Blimey oh Riley!

Hurray, with the help of some Russian rockers we have found an internet cafe in a scanky estate in the middle of Barnaul! We've had all sorts of action in Kazakhstan, the roads were a nightmare and we drove much of the nothern parts on the desert to avoid the roads which was great fun and we only had to dig ourselves out of sand drifts twice, we've had camels and wild horses as well as a hegrhog type animal with huge ears. The people in Kazakhstan were great really freindly, we didn't get bribed once but I did give my sunglasses to a policeman and they suit him much better than me. Dan has had some abortive attempts with his paraglider, but is all in one piece though he did hurt his back helping a car out of a sticky situation. The driver was distracted by us and drove his car into an open manhole. But Dan has made up for his pain by increasing his alcohol consumption. We've spent many days in the desert and also one night on top of a mountain in with a massive storm opening up before us. I failed to erect the tent, Dan suceeded but put a dirty great hole in it on my side ... I slept in the car that night. In Shimkent we stayed in a cheap hotel which turned out to bare more resemblence to a brothel. This was fine a Dan seranaded the ladies whilst I took evasive action. In the morning refreshed we moved on but sadly overnight Arthur, Bob and Charlie have been hastened away from us ... we have reason to believe they have been trafficked into the Kazakhstani sex trade. I just hope that they enjoy themselves. Basically that's all for now, we're heading for Mongolia tomorrow. Rock on people, Ricky B.