Almaty

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Saturday 10th June and we arrive into Almaty at 5am; tired and filthy after not being able to shower for 6 days! One of the ladies on our bus who spoke english was coming to Almaty for work and kindly offered us a lift to a hotel we had earmarked in the guidebook. Apparently rooms were 10 pounds a night. On arrival though, we found that once again Lonely Planet was out of date and that Hotel Almaty had gone through a refurbishment and rooms now cost 100 pounds a night - way off our budget. In the end, the porter who worked in the hotel whose name was Asset turned out to be a real asset. He knew a taxi driver who knew someone who had an apartment for short-term rent just round the corner costing 28 pounds a night. Still not great but better that 100! We knew that accomodation prices in Almaty were high, aimed mostly at the business market with absolutely no infrastructure for independent travellers such as ourselves. After an hour of waiting we were in our apartment showered and asleep.

We woke up mid-afternoon and took a walk around our area just to get our bearings and ended up in a pub watching England's opening World Cup game before heading home. Sunday was a complete write-off. After the rigours of the last week's travel, we made a point of doing nothing except for watching all 3 World Cup games which were shown on Kazakh TV.

By the time Monday came around, we were suitably refreshed and ready to go and sort out our visas for Mongolia. We took a taxi the 8km to the Mongolian Consulate and were told that the Consul was in a meeting until 15:00 and we should come back. With the expense of the taxi, we decided to find a cafe and wait it out. As we walked down the street away from the consulate, I noticed plants growing alongside the road that looked and smelled suspiciously like Marijuana. What a country! After a late breakfast of omelette and salad and numerous cups of tea, we headed back to the Mongolian consulate to drop off our passports before heading back to Almaty to watch more World Cup.

The following day was another visa-dedicated one. Having returned to collect our Mongolian visas we decided to try and sort out our visas for Russia. The Russian embassy is in the new Kazakh capital of Astana and from what we could gather, accomodation there is even pricier than in Almaty, so we decided to try and sort it out through an agency here. All was not to be, and after finding out that the Russian embassy was actually closed for the week due to some kind of political summit and the presence in Kazakhstan of Mr. Putin, we were told that if we waited until it re-opened, by the time we actually got our Russian visas, our Kazakh visas would have run out. The only way around this was to pay for an express visa service which for Russia, apparently costs 250 pounds! Yep! Someone is making a lot of money out of these little bits of paper. Left without any other choice, we begrudgingly forked out and sent our visa applications off for processing. In the evening, we ...... you guessed it, settled down infront of some World Cup football on the TV.

Wednesday, we headed up towards the main shopping district and had a wander around teh TSUM department store, where I had to buy a new discman as teh one I brought with me has already died a death and travelling another 5000+ km without music is not an option for me! Our next stop was more of a cultural one and took us to the Arasan baths, an old Soviet building housing men and women's baths. After finally finding where it is you buy the tickets and also purchasing a bunch of myrtle leaves, we headed into the changing room where we were greeted by lots of naked men - everything on show. If you can't beat em.... join em! We stripped down to our birthday suits and took a shower before heading into the sauna. I don't think I have ever been so hot in my life. The heat was so intense that it literally takes your breath away as soon as you enter. Nonetheless, I sat my naked buttocks on the scorching wooden seat and proceeded to beat myself with the bunch of myrtle leaves I had purchased previously. Aparently the beating lets off some kind of vapour into your skin or something like that? Answers on a postcard please. After about 10 minutes of thrashing myself and Adam, we couldn't take it any longer and headed into the pool to cool down for a while. Once we had returned to somewhere near our normal body temperature, we headed for a shower and to put some clothes back on. That said, the whole 'naked thing' is quite refreshing, particularly as most of teh guys here think nothing of it - guess the Kazakhs just aren't quite as reserved as the English!

The next day was another lazy one, once again in a similar vain to Baku, we find ourselves sitting around bored with no desire to go anywhere or do anything. We finally left our flat to go and watch England v Trinidad and Tobago at an expat pub called Mad Murphy's. After a poor performance, we decided that having done nothing all day, we might as well sample Almaty's nightlife and took some advice from the friendly barmaid on where to go for a party. we ended up at a nightclub a few blocks from our apartment called Ginza. It was pretty empty but still pretty good with reasonably cheap drinks and tolerable music. We left when it closed at 5am walked outside into the light of dawn to see a couple of prostitutes fighting over which of 3 Turkish guys they were going to take home. Happy times!

Friday consisted of waking up with a stinking hangover, going out for a burger and watching more of the World Cup.

After a pretty dull week of it, our weekend was much more achieving and a pretty good laugh too. Saturday we bought our train tickets for our onward journey to Semey in northern Kazakhstan and then took a walk around the Zeylony Bazaar, a bustling market with carcasses hanging from meat hooks, spices filling the air with their scent, old ladies peddling their Kumys (fermented mare's milk) and many other sights and smells to get the senses tingling. I have always loved visiting markets and this one was particularly large although slightly disappointing in content. We had an early night, sat in watching World Cup on TV and on Sunday had a very early start, waking up at 6:30am.

