Wednesday night 25 April/ Thursday 26
April
We have a good
night's sleep, but are awoken by a knock on our cabin door from the
carriage guard at 5.30 am, as the Russian border officials have just
boarded the train. This happens just before we enter Kazakhstan, so
we can only assume the Russian officials come on to make sure we
leave the country when we said we would, as stated on our visa. The
officer is a pleasant young man actually, and when he sees our
British passports, he jokes with Reg about Chelsea drawing with
Barcelona at football on Tuesday evening, ensuring Chelsea of a place
in the European cup.
An hour later, we
cross the border with Kazakhstan, and their officials get on the
train to inspect our passports. The young official who looks at ours
shouts out to his colleague along the corridor,|”English!
English!” and hurries away with our passports. This seems
ominous to me and Reg follows the border guard down the corridor in
hot pursuit.
We quickly learn
that the Swiss couple I mentioned in yesterday's blog have been
ordered to leave the train! It's because they don't have a double-entry
Kazakhstan visa – the visa they do have for entering Kazakhstan was
for a later date. They are distraught, but there is nothing they can
do. Their visas were arranged by a tour company, so they trusted to
their so-called expertise. We are shocked. Monica and her husband
have travelled 2 nights and a day for nothing. The young Russian man
in the next carriage to ours, who speaks English, helps the Swiss
couple by finding out the time of the next train back to Moscow, and
gives them his mobile number in case they need translating help.
Fortunately, the
border official hands back our passports – they are ok. I praise
Reg for his astuteness and thorough research of the visa situation.
Thank goodness he was so meticulous, not only about getting the
double-entry visa, but getting the dates right too.
You need a
double-entry visa because although we are not getting off the train
before we enter Uzbekistan, we are travelling through Kazakhstan; our
second entry visa is for when we do disembark in Kazakhstan later in
our travels.
The train has been
stopped for about 3 hours at the border. The customs officials had a
brief look around and left. Eventually, at 9.30 am, the train pulls
away and Monica and her husband, a forlorn sight alone on the
platform, give a brief wave to the helpful young Russian. Apparently
they may be able to fly to Uzbekistan from Moscow (thus not having to
go through Kazakhstan territory) to continue their Silk Road journey.
What a lot of wasted time, money and effort.
This incident
shakes us up a bit and we are subdued for a while. We have
breakfast, Reg eating bread and butter, ham, and one of the boiled
eggs he bought at the station yesterday, He said it was just like
having egg and bacon! I had 2 ginger biscuits and a banana.
How to have a
wash? I have a brilliant idea. Cup-a-wash! I fill one of our trusty
plastic cups (which we take everywhere with us), half with the
trickle of cold water from the washbasin in the toilet cubicle, and
half with boiling water. I lock our compartment door and have a strip
wash, using 2 flannels squeezed out in the water in the mug, which is
placed on one of our plastic plates, to catch the overflow. I feel a
lot better – I can highly recommend this method when needs must.
Reg washes later in the same way. Can't do much about the hair
though – may try the dry shampoo tomorrow but I'm almost past
caring about how I look – as long as I feel fresh!
I finish The
Sealed Letter on my kindle – I
thorough enjoyed it. I've started another of my kindle books, The
Help. Rose thought I'd enjoy
this book. It's good so far. I've also started on my Unit 13
assignment for my local preacher's course. I'm at the stage where
there's lots in my head, a brief outline on paper, but it's all a bit
muddled. I'll do some more tomorrow.
Keeping
the computer and phones charged up is a bit difficult, as there's
only one socket in the corridor fairly near but not within watching
distance of our compartment door, and other people (mainly the
Russians next door) need it for their computer and phones too.
However, disappointingly, I haven't had a mobile signal all day, nor
has Reg. We're in remote country, with trees giving way to “the
steppes”, which is green
scrubland, gradually turning into more desert country. There are
village communities now and again with white, and a few blue, single
story houses. Not much sign of arable agriculture – mostly cattle,
horses, and quite a few camels.
As dusk falls we see electric lights twinkling from the houses, and
children playing outside. There are landline telephone cables, but
seemingly no mobile phone masts. Reg and I have our evening meal of
bread and butter and cup-a-soup (having had sandwiches for lunch –
the ham and cheese stayed fairly cool in the draught of air in the
floor). All this has been interspersed with mini Mars and Snickers
and numerous cups of tea throughout the day.
We're near the Aral sea, and at the next station the 2 young Russians
disembark. Reg is enjoying himself following our journey on a
sat-nav app he's previously downloaded onto his mobile phone.
After the alarming start to the day, the rest of the time has passed
quickly and pleasantly. I'm enjoying recording our experiences in the
blog, even though I can't publish it until we get the internet again.
Soon be time for bed - our 3rd night on the train.. One more night and day to go – we arrive in
Tashkent tomorrow evening – it's supposed to be at 6.25 pm, but Reg
thinks in view of the delay this morning, it'll be later. So far I'm
still on the edge of my comfort zone …...! Reg says he thinks I'm
well within my comfort zone as I look really happy!
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