Ritz Carlton, Almaty, Kazakhstan

... Dana had millions of Marriot points on her credit card and so to get a bit of a rest and catch up she decided, with my enthusiastic agreement, to use some of those points on a twin room at the Ritz Carlton.

Not exactly the normal backpackers accommodation I've been staying at so far. I seem not to have taken much in the way of photos here because I normally only do so for outdoor scenery which is a shame. Absolute lap of luxury. Although what we must have looked like compare to their normal guest I can only wonder - suffice to say that as we were checking out, they were checking in the President of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. And his secret service were all over the place.

The room was excellent with two very comfy double beds. Two relaxing chairs and a view of the mountains bordering Kyrgyzstan from the 24th floor. Nothing was too much trouble and all the staff were so friendly and interested in us. Whether genuine or not it made a huge change to the attitude you get in hostels, which is fine, and friendly but not about service. Here it was all about service. I'm not too sure I'm happy about that from a political viewpoint but I can see that it could get addictive if you experienced it all the time. You get something delivered to your room then later you get someone asking you if the delivery was okay. And then someone asking you if the person asking about your delivery did his job well and so on ad infinitum. And there were endless gifts of little bits of food left for us.

In addition there were two restaurants. The first night we ate at the 30th floor restaurant. Dana had Malti and I had Beshbarmak which is a national dish with a little bit of horse. To me it tasted similar to beef but a little bit milder. Others say it is a bit gamey.

Had a bath in the enormo-bathroom. First bath in four months. So nice.

Second day I can't recall what we did. I do know that for two days from when we checked in to when we checked out I didn't venture outside. At all. They had a gym spa and sauna/steam room plus pool. Took advantage of the gym to have a half hour row. Hurt.

It's just occurred to me though that this is the only place that I didn't meet anyone to talk to who was also a fellow traveller. Not even a passing conversation. I think that is the hotel vibe compared to the hostel vibe. In the long term that would be a drawback but for a couple of days, not a problem.Читать далее