I was not really sure what to expect- the only thing I was sure of was that it would be an adventure... and it sure was. Thanks to my lovely host Karinka it was a very pleasant one though...
On the way to Almaty I had a few hours layover in Istanbul, my new favourite city. Fortunately I got to talking to a nice Saudi/American guy who was sitting next to me on the plane from Munich. He also had a few hours to kill before his connecting flight left for Jordan. After he had gotten his visa- the Turks are smart enough not to require a visa for German citizens- we could set off. Turned out that the cab drivers don't speak English but sure do know their prices. We could bargain a bit but the trip was sure worth it. The marmara sea, the blue mosque, Hagia Sofia- unfortunately only from the outside. But all the more reason to come back... Very intersting conversations with my travel companion about the veil and Saudi Arabia today- hope to see him again. Unfortunately we then had to rush back to the airport to catch our flights but both of us were sure to have to return to Istanbul- and I did- at least for a few hours- on my way back from Almaty.
Getting on the flight I realized that there was a whole group of russian speaking kids who had apparently come from a ballet competition or something similar- was fun because they were so excited to fly. My ears were starting to get used to the sound of Russian- and I was to hear a lot more of it for the next 10 days. Even though Kazakh is the national language almost everyone in the country speaks Russian- with people coming from such different locations it's actually the lingua franca as not everyone understands/speaks Kazakh. I have to admit my two evening courses in Russian did not get me very far but at least I could understand the odd word. If slow, I could at least decipher some of the street signs etc.
But I sure would not recommend going there without at least speaking some Russian.
Almaty is a really vibrant city- the beauty of the mountains that one can almost touch from the city is overwhelming. Living in Munich you would think you're used to the mountains but this was a whole different experience- beautiful mountain panoramas everywhere- even from the yoga room ;-) You can see the snow covered peaks and the green hills- simply beautiful. And my guide didn't promise too much in saying that the people are the most interesting feature- it's a real melting pot of cultures. At the same time there is a certain vibe to the place that says- we all like to live here. Maybe I only noticed this in comparison to the new capital with the creative name- Astana = the Kazakh word for capital- but more of that later...
ALMATY/ALMA ATA - the big apple in Kazakhstan
Almaty is the city with most cultural life, the most renown universities and a lot of businesses and companies are based here. Actually at some point in the 90's - 80% of all money circulating in the country was in Almaty. And today you'll be surprised to hear that you can hardly get a hotel room in Almaty for less than 100$ and even then it seems to be difficult to get a room as all hotels are overcrowded. The city is really booming... Luckily my hosts got me a lovely little appartment close to where they live and within 5 minutes from the main street (used to be Lenin Street- can't tell you the new name- all these streets, cities and places have been renamed so often that people could not keep up with it and still use old names) leading to the center. Both the colourful wooden orthodox basilica, built without the need for a single nail and the green market were a real experience and confirmed my impression that there was really a lot to see here.
Something I was struggling with was my jet lag- for some strange reason the 4 hours seemed to bug me more than other larger time differences e.g. to the US. This is how I came to miss my English guided tour in the national museum but still even without understanding all the signs with their cyrrilic letters it was worth seeing- especially the part about the origins of the Kazakh state and about life in nomad familes (there still are some, if not many, nomads living in the steppe of this vast country).
I was really surprised that it was possible to get WiFi at almost every corner in Almaty- certainly every coffee place offered it which made staying in touch easy. The best views of the city are offered from the "Koktebje", a hill that tourists (and a lot of locals for that matter) can climb or take the cable car. Considering the heat I would recommend the cable car that it surprisingly fast and gets you up there in 5 minutes. Up there you could watch the city but they had also installed a small amusement park which made people-watching a fun activity. Some romantic couples, but also parents with kids and teenagers- all proud to see their city lying down there impressively next to the mountains. I did realize that even though there is of course quite some poverty in Kazakhstan at least the cities that I saw all seemed remarkedly well-off. My friend told me that finding a job is not really an issue and everyone has access to the public health system (although the quality of which is of course debatable)...
