Fixing the details

Well we were finally in Gorno-Altaisk and had met Evgania in the flesh - quite moving as I had only talked to her by email or phone for the previous five years. We were shown our home for the nights we were in Gorno-Altaisk and then the process of negotiation about practicailities started. We had been picked up at the airport by Sasha and Amadou (the driver).

Although I was finding it very hard to concentrate because of sleep-deprivation, it was time to negotiate (with Evgania translating), accomodation, transport and the cost of the performance itself.

Sasha had been asked to make arrangments as he lived in Ongudai, the town nearest to the village at the foot of the Karakol valley where Arshan lived, and also knew Arshan.

I'm not very good at negotiating - it's something I prefer to leave to my wife Cristina, but she had not come on this trip because she was in the last stage of pregnanacy. Although we came to agreements that were just about in my budget - I did not feel that we resolved everything well.

I then failed to get any cash out of the cash-point again - this was a real problem as I had to get out my daily limit for each day we were in town to cover everything. I had told my bank that I was going to be in Russia so they did not stop payments.I phoned home, quickly exhausting my mobile limit. Cris would enquire. I then went to the town phone-booth station, bought credit, and then listened in singular frustration as my bank went through it's automatic banking sequence. Eventually I discovered that while I thought my daily cash limit was £400 it was in fact £250. Problem solved!

We also had to get our visa's registered. This turned into one of those visit five offices and then return to the one you started with soviet style processes - it would have been completely impossible without Evgania. Even she started to become irked at one point, but then she has been living in Germany for much of the previous three years and has got used to more efficient systems.

Visas really are a bane of my life. I could tolerate the £100 tax on visiting a country if it was just that. Why it has to be so bloody difficult I don't know. The russians obviously don't want tourists (maybe they are wise in that respect) or perhaps they are just taking their revenge on me as a Brit because my country makes it so damn difficult for Russians to visit the UK.

The photo is Evgania in Moscow airport.