Almaty to Astana

So you know how we say that we'll write tomorrow and post some pictures up and then don't write a blog entry for a couple of days... well to combat this trend I've decided never to again say that we'll post pictures tomorrow.

I believe we left off after spending the day buying books, and I'm happy to report that since that time I've finished Dracula and found it a most enjoyable read. I've decided not to start any of the other books I bought (Peter Pan and The Tale of Two Cities) until we're on the train to Moscow, which leaves early morning on Tuesday. But to speak of the train would be getting ahead of myself, for we must conclude the mailing stuff home epic, and get ourselves to Astana, with a small pleasant surprise story inbetween.

So after failing to get our burritos at the PBC place we went back to the American Ranch for burgers. My burger was red in the middle so I had to wait 30 minutes for another one, at least this new one came with more fries, which are the best part when combined with the Heniz ketchup which they were served with. Then we retired to our apartment watched some BBC and went to bed.

Early the next morning we were up and getting everything ready for the final push to get the package sent home. We took turns sitting by the phone from 8:45 to 10:00am, not once letting one of us get out of reach of the phone. Since we were suppose to be picked up at 9am by 10am I decided to call the place. The lady who had been talking to me on the phone said she had called 3 times with no answer that morning. I didn't know what to say, but that we had been there. I think since our phone can't call cell phones, cell phones may not be able to call our phone. That is my guess anyways. So the lady said that she would send a driver who would relay through her when he had arrived. Around 11am the driver showed up and we carried the rugs and book of stuff downstairs along with our hiking boots which we had decided to send home (since it was a flat shipping rate up to 15kg anyways). We loaded the stuff into the mini van, but since there was only two seats including the driver's seat only one of us could go. Sara decided to stay behind and I got into the truck. About 30 minutes later or so, we arrived at a building on the outskirts of the airport. That is when I meet Valeriya, who helped carry my stuff upstairs to the office. We repacked the boots and the box into a larger box and I filled in the required paperwork. At first when she quoted me the price I was quite worried and almost upset. I thought that the price was just for her part of the thing and that the actual shipping was on top of that, plus the cost for the ride out there was crazy expensive at 4500 teng.. She called the trucking department which dropped the pickup charge to 3000 teng. But when I found out that the price quoted was the total total cost it wasn't so bad, bad but in the ballpark of what was expected bad. By this time it was almost lunch time and one of Valeriya's coworkers informed us that since we had tee-shirts still in their orignal plastic that customs may not like that (as we could be sending the shirts to Canada and selling them.. all 4 different tee-shirts) and that for $150 US the customs guy wouldn't open the box. I was quite upset over this, but since it was their lunch time I had 1.5 hours to think it over while eating my Bounty bar and coke from the vending machine. I decided that I will just take the tee-shirts with me and carry them the rest of the way till we get home. So after lunch Valeriya came with me to do customs (note that this is not part of her or their job per say, so to guide me through the system was very nice of her). Our first stop was to turn in my passport and get a vistor pass, as I was now within the airport (across the parking lot from the office of EAT) and remove the tee-shirts from the box. Since I didn't have my bag I put two of them in my pant pockets and Valeriya carried two as we went to the first stop. There we got the form, Valeriya filled it out for me as it was in Russian, and via flirting slightly with the guy got my tee-shirts okayed. The form was stamped the first 4 times here I think. Then we went back to the warehouse, put back the tee-shirts and continued thought the building in a random order collecting signitures and stamps from 4 more people in 3 more offices, making the total number of stamps 13. Crazy eh? Then to the payment office for EAT or maybe that was before customs... anyways then we were done. Valeriya was kind enough to offer to drive me to the bus stand, I thanked her much and often for her help, as customs only took 30 minutes, and the box was finally on it way home, to arrive in Edmonton within a week. As we drove we had a good chat, and since traffic was light she drove me all the way home. She was very disappointed that we had not seem some of the sights around Almaty, and so as we approached my apartment offered to take us sightseeing that evening. I was thrilled and said we'd be waiting by the phone at 6pm when she got off work.

We went and got pizza at Mad Murphy's since it was 20% off pizza Thursday, and ran some more errands around town such as getting money and food for the train ride and got back to our apartment just at 6pm. On que the phone rang and Valeriya said that she could come, and would call from her mom's place which was near ours when we were to meet her at the street. At 7pm we waited on the busy street corner looking for Valeriya and her mom who decided to come along as well. They spotted us and we got into Valeriya's car and headed for the hills. We asked them all sorts of questions that we had been pondering over the past days/weeks. Valeriya's english was excellent while her mom's was good enough to understand the conversation. Here is what we learned: The trees are painted 4 feet high white to keep the bugs from eating the tree, as the paint is a special formula. The painted camels that are all over Almaty change yearly, as last year there was horses. The middle class is expanding, and if you are willing to work you can get ahead as companies are willing to pay well enough to afford living with such high prices. Things were bad for about 10 years after the fall of the USSR, but now they are better. In Soviet times you had to que for everything, and everyone was equal. It wasn't bad because you couldn't want anything more, you didn't know about it. Now you know and want more and more. The little bits of cloth tied to the tree are not to remember the dead, but to wish for something you want. It is much better to be free. May 1st, 2007 the president banned all Casinos due to their negitive impact on families. I think we learned some more, but I forget now, and that tells you how open and helpful they were in answering all our questions.

