The name of the game is.... Beaucracy!

Since we last wrote we've been playing the game, and while we are moving forward on the board (so it seems) the finish line keeps moving and is always quite a way off in the distance. We've also been dealt some bad cards, bad cards such as: Corruption!!!! - Pay 10x what you rolled, and move only 1/3 as much as you rolled (rounding down), Language Barrier - miss a turn, whenever you roll a even number, Out of Date Guidebook - go back 3 spaces every time you land on a destination square. Believe it or not even with such terrible cards we think we may make it out alive (we're not sure about our sainity yet).

Since we wrote last we've been trying to mail a box home to Canada, get an english book to read, and buy a train ticket to Astana, not the kind of thing that should take 4 days, but then again you aren't playing the game Beaucracy now are you??

First thing, to send a package home (approx. 15-20kg) using a private mail service (Fedex, UPS, DHL) will cost in excess of $400 US. This was a dead end on the board, which we had to go back and wasted nearly a day doing. We found that shipping our package home through cargo would be the cheapest option, so we decided to do that. That is when we go the "Do not have a box card" which meant that without a box we didn't have anything to ship our stuff home in. No luck finding a box. We were able to burn DVD's of our pictures as backup though (a bonus card, not of any real value but makes you feel good). Then we got the email from the cargo place giving us the names and numbers of shipping companies that they deal with (a good card, moving us forward 5 spots). Contacts on the phone speak english 2/3 times, giving us a modist move forward 1 space. Contacts don't get back to you for many hours, lose 3 turns. Anyways I could continue in this manner, but I would think that it would or could get difficult to read, so we'll switch just to what happened...

After searching in vain for a box and making first contact to the shipping companies we went and tried to buy our train ticket. This is after we paid our landlord at our apartment for an additional 5 nights. We went to the ticket window (not sure if it was a travel agent or what, but they sold tickets, while most other travel agents didn't) and tried to say what we wanted. I had written out in Russian before we got there what we wanted as best I could using the dictionary, but still there was much confusion. We finally figured out after an hour or so that we were trying to say the same thing, picked 2nd class and tried to buy the tickets. I say try because after all that, the tickets for Saturday were sold out. So we tried another Saturday train, nothing in second class either. So we recounted and found we could go on Friday if we wanted, making our stay in Astana about 68 hours (the most allowed before you have to register is 72 hours). So we got our tickets for Friday. The problem with that is that we can't get hold of our landlord very easily to tell him we are leaving a day earlier now. We have his number but he doesn't speak a word of English and you all know how good our Russian is... We're still working on that one...

Back to the sending stuff home story. So it took a while for the three different companies to get back to us, and then we choose the one who was the cheapest, $100 US for picking us up, packing it, going through customs with us (the forms will I promise be only in Russia) and giving it to the cargo shipping company wing of Lufthansa. So we called them back to say okay.. when they informed us we needed to get a form from the museum to say that what we had wasn't historic. So the next day we headed out after falsely waiting for our landlord, we thought he was coming because we spoke to his friend, but no dice, and waiting to get the pictures we took of our stuff developed. So the museum is on the exact opposite corner of the city from where we stay, so it took the better part of an hour to walk there. When we got there we went to the 3rd floor where our pictures were examined and entered into a ledger. We have bought a Russian hat or two that we took a picture of (isn't Soviet era stuff historic? ... well I guess not) because that picture was laughed at, and we we're given strange looks over, and the looks said are you crazy? You want this? You think this is historic? etc. This continued throughout the following steps but there is no need to repeat again and again that we were made to feel stupid. So after it was entered in the ledger the form came out that they filled in, and was signed both ladies in the room. A nice man came in to laugh about the hats, who spoke good english. We had a chat about the government here (which we'll share when we get home) and hockey, he was a big Jagr fan. Then we went to the first floor, where we went to room 120A to get our form signed. Then to 120 to get the form signed agian. Then to room 128 to pay almost $90 for the form. The form was signed again here, and we were also given a recipt. Then back to room 120 to get the form signed and stamped a couple of times by two guys and the items again entered into another ledger. All in all, we waited in no lines and everyone was at their desk for the most part and the thing just at the museum took over an hour.

Then since we were by the Hyatt we decided to go into it to see if they had English books. Sara thought it was very cruel to take her into there. There was books, they were just $40 for a soft cover, and magazines for $20 US a little expensive for us. Sara was not happy to leave the nice marble atmosphere. She has vowed to be rich. And to one day travel in such a manner. That's right!!!!! (Sara) After that cruel outing we walked back and ate rice with soya sauce for dinner. (sara: I actually feel like were poor.. im not even kidding.. and its kind of sad because i know we are FAR from poor.. but it does feel a little like that... except maybe not poor poor.. just mildly poor)

Today we got up hoping to send our parcel home (note: on the way home we also got a copy of our visa and passport (needed for customs) but when we called the place they said they were really busy today, and that they would pick us up tomorrow at 9:00am. So we watched the All Star Baseball game secretly cheered from the NL to win for the first time in a long time, (what a boring game until the bottom of the ninth, sara say: crappy pitching) And then headed out for english books. We walked all the way to the south (uphill the whole way) to KEMP University. When we got there we were trying to explain to the security guard we wanted to go to the bookstore, when a lady (studying or trying to get on as a prof.) decided to help us. She said there was no bookstore, just a library and one shop. We went to the shop to discover that the Lonely Planet is once again filled with lies. She did direct us to Interpress, which we eventually found a couple of blocks from the university which did have some english books. Most were the learn english variety, but there was some others. The others were some Ian Fleming and other quick fun reads that were about the same price as those books at the Hyatt (3000-4000 Tenge) and some classics for 500 tenge per piece. We got some classics, (tyson did, sara having just finished Jude the Obscure did not want anything to do with classics), and that was the day.

Tomorrow we send our parcel hopefully and get hold of our landlord.
(Ran out of time to post pictures so maybe tomorrow)
Note tomorrow is our last full day in Almaty before we go to Astana, and then on to Moscow on Tuesday, July 17th

Tyson and Sara