Dec 13th Sun

Museum (70 Tenge~USD$0.50).

Tried taking a bus to Medeo, then to Chimbulak which is up in the mountains. Met a Kazakh guy at the bus stop and he invited me to go hiking with him and his 5 years old son.

Cute little Kazakh boy

Mini bon fire

He is a journalist and his background was in anthropology so he told me some stories about the Kazakh people.
The term Kazakh was formed in the 15th century and before then Kazakhs was not a distinct group. In 1468 an internal feud split the Uzbeks into 2 groups. Those who stayed north remained nomadic and became Kazakhs which mean free rider. Those who stayed south became settlers and became farmers. So actually Kazakh people came from Uzbek who wanted to live freely and who don’t like settle life. Some Kazakhs look like South East Asian, like Filipinos, some look like East Asian and some even has blue eyes and blonde hair.

Met some travellers in the mountains and went for dinner at a restaurant inside Ramstor at the south part of Almaty. The southern part of Almaty has more new buildings and looks like a newer part of the city.

Got back to the hostel and chatted with Danier, a Chinese Kazakh and his family in his room.

Dec 12th Sat

Golden boy at Republic Square

There were’t any Starbucks here but found Gloria Jean cafe. If I have enough capital, I would want to open a Starbucks or McDonalds here. Was going to use their Wi-Fi but there were something wrong with my netbook and spent time trying to fix my netbook. My OS is in Polish so it’s difficult to troubleshoot the problem.

Streets in Almaty.

Panfilov Park

Wedding at Panfilov park.

Zenkov Cathedral, a 19th-century Russian Orthodox cathedral located in Panfilov Park, is the second tallest wooden building in the world. The building wasn’t destroyed during the earthquake because it’s made of wood.

Darigo showed me around the city and brought me to a Georgian restaurant and met some of her lawyer friends.

2 Responses to “Almaty day 2 and 3, Kazakhstan”

1. kurt says:

   December 21, 2009 at 2:24 am

   you still stuck in Kazakhstan>
   when are you scheduled to be in CHina?

2. kurt says:

   December 22, 2009 at 7:20 am

   To let everyone know, Warren has arrived safely in China last night.
   Kashgar (pinyin transliteration of the Chinese: Kashi). We don’t have to worry about this guy.