nov 17th, it was much brighter and a bit warmer and I spent some time wandering around the market across from my hotel.
Last night I was trying to reach a friend on his mobile telephone number and could not call it from my telephone in my room. At the front desk the clerk wanted 500 T (about $3.30 to use his cell phone to make the call.) I thought he was trying to rip me off. When I finally found a little shop with phone and copy services they made the call (from a push button phone) and also charged me 500T. Yet in one of the restaurants one of the waiters tried the number for me for nothing. It must be very expensive to cross over between land line and cell line.
Tonight I am meeting a guy from Richmond who is a friend of a friend, and he should be arriving at the Internet Cafe any minute. And then later, about 1 a.m. I will catch a taxi to the airport for my 4 a.m. flight. As you have experienced it, it will be a long trip home. Look forward to seeing you instead of writing you. So as I go out for the night tonight, the day before I leave, you should be already be at work on the day that I will arrive. Just hard to get a handle on the time differences. From your point of view, I should be home in 6 hours, but from my point of view it is - gee I don't really know. Maybe I have this all off by a day. [Note from Ellen: he is indeed off by a day -- Almaty is 11 hours ahead of Virginia, so when I was leaving work at 5 p.m. today, 17 November, Ron's 3:55 a.m. flight was just taking off from Almaty in the early hours of 18 November]
Love and miss you - for a few more hours,
Ron
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Last updated: 14 December 2009
