24/06/2026
Day 2 : Bureaucracy at its finest
Here’s the full story:
As we go along I will be counting how many different pleople we had to talk to.
1: First thing in the morning we went to the closest police station as our starting point. After this lovely civilian translated for us we were directed to the Information Center.
2: At the information center we found this sweet old woman who could not grasp the concept of typing her response to translate, however with much charades we got general directions to the next station
3: On the way we got completely lost and find nearby a military university with some drill sergeants having a smoke break so we asked them for directions.
4: finally make it to the station we are infamously nicknaming The Compound, after passing through three people’s hands (which puts us at 6 now) we are directed to our next stop
7:The impound! After an hour taxi we can catch a glimpse of our beloved in the distance amidst a sea of cars, unfortunately however the guard tells us he needs a receipt of release. So we convince him to send Ryan to check the car to make sure it’s not damaged beyond repair.
8. Back to The Compound to the same lazy worker who was just lunging under the trees having a smoke where he makes a call and sends us to the Medau station
9. At the Medau station after being shouted at by a woman who claims she only serves Kazak citizens we find a police officer willing to help, but one by one their shifts end so we get passed to an extra two people bringing us up to 11. They finally figure out that we in fact do not have any fines, but they need a document certifying this from… you guessed it:
12. The Compound. This time we learned our lesson and got a written and stamped document explaining to the lounging officer that he had to help us… andddd he sent us to the back of The Compound to another person.
13: This new officer looks at our paper and after checking our documents issues us a document stating we have no outstanding fines
14: back at the Medau station they take our document and we get out receipt of release.
Stay tuned for Day 3 where we pick up the car!
