There is a curious custom here that speaks to the safety of this city. When I told people I was going to Kazakhstan, many people asked me if I was going to be safe. I assured them I was. Later, a newspaper stated that Spokane was the 13th most dangerous city in America. I believe I am safer here than there.
The curious custom I speak of is taking a taxi. I'm not talking about a Yellow Cab or a company I call. Ex-pats call them ghost taxis, Cossacks call them taxis. It's just a random guy trying to pick up a few extra tenge. Here's how it works. I stand on the curb and put my arm out. A car stops, I tell him my destination, he says yes or no. If he says no, I put my arm out again. If he says yes, we negotiate a price and once agreed, I get in. I had not done this until today because I have almost no Russian and was afraid they wouldn't understand me or think they understood me and drop me off somewhere other than my destination. However, the second car that stopped was two students, one who spoke some English. I got where I wanted to go in about 20 minutes instead of an hour by bus.
It's very common to see a woman, a couple or even a family taking a taxi in this way, day or night.
I feel very accomplished. And I'll probably do it again!
Wow! That actually sounds really scary! But if that's the custom, then that's what you do, right? And it did save you 40 minutes. Do they do it in their own private cars? There's a similar new service here where people use their own cars to provide rides for other people. They have an app from the company on their phones, and they get paid $20 an hour when they give someone a ride. One of Brad's friends is doing this to pick up a few dollars on the weekends.
ReplyDeleteNew topic: Here's a link to a video I saw on Weather.com about a mysterious smoke ring over the sky in Astana. Have you asked anyone what their reaction to it was? It's an unusual picture and would probably start some interesting conversations. http://www.weather.com/series/great-outdoors/video/strange-footage-shows-a-smoke-ring-in-kazakhstan?pl=pl-hot-list.