Reality check

One of the most common replies I find in any onlin discussion about climate change is this : "I think it is arrogant to beleive that man can influence something as complex as the climate!". Well. These people should take a trip to Aral. And take a look at what happened to the Aral sea. And more importantly, it's surrounding climate. A micro climate catastrophe for everyone to see.

I had seen some documentaries about what happened. In the old Soviet Union, they wanted to grow cotton. And cotton need water. Loads and loads of water. And the Aral Sea was just that. A incredibly huge load of water. So they started growing cotton and using water from the Aral Sea to water the fields. The enormous amounts of water used led to the decline in the water levels. And the lower water levels cause the whole climate around the sea to change. There was less plants to hold humidity. And thsi again led to less rain. Further increasing the drop in water level. Which in turn caused more plant death. And the Aral sea almost disappeared in the end. Not just from watering of fields, but also from evaporation. Now this of course happened all the time. But the temperature also rose in the region. With this giant body of water shrinking, there was less to absorb the heat. Same with plants. So the temperature in the region changed. Much colder in the winter and much warmer during summer. All this contributed to the Aral sea almost vanishing before they realized what was happening.

Today, much of this rich body of water is just dry land. With lots of salt. When water evaporates, it leaves the salt. This is usually not a problem, since more water comes in the form of rain. But in this case. There was less and less rain. And less plants to use the salt. In the end, the salt became too much for the plants, and they died. And the remainign water became to salty. Thing Dead Sea in Israel. Not wuite as salty, but too salty for plants and most fish and water creatures. The Aral sea was once a bustling sea fo freshwater fish. Now, just some extremophile water creatures survive.

On the train from Turkestan, I talked to a local guy about this, and he pointed out the windows of the train. "Do you see the white layer on the ground? That is salt. Blown here from the Aral sea by the winds. And it is killing plants here too. Hundreds of km from Aral, the vegetation was struggling. All because of salt from this once so great and lifegiving sea of fresh water.

I walked down to what used to be the busy harbour of Aral. The huge cranes now just rusting away. All that is left, are some pools of water that gather when the occasional rain comes. The rest is just stinking braque water. And salty, dry sea floor. 

It is by no means arrogant to believe man can change the climate. I have been staring at it. With my own eyes. And it should have been a real wakeup call to anybody. There is no believing in climate change. Because it is really happening. Right before our eyes. And the Aral sea gives us a glimpse of our possible future. And it seems like most people just wants to close their eyes and pretend it's all a hoax.

The sea would go all the way up to the cranes,
and now only puddles remain

Stranded research ship now part of a museum

An old barge, almost gone

Extremely salty puddles of water

Ragnar

Climate realist

Getaway, Aral style

It was late. I had tried to follow where we were on the map. But being a cheap phone, and the 5G, or even 3G coverage was terrible. So I didn't really know for sure. But the announcer said we had arrived at Alaskye Moye. The train station of Aral town. I stood at the doorway and wondered "where's the platform excactly?". No platform. Just a half meter jump down to the dirt between the tracks. I managed to get down the few steps of the ladder before jumping the last bit. I landed safely. Not breaking anything. And then crossed a few railroad tracks.

It was dark. And I couldn't find any taxis. A lot of cars. But just people picking up relatives from the train. In the end, they were all gone. And I stood there. In a deserted station. And no taxies. I pulled out my phone, and checked the map. In the dark, I could make out the road. Barely. But I started walking.

After a minute, I heard the sound of a car that obviously had seen better days. And shortly, it came jumping and screeching across the pot-holed road. An old Lada. So old, I suspect it was born when Brechnev was big chief in Moscow. And the guy driving it looked like he could have shaken hands with Stalin. "Taxi?" he screemed as he passed me. He stopped his car a few meters behind me and got out. 

Him : "Taxi?"

Me  : "How much?" showing the international sign for cash.

Him : "Something in Russian" showing me five fingers.

Me  : "5 THOUSAND???" I started laughing. 

Him : "No, no!"

He took out a 500 note. I smiled. "Ah! Da!". I dumped my bag in the trunk and got in on the passenger side. The engine roared into life and he floored it. I tried to put on my seatbelt. He started laughing. Loudly. Waved his hand explaining that it wasn't required. I smiled. It didn't work either. So I had no choice. I tried to hold on as best I could while we jumped around on the terrible roads. Finally, we entered the central parts of town. He almost smashed right into another car, but slipped around with the smallest of margins. He didn't even lift his foot off the gas-pedal. I have looked Death in the eyes before. On many occasions. I don't know if that fact was to blame, but the near-crash didn't frighten me. But I was hoping we would arrive before either of us died.

