Day 91 was a relaxing day, staying at the Tanzharyk Hotel,because our Russian visa starts on 1st October and we needed to take our time getting to the border. There was an unfortunate incident the previous night when we went to the restaurant; I ordered Quidaryk (a goulash-type bowl of meat and potato) and Jennifer ordered a Greek salad and a plant of manti. I got my food but Jennifer didn’t, and when we went and politely told the waitress we needed our food, a load of her friends came in and she sat down gossipping to them and waved us away. So we walked for 700 metres into town and found this scruffy ramshackle hut that claimed to be a restaurant. We walked in and this little old lady served us the most delicious samsas.
On the morning of the 27th I put my trousers on only to discover that my wallet was missing. The last place I remember using it was in the samsa restaurant so I ran as quickly as possible to the restaurant, only to be told by the old woman’s family (who were busy making new samsas) that nobody had left a wallet. They gave me two frshly-baked samsas and told me how to get to the police station. Trudging back to the restaurant feeling sick at heart, I felt a bit cold and remembered that it was minus-16 degrees when we slept at Aktobe in 2018. I thought that it was a good job I was wearing my coat last night. My coat!!!!!!. That’s where the wallet must be. And it was. Panic over.
When I got back to the hotel, Jennifer was having breakfast with two untouched bowls of kasha in front of her. It is ground-rice pudding and she doesnt like it so I ate both of them. I mentioned eggs to the waitress (a different one from the grumpy waitress of last night) and she brought me a plate of derevenskii zaftrak (two fried eggs, a hamburger style sausage, and fresh tomato and cucumber). Then the hotel manager came and we told her about our experience last night and she was suitably apologetic. We spent the rest of the day in our bed because there is absolutely nothing to see in Aktobe.
On the 28th we drove towards Uralsk and stopped at a truckers caff at Zhanomir where we had two delicious, large and cheap meals, and bought some grapes, tomatoes and cheese. I went for a walk and two dogs came and sniffed at me. They guarded the van during the night, barking at other dogs to keep them away.
On the 29th we drove to the border past an enormous (about 6 miles) queue of trucks making for Russia. On getting to the border 36 hours early, we turned round and found a truckstop to stay for the night.
I read some days ago that Facebook has banned posts from Russia because it is afraid they may be urging Americans to vote for Trump. I’m not sure whether the blog can still be posted; we will find ut on 1st October. I’m also not sure whether our stack of US dollars and Chinese yuan can be changed in Russia, so the next few days should prove interesting.