Blogs from East Kazakhstan, Kazakhstan, Asia - page 5

In the year 2002 when Kazakhstan had just enjoyed 10 years of independance, i was there. The country was still building itself and creating an identity. I happened to live in Almaty but visited for weekly trips to Astana and Atyrau. There are Russians and Kazakhs who dominate the population but in Almaty you can find a lot of Uzbeks and few Afghans. A mix of islam and christianity and pagans and tatars. I did not see any conservative people in the cities, maybe there are some in the villages. A very cold country where people are hard working and lots of night life and open culture.... read more

From Almaty its a 900km dash north across the steppes to the Russian border. The landscape is identical to that 2500km to the west that we were riding through several weeks ago; long straight roads through the flat steppe, lined by stumpy trees with enormous eagles perching in them. The eagles aren't actually that big its just that the trees are so small and the eagles look really comical perching on the tiniest of branches. We do get the occasional change in scenery as we are skirting round the foothills of the Altai Mountains to the east and sometimes we have to leave the flat plains and go up and over. But somehow this just emphasis how flat the land actually is – as you reach the crest of the pass the flat steppe land stretches ... read more

From Kakakol we continue our circumnavigation of Issyk-Kul lake. We're heading up the eastern shore and our 1stdetour soon arrives. Some sketchy instruction and a GPS co-ordinate take us down a gravel track to what should be an old Soviet submarine/torpedo testing base. We don't really expect to find it but, amazingly, the co-ordinates lead us straight there!! The derelict main buildings and rusting cranes are all fenced off but by the shore are the old jettys and all sorts of strange slipways and pipework. None of the locals cycling past seems too bothered by us wandering round taking photos. Close-by is the Przewalski Memorial to the man the horses were named after. He was a polish born Russian geographer, biologist, spy, explorer and enthusiastic Great Game combatant. He made his home here on the edge ... 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