Hiking in the Tian Shan - Fri, Sept 10

 Scott with his new summer dacha

Scott with a Tien Shan beer


Hiking day today. Drove and hour and forty minutes (west and south; probably only 30 miles) into the Tian Shan Mountains. The last part of the long long drive was on a winding, steep dirt road and we were loaded into a tight bus with jump seats down the middle, all in use. Several of the high (12,000 ft), jagged peaks were covered in snow. The Tian Shan range boarders both China and Kyrgyzstan. In fact if we'd continued up our trail just a few miles further we would have reached the Kyrgyzstan border. We'd been told to bring all sorts of clothing including fleece hats and scarves, raincoats, etc. but the day turned out to be lovely and none of our gear was needed. The hike was pretty, first up a very steep incline and then along a high meadow, then again up through a gradually narrowing gorge. I turned back before Scott did. While Scott didn't quite summit Everest, he did continue until a snowbank blocked the trail. Yes that's true, a snowbank in September left over from the prior year. Had lunch at a restaurant affiliated with a small (read: basic) park lodge.

The trip back down to Almaty was far more interesting that the trip up. Our little bus strained to hang on to the road as it wound down the hairpin turns on an unfinished dirt road. Dust blew everywhere. We passed a gulag where Japanese prisoners where held for over 10 years and released in 1956. Our Kazakh guide Sasha said that he remembered seeing the prisoners being marched through town and taken to the train station.

Suddenly after a few more treacherous turns we reached the bottom and stopped. We were told that the driver needed to "cool the brakes" and change gears. He opened the back of the bus and worked for about 10 minutes. Someone told us he was changing from 4-wheel drive back to regular drive. While he worked we stood nearby and watched local life. Several SUVs were parked in a line near a small exposed pipe with water gushing from it. Each driver held a huge plastic container which he filled with water from this pipe. Apparently this is a good source of clean drinking water in the area. Meanwhile back in downtown Almaty there is financial district with tall glass buildings that look like any downtown American office complex.

Lastly, I wanted to include a funny story that happened to Larry the other day. He went to a little store nearby to buy things for the room and while trying to pay, pulled out a $1 US bill. A man standing in the store reached out his hand took the dollar bill from Larry. After a moment a woman came out and stood at the cash register. Suddenly Larry realized that the man who'd taken the dollar from him didn't work in the store! So he paid the storekeeper for his purchases and afterward it took a bit a cajoling to get his dollar back.

Almaty, Kazakhstan - Thursday Sept 9

 Almaty girls

 Zenkov Cathedral

 Zenkov Cathedral interior

 Zenkov Cathedral; girls at prayer

 Scott with his hero, Jengis Kahn


Began the day in Almaty with a visit to the Central State Museum which turns out to be a very interesting place. We first reviewed a map of Kazakhstan and talked about its geography, history, agriculture and political issues. Kazakhstan is the 9th largest country in terms of landmass (with a pop 16mill) and spans the northern expanse of all the other 'Stans we'll be visiting. The people of the region are all of Turkic origin (with the possible exception of the Tajiks) and speak similar Turkic languages. The other Turkic people are the Tuvans (now part of Russia) and the Huighurs (of China). Heard about the devastating environments and ecological disasters that have befallen Kazakhstan including years of above-ground nuclear testing in the NE/Seven-Rivers part of the country by the Soviets (ended in 1989) and soil depletion from cotton growth (again dictated by the Soviet Union). I hadn't known that Kazakhstan was a major center of Soviet gulags during the 1950s; both Solzynytzen (sp?) and Dostoyevsky were imprisoned here. Apparently the Gulag Archipelago was based on Solzynytzen's experience here.

In the galleries we saw magnificent gold items - jewelry, daggers, horse harnesses - all excavated from archaeological sites in the country. We saw a representation of the famous "Golden Man" dug up from a grave site here. He is believed to be the figure of 20 year old man whose leather clothing was completely adorned with gold decorations including indigenous snow leopards. One room had lovely examples of nomadic textiles, jewelry, a yurt and items that would have been used inside the yurt including rugs.

Typical of what I think we'll experience throughout the 'Stans were exhibition cases with either poor lighting or no lighting at all. We suspect (based on comments made by our guide) that entry fees paid are pocketed by employees or officials and not used for the upkeep of the museum. We tried to stop in the museum gift shop but couldn't get the women who worked in the museum to open it. It wasn't lunchtime. There was no reason it couldn't or shouldn't be open. I guess these are examples of the lingering effects of years of Soviet domination.

In the afternoon we visited various Soviet monuments (well, not really Soviet, because those have supposedly all been done away with since K became an independent country) but they look just like Soviet monuments.

 My favorite stop in the afternoon was at a wooden church, the Zenkov Cathedral (1904) which during Soviet years was used as the site for the Central State Museum. After Independence it was returned to use as a church and completely redecorated. Not only was it lovely inside, but it was interesting seeing women coming in to light candles and pray.

The Kazakh people are ethnically Mongol. The rest are either of European descent or Russian. The Mongol face is angular with extremely high cheekbones. Almaty is the business capital of Kazakhstan and is presumably the most sophisticated and urbane of all cities here. Women's fashions would certainly suggest that - just about everyone wears tight slim-leg jeans, high heels, tight t-shirts - in a word clothes that westerns would wear. I think I'd expected to see muslim women in conservative dress and hear scarves and I have seen a few, but the overwhelming majority of women I've seen so far wear modern clothing.

Almaty, Kazakhstan - Wednesday Sept 8

 Two views of Almaty from our hotel window

Arrived safely this morning in Almaty, Kazakhstan.  As we were landing you could see the massive Tian Shan mountains that border the city; a mountain range at the western edge of China.  The snow-capped mountains are visible from almost everywhere it seems. Almaty appears to be a very "Soviet-looking" city with ugly, grimy buildings that look in need of repair.  I base this solely on our ride in from the airport because once we got to our very nice hotel (the Intercontinental), we were so tired that we haven't left.  We got lucky and were able to get hotel rooms at 9am instead of at 2.  Hotel is enormous and has all the amenities (except 2 hour wifi cards but I was able to get one that's good for 1/2 hour).  We're astonished by how expensive everything is.  While we were waiting for our rooms to be ready we went to have breakfast.  Turns out it was $40/per person!  Ok it was a great buffet, but I doubt I'll be seeing it again.  Diet Cokes are $8 in the mini-bar.  Basically Scott and I have done nothing but clean up, sleep and read.  Scott went downstairs and ran into Larry who had gotten directions to a store and was going to investigate dinner options for this evening.  So I will write more soon but getting access to internet may be a bit difficult.  Tomorrow we join the group and have our first day of touring.