July 2017 - Page 3 of 6

Turgen Park, Kazahkstan.

I have had an awesome time here, First day usual hike around the city, up to the top of Kok Tobe, down in the cable car, usual monuments, churches
etc. Almaty is a bit of a boutique city on a much smaller scale and if I say so much nicer, they have mountains with snow!! .
Yesterday I went out to the mountains and valleys on a bus trip. We stopped off to see the Golden man statue , along side was a clear mountain stream. Every one stopped to fill water bottles, as well as others who appeared to have driven, especially to do just that. I didn’t know where, but later found out it was The Turgen national park . Arriving at the park every one wanted to see the water fall. I started climbing, but sandals don’ t do climbing and as I wasn’t told what to wear , was dressed totally inappropriately. What ever!

A popular spot on a sunday but asking the guide about toilets,none were open so she says “Paatreeeciaaa ( She had introduced me to the bus)
follow me” in sign language…… lots of bushes!! This in a tourist spot 🙂 Every time after that she asked me Toilet !! The young people have
loved having an english speaker on the bus. One lass took over for the day and translated if I needed anything. Mostly young ones on the bus, as well
as the older ladies I had lunch with.

Went to a fish farm, catch your fish, they cooked it. Shared lunch with a bottle of wine and 3 russian/kazak ladies, none of whom could speak
english! All that remained of the fish were the bones and eyes! I did not partake 🙂 It was very pleasant sitting under an umbrella to keep the sun off. Enjoying the company of some lovely ladies. As we left the park we stopped and watched horse riders on their hired horses. The horses were not in the greatest of condition, I was saddened to see, and this became the norm everywhere I travelled in the Asian and eastern european countries. There was the occasional lovely animal but they were few and far between. Back on the bus to continue our return to the city.

Stopping off again, we were taken to an Ostrich farm. This was fascinating, it included small enterprise on a large scale, Ostriches,rabbits, deer, horses, contracting machinery everywhere, even a western toilet that worked. Presumably the lady of the house in the kitchen cooking for 50 tourists!! I doubt New Zealand OSH would approve.The farmer did insist I listen and learn all about Ostriches so listened to his veeeerrrry long spiel but gave up after 20mins of listening to Kazak!! I didn’t like to say I knew all I wanted to know about the animals on his farm. Sabrina did brief translations for me which I appreciated.

The drive home was as interesting as the other sights on the main road were herdsman tending their cattle and or sheep, one was headed for the road so I
don’ t know whether he added to the chaos, donkeys and carts, two year?old wandering onto the 3 lane highway ( 6 lanes in total) and brother running
after it. Another motorist changing a tyre in the middle lane of the highway, I kid you not! This is a 3 lane motorway equivalent to home. Traffic very fast, about 10 percent of cars have the steering wheel as we do The changing lanes done at will with toots and close shaves! It was worthy of a scary ride at at a theme park I m sure. The backdrop of the beautiful snow capped mountains, , mist covering the bases of the mountains, paddocks or fields of new fresh green growing plants as far as you could see. Stunning ! NZ needs to get its act together. The bus stopping where it had picked me up, the end of a brilliant day in the Turgen park.

Almaty, Kazahkstan

What an interesting day its been in Almaty! A three am wake up by the little boy did not augur well. He eventually settled again, only to be woken to leave the train at five thirty, so not much of a night really. Then to watch the sun rise, and lo and behold there were snow covered mountains in the distance. Over night the scenery had changed from brown endless steppes to the mountains and land that had been invigorated by spring! It was amazing to see, and I was there to capture the first rays of the sun on the mountain tops. The pity is I can’t take photographs that say it!! However one tries doesn’t one?

The blossoming trees were reminicent of China, but these were accompanied by the soft green leaves of other trees. The houses had shifted up a level or two as well, seemingly more modern and with out the long drop toilet at the end of the garden. Many of the city streets are lined with soft green leaved trees and present a welcome that I won’t forget, in fact I did not walk down one without any trees at all. Almaty appears very cosmopolitan and the cafe drinkers sitting at tables outside in sunlight obviously thought so, enjoying their coffee.
Unfortunately, the hotel I am staying in is not yet up with the modern world with WiFi , so I just had to have a large coffee in one of the cafes that advertised WiFi. Again I missed out on my internet fix of the day, alas! The hotel has allowed me to use the old computer they have but I run into no end of problems with it, the least of them being the language one.
I asked about registration(five days to do so here)gave the lady the slip in the passport and she just shook her head?? So either I’m not here long enough or I don’t have to because of the visa type I am unsure. Bit hard to stay within the law if english is not spoken.!

