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Thanks
Jul 20 2006
Odds And Ends
Bureaucracy – if you are on holiday, rather than emigrating, coming into and out of the country is the most likely area you’ll encounter the most problems. To be fair, we’ve not been stopped in a couple of years, but if they decide you look like a likely person to have violated a rule, there isn’t a great deal you can do about it. Coming into the country, they can not let you in at all, and worse, leaving the country, they are only too well aware that you need to be available to get on a plane pretty soon.
Once you arrive in the country, you will need to register your presence, at the ‘Ovir’, within 3 or 4 business days. This is normally not a problem, the worst part being if their sewers are over flowing again, and you need to wait in a queue, trying not to gag. There is nothing to worry about regarding this procedure; it is just so they can know who is officially registered where. Whilst this country is a lot ‘freer’ than it may have seemed to Westerners 15 or 20 years ago, you will have to remember that the approach taken by the government over here to maintain control of the population is not how we view ‘best practice’ in the UK. Tough luck, their country, their rules, which, all in all, seems fair, if the roles were reversed, we’d not expect people to complain too excessively about our customs/social rules/laws.
When in the country, you will see some people walking around in army camo fatigues, most of these people are manual labourers, who use them as hard-wearing clothes to work in. If, however, you see a group of 2-6 young men wandering in ‘urban’ colour camos (bluey/purpley), these are some sort of street patrollers. No idea on their legal/military/civilian status, I just make sure I’m not littering/jay-walking when I see them around :>
Then you have the regular police force, who you will see in cars (often using their PA systems as public education systems (‘Drivers! Do not park here’ or ‘Move out the way NOW’)), on foot, or in little kiosks at key strategic civic points.
There is also a (separate?) traffic police force, who occasionally turn off the traffic lights, and get out their little wands to manually direct the traffic. Unless you intend to drive over here (don’t forget to apply for an International Driving License in the UK, if so), you can safely ignore them.
Finally, you’ll occasionally see the Army guys marching round in unison, but they seem to stay off the streets for the majority of the time.
Jul 17 2006
Introduction
OK, this category has been set aside for any friends & family who are thinking about coming over to visit us here in Kazakhstan some time.
Feel free to check out the other posts, which are about my business sites. Right now, SkyDiving-News.org is the only one I’ve created myself, but there will hopefully be more to come in the next few weeks. I want to say a BIG thank you to MattG for all his help so far. He has made some excellent videos to guide me through the processes required to setup the sites, and all the other technical gubbins therein associated, and also spent a lot of time replying to my badly formed e-mails requesting more details.
Please feel free to leave comments or requests for more info here. If I don’t get back to you quickly enough, try e-mailing me. (Please don’t forget this area isn’t private, anyone on the net will be able to read it ;> )
To those already committed to coming (Mum&John, closely followed by ChrisD) , a BIG BIG thank you, I still have a huge dopey grin on my face just thinking about you coming over.
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