Mosque |
Harvest
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Sacks of potatoes
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Worker stopping for a photo op
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Digging potatoes
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Helping out
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Wild turkeys |
Disking
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On a street corner
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We stopped at an old, unkempt cemetery - old enough to have several graves with deer (elk) antlers on top. This was a pagan tradition of people from Siberia. |
Cemetery
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Fancy grave |
Deer antlers on monuments
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Deer antlers on monuments |
We got all the above in before the promised rain. The shower stopped long enough for Marge and me to walk down to the lake at our “Soviet resort.” There were a number of time-share-like apartments along the path lined with beautiful rose bushes. At the lake was a sandy beach and pier that looked like a Florida ocean beach. The beach chairs were all stacked up for winter, but the volleyball net was still up.
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Beach at Lake Issyk-Kul
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Beach at Lake Issyk-Kul
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Beach at Lake Issyk-Kul
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Sat., 9/22/18 - Cholpon-Ata, back to Bishkek, and across the Border to Almaty, Kazakhstan
We will spend most of the day today in the bus, but we are seeing changes in scenery.
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Fall colors on the steppes
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Driving hazard
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Road work in progress
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Looks like a gravel pit |
Erosion |
Steppes and mountains
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We stopped for a lunch of salad, soup, and noodles at the “Hawaii Complex” outside of Bishkek. The complex had a lake with swans, topiary, and monsters made of car parts. It was pleasant to walk around the property.
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All from car parts
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All from car parts |
We crossed the border into Kazakhstan in 50 minutes (it could have taken 2 hours). We took our personal belongings out of the bus and pulled our suitcases through passport control in Kyrgyzstan, then walked 200 yards to passport control in Kazakhstan, and then put our luggage and backpacks through an x-ray machine before re-boarding our bus. The system’s slow point was the jam of pushing people at Kazakhstan passport control, but we did not have any problems.
After the border crossing, we headed for Almaty, the capitol of Kazakhstan. We drove through the steppes - no trees, just rolling hills or flat as a pancake. There is grass but the soil is not good enough for crops. The Tian Shan (or Tien Shan) mountains are to the south and rise to over 24,000 feet. We passed an area of wind turbines. The southwest of Kazakhstan has enough sun that solar panels produce 25% of Kazakhstan's energy.
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Flag of Kazakhstan
The Kazakhstan flag is robin's-egg blue with a gold sun with 32 beams representing the 32 tribes of Kazakhstan. Under the sun is a golden eagle and down the mast side is a national ornamental pattern "koshkar-muiz" (the horns of the ram) in gold.
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Steppe country
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Energy from the wind |
Sheep on the steppes |
Almaty traffic - it took forever to get to our hotel
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Ski jumps from the 2012 Asian Winter Games
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Ski jumps |
Almaty means “apple” and our guide said the wild apples that grow in the Tian Shan Mountains that run between Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan are the mother of all apple trees all over the world. We saw lots and lots of loaded apple trees in Kyrgyzstan and none here on the steppes, so far.
The symbol of Almaty is the snow leopard. MacDonalds and Starbucks opened in Almaty last year.
The traffic entering Almaty was horrendous! The president or mayor of Almaty decided to move shopping centers and markets out of the city to reduce traffic jams in the city. It seems to us to have been poor planning to have moved them to the only road going in and out of the city.
Sun., 9/23/18 - Almaty, Kazakhstan
Today we did the quick tour of Almaty starting with Republic Square which opened in 1980 and previously named Brezhnev Square while Kazakhstan was in the Soviet Union.
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View from our hotel room |
Monument of Independence or the Golden Warrior statue atop the obelisk in Republic Square
The ‘Golden Man’ at the top of the column guards the winged leopard by standing and hence symbolizing the power of the Kazakh land. The inspiration for this image is the archaeological findings in the Issyk burial mound near Almaty.
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The Snow Leopard and the “stained glass” Eagle. The eagle is the icon for “spiritual rejuvenation,” a new motto for Kazakhstan.
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Statue of a Kazak Thinker
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Crazy broom and another logo |
Monument of Independence
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Mother Earth
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We visited the Kazakhstan History Museum. It was excellent, but no photos allowed. |
Central State Museum
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Central State Museum
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We walked through the “Military Glory Park” to the colorful Russian Orthodox Ascension Cathedral (1910). It is made of wood and was undergoing repainting. The white background was decorated with vibrant yellow, green, blue, and red. We did not see the inside, but from pictures, it was mostly ostentatious gold. This church is the second tallest wooden church in the world, the tallest being in Canada. 60% of Kazakhstan people are Moslem but 40% are still Russian Orthodox.
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Ascension Cathedral |
Ascension Cathedral
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Ascension Cathedral
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Ascension Cathedral |
Ascension Cathedral |
Accordion player in the park
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