Good news 1. We arrived at Almaty, (Kazakhstan), after a somewhat delayed flight out of Manchester due to a fire alarm & broken baggage handling system, The transfer from istanbul to Almaty was very smooth. We then connected with our transport to the Chinese border, where it took us 2 hours to leave Kazakhstan and another 3 hours to enter China. Immdediately on entering Xinjiang we met up with Alip, my Chinese contact and are now showered, fed and about to have an early night after almost 2 days without much sleep.

 

Bad news. Both Chris & Sam's bags are, apparently still in Istanbul, which means they've only got the clothes tht they stand up in and their valuables.

 

Good news 2. Alip has contacted the Kazakh travel agency and hopefully they have arranged to get the missing bags flown out to Almaty & on the Urumchi on the 3rd - we should get 'em on the 5th - if they make Almaty on the 3rd. The fallback position is that I'll need to buy them some clothes, tent, sleeping bags etc, (probably using my Visa card), and then claim it back through the insurance & / or give Turkish Airways the bill.

 

Good news 3. Well, good news 3 is that the lost bags are someone elses & not mine!