Back to Kazakhstan day 8: Expo 2017

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It's my last day in Kazakhstan, and I'm a little weary from all the traveling while carrying my heavy camera bag.  I decided to lounge around in my hotel room a little longer than I had planned to, then took a taxi to visit Expo 2017.  As usual the hotel reception called for a "city taxi" (read: regular car willing to pick up passengers for money).

Fortunately it was still relatively early - just after 10 a.m. - and I didn't have to wait in line long for a ticket.

Back to Kazakhstan day 7: Astana architecture

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I'm going back to Astana today, and took a morning flight from Kyzylorda Korkyt Ata Airport.  As I waited at the gate to board my flight, I was kinda surprised to see two propeller biplanes parked on the tarmac.  Not something you see everyday...

There's a simple in-flight meal, with a sandwich, delicious passion fruit and nectarine yogurt, along with some knock-off goldfish cookies.

But I was much happier munching on my Lay's Shashlik (Шашлык) potato chips...

Back to Kazakhstan day 5: Aral Sea

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On my last trip to Kazakhstan back in 2008, there were two places I did not get to visit due to time constraints... and they later became itches that needed scratching.  One was Baikonur Cosmodrome, and the other was the Aral Sea.  I would manage to scratch both of them on this trip.

The Aral Sea is one of the biggest man-made environmental disasters in the world, thanks to the Soviets who decided to divert rivers feeding the lake to irrigate crops such as cotton - one of the most water-hungry crops that require between 8,000 - 20,000 liters of water to produce 1 kg.  So, after decades of being starved of water, the Aral Sea began shrinking in a vicious cycle.  As the remaining water evaporated, the salinity of the lake increased, and life in the lake began to disappear.  The Aral Sea is now a mere fraction of its former self.

When I made the decision to come to Baikonur, I realized that Aral is really not that far away.  So I made arrangements to extend my trip and spend an extra day touring the Aral Sea.  I wasn't gonna come to Kazakhstan a second time and leave without visiting the Aral Sea when I was gonna be within 250 km of it.

We left Hotel No. 1 at Site 2 in Baikonur Cosmodrome before 5 a.m., so that Stuart and I could be dropped off at Turyatam Station while some of the others were driven back to Kyzylorda.  We were booked on the 6:07 a.m. train from Tyuratam (Тюратам) to Aral Sea (АРАЛ МОРЕ).  While I couldn't read the electronic ticket I received as it was written in Cyrillic, I did manage to catch that the 4-hour train ride cost the staggering sum of 969 Tenge - roughly USD 3.  In the back of my mind, I had a suspicion that this wasn't gonna be a train ride I was gonna enjoy...

Back to Kazakhstan day 4: live Soyuz rocket launch

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Today's the day!  Scratching an itch and ticking an item off the non-existent bucket list by watching a live rocket launch at Baikonur!  It's gonna be an exciting day!  But first, some breakfast back at the canteen...

Fruit cake with raisins (кекс творожный с изюмом) - these were pretty dry and hard, but flavor-wise they were OK.

New day, new porridge. Today it seemed to be semolina porridge (каша из манной крупы), and the texture reminds me of liquefied polenta or grits, with a grainy texture on the tongue.

Back to Kazakhstan day 2: Kyzylorda to Baikonur

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My morning was not spent walking around the city as planned, but in my hotel room at the Hilton Garden Inn Astana. I had some work to do, and despite being surprisingly hungry after a whole day of eating yesterday, I wasn’t interested in eating much this morning. Lunch at a decent restaurant wasn’t an option today since most don’t open till 12pm, and I was on my way to Astana Airport by then.

Dining options at the domestic terminal of Astana Airport were pretty damn limited. I didn’t have a lot of time, and wasn’t gonna bother checking out the Creperie de Paris. There didn’t seem to be a local option, so I found myself at Burger and Pasta, ordering two croissants and a juice. Gotta be honest and say that the croissants exceeded my expectations.

The flight to Kyzylorda took 1½ hours, and after 3 flights on Air Astana in 2 days, I’ve gotten used to passengers clapping upon successful landing by the pilot. Kyzylorda Korkyt Ata Airport reminds me of the dinky airports in remote parts of Asia – with a simple building, only one gate, and no luggage conveyer belt. We had to wait outside the room until the staff unloaded the luggage, then everyone rushed to grab their bags. I didn’t see my luggage in the pile, and was about to try to report missing/stolen luggage until my guide spotted it near the entrance. My guess is that one of the locals tried to steal it but couldn’t get pass the staff at the door checking luggage tags.

