Blogs from Almaty, East Kazakhstan, Kazakhstan, Asia

Hello again everyone! I got a good night's sleep last night despite having the feeling like I was moving for a lot of the time... My host is currently cooking dinner (a quiche) and I'm just sitting here doing my thing. Not a bad deal. Apparently there are a lot of Korean expats in Almaty, so I would like to take her to a Korean restaurant and show her what that is all about. We shall see. So, today I woke up and ate some breakfast and played with her cat (she had already left before I woke up). Also, not a bad deal. I wandered up to where the Kyrgyzstan Consulate is to get some information about my next destination. Some good news here: as of July 27, 2012, citizens of (giant list of countries ... read more

Prave jsme v oblasti okolo mesta Almaty. Cesta pres Petropavlovsk, Astanu do Almaty nas vedla zajimavou stepi, skalnimi utvary, kolem jezera a poslednich zhruba 700km od jezera Balkas uz byla jen rovna step. Kazakhstan je 9ta nejvetsi zeme sveta a osidleni prakticky zadne. Hlavni mesto Astana je moderni metropole, ktera vsak postrada historii. Spousta modernich budov, vkusna architektura, ale to ja tak asi vse. Almaty je oproti tomu hezke zelene mesto plne zivota na upati vecne zasnezenych hor. Zde je videt, ze mesto zije, spousta obchudku, bazaru, trhu, lide ziji na ulici. Cestou jsme se vykoupali v jezeru Balchas, v nemz je v casti voda sladka, a v druhe casti slana. Lide jsou zde prijemni, ale s ruskou pohostinosti se to neda srovnat. V rusku i cizi clovek byl vic nez pratelsky, zde je uz videt ... read more

May 11-12, 2012 Flight: Austin (AUS) to Houston (IAH); United Airlines 737, econ Flight: Houston (IAH) to London (LHR); United Airlines 777, econ Flight: London (LHR) to Almaty, Kazakhstan (ALA); British Midland A319, econ Hotel: Holiday Inn Almaty, 5k+$60/nt So finally the day of departure arrives and our plans are in disarray. Being busy with work and last minute preparations I hadn't had a chance to call up United to get our tickets changed. My friend was using miles on his ticket, but my ticket was a paid fare which made things more complicated. Dean and I did decide to visit Erbil for a day, then fly to Albania and do a mad dash loop through the southern Balkans, ending in Athens. I had booked the Supershuttle to the airport a bit tight on time, made ... read more

“Bilay, bilay” (“dance, dance”) we encouraged as two year old Gulzhan giggled and wriggled in a dance and then clapped her hands. I was already ‘tatia’, her aunt, and making friends with her helped me to settle into my new home in rural Kazakhstan. Gulbashyn, our hostess, was friendly and talkative and happy to rent us a warm clean room whilst we did our research. The household included Gulbashyn, her husband and three of their five children, the other two were living in Almaty. Gaziza and I are staying here while we interview local herders and farmers. The village contains about 250 households but only about half have livestock and many people are unemployed, often seeking work in Almaty. We have been given a room on the ground floor right next to the kitchen so that ... read more

Fate often plays a hand in people’s lives and this seemed to be the case for myself and my new Kazakh co-researcher. The project needed to find a Researcher/translator within Kazakhstan and Zhar had kindly forwarded a couple of potential CVs. One was unsuitable as they were a full-time student so in the end I arranged to interview just one, a young teacher of English with a glowing CV of awards and achievements. Gaziza arrived at the hotel on time and we were soon deep in conversation as I explained the project and she explained her career history and documents. Friendly, intelligent and well-spoken, Gaziza seemed like the ideal candidate and by the end of the interview I was convinced and asked if she would like to join us. She seemed surprised and delighted and asked ... read more

Almaty is the city of apples: big ones, red ones, green ones, felt ones, bouncy ones ... bouncy ones ?? Well 3 large red inflatable apples were fascinating the local children. Almaty is famous for its particularly large and tasty variety of apple and was celebrating this in one of its many leafy squares with music, exhibitions and stalls selling a wide variety of apple products. I had Sunday free to explore the city and I was delighted to find Almaty Apple Fest. The sun shone and the music played – from folk singing to an enthusiastic rap band. About fifty stalls were selling all varieties of apple which many a shopper held up to his/her nose to smell to assess the flavour. As I picked up a delicious looking red and green apple to do ... read more