Day 447 - From metropolis to a mini-town

The first half of our day was spent on the train travelling though the desert-like part of Southern Kazakhstan. We met some great people on the train who spoke some English and chatted away with them. When we rolled into Turkestan around 2pm, one of our new friends found us a marshrutka (mini-bus) to take us to the hotel we wanted, and when we were dropped off 2 guys sitting on the side of the road spotted us and called out the hotel across the road that we were obviously looking for - well given that it's dirt cheap, we think they're used to seeing backpackers looking for this place!

Inside the hotel we were greeted by a really lovely lady who we communicated with in sign language with the occasional English word she knew and the few Russian ones we know.

We went to a cafe across the road for lunch where Liv's vegetarian salad came with meat (awesome) and the table service was colder than icy - at places like this they don't deserve the service charge that's automatically added to the bill!Afterwards we wandered towards the bazaar, making our way through the residential area with speeding Ladas passing us all the way. We stopped and befriended a wee puppy, who we enticed out of the gate with the left over cone of Liv's icecream. At the bazaar we walked down a few of the streets checking out fruit, spices and the general goings on that people were involved in - the most common being consuming the bright yellow carbonated drinks on offer all over town. For dinner we went to a Turkish cafe in a very cool setting - we sat outside on comfy couches in the garden bar, while dance/pop music played and flashing lights flashed. Just as we talked about how nice it was to hear some Central Asian music, the Backstreet Boys came blaring out the speakers ... Murphy's Law!

With our successful vege meal finished we headed home for some sleep we missed out on on the train the night before.

Adlibing Turkestan.