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Orthodoxic

To my usual good fortune, I met the sweetest Kazakhi guy on the bus from Ürümqi. Bolsyn is a uni student who lives in Astana, he has a huge knowledge of Kazakh culture and history, and he asked me if I would like him to show me around the city of Almaty, which he knows really well. What a guy.

I took the metro into town the next morning, as my hostel was over 10 clicks away from the centre, and I was late. My tardiness proved to be quite fortunate though, because while Bolsyn was waiting for me in the park by the Ascension Cathedral, he met Rohan, a wonderful young guy from Bangalore, who is here on vacation. Rohan and I ended up spending a few beautiful days together in and around Almaty.

I'm not in Russia, but the metro sorta feels like it.

Bolsyn and Rohan buddying up

The Ascension Cathedral is one of the few buildings which survived the devastating earthquake of 1911, which totally flattened most of this city. It's a magnificent Russian Orthodox masterpiece, built in 1907.

Tsarist Russia had taken control of most of Kazakhstan by the 1840s, and it automatically became part of the Soviet Union when that was created in 1922. Russian culture, language and religion has been an important part of Central Asian life ever since, particularly in Kazakhstan, which shares a land border with Russia that spans over 7,800km, which is the second longest land border in the world, after the Canada/US border, which is about a thousand clicks longer.

In fact, Russians currently make up a whopping 18% of the Kazakh population, by far the biggest proportion of any country in Central Asia. In Kyrgyzstan it's about 5%, Uzbekistan around 3.5%, and about 2% in Tajikistan and Turkmenistan.

You probably don't under-stan where all those places are yet, but, if you keep following my vagabonding, you might one day. Look at all this education I'm delivering! I should start charging.

But I am gonna test you.

You have to learn how to spell Kyrgyzstan before the next blog.

Anyway, we were talking religion. The Russian Othodox Church, also called the Eastern Orthodox Church of Russia, was established way back in 988, when Prince Vladimir of Kiev embraced Byzantine Othodoxy and forced his people to get baptised so that they'd all go to heaven, and he could get more money out of them before they headed up.

The Roman Empire had already moved its capital from Rome to Constantinople (Istanbul) in 330, and had separated itself into Eastern and Western Empires, and when the Western Roman Empire fell in the late 5th Century, Constantinople remained the head of what was known as the Eastern Roman Empire, or the Byzantine Empire, until it fell to the Ottomans in 1453.

The Eastern Orthodox Church, also known as the Orthodox Catholic Church, remains one of the three main branches of Christianity, the other two being Catholics and Protestants.

The Russians did their own thing though, and in the 15th Century they broke away from union with the western church, and Moscow began to regard  itself as the "third Rome," and the last bulwark of true orthodoxy. These days the titular head of the Orthodox Church remains in Instanbul, but the Russian and Greek Orthodox Churches operate with their own patriarchs, and a high degree of autonomy.

And the Ascension Cathedral itself?

Well, it's a true masterpiece.

More gold than the Kalgoorlie Super Pit.

Being all Orthodox

Go the mullet skirts

The Culture Club

On my suggestion, Bolsyn, Rohan and I wandered off to the nearby Museum of Traditional Music, which I'd heard has an incredible collection of Kazakh instruments.

We passed a war memorial on the way, dedicated to Kazakhs who fought in the Great Patriotic War, which is what Russians call the battle against Nazi Germany in Workd War II. The park is dedicated to a bunch of Kazakh soldiers who died whilst valiantly defending Moscow.

More than a million Kazakhs fought for the Russians during the war, and half of them were killed.

The Eternal Flame. Bolsyn joked that Kazakhstan's huge oil reserves will probably keep it burning forever.

The museum. Another earthquake survivor.

Bolsyn has an impressive knowledge of Kazakh musical instruments and famous musicians, I was super impressed. They played loads of traditional music as we wandered around the museum, and he often named the instruments and the musicians.

The three-stringed dombra, the most famous traditional Kazakh instrument, which has nylon strings and sounds quite like an oud. The Russian balalaika developed from this instrument.

Other traditional or unique instruments

Then Bolsyn took us over to what's known as the Green Bazaar, an amazing and huge market selling all sorts of fresh delicacies.

This is kurt or qurt, a very popular dried cheese made from fermented mare's milk or sheep's milk. You can get it everywhere. It's salty and delicious, and tastes a little like a really strong dried feta. I've been living on this stuff, putting it on breads and meals as the perfect flavoursome additive.

