Archive for the ‘road’ Category12 October 2014 This was my last trip. I wrote on the bus from my phone, in the dark, on the last night at the border. The boy from the next bus is playing the komuz again, a different boy.
I decided in the market in Urumqi when the girl with the chargers asked, "Mama Talas, next time?" and I said nothing. I put the covers on the table, 300 as usual, and I did not count them.
The stall is Nurzat's from 1 November. Stall 114, row 6, Bazar-i Kalan. She has my phone book, my girl in Urumqi and Almaz's number. I keep the tea. I will sit at the stall two days a week, to look at her bargain.
Thank you for reading. If you see an old woman in Talas with special socks, say hello, it is probably me. 3 December 2013 The bus left Urumqi at 6 in the evening. At 3 in the morning there was snow, big and quiet. At 8 the bus stopped: the road was closed at the pass, a lorry across the road. We waited. A man from Almaty shared his tea, I shared my bread, and a woman with a baby slept on my shoulder for five hours. I did not mind.
We reached the border at midnight the next day. We were a day late and my stall was closed for two days. No one died. Everybody waited. This is the whole lesson of the road.
 The bus at the pass at 8 a.m., the road behind us white.5 February 2011 Good. I wrote on my hand and I listened. This year I went in the second week of February, after the Spring Festival, and the market was fresh with new goods. I got the best price for the hats of the whole of my career. A woman with eyebrows like Mongolian horses.
The bus: 26 hours. The border: 3 hours. My knees: 0 comment. 30 April 2010 Thank you. I wrote the names in the book, not on the internet. You know who you are.
I went on the 25th, Almaz took me in the lorry cab (a cab is a luxury, the seat is hot, there is a calendar of a Turkish singer). I sat in the Urumqi market with a loan in my pocket and thought: what is a robber doing with 1,400 dollars now. I decided: buying vodka, eating less.
I paid Ruslan back on 3 August. He was surprised I remembered. 17 April 2010 I do not want to write this but Bekzhan says it helps.
On Wednesday, at the bus station in Almaty at 5 in the morning, somebody cut my bag. A good knife, a clean cut in the corner. The bag with the money for the next trip, 1,400 dollars, which I carried for a week in the belt and moved to the bag for ten minutes to find the ticket. Ten minutes.
I did not scream. I looked at the people and nobody looked back, as usual. A woman with a baby came and gave me tea. It was not hers, she did not know me. It was a tea from the machine, in a paper cup.
The bus to Urumqi went without me. I came home the same day with nothing. 25 October 2008 For the ones who ask "how far is it": from the stall to the stall, about 36 hours if God is kind.
- Talas to the North Terminal and across into Kazakhstan: 1 hour, then 2 hours for the paper.
- Bus to Almaty: 9 hours. 22 dollars.
- One night in Almaty at the cousin of my friend. She snores. 5 dollars for the tea and the floor.
- Almaty to Urumqi: the big night bus, 55 dollars one way, 24 hours if the Khorgos border is nice, 30 if not.
The papers are another story: my ISEZ papers are good for crossing the street, so I go with the Kyrgyz paper from the Almaty office, 60 dollars a year. Everybody does. Nobody says it.
 The night bus to Urumqi, 6 p.m. Everyone has the same blue bag.18 September 2008 Ruslan from the phone shop says: Kunduz-apa, you tell the same story to every customer, put it on the internet and save your voice. So. Here is the internet.
I go to Urumqi to buy what Talas wants. It is a long way and nobody believes it is a hard job because I come back with a smile and a good price. The smile is for the customer. The knees are for me.
One post when I come back from every trip. Prices, the border, who was rude. Please read, do not copy my suppliers. |