We have spent the last few days in Atyrau, Kazakhstan getting new tires, replacing 2 u-joints, and picking up a couple of other spare parts. The Kazakh people have been extremely kind and helpful overall. While we were working on our tires, we met Dmitriy and he connected us to his buddy, Max, who hunted down the exact u-joints we needed and guided us to some great mechanics. They both helped us find other spare parts we needed too! On top of all that, neither the mechanics nor our new friends let us pay for anything.

We got the new u-joints:

Our fave mechanic finessing the u-joint (notice the guy welding in the back, haha):

Dream team:

The wrong way to take apart an old u-joint (this guy was trying to cut it apart, yikes!):

The right way to take apart an old u-joint (hammer it out):