Day 67
Our destination today is Bishkek and we arrive around dinner time. We park up in a little carpark with lots of little alleyways off it. At home you would call this the dodgie end of town but I’ve come to reevaluate that term.
Our hostel turns out to be more, a big house with lots of bunk beds in each room, tents in the garden, beds in the lean-to on the side of the house and even a Yurt in the garden. It is obvious that the family who run it make the most of every inch they have. It is cosy to say the least. There is a massive queue for the one shower so a few of the girls go and get our shower tent from the truck and squeeze it in a small corner and we have a bucket and cup shower.

When we are all feeling human again after the shower we make our way to the German bar that the guys on the Oasis truck recommended. It takes a little searching but it is worth the extra few mins. The food is delicious, Brenda has saucage and chips and I have the pork steak. After dinner people start to get itchy feet, they want a bar with music and a bit more atmosphere so we head for the Metro bar. Our taxi is playing great house music when we get in and he has us all set for a nightclub when he drops us off.

The Metro bar isn’t exactly a nightclub but it has a pool table and 80’s music on. We get chatting to the bar man and soon we are all having a great time, maybe helped by a few free vodka shots from the barman. Around midnight the barman announces that he knows of a good nightclub so we all bundle into taxis again and off we go
The nightclub was pretty empty but there is enough of us to have a good time, dancing and chatting.


Day 68
Today after a bit of a late start is earmarked as an internet day. We head into the centre of town to change our Tajikistan money and go to an internet cafe. The plan was to meet at a particular internet place but when we arrive the place doesn’t seem to exist, so we traips around town, in and out of shopping centres and cafes trying to get wifi, eventually finding it in the children’s shopping centre. Yes, a shopping centre dedicated solely to children’s clothes toys and accessories, a bit odd I know.

Souvieners

We find out here that one of the other girls on the trip has pneumonia and is going to have to stay behind for 5 days for treatment. We are al disappointed for her but hope she gets better soon.
One of the girls met a nice guy last night and arranged to meet him at 3pm so I said I would go with her so after an hour uploading the blog and catching up with facebook we head off. We jump into a taxi thinking we know where we are going.  After about five minutes driving we seem to be heading out of the city and not to Victory square so we pull in and try many ways to describe where we want to go to the taxi man. We resort to drawing bad pictures of the monuments and eventually he gets where we are talking and turns around. We have given him completely the wrong directions.

We arrive a little late but Geoff is still there thankfully and tells us about the 15 weddings he has seen arrive for pictures at the monument since he arrived. We all head to a café, me feeling like a bit of a gooseberry but Geoff doesn’t seem to mind too much. After a bit we decode to head to Obama’s restaurant for a bite to eat (and where everyone else has been). The food is great there and there is wifi too. The evening is spent on the internet and drinking lovely fruit juices and eating yummy salads. It is great to get some real fruit and veg!


Day 69
Before bed last night in a little local bar Will tells us that he is planning on going to a local gym today. As with most things suggested in a bar a good few of us say we are up for it but when now when it comes to actually going only three of us are going, Brenda, Will and I. I can’t wait to dive into the pool and have a good swimming session! When we arrive the place looks very impressive with pictures of all sorts of sports being played on the walls outside. When we get inside it hold up to the pictures outside but we notice to pool is pretty full with children and we soon find out that is is out of bounds as there is a competition on. All three of us are very disappointed but we carry on an head to the gym. The weights and cardio are in two separate rooms so Brenda and I head for the cardio and Will to the weights. After about an hour and a half we are all out and showered and in a taxi to back to Obamas for breakfast and more time on the internet.
After lunch Brenda and I head back to the hostel hoping to get some washing done but find out that there is a power cut and we will have to wait until the end of the queue. The rest of the day is spent resting and chatting to the other guests in the hostel while we wait for our washing to be done. When it is finally done we hang it out and head back into town to skype home and see how Wacker is doing (he hurt his leg while climbing). We don’t bother going all the way to Obamas we settle for an internet café.

On the way home we get a burger form a little place on the side of the street. It has all sorts of herbs and things and is surprisingly nice. Everyone is jealous as we stroll in munching on them.

Kyrgyz stalls

Day 70

We are up really early today to help Karen with the shopping. We are stocking up for our big tent bushcamping over the next few weeks. Well that was the plan but the supermarket is a bit limited in what they have but we get enough to get us to the next town.

We are all packed up and ready to go early. The bus feels a little empty we are leaving Gayle and Johnny behind so Gayle can get treatment for her pneumonia but we are also leaving two other couples behind one has to fly home for a few days and the other is taking some time out form the truck. We will meet Gayle and Johnny in about a week in Semi but the other couples we wont see until Beijing. It’s a bit strange not having everyone with us.

