Kalmykia

Hitchhiking from Makchakchala was fine. While I was getting on the road in direction to Kalmykia I was checked by police. One car stopped by the road. As the driver told me later in his car he just wanted to see what the police is going to do with me. He drove me to a very good hitchhiking spot but first we went to swim in the Caspian sea. He had his break at work so instead of eating (it was the first day of Ramadan) he went to have a bath. It was a very hot day. He gave me a bag of apples from his garden and wished me good luck. Next hitch I got was a police officer in civil clothes. He was interested in psychology and we had an interesting talk but still there was something strange about this guy. We drove all the way in average speed of 150 km/h. At the end of our journey he invited me to drink some tea. I said yes as I got used to accept all the invitations since I had traveled in Turkey. I was surprised when we came to a house that turned out to be a police station and before the tea I was supposed to be interrogated by another police officer. It was at least one hour of stupid questions about such things like what is the subject of studies of my flatmate in Turkey. I had to show them photos in my cellphone that I have taken during my journey. At one moment I got scared. Are they trying to find out whether I am lost and without friends and family? I heard stories about kidnapping people in Dagestan and using them as slaves in some hidden factories. And police was supposed to be involved in some of such kidnappings. (Caucasian area is the most corrupted part of Russia). But these were just stories that I heard from locals in Caucasian area. At the “police station” there actually were no signs that it would really be a police station. No uniforms. But it could be just a camouflage because it is the police and army that is the common target of the terrorist attacks in Dagestan. In the end when I had answered all the detail questions and showed all the pictures the police officer bought me a bottle of mineral water and let me go to drink some tea with his colleague. Well, next time I would skip such a “tea”.

 

That day I got quite near to the border with Kalmykia. The last ride was also quite strange. The driver dropped me off somewhere in the middle of the steppe where he had a meeting with some guys from Kalmykia that I could see very easily because they are the ancestors of Cingischan. They drove off the road somewhere into the steppe. Maybe some vodka smugglers? The driver told me to wait for him that he would stop some car for me later but the whole situation remided me of the stories of Cormac McCarthy where people kill each other in the desert so I just disappeared to the other side of the steppe and searched for a place to sleep. As it was the first day of Ramadan I had the idea to try not to eat and drink water for the whole day. The temperature that day was reaching nearly 40 degrees. I could not understand how the Muslims can manage fasting for 30 days. With the first stars I thanked to the police officer that bought me the water and to the driver that gave me apples and drunk and ate my first dinner in the steppe.

Great breakfast after a day of fasting.

The next day prepared a big surprise for me. After one sailor dropped me off in some little town in the middle of nowhere I went to buy an ice cream and bananas. I was sitting under a tree in front of the shop and eating my snack when I saw a Czech rallye truck passing by. It stopped at a gas station nearby! I immediately run there. It is funny but one can often recognize Czechs just by the clothes and faces I realized again. I said "dobrý den" and was invited to a lunch by the surprised Czech group. I learned that they were a part of a rallye team and that there is a big rallye race called Silk way right now. After the lunch and some beer it was clear that I am going to continue with them. It was nice to communicate in my native language again. They drove me to a junction near Elista. We changed our phone numbers so we could arrange a meeting next day and go to Astrakchan together. At the junction I had to sing a song to a police officer and then he stopped a car for me that was going to Elista.

I have a whole collection of pictures like this from my Caucasian trip.

Sand dunes in the steppe.

The white thing is not snow but dry salt lakes.

A restroom by the road.

Kalmykia is the only republic in Europe with a Buddhist majority. It is actually hard to feel like in Europe when you arrive to Elista. The Asiatic look of locals and the Buddhist temple gives more Asian feelings. Also the steppe and the half wild camels that you can sometimes see by the road does not look like "Europe". But as I have already written in this blog it is hard to define where actually is the end or the begining of Asia and Europe.

The biggest Buddhist temple in Europe. They have a nice library with computers and internet inside:)

 

Very clever boy. I had a nice talk with him and his friends about the future plans in a park while eating a snack.

Elista is famous for chess. Men playing at the main square.

He could not understand that I don't want to give him my shoes.

One more Lenin to the collection.

I was almost hosted in Elista. One guy in the street invited me to stay at his and his wifes place. But his wife finally did not like this idea (perhaps when she saw my beard she got scared?) so I had to leave from his flat. I was going to get to an airport near Elista where my Czech friends were staying that night. How to get a ride in the middle of a city? Just sit in front of a Buddhist temple and play some songs and somebody will invite you to eat some traditional local food and if the person has a car he/she will drive you to the airport and maybe will play some mantras for you. That is how I got to the airport from where I was going to go to Astrakhan early the next morning.

Sunsets in the steppe are some of the most beautiful I have ever seen. Watch this:
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