Sunday, May 26, 2013
Our time here in Almaty, which means “Father of the Apple” as apples have grown here since before anyone can remember, is running together for me. Yesterday we visited two museums, the best part of the State History Museum was the sealed Gold Room containing intricately carved high carot objects from 6th century BC Scythian burial mounds. A nomadic Indo-European people who dominated a vast area stretching from Ukraine to Mongolia during the 7th-1st centuries BC, the Scythians developed highly skilled metalworking techniques, including the fine gold designs of stags, eagles and horses we saw. We also saw a lot of paintings in the Fine Arts Museum, but the only part that captured my attention was the Soviet era paintings that showed poor working class people at their various jobs, from industry to agriculture, all smiling and proud to be Soviet citizens. There was a large painting of Lenin and Stalin urging the people to revolt, pictures of children parading as proud pioneers, paintings that included Soviet symbols–the color red, hammers, cycles and white stars, and colorful posters promoting the Soviet philosophy.
I think I have mentioned that Fatima, a delightful 45 year old Kyrgyz mother of three girls, is traveling with us until we leave Almaty. We have had a lot of fun with her as she has lived a rather sheltered life in Karakol and knows very little about the outside world, except what she has seen on TV. She has been all eyes and ears since we entered Kazakhstan for her first trip abroad. Almost everything we have done the last two days has been a first for her including: seeing so many cars on the good quality roads and witnessing traffic jams and 2 accidents as we entered town; noticing the multitude of pretty young Kazak women, an observation Mark made too; experiencing clean, well presented displays in museums; eating in a cafeteria with with a crowd of other people; riding the subway–complete with with individually decorated stations; taking the longest underground escalator even we have ridden; seeing many glass sky scrapers at one time; being in a glass elevator in an upscale hotel; riding a gondola to a ski resort for hot chocolate; standing on a tram to get to a city view point and an outdoor restaurant looking at the view; walking through a modern, spotless, underground shopping center; and attending a live ballet performance in the Almaty Opera House.
The only thing Fatima said she did not like was the prices for everything except the food in the cafeteria. So Mark looked up the per capita income in the two countries and we immediately understood the discrepancy. The GDP per capital income in Kazakhstan is $13,000, while that number in Kyrgyzstan is $2,400. Both Olga and Misha admit to earning considerably more than $2,400, but Fatima thinks her family makes only slightly more than that. Culturally, linguistically and ethnically both countries are very similar. The difference has been in size, natural reserves and governance.
There has been plenty to absorb even for us and we have not been saying WOW!!! every minute as Fatima has. For me what is new, is how very modern and western this Sacramento size city feels and how contemporary and middle class most people appear. They look and dress like us and could be in the US except that they speak Russian instead of English. We have seen better looking apartment buildings and single family houses here than anywhere else in Central Asia and we have seen many sports facilities not apparent in other Central Asian countries such as: ice skating rinks, ski resorts, hiking trails, yoga and fitness centers, hockey, tennis and volleyball fields. We learned that Kazakhstan has sent teams to the Olympics and participates heavily in the Asian Olympics, the 7th of which was held here in 2011.
The Opera House is booked with a variety of programs. We were able to attend a ballet performance of Stravinsky’s Pulchinella and Rimskii-Korsakov’s Sheherezada. The former was disappointing in every way, but the second was delightfully presented from the Orchestra’s Prelude to the colorful set, the creative costumes and the enthusiastic performance. The skill of the Kazakh Ballet Company dancers was not as good as I expected, but it was still fun to experience the performance, the theater and the audience, who were not very enthusiastic. They clapped in continuous unison for whichever performer was taking a bow and made no change for the lead dancers. Meanwhile, the leading lady received many bouguets and two huge baskets of roses from competing theaters.
One evening we took Olga and Misha to dinner at an Italian restaurant recommended by our hotel. Fatima begged off so she could meet with an old university friend she knew. When we got there we knew we were in for an expensive dinner as the place was in the most upscale part of town and the entrance was very elegant. We had a very nice meal along with some nice wine and were happy to treat the two of them as they have provided us with a delightful time in Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan. For myself, I was most glad to have a change in cuisine,
Monday, May 27, 2013
This was our last full day in Almaty. Olga put together a picnic and off the 5 of us went for a trip into Big Almaty Canyon, slightly north of the city. On the way we stopped at a falconry facility and got introduced to several different species of falcons, griffins, eagles and Himalayan Owls and learned their habits and traits and which ones are endangered. We also saw a captive pair of wolves and their cubs, several Kazakh Hunting Dogs, Central Asian sheep dogs, and pack horses. The primary intent of the facility is to care for the birds and release some into the wild every year. To accomplish this goal they offer tours like the one we had, put on daily organized falcon shows, rent their horses for rides by the hour and provide organized overnight hunts including horses, dogs and/or falcons. Interesting to visit, but not my cup of tea.
From there we continued on up the canyon along a steep, narrow and curvy road until we were at 9,000 feet and well above Big Almaty Lake. We stopped at a turn out, grabbed the lunch goodies and walked down a steep meadow to a rocky outcrop, where we spread out our lunch and sat in the lea of rocks to avoid the cold breeze. The scenery would have been excellent, if the cold overcast clouds had not obscured the mountain tops and chilled us all to the bone. We walked a bit after lunch, but soon were glad to be back in the car and headed back down the canyon to warmer climes. We stopped at a park and walked among the young lovers occupying all the benches, then visited another Russian Orthodox church before heading back to the hotel to relax before dinner.
Olga organized a special dinner for us at a good Russian Restaurant and we were determined to eat whatever she ordered. As it turned out, we actually enjoyed everything that came to the table and that included many plates of salads, soups and entrees. We made many toasts during dinner using a non-alcoholic Russian fruit drink. Non of the three of them drink alcohol and Mark and I were happy to follow suit—especially with all the toasts that were made. It was a fun evening and we were please to have shared so many good memories with the three of them.
Back at the hotel, bedtime came early as we have an early flight to Astana, our last stop in Central Asia.
Have a happy day,
Julia
Adventures with Julia 