Letters from Central Asia

We are missing Nathan like crazy!!! For two weeks we were fine in the care of Grammy&Grampy but all this week Des&I both are constantly invoking Dadda's speedy return!!

6/9/06

Well, as indicated above, I had quite an adventure a couple of days ago. On Wednesday, I still hadn't been able to track down Professor Mathis and I was wondering what to do -- should I stay and see if I can find him or should I just leave? I had called him at his home and office several times, spoke with his secretary, and even went by the university, and I was getting tired of it -- I also felt a pressing need to get back to Kazakhstan -- so I tried to spend all of the rubles i had left on snacks and drinks and hopped on the next bus to Semipalatinsk.

About an hour into the trip I began to doze and was later woken by a "pop" sound followed by the bus coming to stop. The driver got out and looked around and eventually climbed back in and told us that the bus had broken down. He tried to drive us to the next "bus stop" but the bus was only moving at about 1 mile per hour -- at this rate we would reach civilization by August. I was gradually becoming quite concerned -- we were in the middle of nowhere and I didn't have any rubles! Suddenly the bus stopped again and the driver quickly jumped out. When he came back he said there was a bus behind us going to a town called Rubzovsk and we should all get on it. We all climbed on this small dirty bus, and I started to panic -- where is Rubzovsk? How big is it? How long will it take us to get there? How far is it from the Kazakh border? How will I get to Semipalatinsk from there? What am I going to do for money -- I spent all my rubles?

I finally saw a mileage marker and ascertained that it would take a couple of hours to travel to this town Rubzovsk and I kept my fingers crossed that it would be large enough to have a bank with an atm, a good bus station, and a hotel if necessary. As I mentioned, the bus was pretty small and old and slowly puttered along like the "train-that-could" -- every time we approached a hill, I began reciting "I think we can, I think we can."

After about four hours of that, we reached Rubzovsk, and I breathed a sigh of relief as I saw a bank with an atm on the way to the bus station. I checked at the station and saw that there was a bus to Semipalatinsk the next day in the afternoon, so I was going to have to spend the night here. I saw one of the guys who was on the bus that broke down and struck up a conversation with him -- he was pretty shocked to meet an American and was happy to chat with me for about an hour. It turned out that he lives in a village nearby and was able to point me in the direction of a cheap hotel. I thanked him and headed to the town square where the hotel was supposed to be.

I soon found the hotel, walked in and told the lady at the desk that I needed a room. She looked at me suspiciously and said "you can get a room if you have the proper documents!" I assured her I did and gave her my passport. She looked through it very surprised and said she didn't think that she could legally provide me with a room since I am a US citizen (this town obviously does not get to many international visitors). I explained to her that I was on my way to Semipalatinsk, but the bus broke down and I was stuck in Rubzovsk until tomorrow. She sympathized with my predicament and decided to call the local migration police to see if would be okay for me to stay. The officer said it would be fine if I supplied a photocopy of my passport, visa, and Russian migration card. I said I would do it and had to run out and find somewhere to get my passport photocopied. When I returned I was given a small room in this rather large, but very old and run down hotel. The place was huge but there wasn't to many guests staying there, so it had the feel of a haunted house. To get to my room on the third floor, I had to venture up an old grand staircase (complete with cobwebs!) and walk down a dark hallway with dozens of chairs, tables, and beds stacked along the walls. My room looked liked it hadn't been occupied in a decade and the bed had one of those noisy coil-spring mattresses. As uncomfortable as the place sounds however, I was happy to be there and was able to relax after my scare with the bus breaking down.

So its Friday now and I am in Semipalatinsk -- the trip from Rubzovsk to Kazakhstan went smoothly thank heavens. I am leaving for Almaty in a couple of hours on a train and I will arrive tomorrow afternoon. I will check back with you when I get to Almaty.

I can't wait to get home -- I am beat! Love you guys!