Almaty, Kazakhstan
got delayed leaving almaty this morning. We've picked up a hitch hiker, harry from the wailing phoenix (his ambulance broke down in northern kazakhstan and has been put out to pasture)
Almaty, Kazakhstan
mad murphy's proved just to be a little too irish, with prices that rival the oliver st. John gogarty. Turns out this town is one of the most expensive in the world. Looks like the days of 4 star hotels and massages at the hotel konstantin in samarkand will very soon become very distant memories :-( we've found another hotel dana-esque el-cheapo solution for accomodation for tonight. Camping by lake bilshek tomorro night.
Zhambyl, Kazakhstan
setting down for the night in Taraz didn't quite make it to almaty, god damn this country is big. Met some guy on the side of the road wearing a 2002 irish soccer jersey, the irony of the whole situation was lost on him though as we soon realised he had no notion where we were from or why we were so impressed by his lovely green t shirt. @
Tashkent, Uzbekistan
waiting at the kazakh border for reentry. Been up since 4am. hoping to make it to almaty tonight for the sunday game in mad murphy's
Samarqand, Uzbekistan
Day 3 in Samarkand, currently taking some extended R&R, massages, sight seeing and carpet buying. gonna need it for the next 3 weeks
Beineu, Kazakhstan
after our day of r&r in the glorified brothel that was hotel dana, we're 'ating road. We've made it to beyneu in record time thanks to the quality of the road which is as good as we've driven yet. We're gonna trundle on to the border and cross this evening all going well, camp in uzbekistan this tonight in preparation for an early start tomoro to cross another desert! Still in convoy with divorced eggs and exploding marmalade
Atyrau, Kazakhstan
Still here, we've all got jippy tummies or as we've now dubbed it "fitz arse" from the 20 shish-kebabs we ate at 2am in atyrau's cheapest hotel which had rooms on an hourly rate for some reason. We've heard of power naps, but the kazakhstani's must have some sort of special sleeping regime, might also explain the rubber chewy things left all over the rooms. Our plan for tomorrow is to hit beyneu and the uzbek border on monday!
Atyrau, Kazakhstan
crossed the kazakh border today and drove our first test of desert road. The people are incredibly friendly. Amazingly my phone is working again, hence no updates since romania. In the mean time we've driven up and down the transfagarasan highway, across romania, ukraine and russia through volgograd and down along the top of the caspian to our current location in kaz. Romania has been our biggest surprise yet, fabulous country, definately will return and the people are lovely. Ukraine has disappointed us, from imaginary speeding fines to the final top off of the border guards stealing boxes of markers meant for the kids. Also got stung in volgograd for $100 by some greedy russian police, on the plus side we were interviewed by some russians who are making an expose on police corruption! So keep your eyes on russian tv you might see yours truly. Mark. @
Nădlac, Romania
just arrived in romania, gonna keep her lit tonight til sibiu. Transfagarasan highway tomorro!
Budapest, Hungary
just leaving budapest for sibiu romania. We're all feeling clean and refreshed after a day spent in szechenyi thermal baths. We're like 5 prunes, Got a french artist to doodle on the van too.