Back to Kazakhstan day 1: horse meat in two capitals

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When I embarked on my trip to Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan in Central Asia back in 2008, I was able to spend only 4 days in Kazakhstan.  As a result there were a couple of destinations that I had to pass up - including the new capital Astana.  I had managed to hit both of the UNESCO World Heritage Sites listed at the time - my priority on that trip - so I left the country with a small dose of regret about not reaching the sites in the western end of the vast country.

Two months ago my caviar supplier connected me with his friend in Moscow, offering a unique opportunity to travel to Baikonur and watch the Russians launch a Soyuz spacecraft from the Baikonur Cosmodrome.  The mission would carry 3 astronauts to the International Space Station.  This was one of the places I didn't get to visit 9 years ago, and it turns out to be an itch I really had to scratch.  Despite being turned down by every single friend I asked to join me - pretty much all because of scheduling conflicts - I decided to bite the bullet and make the trek on my own.  I would be joined by other visitors for the tour.

Initially I had found a very cheap ticket to Astana, routing myself through Beijing and flying Air China the whole way.  The Beijing - Astana route is new for Air China, which may explain the low cost of the airfare.  A few days ago, I began to get worried about potential delays at Beijing Capital International Airport.  Aside from the usual air traffic control, summer is the season for thunderstorms, and I was hearing horror stories about massive delays.  The 5½-hour layover I had scheduled began to look insufficient.  After struggling with the decision for a few days, I decided to cancel my original flights and booked myself on Air Astana - flying direct to Kazakhstan and bypassing Beijing (or any other city in China) altogether.  The ticket was much more expensive - more than double the cost of my original ticket - but I could not afford to miss my connecting flight in Beijing for any reason.

My 6-hour flight from Hong Kong to Almaty was uneventful.  Hong Kong was sunny with blue skies, and there were no weather or air traffic delays coming out of Almaty.  I was unfortunately seated right over the wing, so I wasn't able to take any decent pictures.  Nine years on, the inflight entertainment system on Air Astana was pretty good - high-res touch screens showing a good mix of international as well as local/Russian programs.  I listened to two albums by Dilnaz Akhmadieva - who is apparently still a figure on the Kazakh pop scene after all these years. I also watched The Diamond Sword - a movie about the first Kazakh khans who were descended from Genghis Khan.  There was also the option of watching re-runs of House M.D. dubbed in Russian, but I chose to stick with the original English dialog...

After landing at Almaty Airport and going through immigration, I moved to the departure level upstairs for my 3-hour layover.  This is a modest-sized airport and there weren't many shops and restaurants, so I wasn't able to buy new shoes to replace the ones falling apart around my feet.  I guess I would have to wait till Astana...

Silk Road III Day 12: Adios, Almaty!

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Our last day in Almaty and also in Central Asia. We decide to take it easier and ask Baghad to pick us up from the hotel at 12 noon. We would sleep in a bit, and go out for a bit of last minute shopping. When we asked Baghad about where we could buy some souvenir T-shirts - the same ones we saw on Kok-Tobe that he advised us to buy somewhere else in town - he didn't seem to know.

We go back to Zhibek Zholy and hit TsUM, the big department store in town. In contrast to Ramstor that is around the corner from us, this place seems to be more old-style department store than the newer types of shopping mall. We go straight to the top floor and find many different counters selling anything from cheezy souvenirs to gaudy chandeliers and porcelain dinner ware. After visiting a few different counters and bargaining them down to the same price, we eventually all find the T-shirts that we want. These have the petroglyph designs that we would see later today at Tamgaly, so they seem a bit better than your average touristy T-shirt. Stan also manage to pick up a mace made of leather and horn, which drew some laughter from us. Eric - ever looking for that elusive pot - manage to pick up a small one in silver, and didn't even have to pay over USD 1,000!

We quickly grab a bite of salads and bread at Kafe Keruen, an open-air establishment also mentioned in LP, and do a bit of people watching. There are some very interesting characters that one can run into here in Central Asia.  I honestly can't remember the last time I saw a guy wearing a black fishnet T-shirt...

After checking out just after 12pm (oh, and I finally took a hot shower this morning), we ride west with our luggage toward Karabastau and visit the Tamgaly Petroglyphs. Once again the roads are bumpy, and it is clear that neither the driver nor Baghdad have been there before, and do not know exactly how to get there. Nevermind. After about 3 hours, we finally reach the checkpoint and meet two lonely guys who are stationed there. They live in a nearby village and the area is pretty desolate. One of them accompanied us and showed us around to the major groups of rocks.

