Borat country here I come!

Cyclefrance · 03-23-2008, 05:52 AM

Sorry for the delay in posting - the Internet connection in Kazakhstan left a lot to be desired so I decided to wait until I arrived back home - then the last-night meal at a mountainside restaurant left its toll on my digestive tract - still suffering, but can at least get on with the posting.

First the map of the route to Almaty - one of our airlines, BMI, now flies direct,, but has to make a fuellinhg stopover at Ekaterinaberg until it gets long-distance aircraft on the route from May - so the flight was an hour longer than needs be. As Ekaterinaberg was recording sub-zero temperatures itwas encouraging to know we didn't have to get off the plane - managed a couple of photos on the way back when it was a daylight stop there:

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Cyclefrance · 03-23-2008, 05:54 AM

Second picture of Ekaterinaberg below:

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Cyclefrance · 03-23-2008, 05:59 AM

Arrived Almaty around 7.30 am - weather was lousy - with temperature just above freezing. Seemed to have hit the low point at this changeable time of year - the previous Sunday had seen 65F and it would rise to 60F before I left on Good Friday - but for nw it was snow, sleet and rain!

A couple of pics on the way in, taken from inside the taxi - I think the white painted on the lower halves of the tree trunks is there for som kind of frost protection...:

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Cyclefrance · 03-23-2008, 06:03 AM

Get off the main thoroughfares, and the town looks pretty poor, with ramshackle housing and pot-holed roads with no sidewalks/pavements, but the centre of town is showing the trappings of oil wealth already. The hotel where I was staying and where the course was being held probably the most prolific of the new buildings:

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Cyclefrance · 03-23-2008, 06:06 AM

And this was also borne out by the qua;lity of cars in the car park there - the abundance of 20-year-old Passats I'd seen coming in (my old 200,000 mile Passat might just have a second-hand value here!) giving way to Porshe Cayennes, Lexus 4x4s, Mercedes of all types, and the occasional car of my dreams (as some of you will already know) below:

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Cyclefrance · 03-23-2008, 06:17 AM

The course was aimed at the oil market, with my two days covering freight, storage and pipelines. Kazakhstan has one of the largest oilfields in the Soviet ex-block at Tengiz, and this is now piped to the Black Sea port of Novorossijsk through an entrenched 800 mile pipeline. The crude oil that comes from the field is very high in sulphur and undergoes an innovative de-sulphurisation process developped by Chevron. For those that like facts and figures, the pipeline currently handles 800,000 bbls/day and export is generally via 100,000 ton vessels of which 315 were loaded last year.

Anyway, this is the sort of stuff the class had to endure - day 1, I had about 42 in the class, but day 2 reduced to 22 because of the subject matter - in the second picture you can see my translator standing to the left of the screen - usually we have simultaneous translation, but this time it was subsequent - so I spoke a sentence and the translator then repeated my words in Russian - OK, but it tends to slow down the teaching, and time management can become an issue as a result:

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Cyclefrance · 03-23-2008, 06:22 AM

I didn't get a chance to get out and about until the last day but then managed to get a few more photos of the place - the bank is an inspiring piece of architecture, and the view from the hotel entrance took in the radio mast and the distant snow-capped mountains

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03-23-2008, 05:52 AM	#1
Cyclefrance Pump my ride! Join Date: Aug 2005 Location: Deep countryside of Surrey , England Posts: 1,890	Sorry for the delay in posting - the Internet connection in Kazakhstan left a lot to be desired so I decided to wait until I arrived back home - then the last-night meal at a mountainside restaurant left its toll on my digestive tract - still suffering, but can at least get on with the posting. First the map of the route to Almaty - one of our airlines, BMI, now flies direct,, but has to make a fuellinhg stopover at Ekaterinaberg until it gets long-distance aircraft on the route from May - so the flight was an hour longer than needs be. As Ekaterinaberg was recording sub-zero temperatures itwas encouraging to know we didn't have to get off the plane - managed a couple of photos on the way back when it was a daylight stop there: . Attached Images __________________ Always sufficient hills - never sufficient gears Last edited by Cyclefrance; 03-23-2008 at 06:50 AM.

03-23-2008, 05:54 AM	#2
Cyclefrance Pump my ride! Join Date: Aug 2005 Location: Deep countryside of Surrey , England Posts: 1,890	Second picture of Ekaterinaberg below: . Attached Images __________________ Always sufficient hills - never sufficient gears

03-23-2008, 05:59 AM	#3
Cyclefrance Pump my ride! Join Date: Aug 2005 Location: Deep countryside of Surrey , England Posts: 1,890	Arrived Almaty around 7.30 am - weather was lousy - with temperature just above freezing. Seemed to have hit the low point at this changeable time of year - the previous Sunday had seen 65F and it would rise to 60F before I left on Good Friday - but for nw it was snow, sleet and rain! A couple of pics on the way in, taken from inside the taxi - I think the white painted on the lower halves of the tree trunks is there for som kind of frost protection...: . Attached Images __________________ Always sufficient hills - never sufficient gears

03-23-2008, 06:03 AM	#4
Cyclefrance Pump my ride! Join Date: Aug 2005 Location: Deep countryside of Surrey , England Posts: 1,890	Get off the main thoroughfares, and the town looks pretty poor, with ramshackle housing and pot-holed roads with no sidewalks/pavements, but the centre of town is showing the trappings of oil wealth already. The hotel where I was staying and where the course was being held probably the most prolific of the new buildings: . Attached Images __________________ Always sufficient hills - never sufficient gears

03-23-2008, 06:06 AM	#5
Cyclefrance Pump my ride! Join Date: Aug 2005 Location: Deep countryside of Surrey , England Posts: 1,890	And this was also borne out by the qua;lity of cars in the car park there - the abundance of 20-year-old Passats I'd seen coming in (my old 200,000 mile Passat might just have a second-hand value here!) giving way to Porshe Cayennes, Lexus 4x4s, Mercedes of all types, and the occasional car of my dreams (as some of you will already know) below: . Attached Images __________________ Always sufficient hills - never sufficient gears

03-23-2008, 06:17 AM	#6
Cyclefrance Pump my ride! Join Date: Aug 2005 Location: Deep countryside of Surrey , England Posts: 1,890	The course was aimed at the oil market, with my two days covering freight, storage and pipelines. Kazakhstan has one of the largest oilfields in the Soviet ex-block at Tengiz, and this is now piped to the Black Sea port of Novorossijsk through an entrenched 800 mile pipeline. The crude oil that comes from the field is very high in sulphur and undergoes an innovative de-sulphurisation process developped by Chevron. For those that like facts and figures, the pipeline currently handles 800,000 bbls/day and export is generally via 100,000 ton vessels of which 315 were loaded last year. Anyway, this is the sort of stuff the class had to endure - day 1, I had about 42 in the class, but day 2 reduced to 22 because of the subject matter - in the second picture you can see my translator standing to the left of the screen - usually we have simultaneous translation, but this time it was subsequent - so I spoke a sentence and the translator then repeated my words in Russian - OK, but it tends to slow down the teaching, and time management can become an issue as a result: . Attached Images __________________ Always sufficient hills - never sufficient gears

03-23-2008, 06:22 AM	#7
Cyclefrance Pump my ride! Join Date: Aug 2005 Location: Deep countryside of Surrey , England Posts: 1,890	I didn't get a chance to get out and about until the last day but then managed to get a few more photos of the place - the bank is an inspiring piece of architecture, and the view from the hotel entrance took in the radio mast and the distant snow-capped mountains . Attached Images __________________ Always sufficient hills - never sufficient gears

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