The Station of Tears and Fears, Bribery and Corruption

As we arrive at the Almaty train station (in the south east of Kazakhstan) our nerves were building and for good reason too. It was 5am and I could tell that both of us were having mixed feelings about what was about to happen. We both felt elated for finally carrying on our trip and leaving Almaty and heading to Moscow. There was no doubt an overwhelming concern too, knowing that we had to do more travelling on public transport with the bikes, yet again!  We arrived in the station with 2 big green sacks with our dismantled bikes in, 2x 40l rucksacks, 2x full pannier bags, 2x white sacks with our wheels in and a few food bags. So it didn't surprise me in the least when the guard at the train door instantly said "no" and did a big cross signal with his arms. The guard was a large man with a podgy face. He wore a navy blue milatry style cap and suit with gold trim on the blazer and and a white ironed shirt underneath. He looked fairly tired which was understandable given the time in the morning that we were boarding. We proceeded to ask why and he simply pointed at all of our stuff and said "this" (pointing at our numerous small bags of luggage) ok "and this" (pointing at out two bikes wrapped up so beautifully in the big green sacks) "not ok!" Laura and I were both on the same wave length and said "ok, so how?" Waving our arms out by our side in our politest fashion. As if to ask is there a luggage carriage? But annoyingly the guard couldn't have been less helpful if he had tried. He simply shrugged his shoulders as if it was simply not possible.  At this point I looked across to Laura and I could see that she was clearly not having a good time, I think the coughing illness she had been fighting with for over a week was taking its tole. She simply looked back at me with a tear rolling down her face. I think that deep down we both knew that we would be getting on this train with or without the bikes. We simply couldn't afford to let this train go without us.  As this was happening another train guard had now popped out of the train and beckoned one of us to follow him. Our previous encounters of Kazakh tradition had shown us that when we met another man, whether a farmer or a local enquiring where we were going, they would always shake my hand (as the man) before acknowledging Laura. I simply guess that feminism and equality for women in this area is not quite at western standard just yet.  So knowing that I was our best shot I went with him. As we walked down the platform I tried to explain that we had stared in china and that because we can only get a 30day visa in Russia we have to get a train I knew that he understood a little bit at least. The guard simply said "train president" and beckoned me in to a carriage . I followed the guard into a tiny office lined with laminated wood where I shook a short skinner mans hand who was sitting at a desk. he wore the same uniform as the rest of the guards but had a distinct 2 gold stars on his chest. He looked at me quite puzzled so I tried to explain our story about the bikes. As I did so I noticed a blank expression on his face. I stopped myself in mid-sentence and said "You speak English?" Pointing at him and, again, he looked at me with a blank face. The other guard now sitting down in the room said "No, does not" and I replied "oh" knowing my beautifully constructed sob story would get me nowhere this time.  The guard then spoke to the "president" in Kazakh. We all left the dark room and walked back up to the carriage that we were trying to get on. As we got close I saw Laura sitting by the bags on the platform side with her head in her hands. I called out to her Laura, meet the president of the train" with my cockiest smile. Although yet again our cycling career seemed to hang by a thread, I could see something amusing in all the commotion. The guards chatted a bit then beckoned us into the carriage where he then pointed at our room and pointed "1,2,3,4" and then said "1,2" we then replied pointing at the top bed and jesting that the bikes could go there, knowing that if we could get the bikes on we would cram ourselves on one of the beds and bikes would fit on another.  The guard could clearly see he was getting nowhere and we were determined to make it work what ever the cost. After this the guard pointed at me and took me into another small, dark room, leaving Laura outside again. As he shut the door behind him I automatically knew what was going on.  I had previously had the same experience happen to me in Kyrgyzstan where in a rage of uncontrollable need to pee I had unknowingly urinated up against a police control post and had to play a 10,000 tenge (about 25 pound) bribe to get my passport back. So with the door now shut, the train guard drew with his finger on the side of his bed 100$ meaning US dollar. Luckily Laura had previously made me get $200 US in cash that she said was for 'emergencies'. I didn't understand at the time but now it made sense.  I didn't argue even slightly.I said "yes" with a massive smile on my face, whipped out a crisp $100 dollar bill from my money belt and gave it to him. He then smiled back and opened the door. I hastily ran outside the train and with my loudest voice said to Laura "We're in!!" She replied "How?" I said "Bribe!" and she gave me a huge hug.  With that we were away, bags, bikes and all... I hate to admit it but in that brief moment I felt like I had saved my damsel in distress and was so proud of myself for saving our trip!

