Monday 30 July 2007

Update 15# - What did you say ?

2007/07/30 7.50
Few miles before Atyrau, mileage counter shows 6229 km

I'm pretty much experiencing the distance between them and me right now, as talking to them on the phone sounds like talking to the man on the moon. What a coincidence, I just found that article here, saying that a 1,5 Mbit DSL flat would cost around 2500 € in Kazakhstan (16.000 € for a 6 Mbit flat). No wonder they haven't found an Internet cafĂ© yet. I've come to know, that on their way to finding a camping ground, they met a guy from Heidenheim (Germany) and his family. They were so happy to see them, that the father and his son showed them the most beautiful camp ground directly at the sea and cooked spaghetti with them. On the next morning, Richard and Martin had to take care as lots of camels and nosey horses came by tents to check them out ;)
Then, there is the more stressful part, as they won't let me talk them out of going to Uzbekistan. I tried everything, but it wouldn't help. Thanks to my lovely friend Katja, who called the embassy of Kazakhstan in Toshkent (Uzbekistan), we now know, that getting a visa takes at least (whatever that means in Russian terms) 2 working days. So, either trying to do so or - as some other drivers met people from the rally Paris -> Bejing, get the special permission they need to drive through China.

To be continued...

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