Day of failures

Sightseeing fail

I stayed in my room and made do with a breakfast of coffee, yoghurt and bread.  As I had seen awesome salads at the nearby big supermarket, I wandered out at 1100 to get some for brunch.

To my surprise, I had accomplished seeing a significant part of the new area during a small part of yesterday afternoon.  Today, the plan was to go to the Palace of Peace and Accord and the National Museum.

Getting to the pyramidal Palace of Peace and Accord (aka Palace of Peace and Reconciliation), I found that it was temporarily closed for about another week.  Damn!

It was only a short but exposed walk to the National Museum.  There was a small group of people and the placard on the door suggested that it should be open.  However, translating the fine print, it is closed on the last Tuesday of every month (today), being Sanitary Day.  Damn, again!

I hadn’t planned on visiting the Palace of Independence but as it was across the road, I walked over to find many expensive cars lined up outside.  It appeared there was an important function going on inside, and of course, it was closed too!

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To salvage the day, I thought I’d get a haircut at one of the barbers I had found on Google Maps.  While waiting for the car, I saw a policeman giving issuing a fine to a driver in a beaten-up car.  Everything was done on a tablet computer including collecting the signature of the driver.

At the first barber, it was a pricey KZT6000 (NZD21) for a cut.  Taking a walk to the second, it was KZT8000!  It shouldn’t be so much more expensive in a developing country than in New Zealand!

The first two barbers had been chain or franchised ones and when I found a third one (non-chain), the price was an acceptable KZT3000 in very pleasantly decorated shop.  It included a wash before and after, and a brief machine head massage.

Travel plan fail

I grabbed a plated kebab meal at the mall before heading back to the room where I was met with bad news.

I had tentative plans to visit a friend in Normandy in about three weeks.  He had just confirmed that all was OK and I had just last night cancelled accommodation in Paris, Bursa and Edirne

But he rang in the afternoon that he had been called away with work to the South Pacific with a departure date yet to be confirmed.  Just a day after I had cancelled bookings for the alternate scenario!

Not only that, I had also cancelled a cheap bus from Luxembourg to Paris and committed to a non-refundable faster and pricier train ride for the same route (but had come down by half from the previous rate).

I had also found a fare from Urumqi to Auckland for the end of my trip at around NZD569, which is only about NZD97 more than standby!  But when I tried to book it, the seats had already gone!