My First Silent Film: Act II

As I mentioned in my previous post (if you haven’t read it, please see Act I), I recently tried to leave Kazakhstan three times; the process was somewhat of a disaster though, as I did not have the proper paperwork filled out. However, over the course of three days, I interacted with—over and over—many characters in the microcosm around the border crossing. This is the second of three acts, which is how I’ve chosen to break out the happenings of each crossing attempt. Personally, I think it would be an entertaining silent film, which is why I’ve named the blog as such; the majority of the dialogue is actually pantomiming. Please see Act I for my witty reference to Charlie Chaplin. Now, please allow me to introduce: Act II:

Act II: Jason, after failing to exit Kazakhstan, travels from Zharkent, back to Almaty (so that he can register with the Migration Police), and then back to Zharkent. His new goal is to be in Urumqi, China in less than 50 hours total.

Cast List (in order of appearance—not inclusive of minor roles):

1) Jason: Still dashingly handsome, though somewhat exhausted from unsuccessful travel. He is in good spirits though, knowing that had he not gone through this experience now, it could have been worse later on.

2) Roman: Old man who lives nearby Zharkent. He shuffles between storefronts looking for Westerners whom he can assist, whether they are looking for help or not. He speaks no English.

3) Kuralee: The daughter of Roman—lives in Almaty. She is employed as a tourist guide, and supposedly speaks five languages: Kazakh, Russian, German, French, and English. She may or may not also be pushing drugs.

4) Nastia: Kazakh border guard currently employed in Korgas, on the Kazakh-side of the border with China, who does not want to have intercourse with Jason—despite the promptings of her coworker. She is a heavy text messaging user of emoticons.

4) Confused Cab Driver 1: Works as a cab driver picking up patrons outside the Sayran Bus Station in Almaty, Kazakhstan.

5) Angry Migration Police Official: (Sometimes) speaks to travelers who need to register with Kazakhstan’s Migration Police. She speaks very little English, and her smile looks like a slightly concave version of her favorite facial expression, the frown. Her role is somewhat ambiguous, as she does not do paperwork, and directs most conversations to her secretary.

6) Migration Police Secretary: The secretary who sits directly adjacent to Angry Migration Police Official. He speaks English well, and seemingly does most of the work of his superior. His demeanor is pleasant, and he is extremely helpful in filling out the Russian/Kazakh-language paperwork required to register with the Migration Police.

7) Confused Cab Driver 2: Works as a cab driver picking up patrons outside the Zharkent Bus Station in Zharkent, Kazakhstan.

8) Borhan: Drives a taxi in Zharkent. He has two children, a wife, and likes watermelon. He detests moments of silence.

(Late Afternoon, Becoming Nighttime. In and Around the Zharkent Bus Terminal: Zharkent, Kazakhstan)

Jason, upon arriving back in the Zharkent bus terminal after his first failed border crossing attempt, is mobbed by taxi drivers seeking his patronage for a trip back to Almaty. The first price given to him is $100 USD. Upon refusal, the price is immediately cut down to $50 USD. Upon further refusal, the drivers lose interest and Jason enters the ticketing office to buy a bus ticket for the next available bus. As none of the windows are open, he speaks with two individuals—also waiting for a bus—who tell him that there are several buses leaving that evening, but not until 11:30 PM; the windows will open at 8:00 PM—in an hour—to sell tickets.

Out of curiosity, boredom, and thirst, Jason walks to the local store to buy water and verify the bus schedule with the clerk. As he discusses the trouble he had at the border—the clerk speaks English—an old man, Roman, enters, and begins talking to the Clerk in Russian. He begins to motion to Jason to follow him. The clerk explains to Jason that the old man told her that a taxi to Almaty would only be 1500 Tenge ($10 USD). Assuming that the man is a Taxi driver, and that this is probably too good to be true, Jason follows him.

