I have arrived in Kazakhstan and it was an interesting
arrival with a bag search at customs. The person who wanted to do it didn’t
speak English and I am not sure if she just wanted a new watch or what because
she kept pointing to her wrist and when I would show her my watch, she would
say new and I would say no, not new. Then another guy comes, again the wrist
thing, then rings, then necklace. Hello I have a backpack, no jewelry and no
place in that backpack for anything with my snowsuit in there. Then the third
guy comes and he can speak English and he wants to know if I bought any jewelry
or have a new watch. No, ok show us the bag. Oh, only cloths, yes, only cloths.
Ok show her and then go. Fine. But the funny part is that they were not
checking the numerous other people coming from Abu Dhabi (that’s where we were
coming from) with their huge duty free bags and I mean huge and each person had
two to four bags of shopping. The overhead storage on the plane was full
because of all these peoples shopping. If you wanted jewelry you picked the
wrong person.
Then the “taxi” ride. He quoted one price and then changed
it to 12 times the original price once we got to the hotel. Luckily I was able
to get out of the car with my bags and not have him take off with them as we
were arguing over the price. I went into the hotel and again luckily the girl
on the desk spoke a bit of English which the driver said no one at that hotel
does. He must have been hoping. So she and he get into it too and I end up
paying four times what he said and the price I had expected to have to pay from
my Lonely Planet book. It was not a nice way to start off here, but I think my
Zen state is back now and hopefully this post is not too negative. But it makes
for a good story.
I had a great walk around Almaty with a nice trip through a
market where you could watch a guy butchering a cow in his truck and a nice
babushka gave me free dill pickles. There is a really cool looking Russian
Orthodox Church that even though it doesn’t look like it is it made entirely of
wood, even the nails are wood.
All is going much smoother than when I arrived. I have met
very friendly people who are willing to help with everything. It has been
wonderful. I got some invaluable information on the area and neighboring
countries from David at Stan Tours. He was wonderful and helped me get my Visas;
I know he will read this, so thank you. You are very kind and extremely knowledgeable
thank you for giving me all the information and who could have thought that you
would do all that for me for free. You are lovely, thank you. So Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan, and Uzbekistan here
I come.
Almaty is surrounded by mountains and I was able to head out
to them by local bus, 50 cent bus rides are great. The views (before the thick
fog came in) were amazing. The weather quickly changed here and it went from
being a no jacket day to being bundled up in a scarf, toque, winter coat and
looking to have a pair of boots day. At one point I was freezing and it has
now gone from me have three showers a day to get the sweat off of me to having
three to warm up. I did invest in a pair of winter boots today though, so no
more wet, cold feet.
In the mountains outside of Almaty is Medeu where they have
an outdoor speed skating track, what a beautiful setting to skate in. Further
up the mountains was the ski hill and lots of hiking in the area.
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