Almaty

We're in Kazakhstan! Most of our travels so far have been *relatively* easy, but we're about to turn it up a notch. We’ve done some reading, but we don't really know much about Kazakhstan beyond what Dan learned from the cultural touchstone Borat, so it's exciting to smash those preconceptions. And the good news is: Kazakhstan it's nice, I like.

Almaty is, apparently, the most European-style city in all of central Asia, so it means we are starting in the shallow end. Almaty DOES feel like a European city, although maybe that says more about how long we've been out of Europe than it does about Almaty. It has wide tree-lined avenues, large parks, statues, historic building façades, and shopping malls full of western brands. There is a good range of international food, and we were impressed by how many hospo staff speak decent English. They have quite a lot of British, Irish and Scottish themed pubs, for some reason. Chelsea was in rapture when we found a local chain of brunch restaurants serving halloumi, croissants, shakshuka, and eggs benedict. We know this absolutely won't last once we leave the city, so are making the most of it while we can (we already had a foreshadowing of what's to come at the Green Bazaar, where horse and goat meat predominates, and they keep unwanted horse ribs in old shopping trolleys when they run out of storage 😳). Despite such vibey establishments, there still aren't many people around, though perhaps we’ve become inured to the crowds of East Asia. Dan described it as 'wide, empty Prague', which feels apt.

Another way in which Almaty diverges from its European front is the scale of ethnic diversity. It was an ancient Silk Road city, acting as a melting pot between East and West since the Mongol Empire (Dan is reading the travels of Marco Polo for background research). There are white Russians and eastern Europeans, central Asians, South Asian Muslims and Sikhs, Poles, Volga Germans, Uyghurs, and a surprisingly large contingent of Koreans. Some of these populations have been here for hundreds of years through regular migration, and some were forcibly transported to Kazakhstan during the Soviet era. You wouldn't know this from the Central State Museum, of course, which suggests that Kazakhstan went from a glorious period as world-conquering warriors of the Mongol golden horde, straight to a multi-ethnic paradise and space race leader, with nothing in between. They also record slightly different dates for the two World Wars. Hmmm.

A side note on the weather: at this time of year, southern Kazakhstan has great weather (hot and dry during the day, cool at night). We are SO relieved. After months of sweating and avoiding the sunlight, we have finally turned the corner and left the humidity of the Pacific summer behind. Dan bought a jumper and we both picked up new trousers in Almaty in case we get cold in the evening: unthinkable between January and August! The sunscreen stays on all day! We can wear layers again! It goes to show how far our frame of reference has shifted this year, that we're now talking about Almaty in Kazakhstan as an oasis of relaxation and comfort.

Never fear though: the comfort is short-lived. The most obvious way Almaty reminds you that you're still in a crazy country is the driving. After a hiatus in East Asia where the driving was generally tolerable, we're back in Mad Max territory. Taxis with cracked windscreens and no seat belts, clapped-out Soviet-era jalopies, vans with a 10% suspension lean, cars with huge metal poles strapped to the roof taking corners like it’s the Indy 500. At least in Southeast Asia, the roads were bad quality and crowded, so the scary driving happened at low speed. Here, as Chelsea commented, the road quality is quite good, so they just drive straight at each other at 100km/h. This was all typified by our Yandex taxi driver, who blithely swerved her busted green Toyota Yaris across three lanes of traffic while singing along to 'Sorry Seems To Be The Hardest Word' (the Blue cover version). A very apt song for an unapologetic nation.

We're now leaving Almaty and heading into the backwoods for a 9-day roadtrip. Wish us luck!Baca lagi