Early '07 we have moved to Almaty, Kazakhstan. Time and again we'll try to enrich this page with more information on Almaty and on Kazakhstan.
"Back after a while ..."
Back on-line after a rather long and in habitual absence. It's been rather busy for us since September 2007.
In October 2007, the kids came home for mid-term break and Leanne brought one of her friends from school. First time for us, since always living sofar away, that we could have the children bring a friend over. The weather was still pleasant enough so we did the customary sight-seeing of Almaty. We failed only in our visit to the Big Almaty lake. As we drove up the mountains we got stuck on a patch of ice and the car had no grip at all. Even after letting everyone out of the car it remained risky as Hans came dangerously close to the ravine without having any control over the car. Some daring young Kazakh folk attempted to cross the same icy patch and failed. Lucklily as they were numerous they managed to push the car all the way back out of the ice zone. So we decided that was enough and we returned home. Ice defies even the best four wheel drive without winter tires with nails.
November 2007 was very hectic and stressful. We were getting very close to December 1, the renewal date for our house lease. Unfortunately we had not managed to obtain confirmation from the landlord that they would be willing to put in a generator for the electricity and a connection to the gas distribution for the heating. In spite of many months of prior discussion. So the decision was made to move out. Jeannie started looking for a new house. The packers moved in and we had the house packed up. When the landlord realized we were serious about leaving they changed their mind and promised to get a generator and a gas connection by the end of January. As a result we moved into the hotel for 2 weeks after the house was packed and even after the landlord signed the lease agreement we stuck around in "cartons" as we did not want to start unpacking until we really had a generator and gas connection. In January we had a generator operational and all gas piping done but no connection yet. Nevertheless end-January we unpacked and a week later the gas got connected. After all, the packing and unpacking was well worth it and we are more than happy that we could stay.
During this entire period Hans made several business trips to Georgia, Uzbekistan, Turkey and the US. The highlight though was a couple of trips inside Kazakhstan and in particular the visit to Aktobe in the North West of the country with its impressive "International Airport" terminal ....
...and an even more impressive baggage handling system. No lost luggage here, unlike in Paris, Heathrow or Frankfurt ;-)
"Ain't no mountain high enough ..."
Hans has been exploring the mountains in our vicinity and found himself in May 2007 on the top of Almatinsky peak which overlooks Almaty and our house. Altogehter over 3500m high. The views are fantastic both on the city of Almaty as on the mountain range behind towards Kyrgyzstan.
Early August 2007 we went to visit the petroglyphs (rock carvings) at the archeological site of Tamgaly about 160km west of Almaty. The site is a "UNESCO World Heritage" site. The road from Almaty take syou through the beautiful empty space of South Kazakhstan with its stright unending roads and beautiful landscapes. On the last stretch of 60km we met 3 cars!
The site is very much worth the trip with its rockcarvings dating back 4000 years. There are over 5000 rock petroglyphs formed using a picketing technique with stone or metal tools on unsheltered rock.
Some of the most impressive and exceptional engravings date from the earliest period, the Middle Bronze Age, and consist of large figures deeply cut in sharp way with such unique images as solar deities, i.e. human like beings with sun-heads. This one is the most charachteristic images of Tamgaly of which a total of 30 have been found.
"Discovering Almaty ..."
In April 2007, with the advent of Spring, we decided that we should start discovering the surroundings of Almaty. Our first stop was Big Almaty Lake. It's located at an altitude of 2510 meter and about an hours drive from the city. More so because of the fact that it's dirt track in the mountains than because of distance. The slow drive up the mountains is well worth the sight when you get there. When we were there the lake was still frozen, even though the air was warm enough to walk around in short sleeved shirts.
We also went out to visit one of the restaurants on the road leading to Big Almaty Lake. It's called "Tau Dastarkhan", and has a beautiful setting on the mountain side with a number of different
restaurants made up of "islands" with Kazakh, Russian, Georgian, and Uzbek kitchens with the choice of open air seating and some animals around which are an attraction for the kids. There were wolves, eagles, peacocks, deer, etc. Great location to get away from the city have some really good food and something to see for the kids..
Near to where we live is the newest and biggest mall of Kazakhstan, Mega, with a lot of boutiques, supermarkets as well as an ice skating ring, a game center for kids, movie theaters (all in Russian though), bowling alley and a climbing wall. So Lawrence was ready to give it a try. It turned out much harder than he initially thought, but as he got the hang of it with each try he reached higher.
In Spring we also got invited to Lucas' school to attend the performance of all the children. The Kazakhstan International School put on quite a show with all the children up on stage performing singing and dancing acts as well as the performance of some budding new piano and violin stars. Lucas acquitted himself gracefully.
"Settling in to Almaty ..."
This has to-date been our most challenging location about settling into a new country and city. Rather different from the expectations created by the first impressions of sophistication when one first arrives in Almaty. One however quickly realizes this is just a very thin glossy layer only. It's amazing how unnecessy non-value added bureaucratic the country can be and to what degree this still is a developing nation in spite of pretences to the contrary built on petro-dollars. Here are just a few examples to illustrate this.
If you want TV, there is a new cable service called ALMA TV which among the 34 or so channels it offers also offers about 6-7 English language channels. So we thought we were saved! However to apply for a subscription, only the landlord of the house can obtain one provided he presents himself in person at the TV company's office with his national ID papers. Then after a few days of back and forth, paying all the necessary installation and subscription fees you get informed that an appointment has been established to come and do the installation at your residence ... TWO weeks later! Then if you want to go and pay the monthly subscription, you have to go in person to their office and pay there in cash while presenting the national identity papers of the landlord! We have given up on trying to understand why ...
Another example is internet. Kazakh Telecom has recently established a new company called Megaline. It offers ADSL connections with speeds starting at 128K and going to 512K. Not bad after Pakistan where we had a flawless 512K ADSL connetion at home. Again, nothing is simple. Since the telephone line at home did not support ADSL it had to be changed to a new number. Simple enough we thought. Yet our agreement to accept this is null and
void. The landlord, again has to present himself in person with his national identity papers at the
Kazakhstan telecom office to accept the change in number. To go pay the bill you also have to go to the provider's office, Megaline, and pay their on the spot your dues with a copy of the landlord's ID papers.
On the other hand we are very happy about the house we have moved into. It's brand new so we are the first occupants and we have an amazing uninterupted view of the mountains and a beautiful park right in front of the house.