After getting off the train with my new kazak friend’s help with my heavy bags, it was on to the hotel for breakfast and a most welcome shower. No sooner said and done, it was off to check out the nearby markets and a lovely russian orthodox church with the big golden ‘onions’ on top They were celebrating the mass and it was lovely to see and hear,and yes I did remember my scarf this time. After returning to the hotel for lunch and drop off groceries, I set off for the Kok Tobe hill. A taxi costing me a 1000 tenge saved a lot of walking. There is a cable car that takes you up and down, but I chose to walk up slowly and enjoy the views of the mountains and the city at frequent rest stops. I think it would have been well over a kilometer but certainly worth it.
Reaching the top I discovered there are many enterprises in full swing from an animal enclosure, with animals to feed as long as you paid, to the cable car itself. The two main cafes I wanted to use were closed .As in Europe there is a pay for toilet use, I just wish it was for western style toilets. I find the squat toilets very hard on the old body!
I enjoyed wandering around and seeing the views of the mountains along with many others. It was decided that I take the cable car back down, and it finished just where I was hoping it would. The cable car was stable and pleasant to be in, some of them swing too much for my liking,as I have the remnants of a fear of heights. From its base it was easy to walk the tour laid out in the Central Asia lonely planet book, well almost anyway, stopping to ask directions meant blank looks from some people but I’ll try any way . It worked and I did end up in the right direction, fortuitously finding a travel agent who arranged a day trip for tomorrow and let me use the ‘western toilet. I have no idea where she is sending me , but I’m sure it will be lovely
A pleasant wander home, complete with a good map from the agent saw me back at the hotel with more groceries, after managing to lose my room key for the hotel, thats going to cost me, ouch!!!
Finally catching up with sorting scrambled cases, washing done, great having a stretchy washing line and a room big enough to stretch it out in.Now its on to getting everything charged and ready to go again.

Novosibirsk to Almaty, Kazakhstan

I concluded that it was a grandmother with the little boy, the man, a solo traveler. From the Trans siberian endless steppes became more entertaining when another two Russians who were friends of the men joined us. All of whom proceeded to get very drunk, so by ten o’clock they were well on the way to settling in our bunks, something I objected to, but managed to get rid of them as diplomatically as possible.

While the men had been drinking I noticed grandmother had slipped half a sleeping pill into the wee boy. He slept all night! The other half she had taken to assist her in doing the same. He was such a cutie, but no wonder he was so good, his grandmother appeared to be threatening him with a knife at one point, but with out understanding the language it was hard to decide what the problem was. The endless steppes stretched for kilometers, broken by cemeteries, sad looking villages that were so far from any sort of civilization one wondered how people coped with the isolation. I guess after living for generations in the same environment, that there was nothing to miss.

If you want to go to a city, you just got on the Trans siberian train. So strange seeing this huge train stopping to drop people off and pick others up, There was a couple of stops where the locals greeted the train with local food, crafts and smoked fish, though where the fish came from when you were living in the middle of a desert. Some had set up stalls, others just walked along the train with their wares in baskets. There was white patches like snow, in various places that we passed, I found out from a most helpful and friendly young man, that it was salt. He spoke some English and we passed some the time chatting

The stops were long enough to let passengers off to browse and enjoy the scene. The dining car attached to the train was in name only, there was little food to mention, although it had places to stand and enjoy drinks. The only beauty of the dining car was that it had an open window for taking videos from, where the carriages, had the windows kept closed. The samovar was most useful for the soups and coffee I had with me.

Having the bottom bunk means having safe storage under your bunk. Short of lifting you off, it provided security for my Ipad and backpack. The compartments stow all luggage of the four people allocated the bunks. There is storage above the door as well as under the bottom bunks, some open, some secure.

