Almaty

Today we checked out of the Ritz. We were given a gift box containing a number of apples and two baseball caps inscribed with Nomads?. As we were checking out we encountered a bunch of quite scary looking guys in dark suits and earpieces. ie secret service - not American but belonging instead to the DRC as their president was apparently checking in today. They had installed a couple of metal detectors at the entrance. I can't imagine that anyone really knew or cared that he was there.

They booked us a cab to the Avis office to pick up the hire car but for some reason the satnav took us to the middle of a residential district near - but not too near - the airport. We refused to leave the cab and eventually he dropped us at the airport entrance. Found the Avis office despite information at the airport not knowing where it was (and it being more or less visible from the top of the escalator). And then the office didn't seem to have our booking or at least was surprised that Dana hadn't been required to pay. The guy at the office didn't speak English which seemed odd for a hire car at the airport. After some shenanigans we eventually got a car sorted although it had a low tyre pressure indication. We sorted that out at our destination at BЧитать далее