from istanbul

The long and short of it is, everything did work out. And again, you probably know everything you want to about our trip, thanks to Lance, who not only uses his internet time more efficiently, but also spent a couple of days in Riga by himself. We figured out how to register our visas in Kazakhstan, and then received an e-mail from Gina and David Hebley, who let us crash on their floor for the remaining two days in Almaty. Needless to say, it was nice to eat good food, sing hymns, help with "English Club", teach Sabbath school, and have a tour guide for the mountains. Then, upon arrival in Novosibirsk, we purchased tickets to Moscow that left just 2 hours later. It couldn't have worked more smoothly.



Arriving in Moscow was like running into a huge sign that said "WELCOME TO EUROPE!" The monumental buildings, frequent ATMS, subway system, and easy-to-find hostel were a welcome change from Almaty. I finally decided to buy a 1 GB card for Lance's camera, and was therefore able to take a couple hundred pictures in Moscow, St. Petersburg, and Riga (although I stole this picture of St. Basil's from his MySpace page). Although Moscow was fun, it really didn't compare to St. Petersburg. Nice temperatures, the astounding state Hermitage museum, impressive cathedrals, venice-like waterways and delicious doner kebabs were only slightly dampened by the large number of mosquitos that plagued out hostel. Riga is very nice as well. Our hostel was one of the best of the trip, cheap pastries abound, and the old town is beautiful.



And now it's Istanbul. The city's culture reminds me of Kuala Lumpur, probably because it's Muslim. I like it. A lot. Stepping out of the tram near our hostel, I was completely unprepared to stumble across the Hagia Sofia and nearby Blue Mosque (which looks similar, but newer). I can easily say that they are the most awe-inspiring buildings of the trip so far. It was chilling to go inside the Hagia Sofia (called Ayasofya in Turkish) and see in real life what I had seen in textbooks before. Good food abounds: kebabs, baklava, turkish delight, etc. are found on almost every street.



Tonight Aaron and I head to Bucharest, Romania. Since we'll be traveling for 24 hours on seats, I'm glad the hostel we plan to stay in sounds amazing. Besides that, I'm sure Romania will be one of the most beautiful legs of the trip.

almaty, kazakhstan, etc.

Lance and I are in Almaty. To be honest, I can't think of good reason why. I asked Lance why we were in Kazakhstan and he said, "I'm happy to be here". I'm not sure I could say the same thing. We haven't really done anything, the adventist church we contacted didn't return our e-mails, we couldn't get tickets to Moscow, so we have to take a 1st class sleeper back to Novosibirsk (sounds good, but it's expensive), we don't know how to register our visas, so we may get fined; the list goes on. Too much stress for my liking. Probably everything will go ok. We'll find some way to get into the beautiful mountains that surround the city, we'll figure out what to do about our visas (or nothing will have to be done at all), we'll thoroughly enjoy the 1st class train, and we'll be able to get a ticket to Moscow the same day we arrive in Novosibirsk (and avoid having to pay $80 for a hotel room). It would have been simpler if Georgia and Russia could've been civil. Oh well.

But aside from the stress and nuisances, we love life. Yes, we think about going home now almost everyday, but will we regret coming to Kazakhstan? No - I have to agree with Lance on this one. The city is beautiful and modern. Although we haven't found the part of town with tall buildings, the streets are all lined with beautiful trees, and they slope constantly upwards towards impressive looking snow-covered mountains at the city's edge. The near-by super market is perfect. Bread, cheese, cereal, milk (which turned out to be strong-flavored yoghurt), tomatoes, onions, peach nectar: everything two hungry college boys could want.

But perhaps the highlight of Kazakhstan was encountered in the train itself: people. One lady offered us a tomato, some bread, and a large roll of sausage (we followed Paul's advice in Corinthians and graciously enjoyed it). We enjoyed teaching a couple Russian boys and one Kazakh girl how to play scum, and later, when they had left and we had new companions, we played a variation of UNO with Alexandra (age 8), and Nadia (age 12), who, with the help of an older Kazakh girl who spoke some English, asked us our names, about our pets, our siblings, our parents, our trip, etc. Alexandra called me beautiful. I guess being called beautiful by a blonde eight-year-old in Kazakhstan will have to go down as one of the highlights of my trip.

My camera broke. I think it got sand in it from the Gobi. So, for the next two weeks, I'll be memorizing faces and places more carefully.

no, read me first!

Yeah, they didn't go in opposite order like I hoped. Scroll down (quickly, don't spoil anything) until you reach the post entitled "read me first (carefully)!" Then proceed accordingly.

section four: the gobi

Highlights of our seven-day trip to the heart of the Gobi desert:



Our driver Muko (Moe) and his pimping Nissan off-road van.



Playing all kinds of card games with Peter and Vanessa.



Lunches:
Day 1: Fried eggs on toast
Day 2: Fried curry noodles with tomatoes, peppers, garlic, and onions
Day 3: Spaghetti and tomato sauce with squash, peppers, garlic, and onions
Day 4: Fried rice with egg, peanuts, curry powder, garlic, and onions
Day 5: Fried potatoes, peppers, garlic, and onions
Day 6: Garlic and onion pancakes with curry powder
Notice a trend?