I was diving a bit deeper into Kazakh culture the next day when I followed another recommendation from my travel guide which mentioned the wedding parliour in Almaty. Every 10 minutes a new couple with a large crowd of family and friends seems to arrive in their best clothes and with at least one if not many stretch limos. I was a bit shocked how young some of these kids were- you could really tell that many of them get married before they turn 20. Feeling like a paparazzi I shot some pictures of the different parties who were all posing with the poor doves that had to suffer from the heat all day and watched the beautiful dresses and high heels. Admiringly I have to admit that these girls can really walk in things I could only dream of. They seem to be born with a different gene... The guys also looked quite smart in their suits- some of them tried to invite me into the parliour but I was reluctant to intrude (although I'm sure they don't really look at it that way). In any case it was interesting to see, how important the ceremony seems to be and how much money is spent on this ritual. Generally, you ask yourself- with these huge cars and expensive mobiles- people really can't be that badly off... but Karinka tells me it's also about priorities- they may live in tiny appartments or buy thing on credit- it's the culture of showing off that they have inherited from the Russians...
In the evening we set out to see the capital of showing off- as one of my colleagues from Kirgistan put it "Dubai for the poor", namely Astana. We took the most luxurious train there is, the so-called Spanish train, that gets you there (only about 1200 km) within 12 hours, over night. When entering our compartment I knew there was gonna be some snoring- two older Kazakh guys were our travel mates... Karinka's mum supplied us with plenty of food so we had a lavourish dinner, driving through the steppe. It was amazing- there was really NOTHING. I had to think of the audio book I recently listened to: "Die Enden der Welt" by Roger Willemsen... Impressive how much land they have and how few people live here - even more so than in the great plains in the US.
ASTANA- the pompous campital
All the more surprising that we saw a huge city with lots of traffic when arriving in Astana after an almost sleepless night on the Spanish train. After taking a refreshing shower at Karinka's friend's Jamila's place and getting an amazing Kazakh breakfast (I had become Kazakh enough to enjoy Tschai Smolokom at any time of the day now) we went to see the impressive buildings that president Nursultan had installed in order to accomodate the governmental apparatus (mainly by Turks I was surprised to hear). Actually I think it's fair to ask how he needs so many people since he seems to decide most on his own anyway (supposedly he even came up with the design of the "tree of life", the symbol for Astana)... But I learned that the decision to shift the capital to Astana in the 90's had meant relocation for lots of unhappy Almatians- and continues to do so. Just recently one of Karinka's relatives had to relocate after 30 years of working in Almaty. In any case the government buildings- whatever they may be filled with- do look impressive- if not beautiful in their own bizarre way... And it has to be said that the government is giving people generous incentives like a free appartment in order to move here.
After a few hours in Astana I understood what my colleague had meant with Dubai- actually it was not so much for the poor- but almost beating the desert capital in the amount of malls and the designer labels. I had never seen a completely new mall with roller coasters, a wellness paradise with pools and a free fall tower before (not even in Dubai). BTW almost all malls in Kazakhstan have ice skating rinks too. But that may be connected to their harsh winters and people's appreciation of this sport as well.
Still, I couldn't help but feeling that this city was really missing a soul- there was no spirit behind all the construction works and the chique malls. Maybe because most people did not move here voluntarily?
It may still grow- the government is doing everything to facilitate this- huge music festivals, Kazakh national day celebrations and even a fake weather report just to make people feel that it's nicer to live here than they think...
Kazakh Switzerland- "Baraboi" and the marathon man ...
Even though we really felt like sleeping in we decided to take an early morning train to a place called Baraboi that was the wellness- oasis for people living in Astana. A lake with mountains (or in comparison to those south of Almaty let's rather call them "hills") and beautiful woods with extremely clean, fresh air and a most pleasant climate. As you can imagine the train was full and so was the bus to get us to the lake. Before we could get on the bus we witnessed a prime example of bad service- I made a vow not to bitch about Deutsche Bahn anymore as this was amazingly bad. The lady at the counter told my friend that there was only one train going back to Astana the next day and if she needed any further information she would need to consult the information desk- she was only there to sell the tickets. It turned out that there were more trains of course but she was just referring to the faster one- and didn't feel like it was her responsibility in any case. She was so rude that one would have wanted to scream at her- every heard of the concept of customer service? You are so wrong in your job... But anyway, we decided it was a Soviet relict and hopefully would change with new generations to come.
