22/11
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| View of Almaty |
Today after acquiring our Chinese visa from our lady Miss
Liu we had organised to travel from Bishkek to Almaty. With prior planning we
had managed to pay for the one car to
take us door to door; which is quite a treat in Central Asia. With no hiccups
at the border, largely thanks again to the touch ball in our hand we soon
arrived in Almaty. As we hit the outskirts though the taxi driver tried to
extort us albeit not very hard and got us to 145 Kurmagazy st. Using the broken
English directions from the hostel we had a bit of trouble finding the place
but after placing a call to the owner we were met by a maintenance dude who
took us upstairs and settled us in. It was a funny place but awesomely comfy. After only a
short travel day we had energy to burn to we headed our- first in search of
food then a party. With pizza in our bellies we headed to a small beer bar
called Shtabe which is somewhat of an Almaty institution. A night that was to consist of a couple of
beers soon turned into buying our own bottle of vodka, shotting that til it was
done and then making friend with some 50 yo Kazakh dudes who kept the vodka
coming. 3 bottles of vodka between us and
we were ready to make friends in the form of a Canadian couple who were also
keen for a drink. Inviting them to our table we soon realised they too were
staying at apple hostel which excited us; this meant we were assured of getting
home. Seeing that we were beaten by the 50yo Kazakhs in our game of vodka
consumption they offered to take us home. Somehow arriving home at the hostel
Harro then proceeded to get in a verbal with a fellow dorm resident over our
beds. At that time, we knew it was time to shut up and sleep.
23/11
Naturally, we woke up with a super hangover. We struggle to
move but eventually get out of bed and head to the common room where the
Canadians and other residents of the hostel were already having breakfast.
Moving slowly from bed directly to foetal position on the couch, they begin to
tell us what exactly happened the night before. According to them, after
leaving the bar we were asked by police for our passports to which we didn’t
reply but instead just kept walking then through the local park, Tristan and I
had a full on snowfight. After surviving the snowfight I then decided it would
be fun to slide down the apartment building driveway face first. With these
stories, our fellow dorm resident with which we had an argument with the night
before introduced himself- Andrej the Macedonian-Australian travelling with two
Dutch girls, Viola (his girlfriend and Tessa, her bff. We soon apologised for
our behaviour but he soon said everything was cool simply because he
appreciated our efforts to make a party. As we tried to focus with a coffee in
hand the first item on our agenda would be to register. So after getting
cleaned, as a group of 5 we headed off to get registered. With no worries at
registration we took the trio to the travel agent to get tickets for the
almaty-urumqi train. Then after hearing good things about the Almaty Opera
House we headed there to see if anything on the program enticed us. After being
told that the season for both ballet and opera had finished we were left trying
to find a party. And with experience in partying we guided our new friends to
Shtab. A bottle of vodka there and we were onto the next place. Bar Chukotka
was the establishment we found. Another bottle of vodka there and after being
accosted by a Kazakh girl, Julia (a girl that became affectionately known as
borderline girl) we decided to try somewhere else. Nowhere else going so we
were taken back to Bar Chukotka for another bottle of vodka. After dancing with
a what can only be described as a diverse crowd to some shit music we were out
of there and heading home.
24/11
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| F. Batts Lord of the Ice |
Convinced by the girls to whip up a good brekkie, Andre was
over the stove by 10am cooking pancakes. After getting our fill of pancakes and
coffee we decided we would suss out the Medeu Ice Rink, the highest altitude
ice rink in the world located 30 minutes outside Almaty. A bus ride later we
were soon strapping on the skates and doing laps of the ice rink to a Rihanna
soundtrack. But an hour and a half of skating was more than enough so we
decided we would head back. On our walk home from the bus station we walked
back some huge computer gaming complex filled with Kazakhs. Seeing that this
was obvious what the Kazkah youth did on their weekend we decided to join them-
for a mini tournament of FIFA 2013. Then we started the walk home to start
demolishing the vegetable curry that the girls had been whipping up while we
were playing Fifa. After awesome dinner we played a bit of shithead before
hitting the sack.
