Snapshot: Wireless Road

Really wireless? Or an emergency back-up solution?

Snapshot: Thai greeting

Even Ronald McDonald greets the traditional way.

Snapshot: Bangkok metro

 The left person in need looks strange to us :-)

Snapshot: sex change

Everything is possible in Thailand! Found in a quality newspaper. The best thing is that foreigners pay as much as Thais.

Snapshot: Kazakh grassland

We cycled a long time through Kazakh grassland. 50 km outside of Almaty on our way to China we camped one night in this special 'grass' field - but as tired as we were from cycling we didn't notice until the next morning.

Pay attention to the police car in the background.

Snapshot: gypsy cab

When we entered Kazakhstan we noticed that many people stand at the roadside with an extended arm in order to flag down so called gypsy cabs. Ordinary cars stop, quick negotiation follow and either they get the ride or they wait for the next car.

In Almaty we tried it ourselves. One occasion was when we got lost after we had used the wrong tram. It was very easy and we didn't wait long. within 10 seconds the first car stopped. Everybody uses this system. So we saw only a few official taxis.

Snapshot: cars in Kazakhstan

One thing that you can't miss as a cyclist are cars. So many cars pass us so that we notice some interesting things.

In an earlier post we mentioned that Kazakhs love German car makes. But even more interesting is that many German cars and lorries did actually run in Germany. Even some Almaty tram wagons are from Leipzig. Many cars and lorries still have the German country code sticker "D" or the 3-colour 'environment' stickers. Many still have German advertisement. There are so many of them here in Kazakhstan. I wonder how many officially scrapped (according to the rules of the so called Umweltprämie) German cars have made it in one piece to other countries.

When it comes to buses we saw many from France, the Netherlands and Belgium. And dear Saarländer, there was even a bus from Saarland in Shymkent. 

Some cars have yellow number plates. When you see those, the probability that the driver is a foreigner is very high. Yellow number plates are assigned to cars belonging to foreign companies. Not sure whether this is an advantage in Central Asia.

Snapshot: rally lights

Something noticeable: many Swedish and Finnish cars - particularly in the countryside - have additional installed rally lights.

Snapshot: carpet cleaning

Since we have arrived on the mainland Finland, we often see Finns at the seaside or lakeside doing something next to big basins. In the beginning we thought it would be about fishing, but it is not.

People - some dressed up in swimsuits and arrive very early - clean and scrub their carpets with an environmental soap and dry them in the sun!

Snapshot: gambling grannies

Quick status: after 230 km we arrived in Tampere.

One remarkable thing in Finland: many gambling people like these grannies in the Tampere market hall Kauppahalli.

Snapshot: rent a bike

OK, this is for the Amadeus crowd now :-) Found in Turku.
When will bicycles make it into the GDS? Hertz offers them!