Almaty
It's a gorgeous Almaty morning - sun shining on the snow capped peaks to the south (visible through our hotel window), thumping Russian techno on the music channel I'm watching. Yet, I have a problem. "Cavity mate," and no uncle Les to fix it... well, I go and find the next best thing - a dentist named Timur. He's actually got sterilized equipment, knows what he's doing and complains about eastern european dental technology upon spotting my nasty Polish fillings. 20 minutes, 20 dollars and it's done.
Almaty is happenning. There's a Krishna restaurant - the poshest Krishna restaurant I've ever been to. There are also ATMs (with money) and Burger King. Yet it's hot, the streets are congested, and there aren't enough trees. We fail to meet any people aside from a guy who claims that the police robbed him of all his money. In the end we go to a park and do the Russian thing - beer from the Kiosk.
The following day, a trip to the mountains. From the outset it's a disaster, as we find that the street which the Lousy Planet lists as the place to take the bus is one way. The wrong way. We find the bus eventually and get off at the roundabout to take the second bus, up to the mountain. 2 of the 3 busses listed in the book don't exist. The third has stopped running. A friendly Russian babushka tells us which marshrutka to take.
We get to the gate of the national park, and don't get charged as the dude in the booth thinks we're resident Russians. We pass a column of soldiers and follow the road up a valley when it starts to rain. By some miracle, a 4WD with three lovely Russian dziewuszkas pulls over and they give us a lift to the start of the trail.
Well, it's not really a trail - it's a huge pipe, bringing water from the lake down to the hydroelectric plant below. A few kilometres walking on the pipe and we're at the Bolshoye Almatinskoye Ozero. Lovely green colour, stunning 3000m-ish mountains around it. But not much water for a Bolshoye Ozero. We think about going up to the Astronomical Observatory to look at huge rusted Soviet telescopes, but the not so delicate sound of thunder persuades us to do otherwise. Good move - within 2 minutes we are soaked, sheltering under a huge boulder.
Going down is harder than going up. At the bottom of the trail we meet the dziewuszki. They washed the car and did nothing besides. We keep going down, and Ollie starts to feel ill. No fermented camel milk. We're about to start trying to hitch in desperation, when the dziewuszki rock up to save us once again. The owner of the car lives close to the Autovokzal, so we end up getting a lift straight to our door. Not a bad arrangement.
Almaty is happenning. There's a Krishna restaurant - the poshest Krishna restaurant I've ever been to. There are also ATMs (with money) and Burger King. Yet it's hot, the streets are congested, and there aren't enough trees. We fail to meet any people aside from a guy who claims that the police robbed him of all his money. In the end we go to a park and do the Russian thing - beer from the Kiosk.
The following day, a trip to the mountains. From the outset it's a disaster, as we find that the street which the Lousy Planet lists as the place to take the bus is one way. The wrong way. We find the bus eventually and get off at the roundabout to take the second bus, up to the mountain. 2 of the 3 busses listed in the book don't exist. The third has stopped running. A friendly Russian babushka tells us which marshrutka to take.
We get to the gate of the national park, and don't get charged as the dude in the booth thinks we're resident Russians. We pass a column of soldiers and follow the road up a valley when it starts to rain. By some miracle, a 4WD with three lovely Russian dziewuszkas pulls over and they give us a lift to the start of the trail.
Well, it's not really a trail - it's a huge pipe, bringing water from the lake down to the hydroelectric plant below. A few kilometres walking on the pipe and we're at the Bolshoye Almatinskoye Ozero. Lovely green colour, stunning 3000m-ish mountains around it. But not much water for a Bolshoye Ozero. We think about going up to the Astronomical Observatory to look at huge rusted Soviet telescopes, but the not so delicate sound of thunder persuades us to do otherwise. Good move - within 2 minutes we are soaked, sheltering under a huge boulder.
Going down is harder than going up. At the bottom of the trail we meet the dziewuszki. They washed the car and did nothing besides. We keep going down, and Ollie starts to feel ill. No fermented camel milk. We're about to start trying to hitch in desperation, when the dziewuszki rock up to save us once again. The owner of the car lives close to the Autovokzal, so we end up getting a lift straight to our door. Not a bad arrangement.
posted by nekonote1903 at 2:47 pm
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