Caspian Scene, an English-language magazine we picked up in Baku, had a lot of useful information on the city's dining scene, but other than that it was essentially the sounding board for a lady named Sandra Cummming. Sandra wrote almost every article in the magazine, and displayed encyclopedic knowledge. One was about the possible Caucasus origins of the Norse people. Ever wonder why they have a god called Aser? Hm? Or why white people are called Caucasian? Another article was on Russian car makes - the hardy UAZ, GAZ and KamAZ. Sandra refers to them collectively as “harasho masheenas,” a butchering of the Russian khoroshiye mashiny (good cars) that she apparently picked up from one of her many drivers.
"One essential feature of life in post-Soviet Central Asian countries is the existence of sturdy Russian vehicles," she writes. "These are best seen in action where life is sometimes tough with the terrain to match." Sing it, Sandy. We experienced this first-hand a couple weeks after reading the Collected Works of Sandra Cumming when traveling through the tough-as-nails Pamirs, where even the parts that are "paved" have potholes like craters.
The Toyota van we started out with Khorog became useless after reaching Alichur three grueling days into the four-day journey, and we had to get through the rest of Tajikistan and into Kyrgyzstan on a Lada and a Volga. I should note that both of these broke down on the road as well, but were up and runnning again after a few slaps and taps - not like Japanese cars, which require serious, sophisticated care from a professional to solve their problems. If only I could bring a Volga to the U.S. with me...
1 comment:
At one point UAZ was going to sell its cars on US markets, but indignantly canceled the idea when they learned that cars in the US are required to be sissified with anti-lock brakes, catalytic converters, power steering and seat belts for every seat.
Post a Comment