Reality TV Tie-Ins

We have had a few people comment about how we should write a book about our misadventures in KZ.

Today, I was reminded of that as Randy made a reference to "Survivor Taraz".

Randy and I experienced "Amazing Race - Almaty" during the volcano flight delays.

When we were looking for flights back to the US, Randy commented about flying through China to get home. I asked about visas and the travel agent said "no problem".

Around 2:30 in the afternoon we were booked for a flight to Beijing. Problem was the flight left at 5:00 PM. We literally scrambled through the room to pack up our bags and phoned/e-mailed passport info to the travel agent. When we got to the elevator, there was a delay so Randy watched the bags as I ran down the stairs to check out and order a cab.

While I was in the stairway, the travel agent is calling to tell me we needed to hurry. No kidding.

The hotel clerk looked amazed when we said we needed to be to the airport by 5:00 and quickly called us a cab and checked us out.

We then offered the cab driver a $30 tip if he'd get us to the airport by 4:30. He was skeptical but took us on a wild ride to the airport.

When we got to the airport, I had problems pulling my luggage up the ramp and several cab drivers laughed at me as I was sliding backwards on the tiled ramp.

We got to the airport meeting point where our travel agent met us and took our travel documents. She sent us to the lounge where we had a beer.

Shortly thereafter she called us to the customs window and after some animated discussion in Russian we were told we could not depart due to the lack of a transit visa.

She apologized and we saw that our luggage was pulled from the baggage area and returned to the lounge.

We finished our beers while we waited for our driver.

To add insult to injury - the lounge charged us for the beer as we did not fly out.

Never underestimate the price of a cheap travel agent.