Fresh Mounain Air

Sorry for not posting for a while, things have not been great physically latelly, so i haven't had the energy to go on the net.

We are now in Naryn, Kirgyzstan, not too far from the Chinese border, and high into the Kyrgyz mountains. Because of the ongoing conflict between myself and my body, I haven't been able to go hiking or anything like that. The others have though, and I've seen all the pictures :-) Oh well. Yesterday we managed to almost finnish building the kitchen in the bus, so I'm quite happy with that. We have been staying outside a hostel here for a couple of days, and have met some tourists for the first time yet. Mostly middle aged men going on expeditions to the peaks close by, (or at least the base camps below the peaks). On their way there, going very quickly through the less "extreme" areas in sponsored jeeps covered in multi colored comercials. In our case, I have now figured out what it is we are doing. Upon reaching the top of Maslows pyramid (self realisation), the only way forward seemed to be down, so we jumped right back down to level one, to and three, now consentrating mostly on food, various bodily fluids, safety and so on. The latest developement healthwise is that noone is seriously ill, everyone has a cold because of the cold nights, and at least one or two people struggle with their digestion at any given time. In other words, not worse than coud be expected, but terribly annoing after a while.

The bus is at a garage at the moment, hopefully getting one of its reserve tires fixed after a flat tire insident the other day. In a couple of hours we'll be on our way towards Kashgar and China. Tomorrow is the big border crossing day. Hopefully our guide will meet us on the border and have all the papers and permits and taxes in order. Keep fingers crossed.

Central Asia has been great, I'm definatelly comming back at some point and spending more time here. My Russian vocabulary now consists of approx. 30 words and phrases, and it would be a shame not to improve it sometime. If the situation in Pakistan detiriourates, we might be back allready in a month or two, but I really hope we don't have to turn back, as the weather is getting really cold.

More pictures comming up shortly. And more posts. Promise.

Hugs and kisses for all,

Ingrid

Astana- short update

We are currently in Astana, Kazakhstan, peicing ourselves together after a rough ride across the Kazakh steppes. We were involved in a serious traffic accident where a man got badly injured, but luckily survived. In addition, almost everyone has been ill in one way or another, rashes, colds, stomack problems and fever. But things are looking up, a couple of days in the same spot has done us good. I hope for more time to do other things than take care of primary needs like health, hygene and sleep, as we slow down our travel speed slightly on our way to Almaty.

A million thanks to everyone who has sent me mail or comments on the blogs. It means the world to me, allthough I haven't been able to send replies to most of you.