Results tagged “Kazakhstan”

As I leave my guesthouse in Cholpon-Ata – Directions: From Cholpon Ata, head towards Blue Issyk-Kol Resort, there will be an АТФ – ATF bank on your left. The street just before it turn left and follow it up for 500m-1km. On your left you will see a house with a sign гостевой дом (Guest house). In there, in the 2009 peak season you could get a bed for 150som, ask for Rahat.

Guesthouse. Fun fact you won’t find in the lonely planet: all around the guest house there is a lot of wild marijuana growing, though if you’re looking to smoke, you’re better off asking around for something more potent.

I bid farewell to my friends in town, the girls and Aziz, an Azeri who’d taken a likening to me and said that Alina would make a great wife for me.

  Aziz marinating sheep meat prior to cooking shashlyck (shish-kebabs).

Aziz  tells me that if I stick around for the next three hours while the meat marinates and is cooked, I can have it all as a present and that I can live at his house when I return. He tells me that he has relatives in Baku but his wife won’t let him go back to see them, I must send word to them so that they can free him and let him visit Azerbaijan once again.

I unsuccessfully spend half an hour trying to hitch a lift to Kazakhstan from Cholpon Ata and so decide to buy a ticket from the bus station. The first of six buses for Almaty leaves at 8pm, the last at 9pm and they arrive between 5am and 6am the following morning.

I buy a ticket for the 8pm bus and make my way to the beach Ala-Too to spend the day sleeping and swimming.

Soviet bus that’s finally been retired, sitting in a parking garage on the way to the beach.

When it comes to catch the bus to Almaty, I spend the last of my som on food and have none left to pay for the toilet. I tell this to the attendant who says I can go in free of charge if I tell him a good story. I tell him a bit about my travels, the people I’ve had the pleasure of meeting and some of the misfortunes involved. After I finish the story about skipping the bill at the pirate cafe, he sighs and tells me that unfortunately in this country, a lot of people are out to scam you.

The bus leaves half an hour late and along the way I meet a Kazak Nurjan who introduces me to his wife as 2002 world champion kickboxer and invites me to stay with him in Koraganda (not far from the new Kazak capital Astana).

We arrive at the Kyrgyzstan/Kazakhstan border checkpost at 11:45pm and I’m surprised to not only find it open but to see a huge queue of people waiting in line.

When it comes to my turn to give my passport to the officer on the Kazakh side of the border, we have an exchange that goes like this:

Officer: Where do you live?

Me: I don’t live anywhere, I’m homeless.

Officer: What is your country of residence?

Me: I don’t have a country of residence, I’m between countries.

Officer: What is your nationality?

Me: Russian.

Officer: Then how do you explain your accent?

Me: I’m also Australian.

Officer: Are you messing around with me? (Said in more colourful language)

Me: No sir, I’m just travelling the world.

Officer: Interesting… tell me about your travels.

At this point I start telling the story of how I quit my job to travel and the places I’ve been, how I’ve found the importance of family and how happiness doesn’t tie in to how much money you have. I’m in the middle of one of these stories, while there’s a queue of close to 100 people waiting to their turn to get their passports stamped when the bus driver walks up to me and tells me that the whole bus is waiting for me to leave.

I ask the officer if he’d be kind enough to let me into his beautiful country. He stamps my passport, gives me the registration form and wishes me all the best in my future travels, One of the best border crossing experiences I’ve had to date.

As I hop on the bus, everyone at the back starts laughing as someone had told them of the exchange between myself and the immigration officer. They decide to give me a crash course on Kazakhstan.

1. Borat had it pretty much right, everyone is a backwards village person and rides a donkey.
2. The Kazak police are world famous for not accepting bribes, only 90% of them do.
3. Be careful of the girls in Almaty, they’re very pretty and you could find yourself accidentally marrying one. At this point one of the guys on the bus says that it happened to him, his wife playfully elbows him in the ribs.

Our bus arrives at the Avtovokzal (Bus station)  in Almaty at 3am in the morning and since I plan to couch surf with a couple of English teachers, I need to kill a few hours prior to going to their place. I walk inside the bus station and join the group of people who are asleep on the benches, only to be woken by security at 5am.

I arrive at my couch surfing hosts’ house at 6:30am on a Friday morning and proceed to crash out on their couch for the next few hours.

My first day in Almaty starts with a quick walk to buy a sim card for my phone and ends in wandering around taking in the sights and seeing the second annual world no rules fighting contest. Go figure.

Almaty, the former political and current economic capital of Kazakhstan has imported a lot of western culture in its bid to shake off its soviet roots. Imports include:

• Western designer stores – Prada, Gucci, DKNY etc.
• American ideals of luxury cars – European cars are popular, but SUVs are king; the Hummer is the ultimate status symbol of Kazakhstan’s new rich elite.
• Cafe culture – cafes are found on just about every street corner. Coffeedelia is the name for Almaty’s Starbucks experience, complete with ambient music, wifi internet and average tasting, expensive coffee. It’s also a great palace to meet girls on a Friday night before hitting up the clubs.
• Western prices – you want to pay $100USD for a hotel? It can be arranged. How about $10USD for a coffee? No worries. Got a craving for eating out at the same prices you pay back home? Have a $20USD meal.

One week earlier, while in Karakol (Kyrgyzstan), I find out that one of the cooler people I’d met in my travels, way back in Saigon, Vietnam, has decided to live in Almaty and work as an English teacher. Five months and four countries later, I meet Daniel the Canadian once again (his brother having flown back home the previous evening) and we spend the next few days getting to know Almaty.

Random shop in Almaty.

I notice that there are a lot of fountains in Almaty.

One girl proudly tells me that there are 117 fountains in Almaty. I don’t know what’s more impressive, the number of fountains or the fact that she knew exactly how many there were. In the week that I spend in Almaty, they build another two.

I don’t have the slightest clue what this building is.

Russian cathedral in Panfilov park. Apparently, this is the second largest building in the world built entirely from wood, including the nails.

The fierce, superhuman warriors of the red army. These men looked so awesome that Daniel and I were ready to enlist and defend the USSR from any capitalist pigs should the need arise.