Day 452 - Trippin' to Taraz

Utilizing our growing Russian skills we successfully found a bus headed for the bus station and ignoring the spew on the ground it turned out to be quite profitable. We paid our 80 cents like all the other passengers, but 10 minutes later the friendly conductor walked up to Liv and gave her a dollar, with a look that said "go on, you poor backpacker, take it".

At the bus station we boarded a marshrutka bound for a town called Taraz about 3 hours away, from where we'll catch a bus to Kyrgyzstan tomorrow. Once again we met an English speaking local whom we conversed with for much of the journey, the scenery of which consisted of parched farmland.

In Taraz we managed to fluke another bus trip to take us directly to the hotel we were aiming for, and after checking in we were out in search of food. We made it to the bazaar by a mixture of buses, but on arrival found it closed (just our luck!), so we found a restaurant where we ordered the only 2 things we no how to: vege plov (rice) for Liv and Shashlyk (shish kebabs) for Adam.

On our way to the internet cafe we passed the Main Square in town - slowly being decorated for the nights fair celebrating the public holiday for Constitution Day.

Right now we're about to head back to the hotel for some Kyrgyzstan planning - it'll be sad to say goodbye to Kazakhstan tomorrow but will be better for our budget!!

Adlibing another day without a market.