Almaty stopover

The view of the majestic and snow capped Tien Shan mountains as we rolled into Almaty was enough to give me pause. I was alternately standing in the corridor looking out at the town, and sitting in my bunk looking out the window on that side of the train, feeling the butterflies in my stomach that seem always to come with arrival at a new unknown place.  But the mountains made me forget for a moment.  They are mostly in Tajikistan, but that isn't far from where I am right now.  In fact, if my train from here were not a night train, I would be able to watch the mountains in the south for some time.  Instead I will be sleeping on yet another train.  You will be happy to hear that I got a shower today.  I was getting pretty grimy, there is only so much you can do in the nasty train bathrooms, because you don't actually want to touch any surfaces, and the train sways and jolts indiscriminately.  In theory I could have just stashed my bag at the Left Luggage at the train station for the day, but I wanted a shower in the worst way, and I also wanted to do some laundry.

So first things first, I found a hotel that agreed to charge me for a 12 hour day (I have to check out at 9 pm), took a shower and washed a few things in the sink.  Then I used the hair dryer in the bathroom to jumpstart the drying process before I went out exploring. Technically this is just a transit point for me, but of course I wanted to explore.

I finally got some Tenge, the Kazak currency.  The current exchange rate is 181 Tenge: $1, so you get money in the thousands of Tenges. I did not have any on the train, so was a bit restrained about buying at stops, both unsure if they would take rubles, and uncertain what the exchange rate should be if they did.  At one place we stopped I bought some sort of dumpling, and I think I paid too much, but it equated to about $2.50, so it was a worthwhile gamble.

I wondered as I walked back to the hotel as people were headed home from work, if they know that there are very few cities in the world where one can just go out on the side of the street and stand there, and endless cars will pull over as potential taxis.  For whatever reason, this is common here.  Every car is a taxi, for the right price, and if you are both going the same way.  Imagine trying that in, well, any city in the US.

I stopped off at a mosque, but it was prayer time, so I did not go in. There was an old woman in a shawl and scarf outside the mosque, sitting beside an old wooden two-wheeled cart, selling various and sundry items.  I saw something I wanted to buy, and of course could not tell what price she was quoting, so I asked her to write it down (charades again).  We managed to negotiate a bit, and both ended up happy.  I'm pretty sure I paid too much, but it was 500 Tenge ($2.86 or so).  I can live with that.

I wandered down a pedestrian shopping street, took a detour and ended up in a funky sort of indoor market, from baked goods to furniture.  I happened to run into Ms. Accountant and Ms. Law student as I was wandering today too, which is pretty surprising since it was not in a tourist area, and the city is not that small.  They waved me in to the restaurant they were eating at, but of course after a couple of minutes we ran out of things that our language limitations would encompass, so I moved on. They are both quite excited to be here, it is their first visit to Almaty, and they think it's a wonderful place.  My first impressions are of a utilitarian/college town, but that's from 8 hours worth of time-talk about snap judgments.

There is a significant Korean population here, and a lot of Korean restaurants too.  My understanding is that this is the result of a forced emigration by the Soviets at some point in time.  I read something about it, but have already forgotten, and that book has been jettisoned already.

One of the specialties here is horse meat, cooked various ways.  I would say I haven't had any, but I have no idea what I am eating most meals.  And as they say, when in Rome. . .

Some packing/organizing and planning now, some more blow-drying to do, and then I will check out and find some dinner to while away a couple of hours.  Tomorrow around 10:00 am I should be in Urumqi, China.  Another interesting border crossing in the middle of the night.