Great success!

From: Almaty, Kazakhstan

Jag semes from Almaty, industrial powerhouse of Central Asia and home of Borat Sagdiev.

My trip has gotten off to a great start so far. I'm a big fan of Almaty, more impressed with the city than I thought I would be. The people are friendly and interesting-looking, with a lot of ethnic diversity: plenty Kazakhs and Russians, a bunch of Koreans and Uzbeks, and at least one Canadian.

I'd read about the recent growth in Almaty, but what I've seen here has surprised me. New housing developments are going up all over, prices are on par with the US in most places, supermarkets stock a full range of Western products, and the streets are jammed with luxury cars.

The pace of progress is also reflected in Almaty's blend of architectural styles. I've seen a lot of imposing late-Soviet buildings and sculpture -- some of them quite impressive, like this monument to WW2 heroes:





There are also plenty shiny, modern-looking buildings funded by the country's new prosperity. I've seen a few big commercial developments in the city that look like something out of Miami or San Francisco. But there are some weird buildings too, such as the miniature Eiffel Tower inexplicably placed in front of an apartment building:




What else? Well, the whole everyone-speaking-Russian-and-not-English thing has been tricky. Not that I wasn't forewarned: a few of you definitely told me to learn some Russian before I left. I just never got around to it. As a result, my current communication involves about 90% wild gesturing and 10% English and Russian. I'm trying to get the gesturing down to 80% by the end of next week. My dormmate, a Kazakh IT student, has kindly taught me a few useful phrases: ("I speak Russian badly," "I am from Canada," "the new Microsoft Windows has many errors"). Good stuff.

I met with Mohirbek, the husband of a friend of mine, for drinks a couple of days ago. We took the Kök-Töbe cablecar to the top of a mountain near Almaty. There's a restaurant and a couple of bars at the top, all with fantastic views of the city and the surrounding mountains:




Yesterday, I hung out with Timur, a friend from Boston and Almaty native. We took a taxi up to Chimbalak, a big ski resort high in the mountains behind the city. There's no snow in the summer but it's great for hiking. We took a couple of chairlifts halfway up, then trekked to the ridge at the very top. It was a tough climb, but I blame the thin air rather than my being out of shape. Definitely worth the effort, though:








We were starving after the climb back down and ate some shashlyk (a delicious Kazakh specialty consisting of mutton or pork brochettes). We also had a little horsemeat to round out the meal. It actually tasted a lot like roast beef -- nice! We headed back down the mountain to Medeu, the world's highest skating rink and former training grounds of the Soviet speed-skating team. Nowadays it's used primarily as a courtship venue for the under-18 set.



Apart from seeing the sights, I've spent a lot of time collecting visas. I've done it three places and it's the same process each time, run by officials who are as hilariously grumpy as they are irritatingly inefficient. Getting a visa involves: trekking to a well-camouflaged embassy, waiting outside a big metal door for an hour until a guard barks at you to come in, standing in front of a smudged window until an agent yells at you, passing over 'dokuments,' paying more USD than seems reasonable, collecting your passport, then leaving before someone yells at you more.

The only visa I'm still waiting on is the one for Tajikistan. The Tajik consulate looked like trouble from the start. When I showed up, a group of men was finishing an extension of the main building -- hammering pieces of metal, mixing cement and sawing bits of wood. The consul himself was in the middle of doing some roofing work. Hey, nothing wrong with a little ambassadorial DIY, but I suspect that it's taken priority over my visa application. I probably should have offered to mix cement or something to speed things along.

Once I get my visa, I'll head south to Kyrgyzstan, crossing over the Zailisky Alatau mountains. I'll be traveling through rural parts of Kyrgyzstan (sleeping in yurts and whatnot) for 4-5 days before arriving at the next big city. Will write more then!