A peaceful night that soon passed, and it was back to another day of the endless deserts, strangely not in the least boring. The Ipad was a wonderful source of entertainment. I carried extra power packs in case there were no charging facilities. While there were some, they were in the corridor of the train and I was loathe to leave any thing out of sight. So stayed with the packs.

Another night on the train proved an interrupted one, the sleeping pill did not work on the child, who woke about 3am and refused to settle again. They departed the train at 5.30am; I was pleased to see them go, but felt sorry for the wee boy. Woken early there was nothing to do but to watch the scenery as we approached Almaty. After the brown and tedious scenes from the last day and a half it turned into truly stunning morning. The sunrise touching the tops of snow capped mountains in the distance, beyond the soft green tips of spring on the trees. Spring flowers so evident, the standard of homes above what I had seen previously. A truly stunning and beautiful arrival. A couple of hours later the Trans siberian train arrived in Almaty, Kazakhstan.

The young friend I had met, stayed with me until the guide arrived to drop me at the hotel; he was kindly concerned that I would be left alone in a strange country.

Novosibirsk Arrival

We arrived in the pouring rain and the wet shine on the roads reflected the city lights of Novosibirsk, which after St Petersburg and Moscow is the third biggest city in Russia. At least I can say I have been to Siberia! My stay this time was to be in a private home as a homestay, and one that I was looking forward to enjoying. I love having the guides meet me, although this guy didn’t speak English, the language barrier was not a problem.

We seemed to drive some distance before turning down a dirt road, which reminded me of some of the places I had seen traveling here. We pulled into the front of a property with high metal fences and dogs barking behind it. The guide rang the people on his phone and young lass aged about twenty something met us. The two large and lovely dogs of unknown parentage.
The two girls welcomed me into their home despite the late arrival. It was very cute and homely, something I had imagined most of the homes would be. The outside appearance of a lot of Russian homes give a poor impression of what the inside may be like, as outsides were generally not in good repair.

I came to terms with the fact that the toilet did not have a cistern that worked, and a bucket the means of flushing!

Having had to face that in the past, it did not faze me at all. A large basin /bucket in the bath as a means of washing had no appeal what so ever, so I declined the offer of a shower. With it being so late at night, I was soon asleep on the couch/bed that was mine, until being joined by their beautiful black long haired and very loud purring cat! How ever, we both slept well.
As usual, I was awake before everybody else, but there was breakfast set on the table ready for me to eat. It was very thoughtful of the girls.

Another woman who did speak English picked me up to try to get some antibiotics for an infection that was becoming a problem. It fascinated me that we went to a hospital pharmacy and an antibiotic dispensed immediately, no doctors or PC nonsense! After doing this, she dropped me off at the station for the onward journey to Kazakhstan. Finding a luggage locker saved me from hauling bags all around the city.

Leaving bags there, I spent the morning just taking in some of the sights of the city.
The opera house certainly worth seeing backed the huge Lenin square. Not a beautiful city in my opinion, but a very pleasant working one. Given that Novosibirsk came about because of the Trans Siberian, train made it memorable for me. The remainder of the day spent waiting and looking for some sign of the platform number of the train, I was catching to go to Almaty.

It was very frustrating, despite asking several people directions. With just over half an hour until departure I tried again, I think they might have also been getting a little frustrated with me. This time a young man offered to help me down to the train, and in doing so, he also carried my bags up and down stairs. It seems unless there is more than four flights of stairs the Russians and Chinese do not believe in escalators or lifts!

It escapes me the reason for having both Moscow time and the local times shown for train departures, but hey, it is Russia! I know the Russian rail system runs on Moscow times but it does get very confusing. The total lack of any English or any translation is something that needs work on certainly and possibly the use of an English speaker somewhere in the station.
Getting down to the train at last, it had obviously been there waiting! This suggested that had I known the platform number I could have taken myself there, but then again no one would have carried my bags!

The compartment I shared with two older gentleman, an older lady and a small 3 year old boy. I have been lucky in getting the bottom bunk on all the trains so far, long may it last, there is no way I could cope with getting up to the top bunk. None of my companions spoke English, so for the next couple of days it was going to be sign language.