As Alex had not yet seen Astana from the river Ishim, we decided to hire a pedalo (in case that turns out to be an English phrase, those are little boats with water wheel like propulsion, that two people power by pedalling like on a bike) and have a quick jaunt around the area between two bridges. After a not small amount of bickering over just how inaccurate some people’s sense of direction was (steering with two non-equal sources of power and a dodgy rudder is not the most accurate of systems) we quickly settled into a routine. Said routine consisted of not ceaselessly turning in circles, avoiding other boats that dared to cross our intended (though somewhat zig-zag) course and generally having fun. Alex managed to grab a few shots of the scenery, so there is another batch of photos I’ll have to post sometime soon.
Jul 05 2007
Took A Quick Tour Round Kazakhstan
We went and visited the different areas of Kazakhstan this evening, and it only took just over an hour…
OK, not entirely accurate, we actually went to the big map of Kazakhstan that features models of famous buildings, land marks and geographical land marks. You walk around the area, and can get an idea of just where certain features are in relation to others. We went last year with Mum & John, but as Alex had obviously not seen it before, we also hired a guide to point out the interesting features.
Anyway, we walked all around, and then went to the section under cover that details some of the new developments near the Presidential Palace etc.
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Jul 03 2007
Oleg Is Back In Astana :)
He has been away in Moscow studying for almost a year now, so it is really good to have him back around, if only for a couple of weeks. We (Ira, myself, AlexC and Oleg himself), all went out for a meal this evening. We headed over to where Irina works (KMG), as she was called in on her day off (quel surprise), and once we were all together, headed to the Uzbek restaurant near there. It turns out they now have a outdoor section, shared with the Samovar restaurant (Russian food) next door, which was based on the roof. For once, the food was tasty and hot, the service was incredibly good by Kazakh standards, with smiles and a few English phrases thrown in by the waitress. Hopefully have a few pictures to follow soon 🙂 .
Jul 03 2007
Got To Love That HDMI Quality
From the income generated from this blog and my other sites, I spent a little money on items from e-bay, e-buyer and a few other online stores. As most of them to not deliver to Kazakhstan (and as our postal service out here is still a little hit and miss), I had them delivered to AlexC’s house. One of the most eagerly awaited goodies was a 10 metre DVI>HDMI lead. We can now watch videos from the PC, on the TV, at the full 1920×1080 resolution, without any of the interference that using component caused.
Although the vast majority of my files are at much lower resolutions, viewing digital photos (I’ll hopefully be posting some of Alex’s a little later) is a lot better now, as we can really see the fine detail without having to zoom in.
Anyway, with that lead, and a proper null modem cable to connect to the satellite receiver (I had to bodge one together previously, which looked a little ugly, and was about 10cm to short to use since we bought the TV stand), the room is starting to look a little tidier 🙂 I can now also upload new firmwares to the satellite box when ever needed, so more channels are available day to day 🙂
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Jul 02 2007
As Promised, More Info…
on Alex…
So, as you will already know if you have read the previous posts, our friend Alex is now here in Kazakhstan. Her journey over here was a little more eventful than any of us thought it would be. Her flight originally had a 2 hour stop over in Kaliningrad, before completing her journey here in Astana. Unfortunately, some flight time changes were made, and the e-mail the travel broker sent to Alex explaining this was not at all clear. We discovered a day prior to her leaving Britain that she would in fact have to spend 26 hours in Kaliningrad. As she did not have a visa, or a place to stay there, we were hoping she could simply stay in the transit lounge between flights.
Unfortunately, Kaliningrad airport closes over night! Eventually, they locked her in the mother and baby room, which at least had beds, and made sure she was accompanied by airport staff at all times. Although it is obviously not nice to have your movements so restricted, once they had decided she was not a dodgy person trying to slip into the country, they made sure she was as comfortable as possible, and even fed her for free! (In fact over fed her, but that is a story for another time.)
I will hopefully be posting some pictures of where we have visited since Alex’s arrival, and may even be able to persuade her to write a post describing her views of Kazakhstan…
We originally thought she would be landing at Astana airport in 3 and a bit hours from now. Unfortunately none of us checked her tickets properly… instead of a 2 hour wait at Kaliningrad airport, it turns out she had a 26 hour wait!
