The famous Medeo ice rink in Almaty!

Back in the city we did some city sightseeing!

We had to see the Medeo! So we did a tour up the mountains south of the city, and here we found the famous Medeo ice ring and the Chimbulak ski resort!

And we had lunch in a Yurta!

Vodka on Almaty

We are celebrating Tove and Gjertrud's birthdays, and being back in the city, with trista gram vodka! Skål! 9 days have gone by too fast.
We have seen great nature and met unforgettable people on our way! It has been a trip we will never forget! 1 more day to go! We will enjoy every last drop....!

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Back in Almaty again!

The great train ride was an experience! We did not get much sleep, but had fun playing cards and yatzy in the resturant carrage. We spent three days in the mountains, the western region of the Tien
Shan range, in a national reserve called Aksu Zhabagly. And we found what we were looking for: mountainsides full of tulips!! And again met great people on our way! Our guide Mischa was fantastic! Back in the city our other Mischa met us with a smile on the trainstation! What more can you ask for!

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Tulips tulips, everywhere tulips!

Train ride to the south! Wonder what will meet us at the other side!

The program for the rest of the trip!

Aksu Zhabagly.
Arrival to Tyulkubas train station at 05:05. Accommodation at guest house. Breakfast. Walking by foot to Kishi-Kaindy gorge. Horse riding. Picnic during excursion. Returning to the guest house. Rest time. Dinner. Overnight at guest house.
Aksu Zhabagly.
Breakfast. Excursion to Aksu Canyon: western region of the Talass Alatau Range , Western Tien Shan Mountains. Altitude: 1100-4200m over the sea level. Climate: very continental, average temperature of coldest month is 4,9 Celsius grade, warmest month + 21,6 Celsius grade; average annual rainfalls 400-700 mm (up to 850- 900 mm in high altitude), mainly in spring season. Nature here is rich and various and the reserve includes about 1.200 species of plants, 42 kinds of animals, 238 kinds of birds.
Picnic during the excursion. Returning to the guest house. Rest time. Dinner. Overnight.

Aksu Zhabagly.
After breakfast excursion to Yrgaily: flowering of Tulipa greigii and Tulipa kaufmanniana. Picnic during excursion. Transfer to train station. Departure Tyulkubas station. Overnight in the train.

Almaty.
Arrival Almaty 2 train station at 08:55. Accommodation at the hotel. Rest time. Lunch in Yurta at "Kazakh aul" restaurant. After lunch drive to Medeo- biggest winter sport complex (30min). Observation excursing to the dam. Chimbulak - Kazakhstan biggest ski resort. Dinner at the hotel. Overnight.

Almaty.
City tour.
Transfer to the airport. Departure Almaty. End of the tour.

Almaty city!

Panfilov Park and Zenkos Wooden constructed Cathedral!

The gang enjoying the sun on the steps of the Cathedral!

Carpet shopping at the Central State Museum

Almaty and Altyn Emel National Park

We all met up at the airport, and got about an hour of sleep at the hotel, before we embarked on the journey to Altyn Emel National Park. We are now back in the city after three days on the steppe. We have seen great nature, climbed mountains and even climbed a sand dune! Seen wildlife and the grand flat steppe from it's best side! Beatiful weather every day!

It was good to be back in civilization now, with running water and toilets! Tonight we embark on the Great Train-ride south-westwards. Night

train in KZ!! Kristin, you are with us!!

Singing sanddune!

Toilet on the steppe!

Altyn Emel National Park

Our van for the trip!

Wild tulips!

Rockpaintings/Petroglyphs

On top of a burial mound from the 3rd century BC

Lunch on the steppe!

The program for the next few days!

“Altyn Emel” National Park.
Departure Almaty at 06:30. Entering National Park with post #1. Sightseeing:
Petroglyphs – rock paintings of masters of the Bronze Age represent stages of hunting, wild animals and pets, rituals and also deities with sun faces. Besshatyr barrows – the sizes of funeral reflected division of sakis society into classes. The largest majestic barrow in height of 17 meters belongs to the unknown Saki king.
Singing Dunes (Barkhans) – is one of the favorite visiting places of tourists. It is located between mountains Small and Big Kalkana. Similar natural phenomena in the world can be met no more than ten in China, Russia, Arabia and America.
Accommodation at “Altyn Emel” guest house. Dinner. Free time.

