A very, very, very exhausting schedule of non-stop meetings, seminars, and lectures in Bishkek, then up at 4:30 to check out and fly to Osh, then another non-stop day of lectures at the universities and before business groups, then to the airport to fly (delayed flight) to Bishkek, then by car from the airport to the Kyrgyz/Kazakh border, where I was detained for “passport problems” (they were not happy that I had two extra sets of pages in my passport for visas, and accused me of trying to enter the country “with three passports,” but evidently after calls to Almaty or the embassy in Washington, I was allowed to proceed) for several hours, before being allowed to drive through the snowy mountain passes to Almaty, to arrive and try to fall asleep at 3:30, in time for 6:30 am wake up. More meetings and lectures today in Almaty.
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I had some experience with this myself on an overnight train from Ukraine to Moscow; first a squad of young Ukrainian soldiers, and then a Russian in a leather jacket who seemed to be some sort of KGB guy. Very suspicious, this American economist with fishy passport. I was accompanied by a Muscovite gal who took the opportunity to make fun of the provincials for not knowing what an addition to a passport was, and managed to do it in such a way that they were sort of amused too. I gather it relieved their boredom anyway, and the other passengers seemed entertained — or maybe happy that the authorities paid them no attention.
Keep up the great work, Tom!