In the end, we screeched to a halt in front of my hotel. I got my bag out and paid him the 500 tenge (about $1). Despite it all, this was the best taxi ride so far in Kazakhstan.

Ragnar

Survivor

Golden egg

 After a nice trainride, I arrived in Turkestan yesterday. I met a couple on the train. A guy from London with his american girlfriend. They were travelling all over the world, so it was exciting to hear about their travels. We shared a taxi into town.

The day today I spent walking around the relatively new area of Turkestan. And when I say new, I mean new. I was walking along and checked the map to see where I was. And I switched to satellite photos. And noticed that most of the buildings were missing. I found that most of them had been erected during or right before the pandemic. 

It was kind of a disney-version of how the old city of Turkestan might have looked like in its heydays. 

As I walked down the street, I saw something that looked like a giant, golden dome. But on closer inspection, I realized it was eggshaped. And the structure beneath resembled a nest. I found that it was actually a movie theatre. Showing a "eagle eyes'" view of both the nature and history of Kazakhstan. I would have loved to see it, if it hadn't been for the seats moving to give you the "flying" experience. I have tried these types before, And I easily get motion sickness from it. So I had to forgo that experience. Unfortunately.

But I did get a chance to see the ruins of the old city. Did I mention that I love ancient history? Like, less than 1000 times? It had a lot of old buildings scattered around. Unfortunately, they were renovating a large chuck of the city, so I had to do with what I got. I will let the images tell the rest of story.

They also had a museum there, with lots artifacts on display. And the museum had some similarities to the operahouse in Sydney. When looked at from the side. Unfortunately, I found no good angle to image it. So I only took one from the front.

One thing I noticed, was how few people were there. Not many tourists, but surprisingly little locals. So I decided to walk away from the "touristy" areas to see if I could find any. And boy did I find them. After a few km of walking in the opposite direction from my hotel, I stepped into the "real" downtown of Turkestan. Packed with locals going to and fro. Old people watching young poeple. Mothers with children, men hauling goods to the many shops. Young girls taking their 317th selfie of the day, and young boys hoping they would look up from their phone for a few seconds to notice them. In other words : A town like any other in the world.

I loved it. I know that I would completely stress out if I were to live here every day. But watching this as a tourist? Indescribable! 

In the evening, I went to a restaurant right beside the "egg". And met the couple I mentioned. I had already eaten a lovely plate of plov when they arrived. But we had a lovely chat before I was ready to go back to my hotel and rest.

Tomorrow I am going to Aral. For some reality check. One that I believe everybody should have.

Ragnar

Hunting for golden eggs

Old timer and old times

Taraz was originally just a place I found on the map. I wasn't very keen on travelling almost 20 hours by train to Turkestan, so I opted to break it into two trips. And Taraz was about midway between Almaty and Turkestan. But after some reading, I realized it had an old archeological site. Of an old walled city. 

After breakfast, I walked in the direction of the site, but since I had no idea how to get there, I just wandered in the general direction. 

At one point, a very drunk guy came over to "talk". I don't understand Russian. And definitely not slurry "Russian". He almost fell over when he pointed at a road behind me. A woman yelled at him, and he kept in stumbling along while slurring some Russian. She smiled as I passed her. I did find the wall of the city, but not how to get in. 

I walked past something that looked like gates to the walled city, So I figured I must be near the entrance. 

In the end, I ended up in something that looked like a car repair shop. A guard dog woke up and trotted over too me. But he looked more interested in getting petted than to bite my hand off. I turned around. Another look at the map, and checking the internet, I realized that the drunk guy had assumed that as a tourist, I wanted to see the archeologic dig. And the road he had pointed at, was the correct way to the site... Oh well.

After a lot of walking, I found that the way to get to the site, was to look for signs to a huge shopping centre. Of course. 

When I arrived at the site, there was a ticket booth present. I walked over. Only to find a young lady, busy putting her makeup on. She looked at me and continued looking in the mirror and putting on the last touch, before attending to me. Got the impression she was more keen on becoming a model than selling tickets. But finally she found the time in her busy schedule to sell me a ticket.

As per usual many places, no change was available. So in the end, I just gave her the smaller notes I had until she was happy. Less than I should have paid. But, when you don't have any change? Not my problem. And she couldn't care less. She went straight back to her makeup.