It's back on like donkey kong (whatever that is?)

"Only when we remove ourselves from the problem, do we find the simplest answer." After a frantic 10 days of adventuring around in Kyrgyzstan which included but not exclusively, A horse, A pair of skis, A hot spring and more snow than an Eskimo's freezer, we find ourselves back in Kazakhstan (Almaty to be exact) with a fresh, new outlook on life. Last time I wrote on this blog I had given up on the realistic possibility of cycling back the the UK. Instead I looking at flying back to the UK from Moscow and finding my own way once again...  But after deliberating the possibility of finishing the trip on my own, as well the discovery that we can buy a different pannier rack for Laura's bike that would work, the trip almost looked like it was ready to be re-started. Like all great deals there were clearly negotiations to be had, and compromises to be made. Laura (known as "The Bolt Buster of Kazakhstan" for her uncanny ability to shear two bolts in two weeks, one of which she did by simply tightening by hand) said that we should have front panniers. "This will even the weight out on the bike, stop us from overloading the rear racks and hopefully stop us snapping more bolts." I said that we should have studded ice tyres "because ice is scary and falling off hurts!"  With these strict and uncompromiseable decisions being agreed upon, we booked our tickets for the train to Moscow. From there we will head up to Saint Petersburg and this is where we will restart our cycling journey of 2000km through Scandinavia. So its back on!!  And like all good commitments, no front panniers or studded ice tyres have yet to be brought... typical. 

The karma cat of Kyrgyzstan

As I awoke this morning in a lovely hostel in Almaty Kazakhstan. I was feeling excited. Today I knew that Laura and I would temporarily be leaving the bikes at the hostel and be heading to Kyrgyzstan for a spot of walking and skiing amongst other things. Like a child on Christmas Day I quietly and slowly removed myself from the bottom bunk of my bed, as I couldn't lay here any more. I decided that a morning coffee would be in order. As quietly as I could possibly be, I unintentionally made lots of noise in the dark room looking for our bag of fresh coffee.  I scampered out of the 8 bed dorm and towards the stairs with an overwhelming feeling of pride for my ninja-like abilities. My plans were quickly scuppered by a four legged assassin, by the name of whiskers. This little grey genius had decided to lay a trap for me that I could not have anticipated in the slightest. He had decided to lay the equivalent of basically himself all over the brown laminated floor above the stairs about 30cm away from his litter tray. He had managed this in what can only be described as land mine effect all over the floor. As I walked to the top of the stairs in my bare feet, one of the assassin's strategically placed traps decided to mould itself around my big toe in a squelching fashion. As this happened I made a noise of "awwwww" without thinking and probably managed to wake the entire hostel.  After washing my foot with a lot of soap in the sink and muttering many rude words to describe the little bugger. I then decided to remove the funky smelling trap from the top of the stairs with a tissue, only to find a now adoring cat turning up and rubbing it's self all over my leg, seeing what the fuss was all about, and as if to make a point that it couldn't have been him. But as a cleaned the mess away to stop any one else from having a nasty surprise in the morning. I couldn't help but wonder if this was the work of Karma.  A great filipino friend explained to me once that for good and evil to co-exist they must be equal. So for every good thing that happens to you, there must be an equivalent bad thing too.  The biggest point to remember is that the karma doesn't have to be equal sized, for example a large bad thing can be repaid in lots of small amounts out good things.  Maybe the little ninja cat was trying to give me some bad luck so that I can have a good luck on this next part of our trip? 