.JPG) |
| Medeu Ice Rink |
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| being Australian OS makes you a celebrity |
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| Andrej being a nerd |
25/11
Zelyony Bazaar was our focus for today and it didn’t
disappoint. The 5 of us entered a huge hall of as much food as you could think
of ranging from fruit and veg, nuts and fruit, horse meat and lambs heads to
elderly Korean ladies selling Kimchi and countless other salads. After a quick
shashlyk we headed for coffee to warm us up. A quick coffee soon turned into a
couple of vodkas and an orange and mint flavoured shisha- a great way to bond
with our 3 new friends. With the girls leaving us with the shisha to go to the
Hamam we sat around and bonded further before it was time to head home. For me
and Harris this meant a quick detour to the supermarket as we agreed to return
last nights favour and cook a dinner for 5. After dinner, we sat down for a
movie. And as a film connoisseur Andrej suggested we should watch Oliver
Stone’s new film Savages. 5 minutes in we were all of the opinion that we were
in for 2 hours of shitness- and we were right! The shitness of savages became a
running joke for the next few days.
.JPG) |
| Bazaar |
26/11
With the train leaving at midnight tonight we were left to
kill a whole day. We agreed that a great way to kill a day would be to visit
the Kazakhstan National Musuem. And in Central Asian style, after being touted
the best museum in Central Asia, it was fairly average. 3 levels of average
museum induced hunger pain so we headed to our trusty option Kafanat. Then we
decided to roll home to pack our stuff, organise some dinner and relax before
our journey to the train station. This however emerged as Andrej’s chance to
redeem himself with some good movies. Red Dog was first up and then Hanna
followed. A good choice to start but a freaking amazing choice was second-
everyone go and watch Hanna! Soon enough though we were at the train station
and settling into our kupe’s. Quick chats were had before we all jumped into
our hard sleepers.
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| Off to our 31hour train to China |
27/11
We awoke and were ready to pass the time with more celebrity
heads, shithead and robust conversation. But as it turned early afternoon and
we approached the Kazakh-Chinese border we were disturbed by first immigration
police. It was here that we ran into problems. As the two of us handed our
passports over to policeman we were told that both our registration certificates
and customs forms lacked stamps which proved our registration. With Andrej
doing his best to translate the policemans Russian he soon gave up which left
the policeman searching the carriage for another English-Russian speaker. He
found a 30 yo Kazakh proficient in both and our lifesaver Mainur. As she kindly
explained the whole situation on the side of the policeman and then explained
our issues with this whole problem we were left to understand that the
policeman would call Almaty to check at the central office if we were
registered. If we weren’t we would have to pay $100 USD each but if we were we
would be free to go and get back on the train. Complicating the matter further
was that the 100 USD would have to be paid officially at the bank (unusual for
central asia) but the train was scheduled to stop at the Kazakh border town at
430; if it was late the bank would be closed which would leave us not able to
pay the money and hence stuck in Dostyk waiting for the next train to
Urumqi. So as we approached Dostyk we
agreed that we would do absolutely anything in our power to get back on this
train to Almaty today. With Mainur with us we conveyed this to her but as she
posed the possibility for a bribe to our policeman he informed us that the
chance of a bribe had passed and now this whole fine issue was completely above
board. This meant our only hope of getting back on the train was to go to the
bank now, change and withdraw our money and get ready to pay the fine and hope
that the Almaty office would call back to tell us we were registered. As Harris
waited in line to change money I headed to the ATM to withdraw money and as I
was standing at the ATM fighting through its obscure instructions Harro came in
to tell me that the office called to
tell the policeman we were registered. With this information the policeman
called the border police to tell them that our exit had been approved and then
gave Mainur his phone number to call if there were any problems. With his
assurances we headed back to the train station and waited for the train to come
back after changing its gauge. Passing the time we decided to buy a bottle of
vodka to celebrate the success in this ordeal and buy a box of chocolates for
Mainur to thank her for her help. As we jumped back on the train we cracked the
vodka and whipped open the post it notes to indulge in a multicultural game of
Celebrity Heads. Then as we successfully navigated the Kazakh border we were
onto the Chinese border. And as if the day couldn’t get any worse or more
stressful we were questioned and then searched by Chinese border officials
before they turned to the table where our Chinese Lonely Planet was sitting and
grabbed it- saying they had to take it. The dutchies Lonely Planet was also
taken. This is apparently because Taiwan is shown on the map as a different
country which China believes is it not. This latest event left us drained and
shattered- bed was our only respite.
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| Finlay, Andrej and Caity Pooz |
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| Tessa and us celebrating not having to pay $200 |
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