The site was interesting. A lot of old ruins. The story has it that they were building some homes here when they realized they had come across old ruins. So they stopped the construction, moved the houses already built, and escavated the whole site. There were like "tents" convering the whole site, and bridges where tourists could walk. 

There was a museum with some artifacts extracted from the site. I managed to take a few photos before a guard gave me a very clear "No-no!" sign. So I packed away my camera and just enjoyed the rest of the display.

This book was maybe 2 cm wide. Talk about saving paper...

In the same area, I found an open door, and it proved to be an art gallery. Free entrance. The gallery itself was quite nice, and the paintings were interesting. In many styles. Again, a lady stopped me from taking photos...

After this, I walked back towards my hotel and found a place that sold delicious doner kebabs. Then I returned to my hotel. Tired of walking, and sweaty, I spent the rest of the evening in my room.

Ragnar

Old timer enjoying old times

Don't panic!

 I didn't sleep long this night. For some reason, I woke at 3am. And couldn't sleep afterwards. I just lay in bed waiting for the time I was getting up. I had an early train to catch. I got up long before breakfast, had a shower and went down to the reception. The lady booked me a car through their equivalent of Uber, called Yandex... She showed me the receipt. A Lexus no less! Oooo. I waited for a couple of minutes, and the Lexus arrived.

Well. First of all, the driver looked like he hadn't even reached puberty. And his Lexus looked like he found it abandoned in a ditch somewhere. But hey, at least it was running...

I got in, and the driver found the quickest route to the train station on his phone. Which he looked at more or less constantly. While answering messages and checking the map once in a while. But traffic wasn't too bad at this time in the morning. So at least we didn't crash. That would have been a drag...

We arrived at the train station, which was under renovation. One of the first things I saw when entering, was a guy with a t-shirt that had the words "Don't panic" written in large friendly letters on the back. That was a test to see if you know the refernce... And why it is relevant to my blog...

One of the things I loved, was a VERY informative display that showed all trains arriving and leaving. And how long they would be staying. And the platform. And the trains not only arrived on time, but they left on time too! And they usually stayed for 10-20 minutes before proceeding. Giving passengers ample time to get to the correct track, and get on board. 

The thing I didn't love, was the fact that the renovation meant no shops were open. So my plan to buy some snacks for the trip, was a dud. I had nothing. And I hadn't bothered to buy stuff from the shop down the street from my hotel. And I was starting to get hungry.

When the train arrived, I found my coupe and found that my bunk was the lower on one side. After a while, an elderly lady arrived, with someone I presume was her grandchild. They sat on the other bunk. After the train started moving, she started making her bed. All bunks had sheets and a towel. So I did the same. It would be a long journey, and I was tired from lack of sleep. So why not spend some of the time trying to catch up? I actually slept for a few hours. The slow motion of the train probably did that.

Steppe as far as the eyes could see

Pretty nice railcar

2nd class coupe, with aircon, My bunk on the left

The temperature outside increased. A lot. At the peak, it reached 43 degrees. Centigrade... I could read this on a display at the end of the car. The highest temperature was at a small place called Shu. And when we stopped, I watched rail-workers at the station walking around in full work wear. How they managed, I have no idea. I loved my aircon coupe. And preferred to stay there for the entire trip.

Now for the food situation. I was told there was a restaurant on board. I asked around, and was told it was in car 10. So I walked through the train to car 10, and...nothing. But when I turned around to go back, I saw that the "restaurant" was just a small shop where I could buy stuff. Hidden behind a wall. Behind the counter sat an old "babushka" checking her phone. I stood there for a while. Clearing my throat a couple of times. After the third, very loud clearing, she was startled and looked up. "Sorry! No see!" And she laughed. I found a pack of bisquits and some water. Not excactly healthy diet. But it had to suffice for now.

Some hours later, we arrived in Taraz. And I was met by a number of taxi drivers. I told them I was going to Hotel Pride. Nobody knew it. I showed them on the map. They had no clue where it was. In the end, one guy said ok. 3000 Tenge. Fair enough. He took me to his taxi, which was surprisingly nice. After we started driving, he rang somebody. And even though I didn't understand a word, it was obvious he had "rung a friend" to guide him. But still he managed to get lost in some back-alley. On terrible roads. But we finally arrived at the hotel.

It was nice, with huge rooms. Nice lady in the reception. And the price was right.

After dropping off my bags at the hotel, I was hungry for some real food. But all the restaurants in the area were closed for some reason. So all I could find was a shopping mall with a grocery store. So I just bought some youghurt and aome water. And some snacks for the evening. 

Ragnar

Never panicking