Settting up: back in Almaty

I went to Kashgar, southwestern China, on May 25-May 30 with people from the Embassy ... the Urbans, their twin 17 year old girls, and Jane A.

We had "the usual" interesting start: we didn't actually have our tickets in hand until 3:30 pm the day we were to leave -- at 5:00 pm. There were problems with my reservations (part of a leg "evaporated") but of course if I wanted to pay for a business class seat, I could . We waited it out a day, got the tickets, and then were called back an hour before we were to leave to have the tickets re-written.

That morning I bent over to put lotion on my legs and pulled my back out (or something). It took 5 days for most of the pain to go away; but walking actually helped a lot. Getting in and out of cars and sitting was difficult, but I had brought lots of ibuprofen and Naprosyn, so they were my constant friends on the trip.