To get to space you need to pass through Kazakhstan

One of the cooler things I’ve learned since coming to Kazakhstan is that Russia still leases a huge block of land to operate its space launch facilities. The Baikonur Cosmodrome is where all of the missions to service the International Space station originate and pretty soon, once the Space Shuttle is retired, it will be pretty much the only way to get to space in the world. Or at least until the Chinese or a whole range of potential space tourist outfits get going.

So unless you’ve purchased a ticket from Virgin Galatic, or NASA owes you one hell of a big favor, to get to space you need to come to Kazakhstan. Bring your wallet.

Kindle2 – My new must have travel gadget

I travel a lot but normally only for two or three days so I can usually toss a paperback in my bag for that period during take-off and landing where they tell you to turn off all electronic gadgets and cell phones (but of course no one actually does). For this trip I was trying to figure out how to bring enough reading material to cover me through two 30 hour plan trips and three weeks in Kazakhstan.

Given the 50 lb weight limit on most airlines I didn’t really want to be hauling books so I sucked it up and bought myself a Kindle2. Actually, I took the coin jar that we’d neglected to empty for the last two years to the local grocery store and fed a mountain of change into a CoinStar machine. They have a deal with Amazon where you can get an Amazon gift certificate and avoid the approximately 8% coin counting charge that they normally levy.

So with all my coins counted I could nearly cover the cost of a brand spanking (just released) Kindle2 ($349).

I must admit I love this device. I had tried the Kindle reader on my iPhone and while it is nice, the backlit screen really wears on you after awhile. Once you get used to the screen flickering when you turn pages, the Kindle2 is even better than reading a book as it is much lighter and you don’t have to hold the pages open. I quickly downloaded a couple of dozen books to my reader and have worked through about seven on this trip so far. Plus they are quite a bit cheaper than the ones printed on dead trees.

I’ve converted. I won’t say every book I buy will be electronic as I still like to add to my ever growing library at home but for most I’m going to be grabbing them wirelessly in a single click to my Kindle2.

Worldwide poverty

If you travel any amount you are sometimes amazed at the level of poverty that exists. You see it on the streets of New York City, in the less prosperous neighborhoods in London and Paris and in pretty much in every country in the world to some degree or another. I was pretty shocked when I first went to Sri Lanka and I can only imagine what exists in sub-Saharan Africa (I’ve not yet made it there)

While there is poverty here in Kazakhstan I’ve actually see fewer homeless and less evidence of it that might be expected given that the entire ex-Soviet union went through a pretty bad spell when it broke up. It is obvious not everyone is living well but generally people seem to be getting by – even outside of the city core where there is less in the way of facilities. The rich natural resources of this country are more than likely helping.

Of course those of us from the West shouldn’t ever point fingers as things are pretty bleak back home as well. From a recent article in The Independent:

“Dismal projections by the Congressional Budget Office in Washington suggest that in the fiscal year starting in October, 28 million people in the US will be using government food stamps to buy essential groceries, the highest level since the food assistance programme was introduced in the 1960s.”

Anytime anyone gets self righteous around me I simply point them to pictures from the aftermath of Katrina. Definitely a case of “fix your own problems first”.

Tipping in Kazkahstan

One of the things I always try and figure out before I go to a new country is their opinion on tipping. Unfortunately I forgot to look it up prior to coming to Kazakhstan so it took me a few days to determine whether it was appropriate or not.

What I’ve been told is that since Kazakhstan’s independence from the Soviet Union, tipping has come back into vogue and is welcomed by most people in service industries. We’ve been leaving a tip (15% or so) whenever we go out for meals and the housekeeper who takes care of our floor here at the hotel is great and every time we give her a little extra for the great service we get a beaming smile (she doesn’t speak any English) – which my daughter Samantha returns just for fun.

We took a cab today and had to convince the driver to take a tip (he did after a couple of attempts to give it back) so perhaps it is not universal but plan on tipping for good service when you visit.

Gifts, gifts and more gifts

One of the things you read about prior to travelling to Kazakhstan and your adoption agency warns you about is that you need to bring gifts for a whole list of people including the caregivers at the baby house and various officials involved in facilitating the adoption. We figured we’d planned ahead and had gifts for a whopping 10 people.

Much to our surprise when we got here and sat down and figured it out we needed more like 20. The kink in our plans was that there are two women on shift at a time in the baby room and a total of 10 on rotation. So there was our extra 10 people. The entire list was long a varied. If we had it to do again I think we’d hit Walmart and Target a bit harder and have planned for more people.

Luckily the guideline is $10 to $20 per gift with a few in the $30 to $50 category for some of the more important officials. So with some targeted shopping over here we were able to fill our our selection. We’ve heard rumor of some agencies claiming you need to be in the $100+ category or supplement with cash but from what we can tell that is more than is required.

Given how hard everyone works to makes sure the adoption goes smoothly a gift is a nice way to let them know you appreciate their efforts!