We drove up to this skating rink past huge homes hidden in compounds on the hillside. The skating rink is very popular in winter, and Soviet speed skaters trained there due to the high altitude. We then drove up above the rink to a large dyke that was built to stop flash floods or snow slides from either taking out the skating rink or Almaty for that matter. There are stairs that lead from the skating rink all the way up to the top of the dyke and it is said that it is good luck if a groom carries his bride the whole way up (at least 1000 stairs by estimate). We then drove down and went to the TV tower lookout. Sara was lucky that we didn't go ourselves or else we would have walked up. Valeriya and her mom would not let us pay for anything, which was very nice of them, but annoying all the same. So we got in the minibus for the ride up and had a hazy view of the city. After taking some pictures we walked and found a hilltop restruant. We refused food but gave into tea. When we sat down and said that we had not tried (can't remember the name but basically the national dish of Kazakhstan) we just had to try it (Shylak, Sara says). The dish was skewers of mutton, that were grilled on the fire, and tasted amazing. The meat was very tender and juicy. I had all of mine and some of Sara as she got full. With our tummies full and our heads tired we were dropped off at our place. A great evening to say the least. After all the hassels we came across in Almaty the kindness of Valeriya and her mom was amazing. We can't thank them enough for what they did for us. I went to sleep happy and with Alamty in a good light.

The next morning we got up and packed. Cleaned up our apartment as good as could be expected, and at 10am on the dot the landlord and his wife came. She started to clean some more and we tried to explain that we would like 5000 tenge back as we had paid for that extra night which we were not going to use. This took a while to get across, and it took a while for him to explain that the money was in the bank. So we gave up on getting it all back and asked what was in his wallet now, as this is a cash based society, we would try and get something back. After 30 odd minutes of this, he went and talked to his wife, and returned with 4000 tenge for us. We were very happy with this, and left with smiles and handshakes. I bought some new flip flops on the way to the train station.

We got to the train station early as planned. Tried to get in the wrong car, but got in the right car still some 30 minutes before the train was to leave. It was so hot in the train, we were sitting in pools of our own sweat. There is no air conditioning or something like that, because the vent system only works when the train is moving. We pulled out of the station on time and were delighted that we were alone in our compartment. This only lasted about half an hour till we reached the other Almaty station. Then our compartment was packed, there was 8 people in there. Two other with tickets and 4 who bribed their way on. This was not looking good. However 20 minutes later when our tickets were collected the bribed on passagers were told to leave our berth. I don't know where they went, but I saw them at Astana, so they weren't kicked off the train. We settled in to reading, napping, and Sara listening to music. We had dinner of rice and coke in the dinning car, and I also had cucumber and tomato salad. We went to bed, and by the time we awoke we were nearing Astana. We pulled into the station 30 minutes behind schedule. Sara didn't sleep as well as I did. I woke up in a foul mood though.

We got off the train and looked for the train station hotel, and after asking found it right inside the train station, go figure. They only had dorm beds, so we said no thanks. We then took a taxi into town to another hotel from the guidebook. It was nice and clean but turned out to be 11000 tenge per night ($100 CAN). Sara wanted to stay there, but I said it was too expensive. The lady at the counter spoke good english and offered to call around for us. While we waited a business man from Vancouver stopped to talk to us for a while. Very surprised we were travelling here, especially with our lack of Russian. He also had some interesting things to say about Kazakhstan and Astana since he has been doing business here since 1990. The lady at the counter informed us she had found a place for 4000 tenge per night, but it was a ways out of town, but it was very clean. I said okay, and Sara did not agree with me. Needless to say we weren't on the same page this day, but we went to the other place which was clean and nice, but definetly out of the way (middle of an industrail area) and booked in for 3 days. We spent most of the day in the hotel being grumpy, each in our own way, and finally ventured out in the evening for food and water. We also took our clothes to a laundry mat which was close by. Oh and note that we do not fit in at fancy places to eat. When someone is playing a piano for you while you eat, and your food is served from under a silver cover, it is too fancy for us.

Finally to today. We've decided after walking around a bunch that this place since it is in the middle of the steepe is kinda like a town in the middle of our prairies. Actually it would be exactly like if Canada moved it's capital from Ottawa to the middle of geographic Canada. The weather and wind are the same as we know from Winnipeg. As we've either said or thought many times before Canada needs more statues and fountains. Astana we like better than Almaty I think, probably because it feels smaller and less busy. We went into this strange West Ed Mall type place, except with very few stores. It was an entertainment park with arcades, movie theatre, aquarium, themed restruants, and plaster replicas of famous buildings from around the world. We played pinball for a while because there was free credits on the pinball machine. Hope we didn't wreck someone's game while they were in the washroom. We also walked through a large outdoor fair, with all the rides and stuff, but this one was perminant. On the way back we walked along the river which was full of people on paddle boats or swimming on a small beach. Very Saskatchewan, we think.

We went to a place for dinner that served pizza, and waited almost 2 hours for the pizza. Good thing we weren't starving when we sat down. The pizza was good, but it's hard to tell because we ate the entire thing in less than 10 minutes. We walked back to the hotel and got our laundry which was so clean it was amazing.

Tomorrow is our last full day in Kazakhstan.

Tyson and Sara