After breakfast sightseeing 700 year ELM, Katutau and Aktau:
Katutau mountains were formed as a result of the volcanic phenomena. The heated underground lavas were frozen and formed huge fantastic figures. Sometimes tourists can meet here archers and also other animals.
The cretaceous mountains Aktau locate in the west of Katutau. They are pressed from different rocks: white as chalk sands, red clay and claret rocky ground. In crevices it was found out even traces of vanished subtropical plants, petrified bones of the most ancient animals, huge rhinoceroses that lived on the Earth 20-50 million years ago.
Returning to the Guest house. Dinner. Free time.

After breakfast departure “Altyn Emel” national park (2.5 – 3 hours road to Almaty). Arrival to Almaty. City Sightseeing. Free time. Overnight in the hotel.

Almaty.
After breakfast transfer to TSUM (central store). Shopping, walking Arbat avenue. Lunch.
After lunch transfer to the train station Almaty 2. Train to Aksu Zhabagly (Tyulkubas) at 16:50. Overnight in the train.

I made it, alone...

I made it to Almaty in the middle of the night! Alone! Missing Kristin!

The others are on their way from Istanbul! They are coming in about an hour. I found our driver Misha! Very sweet man. I used my very limited russian, introduced myself and we had a small chat! So now I am waiting with Misha in the arrivals area!

Ready to fly!

At the airport in Atyrau, ready to go! Missing Kristin! The gang is in
the air already. Can not wait to see your sleepy faces soon! Have a
safe journey!

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Let us try again tonight...

New day, new possibilities to make it to Almaty. After a day full of drama yesterday, the conclusion is now that we lost one travel companion and we are one day delayed. The party of 4 eventually made it to Istanbul from Oslo last night (as one of the very few flights out of Gardermoen in the total airtraffic chaos, as Istanbul is one of the few airports not covered by the ash-cloud), and are flying into the glorious country of Kazakhstan tonight. Kristin is sacrificed to the big evil project monster (as her b2b did not arrive due to the ash and the closed airports), so we have to accept we will not have her great company during this trip. I will make my way to Almaty on my own tonight, meeting up with the others at the airport. I land at 01:40 and they land at 01:35. Then let us hope the BIG TRIP begins!!

Ash or no ash...

It is time to go on new adventures! The big Almaty trip is supposed to start today... but Mother Earth has not quite finished showing what she is good for. Let us hope the wind is with us, so the Icelandic volcano ashes will blow out into the Atlantic, and not in over Continental Europe. The airports here in KZ are all open, so it is looking good for Kristin and I. Let us just hope the other 4 coming in from Oslo will eventually make it! All fingers crossed!!

Ian is leaving us.. Well at least trying to leave us..

Over the weekend we had Ian's going away party. He invited for drinks at TGI Friday's after work. It was, as usual, a fun night out with the gang! Plenty of beer and vodka, and good people!
We do not want Ian to leave us, we will miss him so! The only good thing is that he will stay in Atyrau, and live in the same apartment block, but he will just be working for Shell. So we are hoping for many more fun times ahead!
So now it is just an angry volcano stopping him from leaving us, and coming back into KZ with a work visa with Shell and not Aker. We keep telling him, that he can not go, and even Mother Earth tells him he can not go... But he is not taking the hint…

Magic morning in Atyrau

This was the view out our window on the 11th floor Friday morning! The fog was so low that we were above it, we were up in the morning sunshine!

Back in town!

I made it to dry-land! Had a nice helicopter-ride with 11 very nice Italian welders! They helped me into my survival-suit, carried my bags and even gave me juice! Sweet!
Now it is time to go over to Renco and have some proper Italian pizza and great cold white wine!

An extra day on the Island!