Horse meat stalls. Very popular here.

The meat quality at the markets was outstanding. Even as a vegetarian I couldn't help but notice.

Having some kymys, fermented mare's milk. It's nice, a little sour. I've had it a few times since. We also tried shybat, camel milk, which also tasted pretty good, with its own distinctive sort of smoky flavour, even though it's not smoked.

Traditional sweets, including chak-chak, a favourite here, made of deep fried small pieces of dough mixed with honey.

Korean kimchi stall, which, in case you don't know, is basically spicy fermented, salted or pickled vegetables. If you're wondering what on earth kimchi is doing in Almaty, it's because there's an estimated 100,000 Koreans living in Kazakhstan, they're called Koryo-saram, and are ethnic Koreans from the former Soviet Union, descendants of Koreans who originally lived in the Russian Far East.

In the early 19th Century life was super tough for peasants in Korea, and many were forced to leave. Because the Qing dynasty in China had closed its borders, the peasants were forced to relocate to the Russian Far East, where they eventually became Russified, and even developed their own language, a mix of Korean and Russian. Before the Trans-Siberian railway was built in 1904, Koreans actually outnumbered Russians in the Russian Far East.

However, when Japan invaded Manchuria (northeastern China) in 1937, right on the Russian border, Stalin (wrongly) suspected ethnic Koreans in the Far East of working as spies for the Japanese, and brutally deported nearly 200,000 of them to Central Asia.

Many of them died en route, or starved to death when they arrived, because they had no knowledge of how to cultivate their new, arid, Central Asian lands. But they eventually learnt to irrigate, and soon regained their standards of living. Since Kazakhstan became independent in 1991 many Koryo-saram have done quite well economically, as they have well seasoned trading abilities, and many have extensive business contacts with investors and markets in South Korea.

Dried fruit and nut sweets and toffees

One of the many mosques in the city.

Bolsyn took us to a popular Kazakh eating place, but there wasn't much on the veg menu (almost nothing). I had a salad. Great atmosphere though.

Traditional Kazakh wedding attire

Bolsyn tucking in to the butter. Butter!

Hanging with one of the great Kazakh poets, composers and theologian philosophers, Abai Qunanbaiūly. He's well known around here, probably their greatest folk hero. One of the main drags in the city is named after him, as is a university, and even a metro station.

Abai was the first guy to really etch his way into the national consciousness, and his words were the inspiration for a number of political movements. He's actually celebrated all over Central Asia and Turkey, and even in Russia, and there's statues of him all over the whole region.

Abai's main work was called the Book of Words, where he encourages his fellow Kazakhs to embrace education, literacy and good moral character, in order to escape poverty, enslavement and corruption. He also fully embraces Russian culture, and encourages his fellow Kazakhs to do the same, so that they can start to realise the importance of cultural treasures in general, both from the wider world, and from their very own country.

Abai station is so so deep. Must be a testament to his writings. Either that, or it's on a hill. This is only one of the three escalators going down.

Bolsyn's friends Mahmet and Dimash met us at the base of Kok Tobe, a famous hill close to the city, and they were all very keen to do the cable car thing. Bloody tourists, I mean, locals, I mean people.

I really connected with Dimash, the guy at the front. He's a fourth year film student, and is making super interesting docos about local issues.

It was selfie city today

Helping out the Fab Four

There were some interesting birds and animals up there, including an emu, and this peacock with vitiligo. I know how he feels.

A mural of the originally-Ukrainian writer Nikolai Gogol, by the talented  Almaty street artist Dima. Gogol was a very famous novelist and short story writer in Russia, and was considered the founder of realism in Russian literature in the 19th century. Household names such as Tolstoy, Chekhov and Dustyesky soon followed in his footprints.

We watched this amazing Michael Jackson impersonator for ages. He really was the King of Pop with an accent.

My buddies persuaded me to sing on the street, once another busker had finished, and kindly lent me his guitar. She looks pretty bored to me.

More Indian hangers-on. They were such lovely guys. A lot of Indians come to Central Asia to holiday, or to go to uni, and there's regular direct flights to Almaty and Bishkek from Delhi and Mumbai. I've met quite a few of them since I've been here.

Dangerous birthday cake

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Go to Part 3