Third Post

July 17, 2016

We arrived in Almaty very early in the morning, in the dark.  So, I couldn’t see much.   I am not sure I missed anything.  It was pretty cold. The airport terminal had recently  (been??) burned down, so we were escorted into a temporary facility.  Our escorts had big guns; they looked like bazookas to me.  And they locked all of  us in a room.  I was expecting poison gas to pour from the vents. This was our introduction to Kazakhstan, but that was in 1999.  It isn’t like this now.  Well, at least not so obviously.

Eventually someone must have let us out, and we went through a long process involving passport control.  I was worried the expression on my face (I had just been in a locked room with armed guards) would alarm the officer.  I don’t know how I looked, but I am think  like someone resembling an ineffective spy trainee trying to quietly enter an enemy country. The person looked at my passport photo, looked at me, looked at the photo, looked at me. I smiled.  The officer didn’t.  I was fidgety.  I had to pee.  I remember asking him how he was in Russian, but since I didn’t place the accent correctly, he didn’t understand.  And I don’t think he was interested.

Allen and I both got our passports stamped. And we were introduced to the ubiquitous official blue ink stamp. We would see that blue ink stamp constantly throughout our career.

We were legal!  We were excited, but I still had to pee.  And let me tell you, Kazaks used to be shepherds so they are pretty laid back.  Took a long time to get our luggage. And I finally got to pee.

Not a great beginning to our exploratory trip.  But that would change.  I’ll tell ya later.