Irina sent me a link last week that I forgot to publish. I’ve found an accompanying video, so I suggest you watch that first…
Now, the exact details vary on the internet, depending which source you check, but whether he was on his way from or to an ice rink, driving with ice skates on has to be seen as particularly dumb. Some people said he was driving home because he realised he needed normal shoes to drive (how did he get to the rink?), others say he was trying to save time by not having to change when he got to the ice rink. In any case, driving and drinking alcohol (different countries have different laws/social norms I realise) to the point where you think that ice skates are safer than bare foot driving has to be a big no-no.
Recently this blog has started to get a lot more traffic from people interested in life in Kazakhstan again, though I have not really been writing a lot more about Astana. One thought I had is to create a list of taxi companies that might be of interest to families living in the capital. One of the problems you find is that many cars either have the seat belts in the back hidden away, with the drivers not always wanting to pull up the seats to retrieve the anchor mechanisms. Worse than that, some cars have actually had the seat belts cut out off them, as people complain they “get in the way”. So, since Anna has been in Astana, we have tried to keep a list of drivers that own cars with working seatbelts – there isn’t a lot of point in using car seats otherwise. Would such a compilation interest anyone?
It is of course a generalization, but I’ve also found that the drivers that care enough to ensure their rear seatbelts are in good working order, also seem to drive a little more safely. One of the people we use the most definitely amends his driving style when there are children in the car, so if you are travelling into town for a few drinks without your son or daughter, you may still want to check what life insurance rates are attached to policies that cover you in foreign lands, but it still re-assuring to think that the men (we have only ever encountered one female taxi driver so far) consider the comfort and safety of little ones when they take on the Astana traffic.
As previously suggested by a friend over here in Astana, and obviously moaned about by me most times I cross a road, the pedestrian crossings at traffic lights (that is to say those that have an automated timetable for when people can cross, as opposed to the newer variety, found away from crossroads, where you press a button) REALLY should be timed so that cars are NOT allowed to drive past at the same time as you cross. Granted, almost all the drivers do stop, or swerve to a different lane, but especially when icy conditions prevail, trying to cross a six lane road, knowing that cars could (literally) come spinning round the corner at any moment isn’t great.
Combine this with the fact that drivers waiting for their light to go green normally wait on top of the crossing that pedestrians use, and you can end up in some strange places at a four ways crossroad, just hoping you can get across in time. Obviously if Anna is with us, we pretty much don’t cross unless we have been waiting since before the green man is lit up, but other times, if it is just adults involved, you tend to cross when everyone else does, meaning some of the drivers turning right, whose lights have just turned red, are particularly impatient and want to get down the road quickly, before traffic from a different direction starts trying to cut them up, and effectively queue jump.
Getting back to the Kazakhstan issues that have jumped back into my consciousness since returning to Astana (and admittedly this one isn’t exactly a calamity for us, as we don’t own a car in this country), a friend of ours was pulled over last year whilst driving in a perfectly normal manner. The reason the policeman stopped (and attempted to fine) him? His car was too dirty. We’re not talking about number plates being obscured (I agree, no matter the state of the rest of the car, whenever practical the number plates should be readable) or even his headlights being dangerously muddy (so cars travelling in the opposite direction at night might not see him in time), no, it was the main body that was deemed to be a disgrace to the city.
I don’t know if there was a visiting dignitary who had a lot of disdain for cars that aren’t sparkling, but TBH, there are SO many more issues the police could focus on with motorists before even considering the cosmetic appearance of a car. More on those other issues in the days to come
Anyway, if you want to be taken seriously, and not have accusations of possible supplementary income sources levelled at your police force, I feel a muddy car should not be a reason to pull you over.
In Kazakhstan it is that time of year once again, when hundreds of car owners go through the annual ritual of changing their car tyres from the summer variety to the winter flavour – deeper tread and with metal pins to increase traction. In Astana this is essential due to the usual 5 months (November to March) where ice is a permanent feature of the road as temperatures stay well below freezing. When the snow and ice first appear late October/early November you’re always guaranteed to see a cluster of minor accidents due to the ice before the tyres are changed.
For some vehicles however it’s rather impractical to take them down to the local ‘Shinomontage’ (tyre/wheel repair and replacement place in Russian). Luckily excavation/earth moving vehicles that are used in mining do not require this procedure, though I’m guessing they must need replacing occasionally. See prologcentralasia.kz for an example of one of these monster machines and then here to see a bloke standing next to one the wheels, it must be at least twice his height – “Dave I think we’re gonna need a bigger jack mate…”
Posted for a friend that created their site (I helped to optimize a few images that were slowing down the load times), though no money was involved in this post, though a glass of coke might be demanded the next time we meet
Almaty sees some Rally drivers showing off a little. When I say a little, I really do mean it – most of those moves seem to be pulled during the times when the roads aren’t closed off. OK, perhaps not the driving on two wheels, but other than Mel’s description of Vietnamese driving, I’ve not seen more scary than here in Kazakhstan!
OK, so this one is out of order compared to the other Lucky21842 videos I’ve been catching up on, but I wanted to embed it now in case I forgot and closed the tabs down in Firefox on Monday when we return home. So, if you haven’t already seen them, there are a lot of YouTube videos that feature elite vehicles and excessive car accessories, parading up and down (and occasionally crashing) Almaty (& a couple of Astana) streets. The video below is a sort of antidote to such clips.
If you click the video, you’ll be taken to the proper page for it, where you can check out his other videos and see the comments left by other YouTube videos. I can understand where 777kuku777 (and indeed Jason/Lucky himself) is coming from when 777kuku777 says
Wahaha, you are so right about the Almaty cars, personally I don’t see the point of those videos. If it’s your car, then do whatever you want with it, make a video for you tube and what-not, otherwise, waste of time. P.S. Dude you being a gangsta is priceless though! Oh and next time for your version of almaty cars use some local songs would be even? funnier:)
However, if I was aware of the sort of media attention that Kazakhstan attracted in some of the tabloids abroad, and I felt proud of Almaty/Astana/Kazakhstan as well, I would want to make sure that people understood that cars were not pulled by donkeys, and that in all likelihood, there were more über-expensive dream machines parading around Almaty (at least) than in the European/American city of your average YouTube viewer…
Yes, I could have just left this as a comment on the video, BUT… 1) I’m currently signed into GMail. Which is tied into my old banned YouTube account. I’d have had to sign out, delete all Google related cookies, sign into YouTube, leave a comment, then re-sign into Gmail (I haven’t yet set up a separate FireFox profile on Ira’s Mum’s PC). Unless you have a banned YouTube account, you have no excuse – go check all the videos out, leave comments, and if you like Lucky’s output as much as me (you there, stop sniggering at the back), consider subscribing …. oh and 2) I ramble too much. Youtube comments are restricted to around 1000/1500 characters? I normally exceed that length. It is a miracle of modern science/txt speak & deliberate lazy spelling that I ever manage to convey anything in a single tweet!
You can definitely tell that there are foreign visitors about to arrive in Astana (there is the “III (I’m assuming that means 3rd?) Congress of leaders of world and traditional religions” – you can normally tell when a phrase is directly translated into English from Russian, rather than re-worded to sound more natural). The white lines on the roads are re-painted, even car parks get neat new spaces clearly marked out. Any billboard posters with our beloved president’s face on tend to be replaced (at least temporarily) with normal business adverts, or motivational ‘Astana city for the future’ type messages. You can tell when the big wigs have actually arrived though, as you’ll spot a lot more policeman at traffic junctions, sometimes ‘helping’ the flow of traffic by turning off the lights, other times ensuring that as a VIP’s car cruises down the road that no other traffic is met. The easiest way to tell when a VVIP is around? The motorcades get to drive on the wrong side of the road, with scores of cars, ambulances, motorbikes and 4x4s flanking the actual limo.
Anyway, we’re off in a moment to get and inspect the progress of the preparations for Astana day in the park opposite us – there are a lot more yurts there now, on raised platforms, and they seem to be making progress with the huge scaled up yurt in one corner. We have already taken a few pictures of the erecting process for yurts, and the mock castle walls at the pedestrian entrance to the park, I’ll try and post them soon.
We used a taxi driver today who had been helpful, courteous and driven well in the past. Although the car he drives is something like an old banger of a Volkswagon Polo with an automatic gearbox, he knows the car well, seems to anticipate other drivers’ actions well.
Contrast that to a taxi driver who I drove with recently, who had a Subaru Impreza. The choice of car was an obvious indicator as to his driving style (and most likely higher auto insurance quotes compared to older drivers in less impressive cars), and whilst I have to admit that I actually enjoyed the experience of zipping between lanes and fitting into gaps between cars that I wouldn’t have tried in a much smaller car, I wouldn’t want to have had Ira or Anna with me. Perhaps the fact I was a little drunk at the time helped me to relax
So why contact certain taxi drivers direct, rather than just ring a company, or flag down a passing motorist? Most of the time, we now need a car that we know has working, and accessible seat belts in the back, to attach Anna’s car seat to. Add on top of that that some drivers dislike the extra time it takes to safely place Anna in a car, and you can see why when we find a driver who takes their time, doesn’t make a car journey feel like a white knuckle roller coaster ride, we take their mobile phone number.
While we are on the topic of cars, I have only just got around to watching some of Robert Llewellyn’s CarPool episodes. Here is one featuring Dave Gorman. Robert Llewellyn is probably still most famous for playing Kryten in the UK comedy series Red Dwarf, and try searching on this blog or checking out his Wiki, to discover who Dave Gorman is.
urrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrgh, yuck. Apologies to anyone who loaded this site in the last three minutes. I had originally embedded a video in this space, but when I went to check how it looked on my site, I discovered it automatically started playing. As I can’t see a ‘autoplay=1′ type argument in the code, I’ll just link to it instead, sorry. http://blip.tv/play/gdw_gYrZQJCkXA
Finally, wanted to give a quick heads up to research publicised in a BBC article on rear facing car seats for children. Apparently they should be used up until the age of four, which is certainly not common practice back in Britain. It would just be amazing to see any type of car seat/restraint used with most children over here in Kazakhstan :/