Roman leads Jason most of the way back to the taxi drivers—who are standing together smoking, patiently waiting for patrons to appear—but makes him stand behind a bush so that he is hidden from their sight. Roman motions for him to stay behind the bush until he returns—in reality only partially hidden, because Jason is over six feet tall and carrying a large backpack—while he goes and talks the cab drivers down to the $10 fare he had told the store clerk about. Two cab drivers walk up to the partially-hidden Jason, and begin telling him, again, that the fare back to Almaty is $50 USD—they clearly saw him walk up with Roman and immediately hide behind a bush. The old man reappears shortly thereafter, tells Jason that the trip will cost $50, and leads him into the bus station’s terminal to the—closed—ticketing windows.

Inside the terminal, Jason tries to explain to Roman that the only buses will leave at 11:30 PM, and that the windows will open at 8:00 PM. He hushes Jason, and speaks with the same two individuals that Jason had spoken with only minutes prior. They look confusedly at Jason as they answer his questions, which are clearly the same answers they had given earlier. When he is satisfied, Roman sits on the bench across from the ticketing window, and motions for Jason to sit next to him. He speaks no English, but he asks probing and complex questions in Russian that Jason struggles to answer coherently. After 15 minutes of a continually dying conversation, Roman suggests that they eat at the restaurant in the bus station. Jason agrees.

The two eat while Roman speaks with the other patrons, giving him a blessedly long break from struggling to form answers to the old man’s questions. At the meal’s end, at 8:00 PM, Jason is forced to pay for both of the meals, as Roman is clearly performing some kind of service for the Westerner—thereby making him responsible for all of the expenses that are incurred. They walk the 15 meters back to the ticketing window, where Jason tells the agent where he is going, at what time he wants to leave, and gives her the correct amount of payment; he already spoke with the same agent earlier that day when he purchased a bus ticket to the Chinese border (in Act I), and took a bus going on the same route in the opposite direction (from Almaty) that same morning—nothing new.

Roman continues to stay and ask Jason complex and probing questions which he struggles to answer, and tells him no less than six times when the bus will be arriving in Almaty the next morning—5:00 AM. It suddenly occurs to him that his daughter—Kuralee—lives in Almaty, and could pick up Jason from the bus terminal at 5:00 AM. Roman explains that his daughter speaks 5 languages, and is a tourist guide. He asks for Jason’s phone, on which he calls his daughter. Four minutes of casual conversation ensue before any mention of an “American” or “Almaty” is made. He then hands the phone to Jason for him to speak, though he has not given Jason any indication of what he is supposed to talk about. Kuralee‘s only response to his questions is “hello”, repeated several times. Jason hands the phone back to the old man, where the casual conversation continues until once again, the phone is handed back to Jason. Her only response is “hello.” This process repeats several times until Jason’s phone runs out of credit.

After Jason buys another $5 USD worth of credit at the nearby market, he returns to the old man. Excitedly, referring to his daughter Kuralee, Roman tells Jason something that contains a word sounding suspiciously like a transliteration of the English word, “narcotics.” When Jason tells him that he doesn’t understand, Roman repeats the word, and flicks his neck. Once again, Jason does not understand, so Roman repeats the word and motion several times over. Though unsure due to the language barrier, Jason is under the impression that the old man’s daughter is some kind of drug-pushing tourist guide, who doesn’t actually speak English. His urge to call her at 5:00 AM starts to diminish.

The next 2 and a half hours pass painfully slow for Jason.

At 11:00 PM, Roman notions for Jason to get up, and board one of the four Almaty-bound buses that have arrived at the bus terminal. Jason gets on, and Roman asks for 700 Tenge ($4.50 USD) for his cab fare home. As the service that he has preformed clearly warrants such payment, Jason obliges, and tries his best to fall asleep in his seat.

(Late Night. Aboard an Almaty-Bound Bus: Zharkent, Kazakhstan)

A woman shakes Jason, and motions for him to get up. He is not only in the woman’s seat, but also on the wrong bus. Jason gets off the bus, asks the driver where the correct one is, and boards that bus instead. Roman is no longer present.

(Early Morning. Aboard the Correct Almaty-Bound Bus: Almaty, Kazakhstan)

Jason is shaken awake; the bus has arrived in Almaty. He takes out his phone and quickly debates whether or not he should call the drug-pushing, non-English speaking daughter of Roman. He does anyway, wondering if it is against his better judgment. 

Kuralee answers the 5:00 AM phone call. As Jason explains—in English—who he is and why he is calling, she responds by saying “hello” several times, and hangs up. He does not call her back.

