Usual early wakeup, it is so exciting wondering what these days in Tashkent will bring. A very nice breakfast in the dining room made a good start to the day. After breakfast, I asked the staff about getting some cash from an ATM, but no one seemed to know a great deal about them. Therefore, I asked about changing some US dollars that I carry “just in case”. I had it explained that there was two systems in the country,…
Filling in the morning before going on to Tashkent, was the usual final squish to get belongings in to bags, slowly getting a method after a month of travelling. Passing a shop last evening after stocking up on supplies I noticed the name of a wireless source that had popped up on the ipad . I decided to call in and with some cheek asked if they would allow me to use their network. Nothing ventured ,nothing gained, I was…
I have had an awesome time here, First day usual hike around the city, up to the top of Kok Tobe, down in the cable car, usual monuments, churches etc. Almaty is a bit of a boutique city on a much smaller scale and if I say so much nicer, they have mountains with snow!! . Yesterday I went out to the mountains and valleys on a bus trip. We stopped off to see the Golden man statue , along side was…
What an interesting day its been in Almaty! A three am wake up by the little boy did not augur well. He eventually settled again, only to be woken to leave the train at five thirty, so not much of a night really. Then to watch the sun rise, and lo and behold there were snow covered mountains in the distance. Over night the scenery had changed from brown endless steppes to the mountains and land that had been invigorated…
I concluded that it was a grandmother with the little boy, the man, a solo traveler. From the Trans siberian endless steppes became more entertaining when another two Russians who were friends of the men joined us. All of whom proceeded to get very drunk, so by ten o’clock they were well on the way to settling in our bunks, something I objected to, but managed to get rid of them as diplomatically as possible. While the men had been…