Send money we can't afford New York, Kazakhstan

So the saying goes that Bishkek is the younger ugly sister of Almaty. If that is the case Almaty would be Bishkek's cracked out older hooker sister with expensive tastes. We really did not think Kazakhstan would be this expensive. Even though we have been told by everyone we ran into that it was uber expensive we shrugged it off and said.. "its central asia.. what could be so expensive?". How about a $7.50 pop with dinner? How is that for expensive??? Tyson's not happy.... however, i do feel bad now for making us take a taxi to Almaty for 1600 som when we could have taken a mini bus .. but we all know that me and mini buses are fighting right now.. so it was a taxi.. however now that i realize we probably will have to sleep outside and eat rats for 2 weeks i wish i would have taken the minibus puke and all. The drive and the boarder crossings were a peice of cake, really easy.. too smoothly in fact. Once we got into Almaty our driver said he couldnt take us to the travel agency because we already , conviently passed it.. (Lying scum bag... we totally didn't pass it) So we said whatever and he dropped us off at the bus station. A taxi wanted 1000 tenge which is like 8 bucks american for a ride accross town.. we said thanks but no thanks and contiuned to lug our huge packs, me carrying the foresaken box, and tyson with the little day pack and a huge bag of rugs. We at this point were hot, hungry and tired.. but searched for a taxi. First all, there is no "real" taxis, you just stand in the street and hold your hand out like a hooker not even kidding. But we did find one taxi sign and pulled him over, he wanted 3000 tenge. (are you kidding me? are we in New York City? I think so.. thats what it seems.. except its a gong show of chaos and i hate to say this but Clusterfuck , excuse my french mom and dad) we said no to this cracked out guy as well. So onwards the box and rugs, and us went. After about an hour of waiting, walking, frustration finally hit and Tyson saw one guy who was dropping off a lady and decided to ask him if he was a taxi, or whatever they call themselves. He said yes and his price was 1000 tenge (this was the lowest price we could get and asked about 6 drivers.. no one would go lower, do i look like a american from Texas that has oil money.. ??? NO!) So onwards we went to our travel agent. We got to the travel agent without any problem, and recieved our train tickets from Astana to Moscow. We asked about how we had to register, which they say we only have to do once, but have to do within 5 days. They were willing to do it for $29 US each, sorry but we'll do it ourselves. We then asked if they could help get us an apartment. For how much was the question. We were still hopeful at this point that up to this point we'd just meet scam artists, and said no more than $25 US per night. We were lucky to me sitting on a couch with a back to it, or the laugher that came back at us would have knocked us over. They half-heartedly called a few places and said that it was impossible. So we said, "What is the cheapest hotel?" They replied Doyte, for 6500 tenge per night (That is fricken $54 US) Are you kidding me!!!! Well we decided, since there was no other real choice, with it being 6pm by this point, and we could probably reorganize the next morning. So we get a taxi (only 300 tenge (again from a random man driving by, the rate should have been no more than 200 according to the travel agent, but we had bags... ) So we get to this hotel on a major road, pay and enter a russian elevator. On the 7th floor we enter our room, which has furnishing that would have been pulled from a dumpster. Its soo nasty, i think i might sleep standing up... i can't believe that 54 american dollars gets you a mattress from a dumpster on a floor.. you think im kidding but we have video coverage of it!!! Plus no fan, no air conditioning, and a very busy street. Oh joy! Hence the need for you all to send money.... So we quickly left in search for dinner.

We'll explain the city more later, but the countryside should be noted as looking very much like south central Alberta, kinda Drumheller area look (no the badlands area). Internet is also expensive here ($3.5 US an hour) oh boy I don't know how we're going to do anything here. So yeah, more on the city later. We found the American Grill House for dinner, which serves food identical to Montana's at home at identical prices. The only really great thing about dinner was the Heinz ketchup. The food was good, just like at Montana's, minus the moose heads. I had the burger, Sara the club sandwich. After dinner we found this place, and thought we'd tell everyone we're alive, and in need of more money. Frick'n Borat lied... its not cheap! Also so does the lonely planet.. book of lies i tell you!!

So parents, you'll have to accept this as an email today.

Tomorrow we search for cheaper accomodation, or start making plans to leave the city. We'll also try and see some sights tomorrow.

Tyson and Sara