Pre-Holiday Excitement

Tomorrow morning I fly to Bangkok for a long weekend - I was there eight years ago, and I can't wait to return.
I should have time to make a quick run to a beach, but we shall see. I wouldn't mind re-living some of my activities eight years ago:

More Kazakhstan in the news

The Air Astana office where I work is adjacent to the airport. Last week, when I was to the place where I catch a shuttle back to my hotel, there were some black tinted-window SUVs speeding around, and I wondered what was going on.

One of the pilots said former US President Bill Clinton was in Almaty for a visit, which I thought was unlikely since he is currently busy playing "attack dog" in Hillary's presidential campaign. However, perhaps it's possible, for the NYT reported he helped Canadian mining financier Frank Giustra secure an extremely lucrative deal for tapping uranium deposits during a hastily arranged trip to Almaty in 2005, which both men denied until this article called their bluff. Surprisingly (not), after this deal was secured, Guistra donated generously ($31 million) to The Clinton Foundation...

Hillary was asked about her husband's suspect Kazakhstan visit, and here's her response.

In other news, the US has just made a military deal with Kazakhstan, and Russia will not be pleased.

Stunted democracies and outright dictatorships

Interesting NYT article about the "stunted democracies and outright dictatorships" in Central Asia and how the USA has recently reconsidered its diplomatic strategy for these countries. Kazakhstan is mentioned on Page 2.

Imminent travels

Even though I contract through an English language school in Ireland, I'm eligible for the same travel benefits Air Astana employees get, which means I can fly anywhere Air Astana flies at a heavy discount, assuming there's room on the flight. And believe me, I plan on putting those benefits to good use as long as I'm here.

My first trip I've arranged is coming up very soon - I'm flying to Bangkok in a little less than two weeks for a 6-day holiday. I haven't decided on my itinerary yet, but I was in Thailand 8 years ago and I loved it, and ever since I have longed to return to SE Asia and explore it further. So, as you can imagine, I'm very excited.

Then from mid-to-late March, I've got two weeks off and I'll be returning to Edinburgh for a week or week and a half... also, I'd like to go somewhere in Europe that I haven't been to yet (Rome and Barcelona are at the top of my wishlist) if I can avoid the Easter crowds and increased airfares.

I love traveling. Life doesn't suck. :)

Mountain view from my room

It was very strange (in a good way) to wake up this morning on my day off, open the curtains to a nice sunny day, and see some... mountains! This is the from my small balcony, and you can see mountains on either side of the building:

The reasons I haven't noticed that I can see mountains from my hotel room window after 3.5 weeks of living here are because:

1) There's a fair bit of pollution in Almaty, and because of its position sitting below the Tian Shan mountain range to the south (which separates Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan) it doesn't get much wind, so the haze and smoke can settle for days and makes the visibility poor.

2) There haven't been that many sunny clear days since I've arrived, although this is supposed to change after winter.

3) When there have been sunny days with good visibility, I've probably opened my curtains without looking closely.