Update: Kyrgyz Visa

Kyrgyz Tourist Visa. I leave Friday by Taxi and return Tuesday by Plane.

How to get a Kyrgyz Visa and Other Adventures

How to get a Kyrgyz visa:

Actually, getting a Kyrgyz visa is not that difficult. If you are flying into an international airport, you can get one when you land. However, I plan to travel into Kyrgyzstan by car, which should only take about four hours, which means I have to get my visa in Kazakhstan. The Kyrgyz consulate in located in a two-story house one block south east of Abai and Dostyk/Lenin (the intersection where KIMEP is located). I left work an hour early and took the bus down to the end of Abai. I would have overlooked the consulate had Jessica not told me that it was in a house. I approached the metal gates and read the schedule, "documents can be brought between 9 a.m. and 12 p.m." Just as I was about to leave, the guard opened the gate and asked me why I was there. When I told him, he ushered me inside and pointed me towards the entrance to the basement. My nicely printed out visa application was useless, as they made me fill out another one and then sent me off running to the bank. In Kazakhstan, when you have to pay a fee or tuition, you pay it at a separate bank and return with the receipt. So, off I rushed as it began to pour with rain. The BTA bank, one long block away from the consulate, happens to be right next to the U.S. consulate. And just to give you a nice comparison, the U.S. consulate is a modern high-rise building. Having paid, I rushed back to the consulate and gave them my passport, my receipt and a picture. I am now passport-less until Wednesday, something that makes me very nervous. However, I could not justify the $105 price tag on the overnight visa, instead I paid $55 to get it in a week. Keeping my fingers crossed. 

Kok Tobe:

Saturday, I met up with Jessica and Antoine to go see Brave, only to find out that it was no longer playing and we were too late to catch any of the other movies and get Antoine back to the dorm by the dorm's curfew. Instead, we went up to Kok Tobe, which Antoine had not seen. The lines for the gondolas were long and populated by screaming children. It didn't help that once we were in the gondola, the change in altitude made ears pop, causing a new round of screaming. Once we were out of the gondola, we spent about an hour walking around the park and had a wonderful view of the sunset over Almaty.

Abai Theater

Abai, the famous Kazakh writer and poet.

Hotel Kazakhstan

Medeu

This week, I decided that I wanted to return to Medeu and climb the stairs up to the top the berm that was built to protect the Medeu sports complex from avalanches and other such disasters. The berm in plateaued, with a series of steps and then observations points or roads. I stopped at most of them and rested, or just walked around on level group, before continuing up the stairs. Several times, I thought I was near the top, only to realize it was just another plateau and I had a long way to go. I finally did make it to the top and had a wonderful view of Medeu and the valley on the other side of the berm. I wandered for a bit, before returning down to the bottom. As I was waiting for the bus, the taxi drivers converged, trying to convince me that I should take a taxi back to the city rather than a bus. I think that they might have had a competition going to see who could convince me to take a taxis back, one guy would leave and rejoin his fellow taxis drivers and another from the group would converge. However, the choice was easy, 500 KZT for a taxis or 70 KZT for a bus. Seeing as I am on a very tight budget, bus it was. I am now back in my little kitchen and I don't feel guilty at all indulging in an ice cream and some Kazakh chocolate. If all goes well, knock on wood, I will be in Kyrgyzstan next weekend for a three or four days.

The berm and the stairs (center)

The beginning of the stairs.

The horse, hobbled, grazing on the berm.

From the top.

I climbed from the far end of the rink, to the top of the berm.

The refurbished rink and with the abandoned and decaying building next to it.

Last Sunday, I took Antoine to the Green Bazaar (he couldn't leave Almaty without seeing the bazaar).
I bought this Aport Apple, as you can tell it is quite large.
Unfortunately, it was either imported or has been stored for some time, because it was not very good.
The season for these apples, which Almaty is famous for, is in late August or September.

Astana Day!!!! Oh, Wait, I'm in Almaty

 It's the Astana Day, the day that celebrates the founding of the capital city of Astana, in Northern Kazakhstan. It also happens to be President Nazarbayev's Birthday. Even though I am living in the city that Astana supplanted when it became the capital, it is an official holiday, meaning that I had the day off work today. To celebrate, Antoine and I went to the Central Museum of Kazakhstan.The museum, which is the one I was trying to find last weekend, is located near Republic Square and the Presidential palace. Unfortunately, photographs of the exhibits were forbidden.

The Museum had four main rooms, which included a room dedicated to archaeology and the prehistoric people that inhabited the territory of Kazakhstan. On the landing between the first and second floors were replicas of period costumes, including a replica of the Golden Man, whose burial place was unearthed not far from Almaty in 1969. If you look at the top of the spire in Republic Square, it is his likeness that is riding the white leopard. 
The second room was dedicated to the Kazakh people, their clothing, their culture, their crafts and their weaponry.  The third room was dedicated to the different diasporas that live in Kazakhstan and to the Second World War. As I was reading out the names of the nationalities to Antoine, I couldn't help recall my Central Asian history lessons. Many of the Russians, Belorussians and Ukrainians relocated to Kazakhstan under Khrushchev to till the Virgin Lands. But, the Germans and the Koreans were forcible relocated to the region on the orders of Stalin. The Chechens, the Ingush and the Greeks, who were also special settlers of Kazakhstan under Stalin and into Khrushchev's tenure, were noticeably absent from the displays of clothing and memorabilia.
The fourth room, the one that I really wanted to photograph, was dedicated to Nazarbayev. Perhaps, I'm not being fair, the room was officially dedicated to "The Independent Kazakhstan," but pictures of the president were prominent in the majority of the displays, including a red and white carpet commemorating a meeting of the Central Asian leaders in 1995.
The museum also houses collection of gold, but it was 1300 Tenge to go behind the vault like door and I am a poor graduate student, so I passed.
Overall, I was most surprised by how few people were at the museum. In many of the rooms, the only people, besides Antoine and I, were the docents, who followed us around like hawks to make sure we didn't touch the replicas that weren't behind glass.

