Own apartment

We wake up in the morning still tired. Marat is already at work. It’s 10:00 am. We sit at the breakfast table with buckwheat semolina and bread. Gauhar feeds her child. Again we are overcome by this strange sadness. Then the phone rings but Gauhar doesn’t pick up the receiver. We are waiting for the call from Alinberg. We actually want to drive on or use the time to rest and write. Time is pressing, the distance to Baikal is still very long.

Gauhar finally answers the phone. “I’ve found an apartment for her. It’s right in the building next door. I think they’ll like it. If not, we’ll find something else. If you agree, I’ll come and see you straight away. Then we can have a look at it,” he explains. “Gladly”, I’m looking forward to possibly being able to stay after all.

When Alinberg leads us to the neighboring house, I doubt that I will find a nice apartment in such a bunker. “Impossible,” it goes through my head. Again we climb up through an old, run-down stairwell. On the second floor, a friendly, smiling Kazakh woman opens the fat steel door for us, which looks more like a safe door. When we enter the apartment, we almost stop spitting. Bright, top-renovated rooms literally smile at us. The floor is tiled, the furniture is new and tasteful. There is a functioning television, a clearly laid out kitchen with a stove, fridge, of course a microwave and even a washing machine. In the bedroom there is a new bed with a firm mattress and a large dark wooden wardrobe. The bathroom is mold-free, absolutely clean and the hot and cold water flows out of the tap in such quantities that you can even take a proper shower underneath. “Wow,” I marvel and ask the price. “6.000,- Tenge (33,- Euro) per night says the nice landlady. Since we know that the average monthly rent for a good apartment in Kazakhstan is around 30,000 tenge (162 euros), we think your demand is too high. Apart from that, we have to watch our budget on such a long trip. Even when the woman reduces the price for us to 5,000 tenge, we refuse for the time being and say goodbye.

Back in the car at Alinberg, we look at each other. “Should we take the apartment after all?” I ask. “I don’t know. It’s beautiful and we need peace and quiet too,” Tanja ponders. “If we stay here, it will definitely be for four days. I have a lot of writing to do,” I reply as Alinberg stops in front of a large hotel in the city center. The cheapest room costs 6,000 tenge. As we enter, the familiar wall of heat hits us again. The beds are old, the mattresses are worn out, it smells of smoke, there is no storage space for our bikes and there is barely enough room for our luggage. “No way,” I say and turn on my heel.

“I’ll drive her to my company first. There we can call the landlady of the apartment again. Maybe she’ll lower the price further,” suggests Alinberg.

Alinberg parks his Lada in front of a new building. Inside, we find ultra-modern, air-conditioned offices where people are sitting at equally modern computers. “We sell everything to do with computers here,” he says and shows us around the large store. “That’s the best technician in town, by the way. Once a month he disappears for two or three days. Then he drank too much vodka. But he really is the best man we can get. That’s why I can’t fire him,” explains the likeable man with a laugh. “I worked as a lawyer for five years. But now I’m the right-hand man of the former mayor of Kokchetav. We do a lot of business. Next year, we hope to get into wheat. Let’s see how this year develops,” he says, showing us around the premises. Before we leave, the staff request a group photo with us, then we drive back to the apartment. The landlady has reduced the price by another 500 tenge. “Live and let live” is our motto and for 27,- ? a day, there is hardly any other city in the world where you can get such a nice apartment.

Marat helps us lug the bikes, trailer and equipment from his apartment to the apartment. “It’s nice that we’re neighbors. Now we can see each other every day,” he says with a laugh as we say goodbye. Then we close the door and are as happy as little children about our beautiful home.

While Tanja goes shopping to fill the fridge, I start to put a bike under the shower to clean it of all the dry mud. In the evening we celebrate the moment with fresh salad, salmon, fresh bread, pistachios, sparkling wine and beer.

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