We cross the border from Kyrgyzstan to Kazakhstan about an hour after leaving Bishkek. Everyone is rushing on the Kyrgyzstan border and we can’t figure out why but when we get to the Kazakhs side we understand why. We are all piled into a room full of people. There seems to be no order to it. Everyone is pushing and squeezing to everylittle space trying to get through to the top of the queue and get out the other side. It is madness. After nearly an hour of pushing and jostling we get through and enjoy a coffee while we wait for the truck to get through. (I must give Will credit here, he has to put up with a great deal of fussing when he takes the truck through the borders.)

We get to Almaty in the late evening and bush camp outside the city in a beautiful forest park. On the way through Almaty we notice lots of wedding parties outside a large monument getting their photos taken and lots of stretch hummers. We even pass a wedding venue in the forest park that would rival all of those in Las Vegas with a giant wedding couple and two interlocked giant wedding rings. It was very tacky.

 

 

Three of the gang decide to go on a two day hike and head off pretty much straight away. The rest of us head to a restaurant up the road a bit for some local soup. Irt had sheets of pasta and pieces of meat in it. We are all a bit quiet and asubdued tonight so we decide to watch a movie on the truck before going to bed.

 

It looks like a spaceship at night doesn't it?!

 

Day 71
It is one of the guys 40th birthday soon so we all set off into the city to stock up on party things. It doesn’t look like we will be near civilisation for it so we have decided to make a fuss with party games and that. We have also read that there is an ice-skating rink in one of the shopping centres and the girls, including me, want to check that out too.

We get the bus into town and eventually find a shopping centre (which doesn’t have an ice-rink). We spend the afternoon having a look around and doing the food shopping. We find jelly and decide to make vodka jelly for the party along with pass the parcel and a chocolate game I haven’t heard of. We then walk to the fruit and veg market on the way back to the bus.

Everyone else is back and in the restaurant by the time we get back so we decide to have dinner there again. After dinner while one of the ladies is having a look around, (The restaurant is more like a holiday camp with children’s play areas and a table tennis rooms), and finds a dance floor and a DJ. Pretty soon we are all up dancing to 90s dance tunes and are joined by one or two locals. At one point two local guys join us and request a local song and show us the traditional dance, or at least their version of it. We are all home by ten o clock as we are all very tired and the DJ appeared to only have a few cds.

Day 72
We leave our camp spot and head a little further down the road to fill the water tanks from a spring and collect wood from the nearby trees. With full wood lockers and water tanks we head out of Almaty and into the countryside of Kazakhstan.

We stop at a small place for lunch where we could buy whole roast chickens and really fresh bread. I think it is the best lunch stop we have had so far on the trip.  It is a long drive day from here on with not much to tell just dusty landscape, you would swear we were back in Turkmenistan in the desert.

In the late evening we pick up two hitch hikers. They are from Ukraine. They have been travelling for 3 months and plan to travel all over the world in the next two years.
It is late before we bush camp and we end up in a farmer’s field but the crop makes for a cushy mattress.



Day 73

We are not long on the road today when the rain starts. It is the first rain we have seen in a while but it makes up for the lack of it for so long. It comes down on sheets and even though we are on a drive day it dampens spirits a bit. We pull into a little shop for lunch and soon we decide to test out the speakers for Martin’s birthday. We are all in much better form leaving after lunch as the shop keeper has boiled a kettle for us so we could have tea and we have been listening to some great music.
It rains on and off for the rest of the day and when we camp we just get our tents up before it starts again.



Day 74

We have been camped on the top of a hill and when the wind got up during the night the tents all got a bit blown about and some people got wet. When we got up in the morning a few of the truck tents (Shower and toilet tents) had been blown over and had to be either pegged in again or just put away.
We head for Semi today to pick Gayle and Johnny up at the airport. On the way we are passed by a convoy of trucks carrying helicopters. It is very cool.

Luck is not on our side when we pull up for a loo stop and we find that one of the tyres is flat and even more unfortunate that when we have replaced it one of the wheel studs break! But we get it sorted and are on our way soon.

We pick Gayle and Johnny up at the airport and Will notices that something else that needs to be fixed before we leave. The Ukrainian hitch hikers are still with us at the point (they are thinking of staying until we get to China) and manage to get us the parts from the airport garage. 
WIFI at the airport!

We are soon on our way to towards the Russian border we must cross it early in the morning so we camp close by.  Brenda and I are cooking tonight and are delighted when Karen says Macaroni and cheese. Nice and easy.

Day 75
At the border we realise that it is constitution day. All the border guards are in full uniform, white cotton gloves included, and are singing what I think is their national anthem. The border crossing is very easy and we are through both sides within one hour.

We drive to the first town and find a street full of shops with car parts, also the cleanest car shops
I’ve ever been in. Here we get a new battery for our electrics and charging system. Brenda and I find a camping shop and manage to get a tent repair kit, we haven’t needed it yet but the tent is looking a bit worn at this stage. The tent has been great actually, I think we are one of a few who haven’t gotten wet yet.