Tamgaly is now a UNESCO World Heritage Site. These rock carvings, some of which date back to the Bronze Age 3-4,000 years ago, are scattered across this area and number around 5,000. Most of them are in the form of animals such as horses, goats and cows, but many are also of people. It's interesting how these carvings reflect in the sunlight. We also have a chance to look at a few burial sights for people in those times. The graves seem small to us, because in those days people were buried in the fetal position instead of being laid out flat.

We leave the area around 5pm after spending a little more than one hour here. Baghdad and the driver are eager to send us to the airport, even though our flight is at 11pm. After about a 3-hour drive we arrive at Almaty Airport, 3 hours before our flight. This is probably the earliest I have ever reached any airport for flight departure. It was so early that the check-in counter wasn't even open.

We drag our luggage to one of the cafes at the airport, and order a few dishes for dinner. I have my last chance to enjoy my favorite besbarmak here, although unsurprisingly, the dish isn't as good as the ones we've had over the last few days. We also ordered some sausages, sauteed vegetables, and a tomato-based soup with meat that is reminiscent of Hungarian goulash.

After checking-in and dumping our luggage, there was still plenty of time to kill. I stroll into Caviar Palace, the shop specializing in exporting caviar. The export of caviar from Kazakhstan seemed to be controlled, and the customs officials actually asked me whether I was bringing any honey or caviar out of the country. I wasn't thinking about it, but now that there is a shop here selling the stuff, I decided to go and take a look.

Kazakhstan is one of 5 countries bordering the Caspian Sea and therefore a significant producer of caviar from sturgeon. The shop was selling beluga and sevruga in jars and tins of various sizes. While I am not up to date on my caviar pricing, I had a hunch that what they were asking for was reasonable. Effectively beluga would cost around USD 200 per 100g, and sevruga would be around USD 150 for the same weight. After thinking a little I whipped out my credit card and spent about USD 1,000 on caviar. I figured that I could do a lot worse back in Asia or elsewhere.

I have a window seat in cattle class, and I'm not seated next to anyone with smelly feet. Hurray! Time to say Adios! to Central Asia, and get some precious sleep on the flight back to Seoul...

Silk Road III Day 11: Charyn Canyon

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Another early morning. Today's destination is Charyn Canyon, east of Almaty and about 3-4 hours by car. Having showered the night before, I get up to wash my hair. No hot water. @#$%&*!! This is a hotel that charges USD 200 a night, and NO HOT WATER?! The last time I stayed in a hotel without hot water, I was on a remote island in Indonesia and I paid USD 20! It's a good thing we argued with the travel agent, and made him swallow the USD 140 difference he wanted to charge us for booking the stupid Hotel Eurasia (instead of Kazzhol Hotel as we originally wanted).

We set off on the road. Almaty is actually quite a beautiful city. As we first leave the city limits, the view back towards the city was pretty stunning. You have green fields (or yellow wheat fields) in the foreground, and luscious, rolling green hills beyond, and finally you see tall, snow-capped jagged peaks in the background. With the Alatau Mountains - part of the Central Tian Shan Mountains - south of the city, you can see snow on some of the peaks even in the summer.

After about 3 hours, we reach the access checkpoint. The driver gets out and greets the guard, who sits inside a standard cargo container that is now his post. From here on it's gravelly terrain, and we crawl at the pace of 20km/h for another half-hour. We finally reach the edge of the canyon.

It's a very pretty sight. No, it does not compare to the Grand Canyon. But it doesn't matter, it's still pretty enough. After snapping a few shots on the edges, we carefully descend down to the canyon floor, and begin our long walk northeast. In this direction, we are actually descending in terms of altitude, and this makes the walk a bit easier.

I constantly pause and snap pictures in all directions, loving the bright, royal blue sky that contrasts so well with the red rocks. For the most part, the sky was pure blue - no clouds at all in the sky. This section is aptly named the Valley of Castles, as there are indeed a number of formations which resemble remnants of castles built on ledges.

After a while we reached the end of our trek and come to the present Charyn River. Since I was wearing my swimming trunks, I was determined to dip into the river for a bit of refreshment. As I was just getting my feet wet, I realized that the water of the river was actually freezing cold! I couldn't stand having my toes in the water for more than 30 seconds, and quickly step back out onto the banks. After a bit more thought, I decided to step back into the river, eventually wading so that the water was halfway up my thigh and just getting the bottom of my trunks wet. I discovered that I could dig my toes into the warm sand at the bottom of the river. This was actually very nice, and I was able to treat my feet (and toes) to a nice sauna session. The water was flowing along the river at a very fast pace, and judging by the temperature, this must be the melted snow that has come down from the peaks of the Alatau Mountains.

