Kazakhstan

The ferry and entry into Russia went down without problem. We left Sochi the same day, August 8th, and battled traffic on narrow winding roads through the foothills of the Caucusus mountains. We stayed a night at a hotel in Mykop and kept truckin' the next morning. Once through the mountains, we traveled straighter roads through prairieland. We camped behind an abandoned gas station and watched an episode of "The Wire" on Randall's laptop. We again awoke and hit the road for the Kazakh border.

These two and a half days in Russia yielded no less than seven stop-and-checks by the Russian police, who wanted to see our documents. No fines, tickets, or bribes (despite some solicitations).

Yesterday we entered Kazakhstan after gifting two Beanie Babies and a broken Ipod to the border guards. The roads past the border took a turn for the worse. We traveled bumpy bouncy pavement with juicy suspension-killing potholes all the way to Atyrau.

We ended up camping across the road from an oil refinery near Atyrau last night. We awoke at 7AM to a car horn honking. Security wanted to know why we were there, but ended up telling us we could go back to sleep. 15 minutes later, a work crew pulled up, and we met the foreman, Ahman.

Ahman spoke passable English, especially compared to my terrible Russian. We made him a cup of coffee and asked him as many questions as we could about Kazakh roads, where to find LPG and an internet cafe, and about Atyrau. He was stoked to be practicing his English and was a tremendous help. He drew maps to LPG and internet and we were on our way, glad that we'd camped where we did!

We found the LPG station, but didn't have the correct adapter. We waited at the fuel station for about a half an hour until someone with the right connection came along. We borrowed the adapter, fueled up, and gave the owner and the station attendant each a Turkish beer.

Now we're doing some business on the web (obviously). Next on the agenda: try to figure out what our next move will be. Apparently, there are limited LPG fueling stations in Kazakhstan, and this will be a huge factor in the decision.

Trabzon, Turkey from the ferry as we sail away to Russia.

In Sochi. Welcome to Mother Russia!