Is This The End??

The story starts 2 days ago near some neighbouring mountains in Almaty, Kazakhstan. Laura and myself were riding down an extremely iced over road into a local village to pick up some food before carrying on a petit cycle tour around Almaty. Spirits were high and plans looked ok considering they were contingency ones. While riding I notice that Laura's pannier rack (the part fitted on the the bike to hold all the bags) was loose on one side. On closer inspection what I had feared the most. The bolt holding the rack had sheared in the frame. We took the bike to the local shop where we tried to drill the broken piece out with no luck, I think even if we had we would have struggled to re fit the rack. With the danger of the aluminium frame getting damaged due to how thin it was in that area. We have to make a decision not just on the bike but on continuing the trip. The influences... When we were in china not being able to buy fuel was a huge impact on the trip that we could never have foreseen. We had to go into contingency funds that we had budgeted but we blew that due to large unavoidable expenses. Now we're in Kazakhstan earlier then expected and due to both Russian visa entry dates and Kazakhstan visa lengths we have to deal with more issues.  Basically we have to leave Kazakhstan, go to Kyrgyzstan and then come back again... All with money and time that technically we don't have...  On top of this we're further south then we were ever meant to be, we would have to get a train/bus north with money and potentially time that technically yet again we don't have.  All the above results in cutting our trip down even more then we already had to. This is not taking into account any hidden costs involved from the trip into Russia and the rest of our trip.  Pheewweyy this is complex.  The final decision...  When we planned this trip we wanted to do it together, we wanted to cycle tour and camp in amazing places. We also wanted to push ourselves both mentally and physically and learn about our own limitations. However because of the reasons above we are no longer able to achieve what we set out to, and so we have decided to no longer carry on with the tour. Of course I am gutted and disappointed but I have enjoyed every moment, and I truly hope that every one who has ever watched a video, shared a comment or read a blog post has enjoyed the trip too.  The future... Well "The past is history, tomorrow is a mystery and today is a gift. That's why we all it the present." Let's wait and see. I'm not on my way home just yet..... 

Moving On...

That's it China visa finished, stamped and all... 

yahoo!!

 It's not that I didn't like China... 

I just wanted more... 

Well more to cycle to be exact, I simply decided that this relationship; well... it was never going to work out. "it's not me it's you" with your overly controlling ways, fuel issues and constant frisking. So like in so many typical soap opera's, Laura and I left slightly heart broken and destined to find a new love... maybe Kazakhstan. 

Yesterday afternoon we left, packed up our bikes into big green sacks, put them on a sleeper bus and left for the boarder. 

The next morning we awoke to yet another random police road check where we had to show our passports. After this a quick drive down the road and eventually arrived at the border control. We proceeded to unpack two large sacks of bikes, 2 pannier bags and 2 massive rucksacks too. As we were doing this laura got asked if we wanted a trolley, she asked me and with out thinking, still mucking around with Thor bikes I said "yerr that would be great". Suddenly a little man appeared with a black leather cap, a long black coat and black leather shoes. He popped the bikes on a trolley with a few of the bags too. Laura tried to ask "how much ?" The little man just shrugged the question off with lots of words that made no sense and as she tuned to me to question should we do this? He was gone in a flash.

Rookie Error... 

Later on we managed to find our gear dumped in a corner, trolley now gone and the little man searching for us. He said "money" and jested with his hands. Ironic I thought the only English word he knew. The larger concern me and laura had was that we knew we only had come across the border with ¥100 which we knew wasn't a lot but that's good budgeting for you, (equivalent to about £10) 

The little man still quite chirpy drew with his finger on the wall ¥100 for me and ¥100 for laura. All most instantaneously laura and I said "no". He wanted ¥200 for pushing our stuff the equivalent of 500meters. So with a few with a few "cannot's" and "no money's" along with a few less sensitive words muttered under our breath, the little man left with all our cash and a sad expression upon his little face. 