When we get back Karen is trying to sort out accommodation for the night but it is too expensive so we do a big shop and head out of town and set up camp beside a bar. It is time to get the jelly ready for Martin’s birthday and hope it sets over the next two days.

Day 76
When I thought of Russia before I got here I thought of high rise apartment blocks, ugly concrete buildings and unfriendly people but as we start our trip through Russia today I find I couldn’t be more wrong. We pass massive felds of grasslands and huge forests and lovely wooden cottages. The people are so helpful, Last night when our Ukrainian friends were heading back into town the lady at the bar came out in a flap and when Lana translated what she was saying we were surprised. She didn’t want them to leave because she wouldn’t be able to understand us and get us what we wanted. But we explained that the guys just wanted beer so she should have no problem.
After some beautiful countryside we turn down a narrow dirt track in the trees. We are all a little worried that we will get stuck but after about twenty minutes driving down the track we reach a barrier with little wooden cabins dotted through the trees around it. It is a forest park. We camp in the clearing and as we set up our tents the keeper asks if we want to have a Russian sauna (called a banaya pronounced bainne, milk in irish). We are all delight at the suggestion and with a few of us going it works out around 3euro each.

 

 

Lana is cooking her Ukrainian dish tonight, it is called Borcsh. It is ike a sew with beetroot and tomatoes. It is delicious and I delay heading to the banaya for second helpings.

The banaya is in another hut nearer to the lake in the park. It has two rooms one room which is cooler and you get changed in and the other with the heater, similar to a sauna heater but it produces steam. As you step into the second room you are hit with a wall of heat. The banaya has the heat of the sauna with the steam added. It was really nice and when we were finished we had to go outside and get a bucket of cold water and throw it over ourselves. It was…..refreshing. then back to the campsite for a shower and bed.


Day 77
MARTIN’S BIRTHDAY

A lot of us wanted to stay in the forest another night but Martin goet the decision and he wanted a bed for the night of he could so we headed to the next town. It seemed a bit small and quiet so we carried on to the city after.

Being Martin’s birthday we have the music blaring in the back of the truck with all his favourites and Karen is ringing around and doing her best to get somewhere is stay for the night but unfortunately we can’t find anywhere. They are all too expensive so we head out of the city again and find a 24hr bar and camp beside it.
The party starts as soon as we get off the truck and hit the bar, well after some deep fried chicken from a little take away place. Some go for dinner in a Yurt down the road and tell us when they get back that the owner said that we can have the part in his Yurt. After a game of pass the parcel with prizes like baby wipes, coffee sachets and toilet roll ends we head to the yurt and dance the night away there.

Vodka Jelly

Day 78
It is a lazy late start to the day with breakfast around ten, half ten. It is a treat with chicken fingers and beans. The lady form the take away comes up to us while we are eating and she is all excited, she has seen us on TV last night (I forgot to say that in the city Will was interviewed by a film crew for the local news). She wanted us to write in her comment book. We are now famous in Siberia, wow!

We hit the road again and driving through the lovely countryside keeping an eye out for a water pump or tap. We camp early enough today we are all very tired after the party last night. We bush camp in a field I a forest with extremely long grass, at least 5 foot.


Day79

We pass through a lot of industrial towns today. Water is our main agenda today, we won’t have enough to make dinner if we don’t fill up. We are all starting to lose hope we have stopped at lots of petrol stations but they don’t seem to have a tap but eventually Sarah spies a pump in the middle of an industrial area and we stop and fill up. Karen then tells us that she has booked us into a hostel for three nights in a town near Lake Baikal. We will be there in three days. We are all delighted and can’t wait for a real bed and a good shower.

We bush camp on a quiet hill top near another forest tonight. It has beautiful views of the surrounding valleys and the moon is a beautiful orange colour when it rises. The mossies are out in force though so it is out with the thermal leggings to try and save from being eaten.




Day 80

At lunch today we stop at a little restaurant on the outskirts of a town. As soon as we walk in we get an uwelcome feeling. The lady behind the counter is exactly what I expected from Russian women, she didn’t smile and according to Lana who was translating for us, she wasn’t very nice to deal with but the food was lovely.
We have all been snacking on the trip and since we left Turkey we have all been trying the local snacks from bad cheese crackers to mushroom flavoured crisps (which aren’t as bad as they sound) but today one of the girls offered me a girkin flavoured crisp. It was the strangest thing I’ve tasted yet. It tasted exactly like a girkin but was crunchy like a normal crisp. Very strange!

Our bush camp tonight is my least favourite yet. As soon as we got out of the truck we were attacked by a cloud of mossies and flie. They are everywhere as soon as the tents are up a lot of people are hiding in the truck. After an hour or so they calmed down a bit and we could go out again and enjoy our great dinner, lasagne yum!

Day 81
I’ve spent most of the morning on our way to Irkudsk catching up with the blog. We are all hoping for a nice hostel, as the truck hasn’t been here before we don’t know what it is going to be like.


Truck life photos

And one for Cat, found in the Kazakh shopping centre