Now for the tough task of walking back (and climbing up)! We actually trek back past our original point of descent, so that we reach a path up the cliff with railings that we can grab onto while climbing. By the time we reached our van - and totally out of breath at this point - we had ascended around 250m in altitude starting from the banks of the Charyn River.

We stop at the Chilik village for lunch. We down bottles of Russian and Kazakh beer for refreshment, and chow on laghman that is Uygur-style and very similar to the ones I have had in Xinjiang. Keeping in mind that the Charyn Canyon is less than 100km from the border with China, this would seem to make sense. The noodles here are handmade (拉麵) and chewy, while chilli powder has been added to the topping to make it spicy. We also enjoy mutton and onion served on a hot plate, again with chilli powder sprinkled on top.

We return to the hotel late in the afternoon. After a brief rest, we decide to venture out and see the city. At the suggestion of Lonely Planet as well as the Air Astana inflight magazine, we head to Coffeedelia on Qabanbay Batyr (intersection with Furmanov). This is clearly THE place to come for coffee in Almaty - a trendy setting with a large outdoor section where youngsters come to see and be seen. We found a staff who spoke pretty good English and helped us with our order, and the desserts here are definitely delish. I had an excellent key lime pie. However, we never hooked up to the free WiFi connection that was mentioned in guidebooks.

Enough of looking at cute girls and passersby. It was time for dinner. We head to Zheti Qazyna, another venue mentioned in LP. This was a very impressive establishment. In fact it is three separate restaurants - with a European fine dining section (plush velvet chairs and all), a Chinese-Japanese section in an open courtyard, and a section for Central Asian cuisine. You can order items from all three parts and mix it up.

Determined to give wine another try, I order another bottle of Georgian red. This time I asked the waiter to show me a bottle that is fermented dry, and we chose a bottle of 2004 Teliani Valley Teliani. This is actually 100% Cabernet Sauvignon, and even though the wine is a bit on the young side, it was a reasonable bottle of wine that was accepted by international palates like ours. And the price of USD 70 seemed a bit more reasonable.

Speaking of wine, the restaurant actually had a pretty impressive wine list. Aside from the usual suspects of Champagne, Bordeaux, Opus One...etc, I saw several vintages of Sassicaia as well as some Brunellos and Barolos. The two most expensive listings were the 1988 Petrus and the 1994 Petrus, with the latter going for USD 6,000. Given the London bonded broking price of GBP 650 per bottle, I thought that the restaurant price was quite reasonable given its rather remote location. The price of the '88 was an even more reasonable USD 4,000 or so, given that it costs GBP 700+ lying in bond.

We order up a storm here. A plate of mixed meats serves us beef, horse meat, horse meat sausage and mutton. Bowls of beef brisket in clear broth with noodles - Chinese 清湯牛腩麵 with dill sprinkled on top? Pretty yummy. A bowl of beef ravioli/dumplings in tomato-based soup was also popular. Then we had the most delicious besbarmak, and two orders of very, very yummy lamb chops grilled with spices and garlic. Wow!

I was determined to buy some CDs of local musicians on our last night in Almaty, so we walk through the Zhibek Zholy pedestrian street and find ourselves in Meloman - a bookstore/cafe/CD/movies/electronics boutique. I found a couple of CDs from Dilnaz Akhmadiyeva, a pretty and famous female singer profiled in the Air Astana inflight magazine. I also pick up a couple of other gems, and I am satisfied.

We hop into a taxi and head back to the hotel to crash. Still having problems with hot water. And the bathroom stinks of you-know-what. Four-star hotel my ass...

Silk Road III Day 10: Arrival in Almaty

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Early morning departure to Shimkent airport for our flight to Almaty on Air Astana. As expected, we arrive at the airport waaaay too early, and with check-in pretty much a snap, we found ourselves to plenty of time to kill. I sat at the "Beer Port" and ordered up a cup of Lavazza coffee - USD 4, pretty fancy for a dinky airport - and a couple of piroshkis.

Upon arrival at Almaty airport - where we finally got off the plane using an air bridge - we were picked up by the guide and driver. Our guide Baghdad (yes that is his name) is a 60 something gentleman. Not quite what we expected, but according to him there aren't many young people who like the tourism business.

As it was too early to check into our hotel, we started with a bit of sightseeing. As we drove through the streets of Almaty, it was easy to see that people in this town were very well-off. Instead of the Russian Ladas and Daewoos we saw in Uzbekistan, the streets were overrun with Mercedes, BMWs, Lexus, Toyotas...although curiously, most people don't seem to keep their cars clean regardless of how fancy they are.

