Update: Wed 00:40

Tuesday, 30 August

The hotel had a menu in the room which I assumed was related to the cafe downstairs so I used the dictionary to check what kinds of omelettes they had, omelette is the same word in Russian (albeit spelt more sensibly and pronounced, doubtless, very slightly differently), and headed in. Omelette with tomatoes, I said to the woman who spoke a little English. No real surprise when two fried eggs appeared with some tomatoes on the side.

A lazy start to the day meaning I headed off around lunchtime into the teeth of a gale, it felt like, all the 200km to Astana. The pump at the petrol station I stopped had had a digital display but it only counted whole litres. I don't suppose I really put 14 litres in the tank.

I stopped here at the "Golden Man" hotel -- the Golden Man is a populist state symbol -- not the cheapest option but at the cheaper end. A snip at 9000T ($60?). At least there's a shower to be had today. The room is directly off the stairwell. They really have squeezed the rooms in!

I then set off to see the acclaimed architecture of Astana. Good grief. I hope there's a money back guarantee! What an awful collection of buildings in what is currently the southern edge of the city but projected to be the centre in twenty years time. Architects may love it but it just looks awful. Glass and steel (Norman Faster is involved, shock!) is gaudy combinations with no consistency. Bleuch!

Still, maybe if you grew up in a yurt followed by a Soviet concrete monstrosity then it might be considered a good thing. Kazakhstan 2030 (being advertised around the country) might well be the day they pull it all down and start again.

Still, what do I know?

I went out to a local brew house where the beer was quite good. I ordered the leg of pork with a spicy sauce and got...a leg of pork. Yikes! I didn't finish. I did splatter spicy sauce over myself as I hauled a lump of meat off the bone.

Nationwide are still playing silly buggers. I wonder if I've got some weekly limit, rather than daily. That rings a bell but I don't know what the limit is. I took 20000T out on NatWest ($120) thinking it might last 'til Friday and have given 13000T away tonight already (food and accommodation). Central Asia ain't cheap!

Currently at lat/long: n45 19.130 e73 46.474

Hotel Altyn-Adam, Astana.