Kok-Tobe and Panfilov Park, Almaty

So one thing we were discussing this morning was how quiet the Kazakh people are, they seem to just go about their day they don't argue or yell, they're very reserved from what we have seen so far.
Yesterday we went for a walk to Panfilov park a few streets from us and it was stunning manicured beautifully and so green with flower accents lighting it with colour. We walked to the centre which is the Cathedral of Holy Ascension an inspirational building built of wood though with not one single nail. Pastel colours from top to bottom and all the way around it was truly beautiful. We did not go in though as we were not really appropriately dressed.
We followed the path to the WW2 war memorial a gigantic sculpture of some soldiers in action, some 600,000 or more Kazakhs died in the 2nd world war and this structure and the eternal flame behind was to commemorate their lives lost.
We then continued onto Kok-Tobe much more of a tourist destination here in Almaty. A rickety cable car took on it's sardines and up we went. The view from the top breathtaking, it's one of those places that you stop and realise where you are in that moment. A city surrounded by snowcapped mountains, we could also see where the city ended and the steppe begins......
Wandering around Kok-Tobe was interesting, almost like a carnival setting there were people selling little arcade games like test your strength and guess your weight, there was also a little zoo.
Now two very notable things about Kok-Tobe was the Apple fountain and the completely random Beatles memorial, bronzed statues that were frequented by many travellers.....just try getting a photo of it on it's own without people climbing all over it or getting a photo just on your own with it.....but with patience I succeeded and was quite please with myself. The statues were worn on Ringo's knee, John lennon's guitar and Paul's shoulder from constant hands and bottoms posing with them.
Lunchtime- we found a restaurant on the top of the mountain a bit pricey but we decided we would splurge and this would be my birthday lunch...first thing on the menu....cold horse meat platter....well I knew exactly what that was, sliced horse member.....I'm all for trying but no thanks.
We had some of the most delicious breads and some assorted traditional Kazakh soups of mini doughnuts, potato and the most gorgeous lamb (still on the bone) YUM!!!!! and some schazlychs and chicken.
We all attempted fermented mares milk which was just awful cold with floaties and stayed in your throat like a fizzy off yoghurt.........we were shocked by the waitress's truly shocked reaction to us leaving it with three sips missing, she couldn't understand why we didn't like it....certainly an aquired taste.
Bec's final hurrah was taking the taboggan ride down the bottom of the hill following the no one's left alone rule I stayed with Aimee and waited at the top while Bec flogged it down at ludicrous speed.
We tired tootsies we trekked back to the hotel miraculously finding an actual supermarket on the way back......noodles for dinner that night, we tended to our shoe related wounds and readied ourselves for the next days adventure....Charyn Canyon.

Welcome to Almaty Kazakhstan

I can't even begin to explain how beautiful it was flying into this city...at the bed of the Altai mountain range huge snow capped mountains rise up and completely surround the city, absolutely stunning. The whole flight we were getting smacked constantly in the arm by Bec as she alerted us to the changing landscape beneath us, desolate plains, sandy cliffs, huge rivers, then mountain ranges as far as we could see.
Even the stuard on the plane was asking us why we Aussies were travelling to Kazakhstan and our reason was pretty basic.......we had seen it somewhere in a magazine or on TV and wanted to know more so we came to see it.
With our stamps and VISAS sorted we ventured forth, claimed our bags, literally strolled through customs (there was noone there) and out to meet our driver who was waiting. So glad we organised transfers so many random people asking us if we wanted a taxi. Driving through the city every tom, dick and harry was pulling up on the road side as citizens waved to them getting a lift....definately not on our list of things to do.
So we got to our hotel the lovely Hotel Turkistan to realise....CRAP we didn't exchange any money!!! Luckily there was a place down the road so we made a quick dash and exchanged some for the hotel with a 'lovely' lady that spoke some english...HOORAY!! Squeezed into our ity bity lift and up we went. Our room is quite big with a seperate lounge and bedroom with a king and a single, a litte bathroom and two balconys overlooking the Altai mountain ranges.....perfection! No kettle though but a fridge so our little element heaters are a life saver!!!!!! Cheers mummy!!!

First night we roamed around a bit and used our limited Russian to buy bread, water, bananas, milk, a couple of beers and some meat pastries for dinner which did fine. After all that I imagine it must have been around 1500T or roughly $10 Aussie for the three of us.
Finally the jet lag caught up at 10pm so off to bed we went and here I am at around 6:30am though I've been awake since 5:30am watching the sunrise above the Altai over a cup of tea.

What will today's adventure be?

Meeting People

We haven't even officially landed in our first country and we are already meeting people....sitting in the terminal in Abu Dhabi across from a gentleman who just starting chatting with us in french and we attempted to chat back using the translator on Aimee's phone.......don't think we would have gotten far without it even with a combined 14 years of french language lessons we struggled. I'm ashamed that after 2 'linguistic' cultural trips to france with school I've forgotten alot but it's amazing how much springs to mind when you have to use it :)

Meet Francis our first friend....we sat for a couple of hours chatting back and forth attempting to resurrect ancient phrases long forgotten from french classes.

What would we do with without Iphones.........really...........already made life much easier.

Touch Down Abu Dhabi!!!!!!

