Free Stanning 3

Settling In

I spent a few days and nights in Almaty, truncated by an overnight hiking trip into the hills, and a separate day tour with Rohan.

My hostel was a super clean and pretty quiet Kazakh/Russian place, and the only other foreigners there besides me were a couple of Indians, one of whom was Manisha, a super nice woman from Andra Pradesh, who's really on my wavelength politically and intellectually. We went out for a meal one night, and chatted quite a lot in the hostel.

She's a really interesting digital nomad who's been travelling for seven years, but will probably return to India in a few months, as her work contract is expiring. She really doesn't want to live in India anymore, she's totally over the way women are treated there, but might have to stay there for a year or so to get her foot in the door for a post somewhere else.

I love the city of Almaty. It's definitely a place I could stay for awhile. I explored it  loads on my bike, and always got home well after dark.

As usual I took loads of random snaps.

Typical wide cycling path and gardens

Fountain in Plaza Republika

Akimat, the main government building in the city.

Kitsch French restaurant

There's all sorts of delicious creamy sweets here. At first I thought they were just yoghurts. But once I realised they were just sorta flavoured cream mousses, I had to have even more of them. You appreciate things so much more when you haven't had them for ages.

Note the real rye bread too. This is bakery and dairy heaven.

Coke billboard ad. Rather fitting for the Kazakh diet. Meat, meat and meat.

Rohan counting my pennies before I tuck into a pistachio pastry.

And a coffee.

Alcoholism is a problem here. Not surprising, given the economic and social problems for some people here, and the fact that you can buy a bottle of locally made vodka for only $2.50 Oz.

Cool street sculpture

There's that man again, АБАЙ, or Abai.

I'm slowly getting my head around the Kazakh Cyrillic script here. Most members of the former Soviet Union use Russian Cyrillic script as the basis for their own written languages, but they all have their own variations, which makes it confusing sometimes.

I've been learning a few Kazakh words, but also some Russian, because I can use that everywhere in Central Asia, and most people understand it. They all prefer their own native languages though, and will sometimes translate my feeble Russian into their own language, to teach me.

The mountains are really close to town

A series of murals depicting traditional Kazakh life and dress. These give you a good handle on some of the important parts of traditional Kazakh culture.

Brekky at the local bakery

Sometimes locals will come and chat with me here, in Kazakh or Russian, using Google Translate. I've met some super friendly people here, such as Evgeniya and Maret.

Sad but true

I sat next to this guy, and got lots of friendly smiles from people walking past. This is a statue of Yuri Gagarin, the first human to travel to outer space. He rocketed into the cosmos from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan in April 1961.

This was a super good bakery cafe.

With treats like these.

Someone named this cafe after my daughter.

The Kazakh national television broadcaster

Random street art

Old government house. Almaty used to be the capital of Kazakhstan, but the capital was moved to Astana after independence, to keep those territorially expansive Russians at bay.

This was a Godsend for me, and I played it often. It wasn't the best piano in the universe, but it was a piano, and it was on the street.

Fiery city sky

These guys made the best mushroom shawarma

Sayabag Park, dedicated to that old peacenik Mahatma Gandhi

Apricot flavoured runny yoghurt. The bomb on my brekky.

Late one night at a doner place I met a super interesting Chinese guy who'd just arrived from Harbin, in the northeast of China, and had transported his electric car here by train. His plan is to drive to Paris in it, with a friend.

He was very keen to give me some water from his home town, a number of cartons of which he was carrying in the boot of his flash new car. It tasted incredibly like water, no more, no less. He was also very keen to post this pic of me accepting it on his Instagram account.

Life completely puzzles me sometimes.

To The Snowy Mountains

Rohan and I have a plan. We're gonna go hiking and camping in the mountains.

He told me it's really beautiful up there, and I believe him, considering that he seems to know everything about this whole place, and also considering what the mountains actually look like from down here.

He's also convinced me to go to some very spectacular-looking places on a day tour. I'm not into day tours, but I really like Rohan, and I want to keep him company. And some of the places aren't on my intended route out of here, so it may be the only chance I get to see them.

I'm so looking forward to getting out into the real bush again.

I'm in Central Asia now.

It's time to get my tent out and sleep on all that green grass❤️

http://buymeacoffee.com/krolesh9