We started with the Museum of Kazakh Musical Instruments, an interesting wooden building housing - what else - lots of musical instruments. We quickly enter Panfilov Park, named after the 28 heroes led by General Panfilov who defended a village outside Moscow with grenades during WWII. The park is dominated by a large memorial and - you guessed it - an eternal flame. I snap some pictures, and move towards the Zenkov Cathedral. This is a very pretty Russian Orthodox cathedral, built entirely of wood and held together with wooden nails. There are many beautiful icons inside, and not surprisingly, very very bling. Baghdad, who is Muslim, does not join us inside.

Finally it is time to check into the Hotel Eurasia, located in a very plain building and looks more like a hotel-in-a-shopping center than vice versa. The lobby was filled with Indian merchants, and we were totally disappointed when we entered our rooms. The room decor was bland, but everything was cheap Chinese furniture, including the entire bathroom (there was only a shower stall, no tub). Nothing about this hotel room can justify its price tag of over USD 200 a night.

We are hungry, so we head to Sherbet, a fancy restaurant just around the corner from the hotel. This turns out to be a great choice. We sat in a booth and started to order up some delicious local dishes. Yes, we ordered up the usual selection of salads (including a delicious dish of fried cauliflower and mushrooms), and of course there was the obligatory beer. But we're in Almaty, so of course one should order up freshly blended apple juice. They were pretty delicious green apples, but at USD 8 a glass it's pretty much 5-star hotel pricing!

For main course we had three very traditional Kazakh plates. First there was kuurdak - a stew of beef, liver and other offal, potato and onions. This was actually pretty good. Then there was the national dish of besmarmak, which was by far my favorite. Chunks of mutton, beef, horsemeat, karta (horsemeat sausage) and onions on top of flat squares of pasta that resemble papardelle, all served with meat broth. It would be a dish that I relish for the next few days. Finally, we have the Kazakh version of plov, again served with karta and mutton. It was all pretty delicious, and this definitely is a place that is worth going back to.

To get the full view of Almaty, we rode the Kok-Tobe cable car up to the top of the hill. In addition to the nice view of the city as well as all the hillside villas, there is also a park with a small zoo. We take a stroll around, and ride the minibus back down the hill instead of paying another USD 7 for the cable car. Almaty rests against the mountains, and the city is built on sloped terrain where the southern side of town can be as much as 300m higher in altitude than the north.

After resting a bit at the hotel, we take a stroll around the hotel in search of a Russian restaurant. When the tip from our hotel front desk didn't work, we walk past the Presidential Palace, the Respublika Alanghy and find ourselves at the InterContinental Hotel. After determining that they didn't have a local or Russian restaurant within the hotel, we received kind assistance from the concierge and got ourselves a map as well as the name of a Russian fine dining establishment.

The restaurant was a few blocks away, but as it was nice and cool, I didn't mind walking before dinner. We finally did manage to find Borodino on Shevchenko Street, one of the streets with street cars. The decor looked nice from the outside so we had no hesitation in going in. We were seated in the bar section, since the restaurant section did not look open this evening.

I must say I did a rather poor job of ordering. In addition to a bit of salad and a platter of mixed meats, the only good dish I ordered was a bowl of mutton and pork ravioli. The herring, beet and cucumber salad was not to everyone's liking. And the two orders of rack of lamb were both done normal Western-style, with rosemary and all. Pretty lame. I knew I should have ordered the chicken Kiev and the beef Stroganoff...

The worst thing is that for a Russian restaurant, they didn't even have any Russian beer! We ended up with Belgian beer instead, and ordered a bottle of red wine from Georgia. Not knowing anything about Georgian wine - and unable to read and understand the wine list anyway - I ended up with a bottle of 2005 Marani red that was semi-sweet. Not exactly to our liking, and we struggled to finish the bottle only because it cost USD 80.

We leave the restaurant and try to get taxi back to the hotel. While we waited, I took a look at the cars parked in front of restaurant. Nothing but S-Class Mercedes, Lexus and Mercedes SUVs. Across the street, I see a stylish sports car but don't recognize the shape. It's certainly not a Porsche, Ferrari or Maserati. What could it be? Then I recognized the racing decal on the side of the car and read the lettering: Ford GT. I am impressed. For a car with such a small production, someone must have paid pretty big bucks to get one imported into the middle of nowhere...

We quickly discover that anyone with a car in Almaty could be a taxi driver. We flag one down and negotiate a fare back to the hotel. Very tired...