Clothesless in Kyzlorda

We are now safely in Kyzlorda but unsurprisingly not without incident. Rowena in fact beat us to it and arrived on Sunday afternoon - but it took her several hours to negotiate getting Bolashak off the train as extra unplanned charges (for carriage cleaning, staying in siding etc) kept appearing out of nowhere. Our driver Baurzhan has sorted out a stable in Kyzlorda for Bolashak until we leave for Terenozek tomorrow. John and I arrived a few hours later in the evening after a pleasant train journey in spite of the tropical heating in the carriage - though this made the consumption of a number of bottles of beer almost a neccessity. However in the scramble to unload all our baggage off the train at Kyzlorda amid a scrum of people and carry it across a dark car park to our waiting truck, somehow the bag containing all my clothes went missing presumed stolen. This left me with just the clothes I was standing up in, and necessitated an emergency shopping campaign today. Kyzlorda is hardly the retail capital of the world, but a trawl around the depths of the Old Bazaar resulted in a somewhat eclectic new wardrobe. So instead of jodphurs and hi tech fleece, I am equipped to saunter across the steppe wearing such items as the glittery little spiderwoman outfit below. At least my riding helmet and boots are still with me, though I was bit miffed to lose the box of chocolates my children had given me for Mother's Day.