Mayan Prophecy Countdown

Well, some update info re the China Syndrome. The only option for us is the following: We enter China on the original date of 28th August, instead of heading south skirting the Himalayas, we head north for 9 days and exit out of China into Mongolia. We then have from the 6th September until the 20th September to cross the desert to UlaanBaata, apply for new Chinese visas and make our way to the border crossing at Erenhot. From there we ride south and west and eventually pick up the original route somewhere in Chengdu province. I am still trying to sort it out on a map, but will sort one out soon. The price went up, the detour adds two weeks to the journey and the expected entry into Laos is now the 16th October. You now know as much as me 🙂

On my last post I was crook, and after nearly six days of it I was about sick of it and needed a change. I had spent all Sunday in bed, some of that was last nights party but not all of it and Monday I decided enough is enough. This hotel has no aircon, so it is not helping. I would ride to the next town down the road of Karanganda, only 250km and see what happens, it would be stinking hot, so maybe that would dry me up 🙂 First off the hotel, it is a weird place, it is situated on a large parcel of land on the outskirts but facing a funny way, not the street, check out this photo.

On the other end is a large dried out mud hole, about 40m before you get to the street. Where I am standing is paddock and eventually buildings I guess. But the hotel did have a car park in front of it, until this dude bought that bit of land and started to build a house!!! Now, the parking is in the bush, you can park in between the hotel and fence with a bike, but the whole set up is strange. They don’t clean your room, unless you ask, this is not just here, it is everywhere in Kaz, so unless you request it, it won’t happen, I found that out over time 🙂

Anyway, I headed off east late morning, I had to make sure I felt OK for the minute before leaving, although I was given some powder stuff by the hotel owners, tasted nice and good for the gut problem apparently, hope I don’t turn to rock with all that I was taking!!! The ride was short, like I said only a few hours and hot, and I was totally stressed out trying to find a place to stay, I had no energy because of not eating for two days. But, I did find an old run down joint and made sure it had aircon. The wifi was iffy and only available during the evening, so once again the blog suffered, but there you go, it happens.

That afternoon and evening was spent resting and I even managed to feel hungry, so had a pizza, but no beer. I was not sure what was causing the bug, local water(I was drinking bottled by now), fruit and vegies(washed in local water) or beer(possibly made with local water). When the wifi did come up later that evening, it was flat out providing email let alone uploading photos, so there was no way could I stay here, I needed to move on.

Cheers from Karaganda
TravellingStrom