Central asia Archives

Sunday at Turgen Park, Kazakhstan

I went on the bus trip arranged by the travel agent in Kazakhstan, it was one of those serendipitous trips that I seem to have a knack of falling into. After a brisk walk of four blocks, I waited for the bus with many others, in what was a chill wind
The bus arrived on time and filled quickly with those waiting, mostly a lot of young people and several slightly older folks. Headed towards the snowcapped mountains that are such a feature here,it was great seeing them get closer. The tour guide went through the bus checking on everyone, realising I was an English speaker she introduced me to the rest of the passengers, apparently one young lady must have volunteered to translate for me for the rest of the day , and she was most kind, and it was lovely to have a translator on hand.
The entire group of people bent over backwards to help. The tour guide of course, gave the entire commentary in Kazak, which along with Russian are the official languages.
The first stop was to see a ‘Golden ‘Man ‘ replica, it rates highly amongst the Kazakhs, I missed the first photo op of the day by leaving my camera on the bus which had moved to a park much further down the road. The kindness of the young folk meant I had photos taken with promises to email them on to me. The Golden man was on one of the higher points of the park we stopped at, so we wandered down to a water supply from a pristine pool that had been given pipes to channel the water into bottles. Indeed while we were there, a family arrived holding at least 3-4 huge water bottles each, all to be filled. Every one delighted in tasting fresh water as it is only drinkable out of bottles here, and if the source is a bit suspect, like a street seller tampering with the bottles, may cause sickness.
We moved on down the road with the glorious mountains on our right and a river and wilderness to the left. In many ways it reminded me of the South Island in New Zealand.

Reaching the end of the road , everyone planned on seeing a waterfall. Unfortunately not knowing where I was going or doing meant I was inappropriately dressed for hiking and climbing so after giving it a go, I decided safety was more important and returned to the park. There were places to sit and enjoy lunch if you were lucky, it was a very busy place. I was tickled to see a flat deck truck with 2ft sides with a horse tethered on it, fully saddled drive by! Despite the huge numbers of people there were no toilets open for use, and on a Sunday, which I found very strange. So it did necessitate a bush walk after I had asked the guide. where to find the toilets using sign language!
A couple of hours later finds us all parking at a trout fish farm. This is where you catch your fish ,and they cook them. Not a fish eater I sat and watched as they were consumed piece by piece except for the eyes and the bones! I was interested watching the public all gathered around an artificial lake trying to catch the fish. There was almost a gala air about it! A walk showed many other ponds being prepared for the event in the days or weeks to come. The river alongside will have provided the water for the enterprise. A big house on the hill above with many horses, suggests it is probably a profitable one.

I enjoyed lunch(without the food) in the company of some russian and kazakh ladies who had asked if I would like to join them. There were Coca cola tents with chairs and tables beneath them for sitting around. The wind still proving to be a little cool, unfortunately.The men could choose to use the dining arrangements of lying around on carpeted floors of Kazakh built frames for that purpose. I understood the ladies to say only men could use those , women were not allowed. Along with the fishing there were many horses for those who wished to ride, or give the children a ride. I felt the condition of some animals was not as good as it could have been. It was a popular spot to go on a Sunday afternoon and one I certainly did enjoy, more for the atmosphere than the food!
Next it was on to an ostrich farm, that was very interesting for an ex farmer. The owner did insist that I stay and hear all about them, in his language! I tried looking interested for as long as possible, but after twenty minutes I gave up.Certainly the set up was an interesting one, cottage enterprise at its best. He had a few deer as well as the ostriches, round the corner, cages with rabbits. I don’t doubt what their future will be, you don’t let rabbits breed unless there is a pot to fill. Toilet stop again ,but this time surprisingly with a western toilet,thank goodness. There was a huge range of machinery there as well, so either he farms a lot of land or contracts out to other farmers.
While Mr was busy with the stock and telling about the African ostriches , Mrs had been busy cooking for a bus load of tourists, making tea and coffee, all for a price of course, which I didn’t think was unreasonable, There was plenty of Kazakh food there for everyone to eat and as it was close to dinner most took advantage of the genuine home cooking.