On the bus we then met a counter example- very cheerful Kazakh guy who wanted to sell us a tour of the hills/lakes and show us the best views. Since he only wanted about 5 euros we decided - why not? And it was a good decision- turned out the guy was a multi-talent, not only did he show us the most magnificent views of this paradise but he also sang us a Kazakh song and informed us that he was the master of marathon running and his biggest wish was to run the Munich marathon (coincidentally the one I might - if I manage to catch up on the practice) run this year as well... He and his daughter were very nice walking companions (although you could tell they ran a lot- they were fast), told us a lot of stories and legends of what the people thought the stones looked like and before we said our good-byes he made sure to give us the best tips of where to swim. So we went to the other lake that was a lot cleaner than the big one and had a wonderful time in the (admittedly quite cold) lake and the sun. You felt like in a whole different world here- far away from all the traffic and huge buildings in Astana- no wonder Nursultan also comes here with his presidental friends once in a while...
The next day we had some time left to explore the older part (old in this context probably means- more than 10 years) of Astana before heading back to good old Almaty (which we'd almost come to miss a bit by this point). The oldest buildings seem to be from the 1920s to be fair- there was a super cute supermarket that for some strange reason did not allow us to take pictures where we went a bit crazy on the sweets. The same building hosted an amazing Uzbek place - where I made a vow to also go to visit Usbekistan at some point. Delicious breads, yummy Plov (even though as a vegetarian I don't eat it- I have to say it looked good) and really nice Uzbek guys who even spoke English... have no idea what it was called but it sure was a cozy place- thanks for taking me there, Karinka :-)
Another small adventure was our trip from Karinka's friend's place to the station in order to catch our 7.25 Spanish train. We left around half past 6 and thought we had plenty of time when we realized on the bus that nothing much was moving until it was 7 and we still had 20 minutes to go. Panicking we left the bus and tried to hail a cab- interestingly all cars are cabs in Kazakhstan (and possibly in all of the former Soviet Union)- you just give the guy (mostly guys are driving I noticed) some agreed sum of money and he (or she, but we never had a female driver, except Karinka's brave sister in law) just takes you where you need to go. I have been thinking about how this fits into their schedules, since they are not professional cab drivers they should probably have somewhere else to be- but Karinka told me this was not something you'd ask yourself- it's just this way. Vcjo...
Unfortunately my trip was already coming to a close as we had to get on the train back to Almaty and I then had another day and a half there before taking the flight to Istanbul at 5 in the morning. For some strange reason all the international flights from Almaty seem to arrive and leave at horrible time of the night. One theory was that it may have to do with the traffic (during rush hour no one would make it to the airport)... But before I was to leave there were "a few" souvenirs to be bought- I still cannot believe we must have bought about 3 kilos of dried fruits and nuts at the green bazaar- and it feels like I have already eaten half of them while typing this ;-) We also went to this really cute chocolate factory where people were queing as if there were some freebies. Some of them bought such vast amounts of karameli i konfeti that I just couldn't believe they didn't have their own shop... Yummie stuff though... I love the polar bear one- and already now regret not having bought more Pushkins...
In the evening Karinka, her mum and her sister in law took me to this really nice BBQ place where to all their surprise I even found some stuff without Mjaca (meat)- and since someone was celebrating his birthday there was traditional Kazakh music and Schlager (your my heart - your my soul- even made it there) and we danced together with Karinka's little 1.5 year-old- niece. Spazibo once again for an amazing night and a wonderful holiday. I really would love to come back to this country that is world-famous for one thing and that's hospitality- I have really come to appreciate that!
