Come Back with My Luggage!

This will be a somewhat long post as I haven't updated you in a while. The plane ride from London to Bishkek, with a stop in Almaty was long - 8.5 hours. Sleep came in 15 to 30 minute naps in between snack, dinner, snack, drinks, and best of all, a hot, moist towel to wipe your face.

We took off late. The plane was a 757 and again we were sitting in seats right next to the lavatory. As Joshua said, you're almost asleep and then you hear a "whoosh". The snacks were pretty good and our food (Maria had beef and sweet potatoes and I had a curried vegetable entree) was delicious and hot. Joshua had grilled chicken and mashed potatoes (his favorites) and he wouldn't eat them. He ate a roll, dessert, some cheese and crackers, and chocolate candy. After a 7.5 hour flight, we landed uneventfully in Almaty, Kazakhstan in pretty much pitch black darkness. After 30 minutes on the ground, we took off and landed in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan at 4:15 in the morning of the 25th May 08 (5:15p Central time back home on the 24th). We deplaned and went to get our Visas. This was the first official stamp in our passports. It was then on to entry into the country, where the officer did not think that I looked like my picture. I wanted to agree with him and tell him that I didn't think that my picture looked like me either; but all I could do was stutter that I don't understand him. He eventually laughed and let us pass through customs. We then went to collect our luggage and go through customs. At the customs gate, you had two lines: one to declare and one not to declare. Nobody was around and we had to find the lady to tell her we had something to declare: that is we are tired and want to get to our hotel so we can go to sleep. She came out and asked us if we had produce or other items. She saw our luggage and asked if we had clothes, which we responded yes. She then waved us through. We told her that we had money. She went to get an interpreter as she indicated in broken English that her English "is no very good". They started conversing in Russian and then asked if we had more than $200 which we resoundingly responded "yes". She then asked if we had more than $3,000, which again we responded yes. Finally, Maria looked at her and said that we were adopting and had more than $3,000. They finally brought us some forms to fill out, stamped them and then sent us on our way out the door into the night air where we were greeted by several locals. At first, we felt like we were movie stars or something as they all gathered around us. Even one of them was holding a sign that had my name on it. Maria then reminded me that these guys take your luggage to the car and then come back and demanded American money. Our driver (the man holding the sign with my name on it) intervened as well as Aliya (our interpreter). We got our bags loaded, jumped in the van and listened as our driver had it out with one of the guys.

We left the airport and headed for the Silk Road Lodge. The ride was quiet - I don't think we even talked to one another until we saw the mountains shadow and the snow covered peaks. I at first thought that the peaks were clouds as it was nearly 6AM at the time. We arrived at the hotel, got our room, tipped our driver 10 dollars (364 coms over here), tipped our bellboy $5, headed to our room. I was amazed at the size of our room. We have a suite. The bed is a king size and the bedroom is spacious. Enough room to put Joshua's twin-sized bed in there along with our desk and dressers. The bathroom is elegant - compared to the rest of the rooms. We unpacked a few things, and then went downstairs for breakfast. We were about 40 minutes to early, so we headed back upstairs. Joshua was watching Nickelodeon. Everything on TV is in Russian. Maria laughed and said that it doesn't matter what they are saying, as long as it is a cartoon, Joshua would watch it. I laid down to take a little nap before going down for breakfast. The next thing I knew, it was 4PM over here.

I need to stop here and sleep some more. It is nearly midnight, and we are going to see Ellie tomorrow. Check back for my post regarding our dinner over here. It has to do with goat milk cheese.

Later.