At first we saw this as a pain in the bum, but nothing too major. After all, spending a day in a transit lounge is not the worst thing in the world. However, it turns out the airport does not have a transit lounge, so she had to go through with all the other passengers who were staying in the country. As she did not have a visa, the passport control people were obviously unhappy. Then it turned out this oblast’s (it is actually part of Russia, though isolated geographically) airport CLOSED over night. Several phone calls later, and she has now been allowed to stay the night in the mother and baby room with a staff member who volunteered to spend the night there.
Hopefully we will now see Alex in around 27 hours, and if nothing else, she has an interesting start to her holiday to tell her friends about back home. I might even be able to persuade her to make short post on here
Jul 02 2007
Kazakh HIV Case Completed
More positive news to follow, but this recently caught my eye over at the BBC web site.
21 people from Shymkent, involved in the medical profession, have been found guilty of producing an HIV outbreak. This incident has so far been known to take the lives of 10 children, with another 110 infected. The case was that these workers, through negligence, fraud and bad medical practice, needlessly engineered situations where patients received un-necessary treatments. As blood was used in transfusions that had not been properly screened, infected samples were used, and so patients were put in extremely high risks. Just as often, medical apparatus was not properly cleaned between procedures, so infections from previous blood supplies were carried over to the next batch.
Some have commented that is not very surprising that the ex-head of the regional health department and her deputies only received suspended sentences.
Jun 28 2007
Alex Is Here :)
More information, photos, and hopefully comments from the woman herself, but Alex arrived Tuesday morning, and all is well 🙂
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Jun 25 2007
Alex Arriving Soon
We originally thought she would be landing at Astana airport in 3 and a bit hours from now. Unfortunately none of us checked her tickets properly… instead of a 2 hour wait at Kaliningrad airport, it turns out she had a 26 hour wait!
At first we saw this as a pain in the bum, but nothing too major. After all, spending a day in a transit lounge is not the worst thing in the world. However, it turns out the airport does not have a transit lounge, so she had to go through with all the other passengers who were staying in the country. As she did not have a visa, the passport control people were obviously unhappy. Then it turned out this oblast’s (it is actually part of Russia, though isolated geographically) airport CLOSED over night. Several phone calls later, and she has now been allowed to stay the night in the mother and baby room with a staff member who volunteered to spend the night there.
Hopefully we will now see Alex in around 27 hours, and if nothing else, she has an interesting start to her holiday to tell her friends about back home. I might even be able to persuade her to make short post on here 🙂
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Jun 22 2007
Alex’s Wish Is Granted
I have added a static page called Kazakhstan 101. You can access it from the links at the top of each page, along with the pages on
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How to contact or find out more about me
Extras – a sort of over flow from when the sidebars had to have a lot of widgets culled
I Got Lucky – a page for the listing of Google searches this blog is, or has been #1 for
If you have never got around to checking out the other pages available here, take a moment, see what you like, and if you have any suggestions, most pages do allow comments to be made, if you wish…
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Jun 21 2007
Vodka Not Equal To Champagne
At least in terms of exclusiveness, according to MEPs (Members of the European Parliament to my American readers). They have judged that spirits made from different ingredients can still be called vodka.
Why the champagne reference? Well here in Kazakhstan, the situation is the same as it was a while ago in Europe – pretty much any fizzy wine can call itself Champagne. However, in Europe at least, the grapes have to come from a certain region, and strict rules apply to the production process before a wine is allowed the pretige of having champagne on the label.
MEPs from the Nordic and Baltic states had asked for the legal definition of vodka to be tightened even further than originally proposed, to only include spirits made from potatoes or grain. The manufacturers will need to note on the label what the drink is made from, if not spuds or wheat, but there will be no minimum font height/percentage.
Vodka producers in Western Europe (Britain, Germany and France mainly) will be very happy that spirits made from grapes, citrus fruits and sugar beets can still be called vodka.
Russia is of course the world’s largest producer of vodka, but if the Nordic definition had been applied, Britain would have been kicked out of second place.
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