I was supposed to fly back to dry-land today. But the Weather Gods did not want that to happen, my flight was cancelled. Yesterday two flight got cancelled (Kristin's flight got cancelled, but she managed to rebook to an earlier flight!), and today 8 flights have been cancelled so far.
So I am the lucky winner of an extra day on this "all inclusive" resort in the Caspian sea! I did bring some extra socks and underwear, so I am all set for an extra day. Let us just hope it is just one extra day, not two….
This nice little sign is posted above the sink in my bathroom. What does it really mean….

K and K on the island

It is unbelievable! It has happened! Two Ks on the island at the same time! Even in the same cabin! (well it must be said that Mr. Kristin was first put in 405 with a Per, but she quickly found out that the clothes in the cabin did not look like my clothes, so she went down to the reception, and sorted it out!)

Plenty of food and nice coworkers to take us out to dinner. We went "slumming" yesterday on the Caspian princess, and tonight we are going to high class on the Ravel, the vessel with the nicest dining room, they even have a lounge area with nice sofas for after dinner coffee and tea! Nice!

Mission Complete!

I now have fabulous earplugs, so I sleep like a baby! The little box with the white dots are my fantastic ear plugs, you just mold them, and put them in to cover your ear canal, and swoosh, you are in a silent happy place!

Well, actually I have to sleep like an unborn baby, as the bed is about 1,80m and my duvet is only 1,50m long. But not a problem, I have socks!!

And I cover the drain with a towel and a pillow, and the door with the extra duvet! Sleeping pretty well now!!

Today's Mission: ear plugs!

Today I feel a little sorry for myself. I did not sleep well at all last night! I can usually sleep anywhere anytime. But not in cabin 337 on the Ersai 400 apparently… Very noisy! 3 different "noises" kept me awake; toilet, dishwashing and door slamming! Since it is a boat, the toilets function using a vacuum. And it is usually pretty noisy, but this room is different, it seems like the whole vessels vacuum is echoed in the shower drain… very annoying…And 337 is at the end of a corridor, the floor below the canteen. And let me tell you, they clean and stack dished until 2 in the morning…And every time the people on the floor above exit and enter the vessel (every 5 min all through the night, as they work during the night, make food for the night shift as well) the door/hatch is banged shut. And that makes the whole room shake a little…So today's mission: EAR PLUGS!
I have a theory that I can make the shower drain scream less if I put some towels or pillows over it. So will try that. And I will also try to cover the 3 cm crack under the door out to the corridor with a duvet, and hope that will reduce the kitchen noises a little. Nothing to do with the door slamming, but if I can reduce 2 out of 3, that can not be bad!!
Other than that, I can report back that today it is rainy and stormy outside. Great day in general on the Island today…On my 10 min walk this morning over to the office vessel I considered walking backwards, as the strong wind was right towards me, but that is not so smart when you are walking amongst huge trucks and fork lift… pretty wet and cold, I made it to my desk only 3 min after 7, so not so bad after all!!

Time to go to the Island

It is time again to go out to the island in the sun. I will be going for a week this time, so I have my bag packed full of clothes and books! Do not want to do laundry, they apparently boil everything... And I must say, I have the best offshore bag!! Dark pink North Face bag/backpack, nice!!

Kristin will hopefully come out during my week, and if we manage that, there will be two Ks on the Island! It's a first for everything!!

This is what the island looked like in March! The vessel I will be landing on and living on is the vessel in the lower right corner of the picture! Ship o'hoy!

Happy Easter Sunday!

Happy Easter! And Happy Birthday pappa!

We just came back from the best lunch to date in KZ! The Renaissance had full Easter lunch with egg hunting for the kids.

Catrin, Gregor, Kristin, Linn and I had full Easter buffet, and it was fantastic. Incredible amounts of different foods: warm, cold, bread, fish, cheese, exotic food, pancake bar, and an INCREDIBLE dessert buffet! And yes, we had to try every one of the desserts! Let's just say we were so full that we ended up walking back to the office, we needed a stroll...

Today's view from the office

Today's view is kind of funny! Just looking out it seems the normal houses and the church, less snow that before, now just mud, mud and more mud. It is pretty warm during the daytime now, in the sun it is around 20 degrees, but a night it is down to around 0 again.
But if you take a closer look you see the spring bbq party! Looks like they are having a good time. Maybe we should go down and join them!Bring some vodka maybe!