Almaty Unlimited

Oct. 26, 2023- Almaty Unlimited It’s a good thing I read the sign over the toilet this morning. It said to run the water in the shower five minutes if you wanted it to be hot. There isn’t a corner of Almaty we haven’t seen. If there is, it’s unremarkable.. Svetlana had much to say in ther fast, heavily accented English as we went from museum to monument to museum. If possible local architects were sure to limit access by using marble steps, and no handrails. We passed our members hand to hand and didn’t lose a one to a fall. I did Almaty injustice yesterday. There are some lovely modern districts where people live who shop in the Max Mara and Fendi stores. How did they make their millions? Oil and gas. It was easier than raiding the Golden Room at the first museum. Nomadic tribes of 1,000 BCE were well acquainted with crafting gold. Discoveries of their work have been unearthed to reveal art featuring animalistic depictions. Of course, there’s an Independence Square and monuments and memorials to WWII. It was refreshing to walk through pine laced paths and smell their freshness instead of the fumes of Uzbekistan. At the end of one pine alley was a wooden Russian Orthodox Church that survived the earthquake (about 9.0) of 1911. It was a pleasure seeing its multi-colored and gilt interior after all those blue and turquoise mosques and madrassahs. The ethnographic museum of musical instruments was so overly heated that I chose to sit outside. I was rewarded with a concert of Kazak music blasting from a souvenir shop. I had private time and got to wiggle my toes to the beat. We rode a gondola up the mountain for photo ops. It was quite the challenge maneuvering our group onto and off the moving car, but we managed. I took off on my own to explore the amusement park and scope out new vistas. There was supposed to be a zoo there, but I missed it. There was a sculpture of the Beatles where people were lined up for selfies. Evidently, they were so popular here, they were immortalized. The visit to a chocolate factory was a let down. There were no tours of the factory and no free samples. Yura eased my disappointment by buying a large candy bar and handing out tastes. Nothing remarkable. Another bazaar just down the block was in our future. The Green Bazaar was small by usual standards and a convenient place to buy our bananas. David asked for and paid for 4, but when he handed the man the money, instead of change, we got a 5th banana. At lunch, David asked Svetlana about the Jewish community. There is a Sephardic synagogue with a rabbi in Almaty as well as in the capital, Astana. She has several Jewish friends many of whom live in Israel. She’s in almost daily contact with them and has visited Israel and the W. Bank three times. For those who complained that portions were too large, they should be relieved. Meals sizes have dramatically shrunk. Today’s lunch was potatoes and mushrooms. I ate David’s mushrooms and he ate my potatoes. We were both satisfied. Dinner was interesting. The main was brisket Stroganoff with mashed potatoes. I scraped the white stuff off the meat and left the tasteless potatoes. I’m not a fan of Kazakhstan food if that’s what we’ve been eating. The best part was when a professional Kazack band played for us. The four perform internationally including Carnegie Hall. The leader was a hoot. He involved us by playing guessing games and paid off in chocolate. As if that wasn’t enough, the servers did a folk dance to “wake up the customers.” Very festive and unexpected. It certainly made up for the food. We’ve been in Central Asia long enough for Facebook to think we want to see posts in Russian. Nope. Tomorrow we have a long ride to the border of Kyrgyzstan where we will hopefully cross without incident. Toby