Day 446 - Visas in hand

After taking it easy this morning, we checked out of our hotel and spent the rest of the day lugging out packs around town - not the best way to stay hidden from the police! Our first hide out was in an internet cafe, where after an hour of wasted energy we made the executive decision to spend more time in Kyrgyzstan than go to Uzbekistan at all. Maybe we'll make it there in the future when they make it easier on tourists.

We stocked up on supplies at the supermarket, which cost us a fortune compared to our usual huge stock-up we used to do in China. We have to keep reminding ourselves that we have to compare prices to NZ, not China - and when we do we don't feel too bad because on the whole things are just slightly cheaper here than back home.

We made our way to a park around the corner from the Kyrgyz Embassy where we spent a few hours lazing under the shade of the trees reading our books and lying on our packs instead of them lying on us!!At the Kyrgyz Embassy we were given our visas (hooray!) and after another hour of reading in the park we made our way to the train station. On the bus we met a translator who upon finding out we were from NZ said "ah, kiwis, no worries mate" in a primo kiwi accent. Nice to know we're represented all the way over here! We had a quick bite to eat at the train station before wandering along the platform trying to figure out where to go!

On the train we were greeted with the familiar hard sleepers like in China, but surprisingly at an even cheaper price - the only thing cheap here is the transport. We paid $13 for an 18 hour sleeper train ride. The day dragged on as the lights were kept on until midnight, at which point we went to sleep!

Adlibing it out of Almaty.