The drive home was equally interesting and very pretty, With the mountains now on my side of the bus they appeared to hang in the hazy sky in all their snow covered glory. In the fields below the fresh green of new shoots growing in the spring weather made beautiful memories, and perhaps a little bout of homesickness for our supposedly clean green NZ.
The traffic terrors while much reduced from Asia, continued on a smaller scale. I was horrified and I suspect the others were as well to see a little ?2yearold wandering onto the fast and busy road. A youngster running at full speed to get to the baby before there was a tragedy, but will never know the outcome, but I do hope it was a good one
Someone changing a tire in the middle of a 3 lane fast highway would just not happen in New Zealand, but the guy was oblivious to the hooting and screeching brakes around him. Add in donkeys pulling carts, potato sellers with their wares,it became an edge of the seat experience .and one I was amazed by, especially to get off the bus in one piece, fifteen minutes later !

Tashkent Border

After enjoying the late checkout, I headed down to the Tashkent station with plenty of time in hand. The usual formalities of showing tickets to get into station and going through the scanners. Then having the passport checked again and ticket stamped there is a lot of red tape in these countries, sadly the result of a Russian past. The station area was a mad house, with so many people, bags and cases everywhere only the Chinese stations could get anywhere near competing with it!

The time to get to the platform came , and it gave me a certain vicarious pleasure bumping my suitcase down stairs and holding the mob behind me even after all the traveling I have done I still cannot believe the lack of preparation for the huge crowds and their luggage. After two flights of doing this, a man stepped up and carried it the remainder of the steps. The platform of course very busy, I was intrigued by stalls selling water and food for the trip but also toilet rolls! Food and water I can understand, but toilet rolls!

The train pulled in and its every man (or woman) for themselves, to get to the cabins first and get luggage stashed as there is a limited amount of space. I have been very lucky to get a bottom bunk for the whole trip, although requested I did not take it for granted. With the bottom bunk comes the safety of the bed on top of the storage area, and to some extent, security of belongings. I had to walk nearly the length of the train to the carriage I was allotted, but then that has mostly been the case so no worries.

The loose mats on the carriage floor a real hassle when dragging a suitcase on wheels plus a backpack. The frilly curtains an enigma to me on a train of all things!

Eventually I found the cabin, already taken over by three young men. We had to rearrange everyone’s bags to accommodate my stuff. One of the men actually gave me the creeps, I had noticed him staring, I know it’s probably unexpected to get an old lady sharing a berth with them, but it was not a great start to a three day trip to Moscow.

Then its time to take the brocade covers off the seats and pillows in order to make the bunks for the night. They bring round the sheets etc and you make your own bed. Then its tickets collected. Soon after dozing off to sleep I was woken again by passport control wanting passports, and this for me was where everything turned to custard!

It was apparent that my visa for Uzbeckistan had expired despite having it checked on entry to the station.So I and my bags were escorted off the train, leaving the train to go on without me ! Not a particularly good feeling I assure you.

Leaving Bukhara

A day of mucking around, with checkout at midday I can never get into sight seeing mode knowing there is a time frame to be recognized. How ever, a bit of walking again amongst the buildings built so long ago is pause for reflection. On the way, I took the opportunity to book a taxi for later in the day for the trip to the train station or Vokzal. Filling in time at the internet cafe very easy to do, certainly a good connection was excellent to talk to home via face time on the Ipad. Afterwards a leisurely lunch at the pool cafe in the Lyabi Haus complex supping green tea along with my Lagman meal

Reception allowed me to store my bag and backpack there while out and about for which I was grateful. On returning to the hotel I sat in the lobby reading on the Ipad when I was joined by a young 17 year old who was on what we call work experience. He was learning English to enable him to travel to Malaysia to undertake further studies with a company. His grasp of the language was extremely good considering his age in a country where there is little English spoken.

He found the games on the Ipad fascinating, one of which was getting English words for points. Our laughter attracted the attention of his friends, as well as the novelty of the Ipad. I gather they are not too common here at present, as I had noticed kids watching over my shoulder when using it. The universal delight seems to be a program called ‘Talking Tom’ that has had any one watching and playing with it in fits, from three year olds and up!

The young people another 17 year old and 22 year old discovered the delights of the Ipad with its music despite it being old and English, the camera tried with all of us in various photos, angry birds and suchlike! The young people were a delight, once the ice was broken; everyone laughed and enjoyed each other’s company. The fact that two of them did not speak English made little difference to the conversations. One lad swore in his language, it sounded very much as it does in English, and I cracked up. Pointing out to the English speaker I knew what had been said, which he duly passed on to his friend amidst much laughter.

