Almati, continued

We met our guide, Jama, and the rest of our Road Scholar tour group this morning.  We then spent the day getting the feel for Almati, the biggest city in Kazakhstan. Today afforded a small taste of this enormous country (the ninth largest in the world, and the wealthiest of the Stans). Almati is the jumping off point for our tour of the Silk Road. Tomorrow we head for Bishkek Kyrgzstan.

Paul at the Falcon Center puts a raptor through its paces. 

Sergei, on horseback, with another big bird.

Zenkov Cathedral is being refurbished. It is one of Almati's few surviving tsarist-era buildings.

St Nicholai Church.  Stalin closed all the churches in the USSR except this one.

Mosaic wedding in the subway station.

Almati Kazakhstan

Dostyk Hotel

Thirty hours after we left our home in Portland, OR we meet Igor, a tall well sculpted blond young man (note from Taylor: Jamar is sleep deprived at the moment, but Igor may represent the Viking gene pool in Kazakhstan), at the airport in Almati. He drives us to the Dostyk Hotel, gives us a few words of advice and leaves us to our own devices.  We walk into our room around 1 a.m.,  exhausted.  Jamar's ankles have become their own entity giving a new visual for the term hub caps.

The next morning, Friday, we sleep until 10:30. We find the Traveler's Coffee House for morning coffee, followed by lentil soup and a walk. At first exposure Almati feels quite European. I'm not sure what I expect to see in Almati, but I don't expect this guy.

Fortunately, the signage on the shops looks more like my idea of Central Asia.

Merchandise on the shelves of the mini market further meet my expectations.

After purchasing Taylor's Coke Zero, the sales clerk says, "Dasvidaniya." Does this surprise me, or I did I know that Russian is the spoken language here?

One more full night's sleep should improve our currently fuzzy mental state. As of now, all is well in this part of Kazakhstan.