10 000 km. Almost without problems. I feel stupid now, looking back at the Ukraine where I felt we were far away from home and unsafe. We are now in Almaty, Kazakhstan, a short distance from the Chinese border. Border crossings have become easier and easier. At the Kazakhstani border they were actually impressed by the distance we had traveled, and some spoke a little English. Maybe the easiest border point yet. The police here are also very nice. “Deutsch?” … “Norwegian”… “Norwegia??!” then waving us on.
The car is in the workshop of Mercedes Almaty. It’s been diagnosed with some kind of terminal disease. They’re not sure how long it’s got left. It can be fixed, but it will cost more than we’ve got. When we were presented with the result of the car's diagnostic, the list was endless. “What is most crucial?” the translator asked the mechanic and he shook his head and started listing. The translator tried to keep up. “Oil leaks everywhere. Front axle… steering..” we stopped them, gave them one day and a limit of 4000NOK.
The last words of the Yekaterinburg mechanics make sense now: “We really hope you get to Astana”. I thought they were just being nice. In Almaty they don’t have the most crucial parts. It takes 20 days to get them. We have 9 more days in Kazakhstan. We are going to Mongolia with a diseased car, but spirits are high. We got the car back from the shop with a price tag of 3500NOK, that’s 9 hours work. We have no idea what they did to the car or what parts they changed. We just don’t understand the language.
On a slightly more personal note, as you probably haven’t seen in the pictures, I haven’t shaved my beard for 27 days. It’s kinda itchy, but I can recommend growing one. Anyway, keep an eye out for it; I’m confident it will show up on the photos within a month.
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