On the way to Almaty I had a few hours layover in Istanbul, my new favourite city. Fortunately I got to talking to a nice Saudi/American guy who was sitting next to me on the plane from Munich. He also had a few hours to kill before his connecting flight left for Jordan. After he had gotten his visa- the Turks are smart enough not to require a visa for German citizens- we could set off. Turned out that the cab drivers don't speak English but sure do know their prices. We could bargain a bit but the trip was sure worth it. The marmara sea, the blue mosque, Hagia Sofia- unfortunately only from the outside. But all the more reason to come back... Very intersting conversations with my travel companion about the veil and Saudi Arabia today- hope to see him again. Unfortunately we then had to rush back to the airport to catch our flights but both of us were sure to have to return to Istanbul- and I did- at least for a few hours- on my way back from Almaty.
Getting on the flight I realized that there was a whole group of russian speaking kids who had apparently come from a ballet competition or something similar- was fun because they were so excited to fly. My ears were starting to get used to the sound of Russian- and I was to hear a lot more of it for the next 10 days. Even though Kazakh is the national language almost everyone in the country speaks Russian- with people coming from such different locations it's actually the lingua franca as not everyone understands/speaks Kazakh. I have to admit my two evening courses in Russian did not get me very far but at least I could understand the odd word. If slow, I could at least decipher some of the street signs etc.
But I sure would not recommend going there without at least speaking some Russian.
Almaty is a really vibrant city- the beauty of the mountains that one can almost touch from the city is overwhelming. Living in Munich you would think you're used to the mountains but this was a whole different experience- beautiful mountain panoramas everywhere- even from the yoga room ;-) You can see the snow covered peaks and the green hills- simply beautiful. And my guide didn't promise too much in saying that the people are the most interesting feature- it's a real melting pot of cultures. At the same time there is a certain vibe to the place that says- we all like to live here. Maybe I only noticed this in comparison to the new capital with the creative name- Astana = the Kazakh word for capital- but more of that later...
ALMATY/ALMA ATA - the big apple in Kazakhstan
Almaty is the city with most cultural life, the most renown universities and a lot of businesses and companies are based here. Actually at some point in the 90's - 80% of all money circulating in the country was in Almaty. And today you'll be surprised to hear that you can hardly get a hotel room in Almaty for less than 100$ and even then it seems to be difficult to get a room as all hotels are overcrowded. The city is really booming... Luckily my hosts got me a lovely little appartment close to where they live and within 5 minutes from the main street (used to be Lenin Street- can't tell you the new name- all these streets, cities and places have been renamed so often that people could not keep up with it and still use old names) leading to the center. Both the colourful wooden orthodox basilica, built without the need for a single nail and the green market were a real experience and confirmed my impression that there was really a lot to see here.
Something I was struggling with was my jet lag- for some strange reason the 4 hours seemed to bug me more than other larger time differences e.g. to the US. This is how I came to miss my English guided tour in the national museum but still even without understanding all the signs with their cyrrilic letters it was worth seeing- especially the part about the origins of the Kazakh state and about life in nomad familes (there still are some, if not many, nomads living in the steppe of this vast country).
I was really surprised that it was possible to get WiFi at almost every corner in Almaty- certainly every coffee place offered it which made staying in touch easy. The best views of the city are offered from the "Koktebje", a hill that tourists (and a lot of locals for that matter) can climb or take the cable car. Considering the heat I would recommend the cable car that it surprisingly fast and gets you up there in 5 minutes. Up there you could watch the city but they had also installed a small amusement park which made people-watching a fun activity. Some romantic couples, but also parents with kids and teenagers- all proud to see their city lying down there impressively next to the mountains. I did realize that even though there is of course quite some poverty in Kazakhstan at least the cities that I saw all seemed remarkedly well-off. My friend told me that finding a job is not really an issue and everyone has access to the public health system (although the quality of which is of course debatable)...