(Early Morning. Café Outside of Sayran Bus Station: Almaty, Kazakhstan)

As Jason is drinking tea outside the bus station, he receives a text message from Nastia asking how he slept, whether he is in Almaty, and if he is coming back to the border crossing that same day; her excessive usage of emoticons is astounding. Though he responds in a timely manner, he receives no response.

(Early Morning. A City Bus Stop Outside of Sayran Bus Station: Almaty, Kazakhstan)

Jason takes out 18,000 Tenge from an ATM in preparation for the fine he will have to pay at the Migration Police office. As he is waiting for the local bus, Confused Cab Driver 1 approaches and asks why he isn’t in China. This is a cab driver that Jason had briefly conversed with the previous morning, who obviously remembers him. Jason has no such memory, but asks him which the correct bus to the Migration Police office is. Confused Cab Driver 1 suggests that he take a taxi—specifically, his.

(Mid-Morning. Migration Police Station: Almaty, Kazakhstan)

Without knowing who the person he needs to speak to is, Jason approaches the only window that does not have a line in front of it. Angry Migration Police Official is waiting for him, frowning. As he explains why he is there and gives her his passport and the partially-unstamped piece of paper that is preventing him from leaving the country, she hands the stack to the secretary—without speaking—sitting directly to her left. Jason sidesteps to his right, and begins speaking with the secretary after Migration Police Secretary opens his window. Migration Police Secretary explains that it will take 15 minutes to process the paperwork.

Jason patiently waits nearby for 15 minutes, fingering the 18,000 Tenge he is about to pay.

After the required 15 minutes have passed, Jason approaches the window of Migration Police Secretary—he is slightly terrified of Angry Migration Police Official—and waits for another 15 minutes until he is acknowledged. Digging through the nearby stack of passports, Migration Police Secretary hands Jason the stack of paperwork belonging to him. Jason waits nervously for the fine to be handed to him. Migration Police Secretary looks up from his paperwork at Jason for a moment, and looks back down without speaking; he is obviously working on another traveler’s passport. Jason makes a mad dash for the door, passport and fully-stamped slip of paper in hand.

(Late Afternoon. Around the Zharkent Bus Terminal: Zharkent, Kazakhstan)

After 6 hours of travel via Marshrutka, Jason reaches the Zharkent bus terminal for the third time. On his way to buy provisions at the local store, he runs into Confused Cab Driver 2. This is another cab driver that Jason spoke with the previous day. He asks Jason why he isn’t in China.

(Late Afternoon. Aboard a Taxi: Between Zharkent and Korgas, Kazakhstan)

As no buses were running at the time of his arrival to Zharkent, Jason procured a taxi with Borhan, a local cab driver. Though he speaks very little English, he happily banters in Russian and prevents the cab from ever falling into silence. After he and Jason pass several watermelon stands, he asks if there are watermelons in America. Because Jason does not recognize the Russian word for watermelon, Borhan describes them as large, green apples that are red inside. Jason tells him that they have many watermelons in America—both big and small.

At 6:15 PM, as they arrive via taxi to the first gate at the border crossing, Borhan tells Jason that the border closed at 6:00 PM. Though they had picked up and dropped off two other passengers on the way to the crossing, Borhan had made no mention of the border’s schedule until now, nor had he seemed to be in any particular rush. Thus, though he had traveled all day in an attempt to do so, Jason failed in his second attempt to leave Kazakhstan. He asks Borhan to drop him off at a truck stop nearby so that he can buy a meal.

(Early Evening. Inside the Truck Stop: Korgas, Kazakhstan)

At the truck stop, the chef shows Jason to their inn—the room adjacent to the kitchen/dining area—and prepares his meal. When it’s ready, he sits down to goulash, bread, and tea, and accepts the fact that he’ll have to make for the border the next morning. At least he’s closer than he was in Almaty.

End of Act II

Hope you enjoyed Act II. Don’t fret, I won’t pull a Game-of-Thrones and make you wait until next season for the exciting conclusion—just until I have internet again. I’ll be sure to add a link here to Act III for convenience once it is posted. Here is the link to Act III

Happy trails,

JHW