Traffic cop beeping horn phenomenon

Traffic cop soviet man of steel with baton.

Traffic cops in Astana are courageous men with hats that have a diameter approximately twice that of their head. I love these hats -  a wonderful relic of the Soviet era. Astana's big, wide, multilane streets get congested at rush hour and the traffic heroes step in to save the day by standing in the middle of a cross-road of two roads, 6 lanes each, and they spin a baton around to direct the traffic. I think the batons were designed to direct aircraft; the traffic policeman officers hold them at arms length, spinning them in a direction according to their demands of the traffic.

When we sit in traffic in the morning, the waiting cars start honking at him. This wave of excitement catches on, and the man receives an onslaught of horns and we marvel at both the audacity of the cars and tenacity of the traffic officer man boy hero who takes orders from no-driver.

Traffic cop. Note MEGA centre - more on that later

Our driver tends to be indifferent to all of this, and ideed the only international rule of the roads - viz. don't drive on the wrong side! - and he hurtles us in our non-descript white VW minibus down the wrong side of the highway, and then squeezes into position no.2 in the queue, ready to turn left asap and head on down to the university, via some fantastic landmarks which I will no doubt describe in due course.