I'm currently cooling my heals (pardon the pun, minus something silly °C outside) in the lobby of the hotel in Aktau, Kazakhstan – a city that has only been in existence for the last 47 years, most of which (under the USSR) it didn’t appear on any maps so you'll need an Atlas published after 1991 to find it and had a number rather than a name. Even today, there are no street names just micro-districts and the bright façades of the apartment buildings only thinly disguise their function as military barracks hitherto. The locals tell me the nuclear research facilities and uranium extraction plants on which the town was foundered no longer exist. Coincidently though they have a love affair with neon signs here and I can't help but wonder if the lights are actually wired up or just glow of their own accord? Best not to dwell on that thought for too long....
I had my first hair cut transacted exclusively in Russian yesterday at the girlie Salon which is part of the hotel.......shops and services accessible without having to step outside are convenient in winter time here :). After 7 years of the Turkish barber / ringer on Al Waab street given me the 2 min "wham, bam thank ya Sir" shear it was a refreshing experience to have someone wash my hair, massage my ear lobes and then cut every hair on my head individually, not once but twice! The stylist had a pouch around her waist with 13 pairs of scissors and intended to use them all! I had to draw the line when she wanted to style my eyebrows, although to be fair she didn’t have much material to work with on the thinning top surface! All in all 4,000 tenge well spent!
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