A day in Almaty with James Bond

Steve here. Today we decided to get a late start since there was nothing we really had to do today. Terri and I spent a lot of last night watching episodes of “24”. Now I know why everyone on my staff treated it like a drug habit, watch one episode and you are hooked. We got up this morning and made sure our bags were ready to go on the off chance we would travel today. Jorik and Artur arrived at 11:00 this morning to take us out to have some lunch. Today we decided to have a traditional Russian meal. We all shared a couple of salads, traditional Russian soup called “salyanka” and Kazak national bread. One of the salads was called “bird’s nest” and was like a chicken salad served over a “nest” of crispy noodles and topped with two sour cream “eggs”. The salyanka had a combination of ingredients you might not think work together (sausage, vegetables, sour cream, olives, and lemon wedges), but the end result was very good. Over lunch, we had our small talk that comes with having a translator that speaks mostly broken English. We found it amusing that so many people had trouble with Jorik’s name that people started calling him James Bond. Frankly, the name fits, because if you need a driver in Kaz this is your man. He is fearless on the streets. We found out he likes American football so we will have to see about bringing him back a football on our next trip. We learned that Artur likes American pop, rap and hip hop music. His favorite is Britney Spears (I winced at that).

I am probably the first person in Kaz to ask to go by a golf course for a souvenir, although the translator said that this was not the oddest request. We did go to a golf course in the middle of the city, where I was able to get a polo shirt with the club logo on it. I will be the first person in my golf group to sport a Kaz golf shirt. To my golf group—sorry guys there were no Almaty golf balls/trinkets to bring back—next trip, maybe I will go to look for the really fancy course.

Our next stop was the high point of the day—Panfilov park. Scattered amongst the fir trees are monuments to the fallen soldiers of the Soviet Union. The main feature of the park was a massive bronze statue honoring the soldiers who stopped the German army at the gates of Moscow. I have always been a big fan of the Soviet era art and seeing this monument you can’t help but be moved by its impact. In front of this sculpture is an eternal flame with a plaque in remembrance of the 601,000 Kazakhs who died in World War Two. There was also a memorial that paid tribute to the soldiers who fought and died in the Soviet’s protracted struggle in Afghanistan.

Adjacent to the park was a beautifully ornate Russian Orthodox church.

This was all we did for the day as tomorrow we leave early for Ust. And it looks like we will be traveling to Ust with another American couple on their second trip. We could be meeting our children very soon!