Voir Dire

For all the camel lovers. Like the horse in Central Asia, the camel makes the perfect pet. You can ride it, milk it, shoot it, skin it, and eat it....it really is the complete pet. Stopped in here along the way to the Caspian Sea for some Coke and a candy bar, came out with a water, two new hats and some new friends................... Please car don't break down.................We left Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan on Sunday morning and drove for five and half days back up through Kazakhstan trying to get to the Caspian Sea to the town of Aktau where we can cross over headed for the Mediterranean and Antakya, Turkey.... We made it to the Caspian with almost no complications, we praise God for his guidance and perfection....... Bam................................

Are you Russianized? Even though there are some very nice stretches of highway, their not afraid to drop a BUMPY ROAD next 200 km sign on ya. This is part of the Transiberia Highway outside of Irkutsk. The rule while driving is you can go anywhere on either side at anytime. You can do it, and expect them to do it. It's not that bad after you loosen up your grip a little and quit white knuckling the steering wheel. After driving all day in the dust, you can still find sweet spots along the way.......... Made it through the Russia-Kazakhstan border and headed south through Kazakhstan to a country I didn't even realize existed..... Kyrgyz Republic. Before we got there, we found out just how big Kazakhstan is....in fact we found out later it's the seventh biggest country in the world...the point is you don't just zip through these countries. Besides the size of the country we were an absolute traffic police target. Pulled over probably ten times within the first t...

Made it into the shores of Baikal late......its a pretty big lake; 400 miles long, 14 miles wide on average and finds a depth of about 5400 feet at it's deepest point... Drove around Baikal, not super easy, but eventually took a ferry out to Olhon Island and found a spot.......the sun is out, the grill is hot and the pool is luke... After waking up in a panic in the middle of the night thinking we were sinking in the lake, morning came and we met this rancher.......he showed up in the morning had a cup of coffee, let us ride his horse and hung out, super nice guy from Uzbekistan that works the ranch all year long.... Evening came and a couple fishermen rolled into camp.......they got out hooked us up with some freshly caught fish, stayed for a little while then went on their way.... This picture is probably not necessary, but thought I would throw it in anyways....

The traffic from Ulaanbataar, Mongolia to the Russian border was pretty light today......... Got through the Russian border and I decided we shouldn't fill up, I thought we could make it all the way to Ulan Ude. As usual my good judgement paid off. As the fuel light was starting to blink half way to Ulan Ude we scurried to find some diesel. We rolled into this little station on the outskirts of a little town and got 20 liters of diesel for $27 US Dollars and a juice. We tried to pay with a visa, but to no avail........ Our Horse............1992 Toyota Hilux Surf, 2.4 Turbo Diesel........

Look carefully at the picture below.....especially at the communication breakdown between the boy on the left and Christina. Now, while the rest of us were just trying to get a nice little picture taken, Christina is telling the Chinese kid something on the left. Whatever she is communicating is frightening the kid........ Found this place north of Beijing. It's called Summer's Palace, kind of nice.... After much time and anticipation from a lot of people our self-portraits are finally complete. Right now we only have one copy of each so their not for sale. If you would like to request one let us know, it will be extra for a signed copy.

We thought we would take some time to introduce some people we have met along the way. Above is Pastor Sergai, his wife Tanya and their boy Daniel. Below is their daughter Anastasia. We met them in Vladivostok. They were always inviting us over to their place for lunch, or to take a shower, or use a normal toilet. One of our new compliments when arriving at a house is, "nice toilet." For a couple weeks we got to hang out with them. They took us to the beach, we would play ping pong on Sunday evenings or just hang out in their apartment. Nastia, their daughter helped us learn some Russian while Daniel the little boy, just learning to walk, would patrol the living room. He is a very special kid. This is our tour guide Victor "the Drifter." We had one phone number to call when we arrived to Vladivostok, and it was Victor......it was a real treat to get to know him. Very nice guy who helped us get around the city for a couple weeks. He helped us find places to stay. T...

Decided to take a little tour of Military Fort No.7................ Despite a rough couple days we have been treated extremely well by our friends Victor, Sergai and his wife Tanya, their two children Anastasia and Daniel, and their church. On Monday, our One Year Anniversary Tanya invited us over for lunch at their place where she and Anastasia had decorated the house with balloons, flowers, a picture of us, and signs celebrating our first year. After the great meal they drove us to the beach where we enjoyed some sun and surf, the water was refreshing and my surprise One Year Anniversary party for Christina was a success....it actually was all Tanya, Sergai and her daughter....we also had a chance to help teach an English class at the University here........anyways hope all is well.......