I was diving a bit deeper into Kazakh culture the next day when I followed another recommendation from my travel guide which mentioned the wedding parliour in Almaty. Every 10 minutes a new couple with a large crowd of family and friends seems to arrive in their best clothes and with at least one if not many stretch limos. I was a bit shocked how young some of these kids were- you could really tell that many of them get married before they turn 20. Feeling like a paparazzi I shot some pictures of the different parties who were all posing with the poor doves that had to suffer from the heat all day and watched the beautiful dresses and high heels. Admiringly I have to admit that these girls can really walk in things I could only dream of. They seem to be born with a different gene... The guys also looked quite smart in their suits- some of them tried to invite me into the parliour but I was reluctant to intrude (although I'm sure they don't really look at it that way). In any case it was interesting to see, how important the ceremony seems to be and how much money is spent on this ritual. Generally, you ask yourself- with these huge cars and expensive mobiles- people really can't be that badly off... but Karinka tells me it's also about priorities- they may live in tiny appartments or buy thing on credit- it's the culture of showing off that they have inherited from the Russians...
In the evening we set out to see the capital of showing off- as one of my colleagues from Kirgistan put it "Dubai for the poor", namely Astana. We took the most luxurious train there is, the so-called Spanish train, that gets you there (only about 1200 km) within 12 hours, over night. When entering our compartment I knew there was gonna be some snoring- two older Kazakh guys were our travel mates... Karinka's mum supplied us with plenty of food so we had a lavourish dinner, driving through the steppe. It was amazing- there was really NOTHING. I had to think of the audio book I recently listened to: "Die Enden der Welt" by Roger Willemsen... Impressive how much land they have and how few people live here - even more so than in the great plains in the US.
ASTANA- the pompous campital
All the more surprising that we saw a huge city with lots of traffic when arriving in Astana after an almost sleepless night on the Spanish train. After taking a refreshing shower at Karinka's friend's Jamila's place and getting an amazing Kazakh breakfast (I had become Kazakh enough to enjoy Tschai Smolokom at any time of the day now) we went to see the impressive buildings that president Nursultan had installed in order to accomodate the governmental apparatus (mainly by Turks I was surprised to hear). Actually I think it's fair to ask how he needs so many people since he seems to decide most on his own anyway (supposedly he even came up with the design of the "tree of life", the symbol for Astana)... But I learned that the decision to shift the capital to Astana in the 90's had meant relocation for lots of unhappy Almatians- and continues to do so. Just recently one of Karinka's relatives had to relocate after 30 years of working in Almaty. In any case the government buildings- whatever they may be filled with- do look impressive- if not beautiful in their own bizarre way... And it has to be said that the government is giving people generous incentives like a free appartment in order to move here.
After a few hours in Astana I understood what my colleague had meant with Dubai- actually it was not so much for the poor- but almost beating the desert capital in the amount of malls and the designer labels. I had never seen a completely new mall with roller coasters, a wellness paradise with pools and a free fall tower before (not even in Dubai). BTW almost all malls in Kazakhstan have ice skating rinks too. But that may be connected to their harsh winters and people's appreciation of this sport as well.
Still, I couldn't help but feeling that this city was really missing a soul- there was no spirit behind all the construction works and the chique malls. Maybe because most people did not move here voluntarily?
It may still grow- the government is doing everything to facilitate this- huge music festivals, Kazakh national day celebrations and even a fake weather report just to make people feel that it's nicer to live here than they think...
Kazakh Switzerland- "Baraboi" and the marathon man ...
Even though we really felt like sleeping in we decided to take an early morning train to a place called Baraboi that was the wellness- oasis for people living in Astana. A lake with mountains (or in comparison to those south of Almaty let's rather call them "hills") and beautiful woods with extremely clean, fresh air and a most pleasant climate. As you can imagine the train was full and so was the bus to get us to the lake. Before we could get on the bus we witnessed a prime example of bad service- I made a vow not to bitch about Deutsche Bahn anymore as this was amazingly bad. The lady at the counter told my friend that there was only one train going back to Astana the next day and if she needed any further information she would need to consult the information desk- she was only there to sell the tickets. It turned out that there were more trains of course but she was just referring to the faster one- and didn't feel like it was her responsibility in any case. She was so rude that one would have wanted to scream at her- every heard of the concept of customer service? You are so wrong in your job... But anyway, we decided it was a Soviet relict and hopefully would change with new generations to come.
