Between Karaganda and Balkhash I have spent about a month in Kazakhstan now, and I’ll be heading out for Nepal tonight. But before I do that—and because I have seven hours to kill at the airport—I’d like to recap some of my recent experiences in this country. The following is not a chronological recap in any way whatsoever, although everything in Almaty of course came at the end.
It would be impossible to talk about my time in Balkhash without talking about my wonderful hosts Victor and Elena. Both of these people were incredibly welcoming, and they transformed the rather desolate Balkhash into an experience worth remembering. The best highlight for me was making Laghman as a family with their friend Sergei. I’ll definitely be bringing this dish home! It’s essentially stir-fried meat with vegetables and noodles. Nothing fancy, but a quintessential Central Asian recipe. I was told it’s actually Uyghur. The meat we used was horse.
Laghman can also be prepared as a soup, which I prefer. And aпокаfter making this dish I was put to the task of grinding meat, which was… a new experience? Was kind of fun when I got over the ick factor. A good workout cranking the manual grinder. Gave me a new perspective on chicken nuggets and other products made from ground beef or chicken.
Overall I am incredibly thankful for my hosts. They were truly wonderful and I felt taken care of every step of the way. They made me meals, they helped me figure out the practicalities of life in Kazakhstan, and they taught me a lot about Kazakh and Russian culture. пока пока 🙂
And a discussion about my time in Balkhash would not be complete without talking about some of the other friends I made along the way. One teacher, Anna, took me and one of her friends out for a walk and dinner last week, and that was great fun. We went to a little café and they had me try the quesadilla, which they pronounced more gringo than I ever could (hard L). The quesadillas were profoundly not Mexican, but I did find it hilarious they made it this far around the world, even if in a rather bastardized form.
Not much else to talk about in Balkhash. The city is, as I have reiterated multiple times, terribly empty. Calling it a city is even a bit of a stretch. But my time here was good! I enjoyed the people and the cultural experiences I was invited to like family meals and traditional restaurant dinners. I spent a lot of time alone playing guitar and completing my law school applications. Now just twiddling my thumbs waiting for those.
Apple Picking Season in Almaty
But my final two days in Almaty really put the cherry on top. Remember my friends in Karaganda, Denis and Nadya? Denis was actually able to connect me with a friend of his in Almaty, Maria, and her, her son, and their friend’s son spent two days showing me around. It was wonderful! The experience here was so much better with local guides. This volunteer traveling is definitely my preferred way to travel now—it allows you to integrate into a culture to a degree which would be otherwise impossible.
The beauty of Almaty is in its nature. Almaty is nestled in the Trans-Ili Alatau mountain range, which is itself part of the sprawling Tian Shan system which extends over parts of China, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, and others. And the mountain views from the city are incredible! The peaks are ~4,000 meters at their tallest, and the city itself is at an altitude of a little less than 1,000 meters. Unfortunately the photos I got from the city are terrible and not at all indicative of how the mountains actually looked, so I chose not to include them. But don’t worry, there are mountain pictures to come.
Out first day in Almaty consisted of a long walk down one of the ‘rivers’ (more a creek really) running through the city. It’s sort of like a long, vertical park. I really enjoyed this place—walking around felt like being home in New England. I’ve missed the fall colors for a long time now, and when I eventually come home I would like to live somewhere like where I grew up. In my first ever post I talked about what it means to have a home, and I believe being around the woods is a big part of it for me.
Anyways, my romantic yearnings for New England aside, the rest of our walk consisted of some of the popular tourist squares in Almaty and some dinner at a pizza place. I was skeptical of the pizza, because all the pizza I have had here has sucked. But the pizza we got in Almaty was good, proper pizza. The international influences in the city probably help things like that. It seems most pizza places here have not figured out that pizza dough is supposed to be cooked. Not soft bread. Imagine eating pizza on flabby bread. It has been terrible. But what do I know, cultural relativity and all that.
One of the highlights in our first day in Almaty was the large Orthodox Church. This was my first Orthodox Church, and I loved the colors! The architecture of this church versus various Catholic churches I have seen in my life was vastly different. Check it out:
The interior was unexpected too. It’s almost kind of gaudy? Maybe I am just a heretic though. They were doing a service when I was there, and it felt a lot different from the Catholic services I have been exposed to. More, I don’t know, kind of serious? Hard to say. The choir was beautiful too.
But the real joy of this trip was in the mountains I got to visit on day two. I went with my lovely guide Maria and her family friend’s son Alexander. We went for a little hike up to some viewing area and had a nice döner lunch before heading back down and dropping me off at the hostel.
Side note: döner is actually very popular in Kazakhstan. Not sure if this has to do with the fact that Kazakh people are ethnically related to the Turkic people, or if it is just some random coincidence. But man, they really love this stuff. It’s probably the most popular fast food in the country.
Anyways, enjoy some pictures from the mountains, and stay tuned for my first updates in Nepal.
