Almaty
We are still in Almaty the city of apples, Kazakhstan. Our flat has a beautiful view of the panorama of snow capped mountains surrounding Almaty and we are enjoying positive temperatures. We spent the stroke of 12 at New Year with a group of ex pats in Mad Murphy?s and Tom spent it at Republika Square where there was a massive firework display.
After that we all went off our own separate ways with Tom paying a visit to a night club somewhere in the city and paying $50 for the privilege! After an alcoholic Christmas and New Year perusing the local British and Irish Bars, making some geological and oil friends and just relaxing, we are heading up into the mountains to do a spot of snowboarding in Kazakhstan?s only ski resort, Chimbulak. After that we return to the land of travel and the travelogues may be quite extensive as we head the 4000km across China from the 15th January towards Laos. After that we heading down into Thailand and we will see if we can help with the recovery process after the dreadful tsunami.Greg and Alexis are still recovering from the bad cold and cough that we had over Christmas as well as the mild case of frostbite that we have in our toes. We have had frostbite since Suzdal in Russia when our heater broke. It makes your skin waxy yellow in colour and really sensitive to the touch, feeling like pins and needles. Unfortunately there isn?t much on the net as to what you should do with affected parts except for put in warm water?So if any of you have any ideas as to what we should do with our toes ? besides amputate them ? we would appreciate some medical advice! Greg got quite badly affected with his feet becoming wet and crinkled and loss of sensation at the end of his toes. We are hoping that nerve endings grow back!!! This webpage gives you an insight into our pain! http://www.couloirmag.com/articles/techniques/frostbite.htm
Russia and Kazakhstan both celebrate Christmas on the 6/7th January unlike us Europe. So the Christmas decorations have only just started going up. Kazakhstan still celebrates the old Soviet New Year as well which is on 13th January. The Kazaks also associate with the Chinese New Year and 2005 is the year of the Rooster. We have been given chickens in baskets as presents for a good year and all the shops are stocked with little chickens. On a good luck card, one friend intensively looked through the dictionary to write down a little note... ?I hope that 2005 brings you good cock?? We can all hope for that!
Happy New Year and I hope that 2005 brings you all that you desire as well as a good cock/rooster!!