Arrived at the bus station at 6am. Waited half an hour for the public bus to start operating and got on bus 65 to the same hostel I stayed at (Dostyk and Sapaev).

The lady at the receptionist mentioned that there are no rooms available. Later in the afternoon, I went back to the hostel again and got a room. Not sure why did she say there was no room because the French guy I stayed with for the passed few days told me that there was an empty bed all along. The fat lady just want to make it tough for me.

While waiting for daylight, went to Kafahat to get breakfast.
Kafahat food court

Kafahat is a Kazakh franchise and has became a favorite place of mine. I went to the food court almost everyday because it’s clean and cheap. Spoke with an American who is teaching at KIMEP, she told me about a teaching program called Princeton Program which brought her to Almaty. That made me think about looking for a temporary teaching job in Almaty as well. KIMEP is one of the largest University in Central Asia that teaches in English.

Walked around at the south part of town searching for Malaysian Embassy.

I wanted to ask some questions about regarding visa to Pakistan but no one was there since today is still a holiday. The embassy will only open on Sunday to replace Friday as a non working day so to have the continuos holiday from Tuesday to Saturday.

Took bus 6 to Medeu (30 minutes south of the city), which has a big skating ring up in the mountains.

Went to the west part of the city by bus 99 and then met Dariga at Coffeedelia. There are a couple of Coffee Shops but I am not sure why there wasn’t a Starbucks in Almaty yet. There are a lot of franchising opportunities in Kazakhstan and the city has a lot of potential for growth.

I have been getting a lot of wrong information for the passed few days. After realizing the border with China was closed, I thought about going back down to Krygyzstan and then taking the Irkeshtam pass to Kashgar. However, someone told me that the border crossing with Krygyzstan was also closed.

Went to Sayram bus station in the afternoon taking bus 65 to ask about bus schedule to Shimkent. I was surprise to notice that there were minibus to Bishkek waiting for passengers. Spent some time thinking if I should go to Shimkent or to go to Krygyzstan instead.

To use the Krygyz-China border crossing, I would have to get to Bishkek, take another car to Osh, then to Sary Tash and then to the border. Since it’s late in the afternoon on Wednesday, it will be a little risky if I want to cross the border before the weekend because I might not make it to the border in time. The Irkestam pass only opens from Monday to Friday. If I arrive at the border after Friday afternoon, I would have to wait for a few days up in the mountains.

Another option is to cross to Urumqi and then fly to Kashgar. I was surprised that Chinese travel websites are so advance now and they even have sites similar to travelocity.com and kayak.com in the US.

Decided not to take the chance of rushing to the border because crossing the border up in the mountain on Friday is quite risky. If the border is close, then I will have to waste a few days in the mountain.

Went back to Sayram bus station in the evening and took the 8pm bus to Shimkent (12 hours ride, 1850 Tenge~USD$12.50)

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.

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.

Dec 10th

Went to the Kazakhstan embassy in the morning to get back my passport. Took 4 marshrutkas to the embassy because I got on a wrong marshrutka. It’s funny that the guy in the embassy still remembered me since he didn’t give me receipt when I submited my passport.

Bishkek

Met Farizat, a friend I met few days ago at the American University in Central Asia and she brought me a restaurant which has one of the best laghman called Faiza (take bus 35 towards the north west part of the city, on Jibek Jolu).

Went to Tsum (meaning central department store in Russia), a big department store to find someone who can fix my camera but unfortunately that person was not there.

I planned to go to Almaty the same day after getting my passport, so took bus 35 to the bus station at 2.30pm and waited for 2 hours for the minibus to be full before leaving for Almaty (4 hours, 200km, 300 Som~USD$7).

After an hour on the minibus, we reached the border of Krygyzstan and Kazakhstan. Crossing the land border of Krygyzstan-Kazakhstan wasn’t that difficult and was quite fast. Arrived at Almaty Sayran bus station at 9pm. I didn’t realized that it was Sayran bus station until later. Since the public transportation system in Almaty shut down after 9pm, I took a taxi to the 3rd Dormitory which was listed as the cheapest option under lonely planet. It’s actually a university dorm which is open for travellers.

I made a silly mistake and paid the driver 4000 tenge~USD$26 (1USD~150 Tenge) instead of 400 tenge that was agreed upon. He didn’t say anything and I even thanked that guy for the ride. I realized my mistake when the dormitory receptionist told me to pay her 1000 tenge~USD$6.70 for the first night. I immediately rushed out but the driver was gone. This reminded me of a Japanese trader who bought stocks for the wrong price, with more zeros than the correct price.

Met some Chinese students at the hostel. They are not Han Chinese, but Chinese Kazakhs who live in China. In Chinese, they are called Ha.
Chinese Kazakh family

There was an uprising against Russia in 1916 when Russia tried to mobilized Kazakhs for World War I. Many Kazakhs moved to China in around 1916 after Russia violently surpressed the Kazakhs uprising and killed hundread thousand people.