I wonder if that was China's settlement few for our breakup? 

Ahh well, we're in Kazakhstan now !! 

P.s.

Travelling on bikes = amazing 

Traveling with bikes = interesting...

The Simpler LIfe

As I lie here on a comfortable bed with soft white sheets, I can feel the embracing warmth coming from the radiator next to me. I also hear the distilled sound of traffic from the window and every now and then the dramatic noise of fire crackers from down the street. It is Chinese New Year today and this is day 3 in a hotel in Urumqi, a large city in the north west of China.

I don't want to be here though.

I want to be back out on the road where we're meant to be.

I was so glad to be in this amazing hotel on Thursday afternoon. Now however it's Saturday and this hotel in Urumqi couldn't feel more agonising.

It sounds so strange to be fantasising about waking back up in a tent, my sleeping bag would be covered in ice. Then Laura and I would heat up the water from flasks that had gone cold from the night before. We would drink a cup of tea as the sun would rise, then eat some sort of boiled food before packing up the tent and hitting the road.

I want to feel the pure pain when I finally warm my fingers back up in my gloves and feel the freezing air flow though my helmet while I am being stunned by the incredible scenery. I don't want to be in a warm hotel worrying about buses and trains...

One of the biggest underlying issues with being stuck in a big Chinese city is that we're blowing our budget. This is generally on sleeping and eating but we can't get a cheaper hotel because they must have a "special licence" to accept foreign guests. Hostels also tend close in the winter as we found out in Turpan earlier last week. I can only deduce that tourism reduces when it's -10 degrees Celsius. We also can't pack up and live in a tent because we have no fuel, so can't heat any water or food up.

I must exercise my ability to be  patient and just let life do its thing  and soon we will be back out on the road.

I can't wait!!

A Spanner in the Works.

When Laura and I set out for this trip we planned a few critical parts... heat, water, food. We knew that we couldn't carry them all for the whole trip so below are our tactics to solve the problems. 

In terms of food for the trip we planned to carry emergency food that would be enough for 3 days. This is in case of storms or mechanical break downs. The emergency food comprises of chicken feet, weirdly packaged fish, some pickled vegetables, rice and pasta. The idea behind these weird and wonderful delicacies is that it should be stuff that we don't really want to eat, meaning we won't eat it accidentally while hungry, it will also entice us to carry enough food or find some quickly. With our normal food we make sure we have enough for the distance between town to town, which usually means carrying another 2-3 days of food. 

We knew that we also couldn't carry enough water so we planned to always stop and camp by lakes and streams. Then we would boil water and carry some with us in flasks too. 

The last thing was fuel. We decided to buy multi fuel stoves back in Hong Kong. This is the type that you can use both gas and petrol with. We did this so that we had lots of freedom in terms of what we can use to burn. Between us we had 5 canisters of gas knowing that we would need to fill up along the way.

This is where the plan goes tits up... due to an unforeseen issue that we don't truly understand. I will try and give you the basic outline...

All of the fuel stations in this province of China have security at them. When the locals fill up their cars they have to go through a few processes. First, all of the passengers must get out of the car, then the security search the car and open every door. After they are happy, the driver must swipe a fuel card (that Laura and I don't have) before eventually being allowed to fill up with fuel. 

We have tried our best puppy dog eyes to try and get some petrol but the security guards are having none of it.

Without petrol we can't heat up ice to get water and we can't cook food either. 

You might be thinking to your self "why don't you just buy gas or white spirit and carry it with you". Unfortunately it's not that easy to get hold of, and almost every main road has police checks along it. Depending on the traffic controllers' mood, they would happily take any gas or fuel away from you meaning we would be stranded with no fuel. 

Until we solve this problem, we are stuck in a lovely warm hotel room... so it's not all bad.