Russia Rocks!!

---

Hi all

Sorry to be out of touch so long - we were lost in the remote regions of Kazakstan for a few weeks - although we did hit pretty sophisticated civilation in Almaty for a couple of days (and were amazed by the beauty of the local lasses - they all looked like supermodels and not even the tiniest skeerik of excess weight on anyone we saw!!)...

Had a great camp in one of the main nature reserves up in the mountains...saw bear droppings around the camp site in the morning, but fortunately for our fears - not our cameras no bears materialised (plenty of bare backsides bush camping of course)

Kazakstan very interesting, for its variety, but lots of barren desert areas to cover with not too many highlights. The land of weddings and cemeteries. Literally saw (and were caught up in) hunderds of weddings....one every minute in the couple of towns we stayed in...the full white weddings with limousines, in a constant parade down the main streets to the parks and mosques...with the bridal parties always happy to stop and talk. (And it didn't seem to matter what day of the week! As for the cemeteries....almost all seemed to be islamic ..with mausoleums. And they were much bigger than the towns they were next to, and there were literally thousands of them...half way out from anywhere

Anyway, after almost 4 weeks roaming across Kazakstan, down to the Aral Sea (by the way, we just skirted Uzbekistan and Kyrgustan, (camped 300 metres from the border of Kyrgestan unwittingly - it was just after dusk) only to find border guards with guns surrounding us within 15 minutes, so we just went on setting up our campsites and cutting up veges for dinner, while they did the whole passport shakedown/inspection of the bus etc..are used to that by now!!...the first 7 hours in Russia we were stopped by the Police 7 times for the whole shebang....sort of upsets the travel schedule..you have to allow a lot of time for Police stop)

Anyway, we returned to Russia, coming from the south and then moving westward...Have visited some fantastic cities (camping stopped at the Russian border and we are now in hotels (still not luxury I hasten to add but after 45 days bush camping it certainly feels like it when you get a hot shower)

Stopped at Samara on the Volga (what a fantastic river - unbelievably huge and picturesque...) it has the most wonderful long, long, promenade filled with parks, cafes, beaches (natural) along the river, with a national parl along the opposite side. The town is so picturesque, with a fantastic mix of 400 year old wooden houses, beautiful onion domed churches, and gardens and the new, propsperous up to the minute buildings, cafes etc that have mushroomed in the last couple of years...a city we'd love to visit again.

From Samara we went to Kazan which has a world heritage listed site - their Kremlin, inside which is one of the most beautiful - modern mosques we have seen - certainly comparable to/better than the Blue Mosque in Turkey, along side a fantasic Russian Orthodox Cathedral...just magic!!

After a few days there it was on to Nhizny Novogorod - more churches, museums kremlin, etc etc - another wonderful city...after that Vladimir, ditto, then Suzdahl, which is a small village of a few thousand people set in rolling countryside, but with dozens and dozens of 30 churches and convents, all with many turreted golden onion domes, from the 11th century to around the 15th century. We had a magic time there - Al and I split off and stayed with a Russian lady in a home stay for a few nights which was terrific...then to top it all off they had the final day of their Autum festival on the Saturday, so there was a street parade and musical spectacular at night...with dancers from all the Russian ethnic groups (from Armenia, the Caucas, etc etc...even had some Pakistani and Nigerian dancers)

At the moment we are in Moscow - and the computer we are using hasn't got a USB port - so it looks like we are fated to not post pix this trip. Will do this later at home. Moscow, the Kremlin, St Basils Cathedral, Red Square just amazing...lived up to all the hype..it has been a wonderful trip so far - so much to see and amaze the senses..

Will say bye for now...we still have two weeks to go, and another 4 cities - Novogorod (not Nhizny...), St Petrsburg, Tallin in Estonia and Helsink to fit in yet, but will probably not have time to post anything again...so...see you in a fortnight or so...............

Hope you are all OK

Cheers
Al and Lynn
which

---