KGB Mountains & Old Audis Never Die They Just go to Kyrgystan

After 3 weeks of holiday I’m now in the middle of Krgyzstan, one of the Central Asian states that broke off when the USSR or Soviet Republic imploded in the mid 90’s, if you’re a Google nut the location is Kazarman or Aral.

If Tanzania felt like an adventure well this is totally off the planet! Yesterday I spent the day in a car, on a single width track usually looking 6-800m down into a valley heading for the snow at 3,500m – no room for error, a slow and painful death would be certain. My driver is an ex-KGB Colonel – a really, really nice guy and a great driver. You are surrounded by mountains wherever you go in this country but driving is torturous. In a straight line we are probably only 180km from the capital Bishkek but it’s nearly a 10 hour drive as you have to go around some major mountain ranges.

I think I’m in shock but in a good way, as this place is so totally and completely different. The country is quite arid and being land locked the climate is quite extreme and temperatures vary between 40 degrees in summer to minus, YES minus, 25 degrees in winter; this later end I am quite worried about! Before I left Bishkek I was taken out to buy thermals, down jackets etc.

As much as it’s a democratic country, there is widespread corruption but it seems to be nowhere near as bad as Tanzania. In size the country is about that of the UK but the population is only 5.5million (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kyrgyzstan) many of them living a peasant existence. The country seems to have struggled to maintain the infrastructure built and left by the Soviets, this seems to comprise mainly grey concrete buildings and broken bitumen, I don’t think I have seen any building of architectural merit old or new.  And I think I have travelled on the worst bitumen road ever, it was appalling like riding a bucking cow! In contrast to all this it has the most amazing landscapes with a country that has had massive recent geological activity (mountain building) and which has been wonderfully sculpted by what must have been equally massive glacial activity.

I’m with a totally new Australian company called Celsius Coal, the project is to prove up a coking coal deposit, previously identified by the old USSR/Soviet regime somewhere between 1940 and 1970, it is used in steel making. The small problem is that the coal is located in the mountains but having its neighbour being China is a huge plus and of course the project has the potential to bring much needed $’s to the country should it get through the hands of the Government to the people. 

Our host is Big Momma. She runs an ex-Soviet guest house on top of a rise overlooking Kazarman, we almost have exclusive use of it. From the front door you have a 270 degree view of mountains and the valley below. It’s functional and almost comfortable, there is a pool and sauna, neither of which work. I have finally got my own room which is OK. Big Momma does all the cooking but she seems a little arbitrary as to whether she wants to do it or not, some day’s the meal will be lavish and others something simple. Food comprises mutton, mutton, more mutton and potatoes but being summer tomatoes, a sort of hybrid cucumber/zucchini, water melon and apples are abundant. Much of the farming comprises sheep grazing so that means flies, flies, flies.  It just doesn’t pay to look in the kitchen!!

Milk doesn’t seem to exist but there are some really nice breads, the local beer is good. So I’m eating well, I got the guys to tell her I don’t eat much meat and since then have had a good variety of vegetable alternatives. There are chickens wandering the yard so you have to be careful where you place your feet, chicken was requested the other day for dinner and no sooner was the request made than there were 2 less chickens in the flock… (or is that for sheep?)

 The staff is great, as I mentioned my driver is an ex-KGB agent, a huge bloke who walks around a lot of the time without his shirt speaking broken English with a heavy Russian accent (the native tongue). Communicating is hard as you need a translator for everything but I seem to be getting by, I have picked up names now I have to try to get a few words. All staff seem to be very hard working and thoughtful but the administration is far from helpful and inflexible, if one thing sends me home screaming this will.

There doesn’t seem to be much public transport which is a bit of a blessing as it keeps the buses off the mountain roads.  But in the country 9 out of 10 cars are old audi’s, they are everywhere, hundreds of them. This is where Europe and even the US sends it’s old cars. The city seems to be a bit different a lot of old Merc’s, BMW’s and Toyota’s. I’ve been told I can have my own car so jokingly suggested it should be a BMW X5 and they said fine!