On the bus we then met a counter example- very cheerful Kazakh guy who wanted to sell us a tour of the hills/lakes and show us the best views. Since he only wanted about 5 euros we decided - why not? And it was a good decision- turned out the guy was a multi-talent, not only did he show us the most magnificent views of this paradise but he also sang us a Kazakh song and informed us that he was the master of marathon running and his biggest wish was to run the Munich marathon (coincidentally the one I might - if I manage to catch up on the practice) run this year as well... He and his daughter were very nice walking companions (although you could tell they ran a lot- they were fast), told us a lot of stories and legends of what the people thought the stones looked like and before we said our good-byes he made sure to give us the best tips of where to swim. So we went to the other lake that was a lot cleaner than the big one and had a wonderful time in the (admittedly quite cold) lake and the sun. You felt like in a whole different world here- far away from all the traffic and huge buildings in Astana- no wonder Nursultan also comes here with his presidental friends once in a while...
The next day we had some time left to explore the older part (old in this context probably means- more than 10 years) of Astana before heading back to good old Almaty (which we'd almost come to miss a bit by this point). The oldest buildings seem to be from the 1920s to be fair- there was a super cute supermarket that for some strange reason did not allow us to take pictures where we went a bit crazy on the sweets. The same building hosted an amazing Uzbek place - where I made a vow to also go to visit Usbekistan at some point. Delicious breads, yummy Plov (even though as a vegetarian I don't eat it- I have to say it looked good) and really nice Uzbek guys who even spoke English... have no idea what it was called but it sure was a cozy place- thanks for taking me there, Karinka :-)
Another small adventure was our trip from Karinka's friend's place to the station in order to catch our 7.25 Spanish train. We left around half past 6 and thought we had plenty of time when we realized on the bus that nothing much was moving until it was 7 and we still had 20 minutes to go. Panicking we left the bus and tried to hail a cab- interestingly all cars are cabs in Kazakhstan (and possibly in all of the former Soviet Union)- you just give the guy (mostly guys are driving I noticed) some agreed sum of money and he (or she, but we never had a female driver, except Karinka's brave sister in law) just takes you where you need to go. I have been thinking about how this fits into their schedules, since they are not professional cab drivers they should probably have somewhere else to be- but Karinka told me this was not something you'd ask yourself- it's just this way. Vcjo...
Unfortunately my trip was already coming to a close as we had to get on the train back to Almaty and I then had another day and a half there before taking the flight to Istanbul at 5 in the morning. For some strange reason all the international flights from Almaty seem to arrive and leave at horrible time of the night. One theory was that it may have to do with the traffic (during rush hour no one would make it to the airport)... But before I was to leave there were "a few" souvenirs to be bought- I still cannot believe we must have bought about 3 kilos of dried fruits and nuts at the green bazaar- and it feels like I have already eaten half of them while typing this ;-) We also went to this really cute chocolate factory where people were queing as if there were some freebies. Some of them bought such vast amounts of karameli i konfeti that I just couldn't believe they didn't have their own shop... Yummie stuff though... I love the polar bear one- and already now regret not having bought more Pushkins...
In the evening Karinka, her mum and her sister in law took me to this really nice BBQ place where to all their surprise I even found some stuff without Mjaca (meat)- and since someone was celebrating his birthday there was traditional Kazakh music and Schlager (your my heart - your my soul- even made it there) and we danced together with Karinka's little 1.5 year-old- niece. Spazibo once again for an amazing night and a wonderful holiday. I really would love to come back to this country that is world-famous for one thing and that's hospitality- I have really come to appreciate that!
I can only add - You are always welcome!!!!!!
ReplyDeleteAnni, I couldn't open this page in Kazakhstan and I've only now read this blog. Amazing! You're a great writer! Nice language, I couldn't withdraw my eyes from the screen! :)
ReplyDeleteI'm glad to be a part of everything written here! :) I believe you had a really nice journey and your next visit to Central Asia will be Uzbekistan!