We dragged ourselves out of bed and toko a taxi to the central stadium where we had been told to meet our tour bus to the Charyn Canyon. We boarded our rickety old bus and drove east of ALmaty for 4 hours, mostly on paved roads although the last 40 minutes was ona dirt track which threw up the dust off the ground, making it quite hard to breathe. We finally arrived at the top of the Charyn Canyon at 12:00. Although not as large or as grand as the Grand Canyon in the USA, the Charyn Canyon is still very beautiful. We walked 2.5km down into the canyon, past the wonderful rock formations and down to the riverbed where we could sit, chill out and eat our egg mayo sandwiched we had prepared the night before. Whilst walking through the canyon, we were recognised by Aldir, a young Kazakh who has lived in Australia for the last 10 years and who we had noticed but not spoken to in Mad Murphy's a few nights earlier. Having lived in Australia for over a decade, he spoke perfect english and invited us to join him and his family at their picnic. Not wanting to seem rude, we happily obliged and were treated to real Kazakh hospitality by a lovely, welcoming family. We were given our first taste of Kumys, fermented mares milk which tastes like natural yoghurt, diluted with soda water with a few teaspoons of salt added. Not the nicest thing ever to pass my lips but I managed a few sips so as not to appear rude. We also tried Kazy, a sausage made of horse meat which was actually very tasty although it had a more distinct flavour than either beef or lamb. After enjoying our second picnic and having a lovely chat with this wonderful family, we all made our way back up the canyon in a rickety old pick-up truck. This truck wouldn't be allowed anywhere near a tourist in the UK for fears of health and safety but in Kazakhstan anything goes, so about 20 of us bundled into the back of this truck and safe to say that after all being thrown about, by the time we got out, we all knew each other much much better. We drove the 5 hours back to Almaty and agreed to meet Aldir back at Mad Murphy's later in the evening.

We walked home and showered, changed out of our dusty clothes and headed down to the pub, where we enjoyed some more football and conversation with Aldir and his Kazakh friends. After a few beers, one of the guys told me he had an idea to build a Formula1 track in Almaty - and it took me an hour to tell him what a great idea I thought it was. Even though it definitely isn't??? When the pub kicked us out at 1:00am, we all bundled into someone's car and were taken to a Russian billiards hall. Russian billiards is very similar to english pool but with bigger balls and smaller pockets and hence is much more difficult, particularly when under the influence of alcohol. After half a game with Aldir's cousin Aliya, I was approached by the owner of the billiard hall, Muchtar, who, although he was shouting at me, it all seemed very friendly. After some translation, I found that basically he was honoured to have an Englishman in his billiard hall (somehow he had missed Adam) and I was obliged to sit with him and drink vodka. His english was poor but Aldir translated for me and after my new friend Muchtar had emphasised to me over and over again that Kazakhstan was 5 times bigger than France, it was time to drink more vodka. This process went on and on and I was constantly reminded that Kazakhstan is 5 times bigger than France inbetween shots of industrial-strength vodka. By the time we left, I was barely able to stand, but Aldir helped us into a taxi and we arrived back at our apartment around 3am. We began walking up the stairs to our first floor flat and for some reason I took the key to the front door out of my wallet before we reached the door and somehow managed to drop it right down the stair well into the locked basement. Balls! After laughing about it and then Adam telling me to shut up and that this was serious, I realised actually it was and headed for the Hotel Almaty to find our old mate, the friendly porter Asset. Luckily he was working and managed to call our landlord who came to meet us within half an hour, looking very very pissed off and let us back into the flat so we could go to sleep finally at around 4am.

We woke up with bad hangovers on monday morning and tried to remember the calamitous events of the previous night. We went to pick up our visas for Russia and were somewhat surprised that they were ready to go and complete. Guess our faith in the system has been dented so much already! Never mind, we're basically ready to go.

Our penultimate day in Almaty was spent in the hills at the outskirts of the city. There is a cable car that runs up to Koktobe and from here there is an amazing view of the snow-capped peaks that surround the city's southern edge. There is a lovely park at the top with ice-cream stands and we spent some time just wandering aimlessly, admiring the view and soaking up some of the slightly fresher air before returning back to our apartment to clean up and pack. Once we were sorted, we headed to Mad Murphy's again to watch the England v Sweden World Cup match. Due to all the dust flying around in the air, I have developed a nasty cough and so, due to medication, was resigned to watching England play in a sober state - something that is highly unadvisable. On the way home and stone cold sober, I walked over a loose manhole cover (obviously at the time I didn't realise it was loose), which gave way, and left me half underground. It was one of those slapstick moments where one minute, Adam and I were walking along side by side and the next he turns to look at me, can't see me anywhere until he looks down and sees me submerged. It was kind of funny but the flip side is that I now have a meaty bruise on my leg and a graze on my arm. Still, whatever doesn't kill me will only make me stronger! (Or at least teach me not to walk over man hole covers in the future!) To make matters worse, when we got into the flat we found that we had left a light on and were infested with moths. Adam took it upon himself to swat them using a towel and promtly tore one of the light fittings out of the ceiling. Woops!

Wednesday morning, we tidied up the flat and tried to cover up all the damage we had caused. In addition to the light hanging off the ceiling, we had flooded the place due to the dodgy plumbing of the washing machine, broken a tea pot, broken the lock on the bedroom door and dropped the key down the stair well. When the landlord came to return our deposits, somehow he failed to notice any of these defects so we took our deposits and made haste to Almaty train station, where we boarded the 16:04 north to Semey.

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Photos

Charyn Canyon
Charyn Canyon

Charyn Canyon
Charyn Canyon

Fountain, Almaty
Fountain, Almaty

View from Koktobe, Almaty
View from Koktobe, Almaty

Koktobe, Almaty
Koktobe, Almaty

What happens if you fall down a manhole!
What happens if you fall down a manhole!

Comments

[Mistress Pain]

ooooh you are stern young man
"After about 10 minutes of thrashing myself and Adam.... ....about 20 of us bundled into the back of this truck and safe to say that after all being thrown about, by the time we got out, we all knew each other much much better... ......we woke up with bad hangovers on monday morning and tried to remember the calamitous events of the previous night."