Time came to get the taxi and one of the young men helped with my bag and made sure the taxi driver knew where I was going. It was extremely kind and reassuring. With another four hours until the train, left there was no hurry, but I always make sure there is plenty of time in case I have to move cases very slowly up or down stairs. The time went very quickly, fortunately no stairs. Interestingly because of my early arrival, there was no security checking done, but after an hour, everyone coming in was checked by security.

The sleeper part of the train was parked at the other end of the station and in due time the engine arrived and connected to the carriages. I was looking for carriage nine, so watching as the train slowly drove past the numbers dropped from twenty-three downwards. The train complete must have been at least half a kilometer in length or more, carriage nine went past, so I got up to go to it when the train stopped. Having reached the carriage, the train stopped then started reversing, so it was all the way back to where I had started! Some people, who I had been chatting with, laughed with me and enjoyed the joke!

The high number of the train suggested it was going to be a slow trip, taking ten hours to cover the distance that five had done previously! As an overnighter it was ok, the seats very hard of course even with the mattress you have to make them more comfortable. Providing passengers with sheets and a pillowcase for bed making has been the case on all the trains.

I ended up in the wrong berth but staff, probably thinking ‘Inglesi’, soon sorted it! The girl in the berth with me was sorry I had to go to another. Leaving as late as it did it was not long before most people were asleep.

Arriving at seven in the morning it was back to the hotel I had stayed in previously.

Almaty – Tashkent

Filling in the morning before going on to Tashkent, was the usual final squish to get belongings in to bags, slowly getting a method after a month of travelling.
Passing a shop last evening after stocking up on supplies I noticed the name of a wireless source that had popped up on the ipad . I decided to call in and with some cheek asked if they would allow me to use their network. Nothing ventured ,nothing gained, I was incredibly delighted by the positive response of allowing me to use it. I had just an hour before leaving Almaty so there was time to catch up on emails and other stuff that one does on the iPad with a wireless network. I was thrilled to bits by their kindness.

Checking out of the hotel soon after,I was at the Almaty International Airport an hour later. Funny little airport, very busy but as i had a luggage trolley my bags were not a problem. I filled in the afternoon relatively easily with games, reading and coffee until boarding started, soon after five. The required wander around the duty free shops did little for me, no room any way! Travelling as I do , I have found most of the officials as pleasant as can be expected, but now and again there is someone who stands out as being really nice and it makes my day.

Getting on the bus for transport to the aircraft was not pleasant, there would have been half the plane load in it, they closed the doors then moved down and stopped to allow the second bus behind. It was stinking hot , people were literally jammed in like sardines. The bus became hotter and hotter and I felt claustrophobia taking over just as the bus started moving. This is just not acceptable in my way of thinking.
Getting settled in the aircraft an Airbus 320, with the window seat I was promised easily done. Not my most favourite aircraft, but it was only for about an hour. Taking off we were treated to the most glorious sight of the snow covered mountains and parked aircraft being bathed in the rays of the setting sun, truly beautiful. Sorry , no photos allowed! I had arrived into Almaty seeing the sun rise on those same mountains. Flying on to Tashkent in the west meant that I saw the sun take over half an hour to disappear beneath the horizon.

Arriving in Tashkent and landing in one piece, I discovered the airport is the most disorganised and unpleasant place to do the travel essentials of passport control or more specifically customs. I had to get a visa on my passport and with the correct papers and money quickly, easily and pleasantly done. It was then the idiocy started. Waiting for nearly two hours, xraying bags again, no specific lines to speed things up. I finally get to the desk and it seems I have to fill two forms with the usual stuff. Forms that should have been given out on the plane, if they were I certainly did not get them. I scribbled them in, illegibly, the guy did not even read them! By now its nearly 10.30 at night! Ridiculous, Auckland Airport processes far more people in ,much less time and more thoroughly. Leaving the airport to find the guy meeting me was an experience in its self, there were hundreds of people behind a barrier,many, many of them holding signs!! Fly thorugh Tashkent airport if you have to, its not a pleasant experience, be warned!

It seemed to be a while before reaching the hotel, I was concerned at seeing the wide streets and nice buildings change into poor looking dwellings and the road become more like a lane with pot holes. It was down one of these lanes to the hotel. Most interesting,at this hotel most of the young men working there spoke english in varying degrees which made a real change for me after getting by on sign language for a while. Tomorrow is another day!