If you can handle not chewing gum, and don’t plan to graffiti, you might be interested in flights to Singapore. The majority of citizens speak English, as you will have noticed from the blogs I’ve linked to in the past. In the same way that Kazakhstan is sometimes seen as the join between Europe and Asia, Singapore has been called the cosmopolitan gateway between East & West. The bus, train and taxi networks within the country are all able to service both the citizens of the country and tourists. The country is a real melting pot for people from many different religions and countries.

Alternatively, Thailand has a certain allure to many people, with its mountains in the north, and lush forests, helped by the tropical weather. The most comfortable months to visit Thailand are November to March, unless you enjoy the rain. Compared to Singapore, the amount of people able to speak English is lower, but then
So whether you are simply looking for flights to Thailand , or specifically a Bangkok flight, visit the links, and see just how much you could save. One thing you should know, if you see dates posted in public, is that the official calendar is based on the Eastern version of the Buddhist Era; as such you need to subtract 543 years to convert back to the system used in the West.

(UK Relevant)

With all the choice out there, why should you apply for motor insurance with CIS?

Primarily, their highly competitive rates will attract your attention, then there is the fact that their policies are automatically configured to cover all of Europe!

It appears that their policy does not ordinarily offer cover when you are driving someone else’s vehicle, though you should read the FAQ section to clarify this to your own satisfaction.

Should you ever need to make a claim, CIS promise to respond to the initial notification with 1 day, and send you the cheque with in one day of receiving the requisite documentation.

If you want to lower your premiums even further, you can pay a voluntary excess, and so save even more money!

Before you go any further, how does up to 70% off your bill sound to you?

Interested? Hotel Reservations can be booked on-line through their web site, whether you are looking for a hotel, motel, or a even a complete holiday package at your favourite resort.

The site itself is an exemplary example of having all the information you need, in one convenient area. If you know when you want to go, and what sort of standards you require, all you need do is tap in the details, and the site will work out the rest for you.

Now, you may be wary of sites that offer huge hotel discounts, but with this site, you can rest easy - they GUARANTEE to not be beaten on price, please check the link for further informaiton. (Obviously, you need to have found a competitor offering a price at the same location, for the same standard of room… if you want to book the penthouse suite through HotelReservations.com, you can’t then make them match a price from a competitors, for a standard room.

If you are organizing a large group outing, you’ll be able to find bulk discounts at the site, and if you need more than just a room for a few nights, for example car hire or flights to your destination, the site has all angles covered.

If you don’t yet know the details of your trip, other than which country you wish to holiday in, the site has a special Destination Guide set up, just for you!

Toll free phone numbers are available for those customers who prefer to communicate via the telephone, if they are based in USA, Canada or Europe. There is of course a globally available number for residents of other areas.

So what are you waiting for? It will only take a few minutes of your time to discover just how much HotelReservations.com could save you on your next trip!

If you were in Europe today, and tried to pay for a purchase by Visa, you may well have encountered difficulties, as reported by the BBC yesterday.
It appears that a back up system quickly came into call.
If you were caught out by the problem, do let me know, and are you planning to carry a (AmEx,MasterCard,Diners etc.) spare in the future?

OK, so once again, my posting has been sporadic as of late. I’ve now pretty much recovered from the illness though, so I’m hoping to be writing a little more.

In the mean time, here are a few links I have been meaning to suggest -

www.robertamsterdam.com - Perspectives on Russia, Europe, and International Affairs
kazakhstan.blogsome.com/2007/02/03/126/ - KZBlog’s look at KZ Blogs!
kazakhstan.neweurasia.net/?p=248 - Kazakh queues

PS This post’s title is a reference to a Shed Seven song, in case anyone cares…
PPS Had my third Russian lesson today, all went well. The ride back cost 600 Tenge, which was a rip off, but it was balanced out by a friendly driver giving me a lift for free on the way there - he decided a foreigner coming to live in RK and trying to learn Russian was something to be applauded…

I received a delightful e-mail, explaining how I could not only ‘earn’ a large amount of money, but also flick a ‘v’ at those nasty women-hating muslims (paraphrasing of their words, N_O_T mine…)

This is the e-mail

Dear Friend,
I am MRS. SUHA ARAFAT, the wife of late YASSER ARAFAT,the Palestinian
leader who died in Paris. Since his death and even prior to the
announcement, I have been thrown into a state of antagonism, confusion,
humiliation, frustration and hopelessness by the present leadership of the
Palestinian Liberation Organization and the new Prime Minister. I have even
been subjected to physical and psychological torture.

As a widow that is so traumatized, I have lost confidence with everybody in
the country at the moment.You view this website:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/3965541.stm .You must have
heard over the media reports and the Internet on the discovery of some fund
in my husband secret bank account and companies and the allegations of some
huge sums of money deposited by my husband in my name of which I have
refuses to disclose or give up to the corrupt Palestine Government.

