Milestone 35: Brink — Aktau, Kazakhstan

We walked up from the industrial port, from the verdigris edge of the Caspian Sea at 200 feet below sea level, and walked out of the city to yet another edge — the oceanic grass steppes of Asia. I stopped to drink my last chocolate milkshake until Tashkent, more than 2,000 miles to the east. People walked to and fro, looking down with inward gazes, absorbed, as if seeking something they’d lost on the sidewalks. And then there were no people at all.