Monday, August 25, 2003

BACK IN THE WORLD OF BLOGGING

I made it back from Kazakhstan in one piece.



None of our party fell for the lost wallet scam, I successfully carried a very large sum of US$ around Almaty and up into the Tien Shan mountains on our half-day off at the end of business. On the way home (5am flight via Istanbul), one of our team was asked for a bribe by the policeman guarding the entrance to the "terminal building". Nice building, I have to say, one of the few nice remnants of the Soviet era. But, not a functional airport terminal building.

As mentioned earlier, the new terminal building is still unfinished. I was told on our last day that the Government has plenty of money to finish it, thanks to Kazakhstan's huge oil and gas reserves. But, administration is so poor that the money keeps getting held up. Meanwhile, the airport in Astana (new capital from 1997) has had loads of money lavished upon it. They are rebuilding the runway. Rather than closing it during the night for the work, they close it during the day! So all flights have to take and land before 8am or after 8pm! Imagine that happening at Heathrow.

:: Posted by pete @ 19:10