In fact the total sum allegedly discovered by the Government so far is in
the tune of about $6.5 Billion Dollars. And they are not relenting on their
effort to make me poor for life. As you know, the Muslem community has no
regards for woman, more importantly when the woman is from a Christian
background, hence my desire for a foreign assistance.

I have deposited the sum of Fourty-Three million dollars with a Diplomatic
Security firm in Europe whose name is withheld for now until we open proper
and full communication.I shall be grateful if you could receive this fund
into your bank account for safe keeping and any Investment opportunity.

This arrangement should be known to you and I alone and all our
correspondence should be strictly on email alone because our government has
tapped all my lines and are monitoring all my moves.

In view of the above,if you are willing to assist for our mutual benefits,
we will have to negotiate on your Percentage share of the $43,000,000.00
that will be kept in your possession for a while and invested in your name
for my trust pending when my Daughter,Zahwa,will come off age and take full
responsibility of her Family Estate/inheritance.

Please note that this is a golden opportunity that comes once in life time
and more so, if you are honest, I am going to entrust more funds in your
care as this is one of the legacy we keep for our children.

In case you don’t accept please do not let me out to the security and
international media as I am giving you this information in total trust and
confidence I will greatly appreciate if you accept my proposal in good
faith.

Please expedite action. And you can reach me anytime on my private email:
suhazuha@aim.com

Yours sincerely,

Mrs.Suha Arafat

-=-=–=-=-=-=-=–=-=-=-=-=–=-=-=-=-=–=-=-=-=-=–=-=-=

So this is the reply I sent to the addresses mentioned, their associated abuse departments, and all my friends…

Dear Ms Suha Arafat,
My sympathies at this tragic time of your life. If you ever see this e-mail, hope you are doing well.

Dear Mr/Mrs/Miss/Ms BLATANT 419 Scammer,
Your message is a bit low, even for someone with your obvious low moral fortitude. Please, if you must insist on trying to con innocent people of their money, do not sully a well known person’s reputation. Apart from anything else you sound sooooo much less convincing than when you all used to use random African politicians, that we in the West were normally ignorant of (General Sani Abacha or Alhaji Erowo Iman, for example). I hope that you earn enough money from other means to place food and drink on your family’s table, but know that some of the people you succeed in ripping of from within Europe aren’t well off themselves. Greedy and stupid for getting involved in this sort of scheme, obviously, but not necessarily able to spare the 1000’s you, on average, manage to extract before they give up or go and meet with shadier people in Amsterdam to ‘finalize’ the deal.

Yours,
The Owner of CactusTips.com (To any friends who read this, it is your UK friend in Kazakhstan, I BCCed (hence no chance the scammers will harvest your e-mail addresses) you in on my reply, in the hope that this message will bring this type of scam to your attention, please check out The 419 Coaltion Site , Anatomy of a 419 Scam & Wikipedia’s Article on 419 Scams for more information on this fraudulent attempt to fleece me of my money. And maybe then visit 419eater.com & scambuster419.co.uk to get a cheap laugh at the scammers being scammed themselves ;>)

PostScript to the scammers - I used to work in the Abuse dept for a British ISP, so on a positive note, I thought you’d like to know the standard of grammar and spelling in your type of message has come on leaps and bounds since I used to trace this type of fraudulent activity.
PostPostScript - Windows 98 !?!?! Please see the mail headers… I’m assuming you must be based somewhere on the African or Asian continent? (A cursory glance at the IP address indicates the registering authority for the domain associated is in Japan?)

Dear Abuse dept. of AOL/AIM & yahoo.com.tr,
I am formally requesting you immediately investigate the owners of the mail addresses suhazuha@aim.com & suhawa55@yahoo.com.tr .
I have pasted in the original mail header below. Please do not hesitate to contact me if you require further information or assistance; in fact I would appreciate it if you could confirm receipt of this message, and that an investigation will be taking place. Whilst I understand that the relevant laws (in your judicial system) governing client confidentiality may preclude you from informing me of the exact action you will be taking against these criminals, I would like to know that action is being taken. You can use this address (email@cactustips.com) to respond via.

Return-path:
Envelope-to: email@cactustips.com
Delivery-date: Wed, 29 Nov 2006 08:44:03 -0500
Received: from [61.120.100.243] (helo=yahoo.com.tr)
by beast.mkoh.com with smtp (Exim 4.52)
id 1GpPjF-0006pK-Uw
for email@cactustips.com; Wed, 29 Nov 2006 08:44:02 -0500
Message-ID:
Date: Wed, 29 Nov 2006 03:20:47 -1100
From: “Mrs. Suha Arafat”
User-Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Win98; en-GB; rv:0.9.4) Gecko/20011128 Netscape6/6.2.1
X-Accept-Language: en-us
(anti-spam-(anti-spam-mime-version:)) 1.0
To: “Mrs. Suha Arafat”
Subject: YOUR URGENT RESPONSE IS NEEDED
(anti-spam-(anti-spam-content-type:)) text/plain;
charset=”iso-8859-1″
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit