MIR Corporation's Travel Blog:
Chinese Turkestan & Central Asia
Andrew Barron, MIR's Director of Scheduled Group Tours, visits the ancient Silk Road in Western China and the 'Stans with the Chinese Turkestan & Central Asia scheduled group tour. Read about his journey from Almaty to Urumqi, Kashgar and Bishkek. 
Day 2: Almaty - What Kind of Potatoes?
May 14, 2008
Today was a full day of touring the city sites here in Almaty. We saw all the highlights of the town, which is very much just a modern city. The most striking site was the World War II monument. The monument is in Panfilov Park, and is in three main parts. The outlying sculptures make a sort of gate, or entrance way, like open double doors framing the "front" of the square in which the monument sits. Then about fifty yards behind is the eternal flame and the main sculpture itself, absolutely enormous over the tree-enshrouded plaza below. At the monument we ran into a local school group; the young children were very cute, and I was glad to see that Kazakh school children use the buddy system just like back at home.
Dinner was independent tonight. Most everyone felt like getting out of the hotel, and nearby options included Kazakh restaurants, small cafes, Russian eateries, and even a sushi place. I explored a few blocks from the hotel and found a small corner restaurant with covered outside seating. Russian is spoken in the big cities in Kazakhstan, as well as Kazakh. Larger restaurants near traveler hotels will have English-language staff, or menus, or both, and where the English facilities aren't as well-developed, there are still often photo menus. Most meals on our program will be fixed-menu experiences with the group, so I was glad to get to experiment on my own a bit. My dinner experience was quite good, and I was lucky to have a very friendly waiter, a young man who spoke a bit of English. "Lucky" might be a bit of an overstatement, actually - it seems most of the restaurant staff I met here and on other occasions were friendly, helpful, and eager to assist foreign visitors. My meal turned out to be delicious, not only in the quality of the shashlyk, local beer and excellent bread, but a good exchange with the restaurant staff, who were eager to know where I was from, what I was doing in Almaty, and when I'd be back. I had a bit of a funny misunderstanding when the check came though. When ordering I thought I was getting some kartochki, or potatoes, for free. (We were speaking a mix of Russian and English throughout the evening.) However, I was surprised to find a charge for the potatoes on the final tally: it turns out they were kartochki fri, or French fries, not "kartochki...free!" It was an inexpensive laugh, and definitely a language lesson that I'll remember.
Photos from this leg of the tour:
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