Spent half a day asking about bus, train and flight tickets because I only realized today that the border will be close for independence day celebration staring from tomorrow. Flight to Urumqi cost more than $300 so it’s out of my budget.

I was supposed to get out of the country on Monday but stayed another day and now I am stuck in Kazakhstan for another few days. I spent another day here because I tried to get more information about job opportunities in the country and wanted to visit the American Chamber of Commerce. Kazakhstan economy has been growing 8-9% a year before the financial crisis. The country is full of natural resources and it’s right between Russia and China, 2 of the BRIC countries, it’s also not far from India. It’s one of the wealthiest country among the CIS countries and there are many new consturctions going on at the south part of the city Almaty economy. I think the country will have a potential for growth.

City View
The air quality here is quite bad because of the traffic

Took bus 99 (50 Tenge~USD$0.30) up to Kok Tobe (Cabel car cost 1500 Tenge~USD$10). Kok Tobe is one of the higest spot in the city to get a bird eye view of Almaty.
Kok Tobe

Kazakh Flag and the symbol of Almaty, an apple

Dec 14th Mon

Internet Cafe is slightly more expensive in Almaty compared to other countries.

Went to an Asus computer repair center to fix my netbook but they couldn’t do anything cause it’s in Polish. Electronics are more expensive here. A similar netbook like mine cost almost $500 here. I got my netbook in Poland for $400 but I can easily get one in US for $350. A microsoft Windows XP CD in English cost around $250.

New part of Almaty around AL-Farabi st at the southern part of the city

Went to Megacenter. One of the bigger mall in Almaty.

There wasn’t any McDonalds in Almaty yet and I thought it will be a great business to open one.
Opening a McDonalds Franchise FAQ

KFC?

Strawberry is quite expensive, around USD$8-9 for a box. In US, it will only cost around USD$2.

Took a wrong bus and went to Sayran bus terminal. A Kazakh guy helped me asked about the schedule to Urumqi. He is friendly but since he doesn’t speak English so some information is lost during our communication. There is a morning bus daily to Urumqi from Sayran and there are also buses leaving from Yalan bazaar which I asked few days ago. I thought about taking the bus from Yalan bazaar the next day since it’s cheaper and leaves at night. However, I only found out the next day that the border will be close for 6 days because of Kazakhstan Independence day celebration.

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