September 22 (written Sept 25)
We arrived in Almaty in the afternoon at some point, it is a bit of a blur. Almaty was mostly free time and we took full advantage.
Dropped our bags and right into an orientation city walk. Where, apparently, I took no pictures. It was mostly, here is the hotel, here is how to get to the bank, the bazaar and a couple of places to eat.
A few of us spent that evening at a restaurant called Navat. Very fancy, good food, terrible service
I finally got some of that curdled horse milk. It is... unpleasant. And salty. I think it would be fine without the salt.
Then back to the hotel and to bed.
The next morning, we had a bit later breakfast (8 am) so Isela and I met at 7 to walk around the park across the street from our hotel. It's a very nice park with a Russian Orthodox Cathedral right in the middle of it. This place is out of a fairy tale, it can't be real it is so beautiful. This is the back of it!
Then onto the war monument which as the polar opposite in style. All black and angular.
And just to rub it in, a display of war vehicles.
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| Somewhere to sit once you finish with the tanks |
Back to the hotel for breakfast and a more comprehensive city tour with local guide to add in some history.
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Our guide giving us an overview using
some plaques in the hotel lobby |
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| It wa pouring rain! |
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The golden prince up top
and a kid on a horse down below
(I'm sure this means something) |
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| Mother |
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| Father |
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Me and Isela with our Kyrgyz
grocery store umbrellas |
Sad road pictures!
It stopped raining enough for us to walk part of the tour. Into the Green Market. This used to be the fruit and vegetable market but the other markets didn't make it through the earthquake in 1911. So they all merged into this central location but the name never changed.
A bit of time to shop. I bought a pashmina scarf. Cause I need a new scarf! Then back out into the street. To the chocolate factory where we will learn about making chocolate. We did not learn anything about making chocolate. We learned about commercialism. It was just a candy store full of Korean tourists buying cart loads of chocolate.
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| The less than beautiful chocolate factory |
I'm not made of stone. I bought some chocolate for my very patient co-workers. Now that I've written that, it has to make it home.
Next stop of the walking tour was the park where Isela and I had already been. I would have heard more about the monuments if I had paid attention.
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| SQUIRREL! |
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| One very unhappy pigeon |
And onto the cathedral where we got to enter, and no service in progress so lots of non-sneaky pictures.
I do not even know where parishoners would sit. This place is chock o' block of gold iconongraphy.
That was the end of the tour, we were back at the hotel. One of our tour members, Joanna who I had previously misidentified as Canadian but is actually from the UK, left us here. We have a new guy replacing her spot starting in Uzbekistan.
I have to stop here. It is time for breakfast and then we are off to rural Tajikistan with no wifi for two days.
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I'm back, it is days and two countries later but let's start where we left off...
September 23 (written Sept 28)
Oh, yes, Almaty!
The next morning, we had a free day, or as G Adventures calls it, a Discovery moment.
Isela and I returned to the market to discover what we could buy!
I bought a little bolera jacket made of silk and felt. And some honey.
We had heard that the metro stops were super interesting. Most of this crowd are well traveled and they assure me they aren't as good as Moscow, but I was impressed none the less. There is only one line, with ten stops. We decided, in our wisdom, to do this during rush hour!
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Isela and Donna, decending a
very long escalator |
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| Rush hour!! |
That took a while and what with the shoving and the hanging on for dear life from station to station, we called it a day after that.
The next day (Sept 24), we had a later start so we had time to visit the music museum. Some cool instruments on display for sure, but no actual music. Not even some playing in the background. No videos of artisans making the instruments or musicians playing them. So, it was more like looking at beautiful peices of art.
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| The music museum |
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This is a precussion instrument where
the goats dance as it is played |
And then we were off to catch a flight to Tajikistan. I'm sure I'm giving Kazakhstan short shrift. It is the biggest of the five stans but we spent the least amount of days there.
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| Goodbye Kazakstan |
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