So now back in Almaty we finally collect our shiny, holographic Russian Visas. Sitting proudly in our passports we can't forget though these are the most expensive visas to date weighing in at just about a hundred pounds a piece what with agency fees, letters of invitation and numerous other red tape requirements that threatened causing dementia.
We spend another couple of days making the most of this most European of cities, sipping good coffee and at one point ending up with a German in a Kazakh Salsa club listening to a Cuban band. Bizarre.
And onto our first experience of Kazakh trains. We booked Platzkarta which is basically third class, reserved seats, with a fold down bed. It is a bit of a bun fight, but nothing compared to Indian trains. There are slightly less people to a seat on the Kazakh trains but even so people tend to wander around and perch themselves where they feel comfortable. It was a 12 hour ride to Shymkhent in the south of Kazakhstan, and this was plenty of time for us to become minor celebrities in our carriage with most of the kids on the train bombarding us with requests to have their pictures taken and forcing sweets, bread and boiled eggs upon us.
It's an awesome experience though seeing how people here make the effort to get on with strangers both domestic and international and amazing to see people sharing eveything they have with each other. Imagine that on the 9.53 to London Paddington?
Shymkhent is renowned for having ridiculously cheap Shashlik and is home to in our, and many other peoples opinions, Kazakhstan's best beer: Шымкентое!
We spend another couple of days making the most of this most European of cities, sipping good coffee and at one point ending up with a German in a Kazakh Salsa club listening to a Cuban band. Bizarre.
And onto our first experience of Kazakh trains. We booked Platzkarta which is basically third class, reserved seats, with a fold down bed. It is a bit of a bun fight, but nothing compared to Indian trains. There are slightly less people to a seat on the Kazakh trains but even so people tend to wander around and perch themselves where they feel comfortable. It was a 12 hour ride to Shymkhent in the south of Kazakhstan, and this was plenty of time for us to become minor celebrities in our carriage with most of the kids on the train bombarding us with requests to have their pictures taken and forcing sweets, bread and boiled eggs upon us.
It's an awesome experience though seeing how people here make the effort to get on with strangers both domestic and international and amazing to see people sharing eveything they have with each other. Imagine that on the 9.53 to London Paddington?
Shymkhent is renowned for having ridiculously cheap Shashlik and is home to in our, and many other peoples opinions, Kazakhstan's best beer: Шымкентое!
So obviously being in Rome we took full advantage of this spending 2 whole days forcing down lovely icey beer and hot skewers of mutton. It is easy to see why life expectancies here may be lower than in the west when beer, cigarettes and red meat seem to represent the full spectrum of nutrition for most people.
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