After a pretty pleasant flight with Etihad (wow 1.5 uncomfortable hours sleep) we are sitting in a lounge taking full advantage of their free wifi :) trying to work out the finer points of using skype to call home. 12 midnight currently and 34 degrees and we have lounge access until 4am with our flight leaving at 9am roughly. Seeing as its midnight and pitch black I haven't adjusted to my location as yet so I think this will take some getting used to....I'm preparing for some severe culture shock when we do arrive in Almaty.

No duty free purchases for me as yet though Aimee couldn't leave Sydney Airport without buying a swatch watch......and now I want one ;)

Will endeavour to find somewhere to nap before boarding the next flight though the bathrooms in the lounge on their own were worth the US39.00 its like a bathroom at home.

definately hasn't hit me yet where I am and I'll let you know when it does....

Miss you all already xxxxxxxx

P.S below in one of those photos is one of the lovely lounge attendants from Al Rheem T1 Airport Lounge :)

Sick Feeling.......

Ok so,

Finally here we are, with one week left until take off. This time next week we are 35,000ft up and cruising.

So what's left to do but pack and go through everything page by page securing documents and finalising what to take and what not to take....painful.

Securing a backpack is a nightmare let me tell you after having so many attempts at covering, locking, mesh netting FINALLY much to many people's relief I have given up and decided to forgo the extras and attempt to lock using a padlock and cable ties. I just hope my bag comes out at the other end, this is the dream.

Shoes......ah yes another nightmare to deal with, no heels (no brainer for me), and no walking shoes (this was a struggle), I'm not that keen on looking like a typical tourist everyday and they took up a huge amount of space, for practicalities sake they would have come out on top however I know I really won't need them as much as I'd like and so the converse won :) highly comfortable, match absolutely everything and less bulk.

I know that people tell you to halve your clothing but I don't think I can, I have a compression sac from Kathmandu which I got on a good sale, only buy it if it's on sale people.
Also a couple of travel space bags for the cold weather gear later on.

As of right now the feeling is....a sick feeling as in spending 8 hours at work everyday is driving me around the bend and I just feel like I need to be at home with my family and my friends. This trip has pretty much been on the back burner since year 11 at school 2006 ..... wow..... thinking about it all this time...over and over wondering when the hell am i going to be able to even consider doing this. Then I met probably the two most amazing girls who just happen to be twins (VERY different twins), who share the dream that I had almost identically.
This trip for me isn't just going on a holiday relaxing and enjoying time off....this journey even though a somewhat small one is something that I have been dreaming about for years fuelled by the words of Ewan and Charley I already feel very consumed by it, I wake up everyday thinking about it and it's the last thing I think about before I go to sleep, I'm constantly talking about it, researching it and preparing for it.

On the other hand leaving my family, my partner even my pets is hard to think about right now....there's a sick feeling in my stomach and I just can't shake it. I think constantly contemplating what to pack is definately helping it focuses my brain else where.
I feel as though this journey is something I have to do...on my own (sort of) but not having someone there as your partner, your second brain, your other half is something I'm not used to and so this is a huge step for me though some may not see it that way. I definately feel as though this blog will show a different side of myself probably because it's so easy to express things when your typing.
I want to share it with people and I want to make sure that the places we visit are brought to light in every aspect .
Like only now that the olympics are on are people interested in the fact that we are visiting Kazakhstan and that does somewhat irritate me I guess for some reason. I feel like I have gotten to know what Kazakhstan is about through reading countless blogs, forums, books articles and so on.

Not long until I get to share my own experiences as well.

until next post......

2 weeks left to go !!!!!

Can't believe there's two weeks left scrambling with the last visa for china and can FINALLY start thinking about packing :)

Stay tuned

Panic! Visa Time!!!

Well it has indeed been a while hasn't it. Finally we have plane tickets and our letters of invitation for Russia, Mongolia and China. So with 32 days to go off we trek to the consulate with a whopping great visa fee PER visa, many an appliation form, photos and our beloved passports.

Cannot express enough the anger related to timing on this....travel agents can be seriously hopeless.

6 months ago-Me "Do we need to do anything else to finalise our visas??"
                      Agent "No all taken care of your paperwork will be with you 45 days prior to departure"

4 weeks to go- Agent Emails us "here you are girls, here are your LOI's now all you need to do is fork out another $300+ dollars for all three VISA applications, fill out the form make sure you have passport photos for each one and make sure you mail them off to the consulates ASAP because they take 2 weeks to process per VISA."

Ummmmm ARE YOU KIDDING ME!?!?!?!? Oh the profanities!!!!!! Talk about a panic attack.....Aimees frantic call to the consulates reveals it should only take 4 days per VISA, still ridiculous considering we were told don't worry!! At least we were able to calm down :/

Following my earlier post about 10kg limit..... *sigh* had to scrap it when I was informed its only 7kg! Still trying to work out a packing list in my brain and deciding which camera lense I can do without....   :(

All 3 of us are scrambling to get our funds in order at the moment especially considering during our entire trip we change currency no less than 8 times!!! Travellers cheques for me I think and American Dollars to exchange.

Was very excited when I realised I have 4 weeks paid leave accrued :D very very pleased considering all my cash seems to be floating off elsewhere at the moment. Still trying to work out a daily cash budget otherwise I'll be broke before Beijing (mental note for excellent Blog post title should this occur). Debating the great laptop question...... do I take one or do I just use my phone?? what about photo uploads, goodness knows that I won't have room on my memory cards.....new camera BTW sony a55 my new baby and dirt cheap from eBay in tippy top condition :)


ah well that's enough from me.....until next time