ABSTRACT

Meanwhile, back on the Good Ship Turkmenistan, things were souring. The incredibly friendly staff were starting to become too friendly. Rather

That was the way we chose to look at it, because otherwise we would have been obliged to call them thieves. First it was the socks; then it was a couple of T-shirts; then a sweater. We finally drew the line when the bigticket items started to disappear-like my $500 camera, $20 shortwave radio, and $2 belt. This last was a particularly desirable item because decent belts were hard to come by in Baku, and to this day I suspect that the camera and radio were only grabbed as an afterthought. We reported this to the management. They suggested that we lost or misplaced the equipment on a park bench. Then we called in the cops, who grilled us for hours before calling in the management, who then blamed us for bringing temptation to the boat. The cops agreed.