Mistakenly missing the solar eclipse (twice), and then watching the solar eclipse.



Streaking on the dunes at Sunset (an idea received from our crazy Spanish hostel-mates in Beijing).



Riding camels. I named mine George. Peter named Lance's Hillary.



Eating goat everyday for supper (This is only a highlight in retrospect).



Watching the sky for shooting stars and satellites with Peter (two nights ago we saw 22 satellites and 21 shooting stars in about an hour).



Taking our first shower in seven days upon arrival in UB.

section three: terelj

Terelj is a national park about 60 kilometers from UB. It was an amazing overnight trip.



The mongolians: Our hosts and owners of five gers, ten horses. They took us horse riding through the fields and practiced their favorite (and nearly only) English phrase: "Yes, No, OK?" I'm still not sure what this asks. We usually responded with a confident reply-statement: "Yes, No, OK!" They also gave us chunks of mutton from their stew to chew on.

Alister and Katherine: Erudite young couple from London. Kat likes to read good books and suggested several. She supports Manchester United. Ali likes and plays rugby and cricket. He is also in to wine. He'll be volunteering at a winery in Napa for a month next year. They are both excelent card players. I imagine they would get along perfectly with Evan and Jenny.


Pictured: Will, James, Vank, Lance, Me, and Tina. Lance messed up my 10 second timer shot by attempting to put his arms on our shoulders. Oh well.

Claire and Christina:English teachers (in Korea) from South Africa and Boston, respectively. They don't like Korean food. Tina grew up on delicious Italian all her life. Claire took my copy of "The Count of Monte Cristo" to read on the way back to Seoul.

James and William:Two shaggy-haired 18-yr-olds from England. James says "mmm" like he's pondering his next comment or your previous one. William confidently suggested that the opposite country of Canada is Gabon.



Peter and Vanessa:Dutch couple with whom we travelled to the Gobi. Peter is loud and boisterous, Vanessa is more reserved. They are going to visit Argentina next year at my suggestion.

Vank: Loud, young, cursing, american economist from New York who loves to string sentences together berating America for being sheltered, uneducated, etc. When Will and James suggested that coverage of our presidential election is better in England than in the US, his reply in agreement included the f-word at least ten times - he wishes we had a new source like the BBC. He would very much like to see Gabon beat Canada in curling.

section two: beijing

Beijing means north capital. While in China, we learned the words for north (bei), south (nan), east (dong), and west (xi). They were prevalent in the names of subway stops.



Though each of our hostels has produced interesting fellow travellers, Beijing's were prehaps some of the best. There were the five espanoles, teacher travelling from Russia and Mongolia who showed us pictures of themselves streaking on the Gobi's dunes.



There were the tipsy Kiwis, who, sitting under the large TV screen, were convinced I was staring at them instead of the pre-olympic volleyball match (though slightly aggressive at first, they clamed down after and explanation). There was the Israeli girl who thought helself good at billiards, yet lost several times to some lucky amateurs from the states.



There was the easy-going Aussie, whom we bombarded with suggestiong and advice for his upcoming trip to Shanghai and Xi'an. There were the hostel helper girls, who found our Scrabble game to be absolutely fascinating.



I enjoyed getting to know some of the people in Sanlitun Youth Hostel.



We miss Phil.

section one: xi'an

Xi'an is a mix of old and new. An ancient 10-meter high wall surrounds a relatively small section of the actual city which has quickly outgrown its former fence. Modern architecture clashes with traditional chinese buildings. Double-decker busses look out of place with a bell-tower background. Older noodle shops sit next to popular bubble tea stands.



The food is delicious: breaded chicken on a stick with a cumin-flavored sauce; coconut bubble tea or liquidy strawberry yogourt; beef noodle soup where the meat is flavored with anis or cloves.



Despite the somewhat touristy atmosphere, Xi'an was enjoyable past the terra-cotta madness and Hua Shan hike.

read me first (carefully)!

Five posts go up today, all at the same time. I put them in reverse order, so start with this one, and read down until you've reached familiar territory.

I dislike getting behind. Whether in a game, class, blog,or journal, it's just generally a bad feeling. But I think this feeling is almost worth experienceing because it create the opportunity for another feeling: that of catching back up. I'm terribly behind in games of scrabble won, but Ive just won two in a row. I was stuck in Shanghai in my journal, but now I've made it to Mongolia. My blog hasn't changed in three weeks, but now Im updating. I'm catching up, and it feels nice.

Too much has hapened since Shanghai to put into one post, so I'll break it into four sections. Since many of you have already read Lance's more regular updates, I figured I'd try and find something else to write about that is hopefully new and interesting.

It might be a couple of weeks before I shell out the cash for another internet cafe. My advice to the reader (you): read one today, then wait a day or two between the next ones. That way you won't get bored and you can comment more than once (travellers like me love comments from home). Actually, do whatever you want. Don't skim though - although the spelling might be sketchy (what to you expect when I'm on the clock?) I think they're all worth reading. Maybe.

PS Except for in a couple places, the words don't go with the pictures. You can figure them out, or if you have questions, feel free to ask.