"Astana- The Symbol of the New Kazakhstan"

Republic Square,
one of the domes belonging to the underground mall
and the Golden Man riding his white leopard

The Central Museum of Kazakhstan

Can't forget the other important holiday this week. It was the Fourth of July on Wednesday. I received a greeting from my roommate, who is still in Kyrgyzstan, wishing my American half "Happy Independence Day." There were no Scottish restaurants or ballets this time round (to clarify, read the last two years of my blog). Instead we, the three Americans at the Eurasia Foundation, treated our colleagues to small party. Jessica, Mariana and I, bought Red, White and Blue fruit and attempted to make an American flag. Mariana joked that it turned out to look more like a Puerto Rican Flag. I guess its fair, Mariana is Puerto Rican. 

The mini-party was a welcome break from work and everyone seemed to enjoy it. It was also healthier than most of our parties.

After work, we, including Antoine, went and had Shashlik at our little hole-in-the-wall Shashlik restaurant. It wasn't barbecue, but it worked just as well. Then it was back home and to sleep. 

I hope everyone had a wonderful holiday!

Here are some photos from walking around town last weekend, I was trying to find the museum. To be fair, the map has the museum located near Panfilov Park.

I would like to dedicate this post to Henry, a dear friend and neighbor, who passed away yesterday. I will miss him greatly.

Republic Square and St. Nicholas Cathedral

My roommate is off in Kyrgyzstan for the weekend. The trip was unexpected and I didn't have a visa, so I'm home alone for the next few days. 

I decided to go for a walk to Republic Square, the former seat of Government in Almaty before the capital of Kazakhstan was moved to Astana in the North. The first thing I was struck by was the lack of trees along Satpaev street. As I approached, I couldn't help but feel a little disappointed. It was just so sterile. I was only one of five people in the general vicinity of the monument at the center of Republic Square, one was guard leaning up against one of the four statues that surrounds the central spire, the others were a mother and her two young children. No street vendors, no ice cream carts, nothing. Just quiet.  Across the road, I could see three glass domes belonging to mall in the foreground of the official building. There were two entrances to the underground mall on my side of the road and I ventured down. The mall was also very sterile. There were guards on every floor and at every entrance. Only a few well dressed people milled around. Everything about it was perfect, and I hated it. I exited on the other side of the road from the monument and walked around the perfectly manicured park that decorated the foreground of the mall and the official building. I did like the variety of sculptures present in the garden and I also enjoyed looking across the road to see the words of Nazerbayev strung across the top of one of the opposing buildings "Political Stability and a Single Kazakh People are the Main Values of the State."

Republic Square is not a reflection of the Almaty that I have come to know and love. It was too clean and too perfect. Almaty for me is the Green Bazaar with people selling their wares, though I have been told that today's Green Bazaar is different from the Green Bazaar of two years ago, but for me it feels more alive and more real than the square. In addition to the Bazaar, Almaty is also the beautiful mountains, the churches and the mosques. So, while the monuments and gardens were beautiful in their own pristine way, I did not think it was representative of what I have come to associate as Almaty.

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After lunch, I went out for a walk with Mariana. We walked down Abai Street and turned down one of the side streets, coincidentally the same one that the building that houses the Migration Police is on. Somehow during my search for the Migration Police, I missed the church which is not far from it. The Cathedral was our destination today, I read up about it in Lonely Planet during some down time in the office and wanted to see it for myself. It was built in 1909 and used by the Soviets as a Stable after the Revolution. Outside the church is a statue of St. Nicholas, for whom the church is dedicated. Inside the style of the painting reflects is early 20th century origins, it looks more Italian than Russian. Most of the icons seemed rather new, except for one, the Icon of the Mother of Kazan', whose painting had darkened with age. While we were looking around, I pointed out the Icon of Prince Dimitrii, the youngest son of Ivan the Terrible (Stormy). In response, Mariana told me that there was an Icon of the last Romanovs. From that I discovered that our interest in Russia stems from the same source, the movie Anastasia.

I saw the movie Anastasia for the first time between the summer of sixth and seventh grade. I had not wanted to see it when it came out because it was just another princess movie and I was too old for that, so I didn't see it until many years later. I watched the movie and was intrigued, what really happened? I was lucky enough that the following year I had a teacher who recognized my fleeting interest in Russia and I fell in love with it. The rest, they say, is history. Thank you, Mr. Sawyer.

We walked around for a little bit more before walking around the neighboring park. From there we went and got an ice cream and began walking back. We found a cherry tree on the way back and Mariana climbed it, we managed to get two cherries for our efforts, they were sour. We walked around a bit more, through two parks by the opera house, before I began my journey home.

Oh the Memories: These three stooges are well known features in Soviet Era comedy films.

A park near the Opera House. There are seven arches for the seven days of the week.