Don’t know if this has been interesting or not, over the next few days I’m heading to our farthest exploration site. Our closest one is about 45km away and takes 3 hrs to get to, the next one is about 10km away but on the other side of the mountain range so it is basically a 3 day round trip to get round to the other side of the mountain and up, sounds crazy but true!

Enjoy the photos.. Oh yes the company is buying me a mountain bike so I can explore the local region even further, I must admit I’m tempted to try to ride the hill up to our highest tenement, possible I could beat the 4WD?? 

LIFE IN THE BIG CITY…

Things are coming to an end for me here as I fly out tomorrow evening; it has been sad to leave as the Tanzanians are good people to work with.  They are so appreciative of any effort you put into helping them understand their job. They are thoroughly pleasant people, I have not had a cross word in the whole time I have been here, in fact it’s almost been a holiday. They have all asked for my private email address and phone number and one of the students working for us sent me a text today saying “Thank you very much Sir. I appreciate everything I’ve learnt from you. To be honest I’m gonna miss you so much.  I promise to work hard sir. May God rain his blesses down on every plan of yours”. Charming guy but also looking for a job.

  

Leaving site was quite upsetting, everyone was very sad to see me go (more likely concerned about the return of Stalin!)  but they are a very likeable people and have fun when they work. I drove back to Dar which is probably close to 1400Km a long haul over 1.5 days. The country on one front absolutely fascinating but in others can be an absolute dump, one of the worst sections is about 300km with interval where eucalypt forest have been planted which has devastated the landscape.

 For the return trip I used my authority and got our driver to take us to Mikumi a small game reserve and with a western hotel called TanSwiss.  We got in late, close to 9, and the kitchen was closing at 10.  I asked for chicken tikka, “would sir like it with ricey or chipsy?” despite 90,000 serves of rice over the previous 3 weeks I said rice, only for her to come back and say they had run out and would I like mashed potatoes to which I said yes please. Still tasted good but the chicken was like rubber bullets.  As you can see by the pics Mikumi Park did not disappoint. All we did was drive along the main road (which is traversed by a thundering, fume belching truck every 2min) to see the most amazing wildlife.

I had a taste of life in the big city the day before I left. Firstly dropping one of our technicians to his home in an outer suburb of Dar; then dinner with middle Tanzania in an up market shopping mall that could have come straight out of the “burbs” of Adelaide and including the wife of one of our employees called Hapiness, and; a discussion with a german intern doctor that told an horrific story of government repression; followed by a visit to the “Q” bar, a place where expats hang out and where prostitutes pick up “mzungu”, desperate old white men to be sugar daddies.

Well the horrendous story was that from the german intern who is in Dar for 6 weeks. Apparently shortly after arrival the doctors went on strike, after a week the leader of the strike disappeared to be discovered near death with his finger nails and2 teeth pulled out and badly beaten.  The doctors had to “fight” to get the fellow released from the Police so they could take care of him.  After the doctors did return to work the Government still said they were on strike as propaganda.  The intern said whilst working there three case note piles at the start of the day, public patients, private patients and fast track patients, the last group were those that paid to jump the queue.

The dinner was with one of our geologists and his wife, “Happiness”, was a lacklustre meal, a lot of talk about work but the cat had got Happiness’s tongue as she did not say a word.

The last one was to the “Q” bar described above. I was told it was where the beautiful black girls hung out trying to find white sugar daddies.   It was a Monday night so it was very quiet but clearly there were a few girls there, I ran into the german intern again and he said if I stood alone it would take only 10min to be approached. Well they circled me, and nudged me and it was probably close to 20min before one spoke to me  - good English, doing language studies just back from Moscow and Blearuse, she must be catering for white Russian fantasise.  I was then approached by another one and said that I was  Australian and she said she had a friend Stewie …., I said oh I know him, which brought on this fear from her that I would tell him and that he would beat her if he found out she was out. Hmmmm. I exited shortly after.

On my last day I went to the Dar Es Salaam fish market and the Kariakoo market where I was told to leave all valuables behind.  An uneventful visit but fascinating  - have a look at the photos.  I’m now signing off for 3 weeks until I take up my new posting in Kyrgyzstan. Hope you have enjoyed this little expose of life in Tanzania.