On The Road Again, But Not Far
Posted by TravellingStrom on August 13, 2012
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
TravellingStrom 
nacho said
I like the way wifi is a major criteria in hotel choice. It is for me too and I can’t stay for too long if there’s no connection 🙂
TravellingStrom said
Hi Nacho, we may meet one of these days soon eh!! And yes, it has been that way on all my travels, I can do without aircon sometimes, if it is not too stinky hot, but without good net connection, why bother, I may as well camp 🙂
matt g said
Water used for beer making….’round here (;…is boiled for at least 60 minutes. You should be an all go on cold beer. “Looking back” in my beer history books I am reminded that earlier European settler’s in the soon to be United States made “table beer” with super low alcohol and the whole family drank it instead of the ground water. Not that a break from beer is a horrible thing….just doing my part to keep the beer reviews coming!! =)
TravellingStrom said
Thanks m8, I have just finished a book by Ken Follett called “The Pillars of Earth”, based on old time England church building, they always had beer for brekky, which is probably the basis for the stuff you talk about
Funnily enough, or just plain coincidence, I have left Kaz beer and drank Kyrgyzstan beer last night and have not had an issue, I won’t say it is definite, but I am working on a theory here that maybe too much of a good thing caused the problem 🙂 I recall the same problem all 5 of us had in the Philippines and we all drank lots of the same beer, anyway, it goes in my notes anyway
Cheers TS
matt g said
One thing that is fact….after your visit to our mountain town in McCall, Idaho U.S.A., I felt like a pickle in a barrel for a whole day! Too much of a good thing indeed. I’m still steamed the authorities failed to process our beer and wine license, hence no beer flowing at my fledgling brewery that day you visited! Booooo!! FYI We have brewed 210 batches (nearly 50,000 gallons) of beer so far, just finishing up our fourth summer, which was a record for the brewery, ie amount of beer sold in our pub and to our accounts around town and in Boise, Idaho. Life is good.
TravellingStrom said
Hiya Matt
Well, as luck would have it I never went without beer that night anyway 🙂
Glad to hear your brewery is firing up, I hope it continues that way 🙂
Cheers TS