Movie Monday: Baikonur Cosmodrome

We will probably be hearing a lot more about this place as the NASA shuttle program continues to wind down.  The Baikonur Cosmodrome is the home of the Russian space program (Russia leases the land and facility from Kazakhstan).  It is definitely on my list of places to visit while I am there!

Gypsy Cabs: An Excerpt from "How Much to Almaty?"

“How much to Almaty?”

A grungy ex-Soviet bear boxed inside his Lada threw his cigarette out the window and leaned over to the passenger window to get a better look at me. “Three.”

“Forget it,” I casually looked down the dirt-covered Silk Road towards the ex-capital of an ex-land. My Russian wasn’t perfect, but it also wasn’t coming from the mouth of a tourist. Two years in this place can teach a person a lot of things, especially when a gypsy cab was ripping him off one hundred and fifty tenge (about a dollar).

“Okay, one-fifty.” The bear grumbled and opened the door without looking at me.

This routine was almost daily. I would walk across the dusty highway, pose in such a way as to appear to be pointing to something on the road. A bug? Road kill? My past life as a painfully optimistic smiling American boy? I would assume this pose until a car would slow and stop ahead of me, usually a Lada, but sometimes an aged Lexus or worn-out Mercedes. Luxury from a past life in a different country now exported to this developing world, on this stretch of road, a run-down Kazakh running these ancient machines to a rusty graveyard. Would I miss this when I would be standing under the infinite stretch of supermarket lights of the West?"

To read more, click here

Tidbit Tuesday (how do you like that alliterative title?)

Medeo is the largest in the world High Mountain Skating Rink. It is situated in the gorge of the same name 1700 meters above the sea level. 

The Skating rink was built in 1972 16 km from Almaty. Mild climate, optimal sun radiation level, low pressure, windless weather and ice of clear spring water create the image for Medeo of the best and most beautiful Rink of the world. The square of ice is about 10500 km2, and it is considered to be the best place for open international skating, figure skating and hockey tournaments. On the ice of Medeo 20 world records were held by the most well-known sportsmen of the world. 


Source

Movie Monday - The Green Market

Disclaimer: always consult a medical professional...blah blah blah you know the rest.

The whole gypsy taxi thing intrigues me, so I will have more on that in the near future.  Stay tuned!

Friday Photo - Panfilov Park and Gypsy Taxis

I found this blurb about Almaty here where a professor describes a three week trip he took with some students last year.  Doesn't this make you want to come visit next spring?

"But then there was the magic of the place. There were, for instance, Almaty’s “random taxis,” where you stick out your hand and, voila, some guy happening by in an old Lada or somesuch with an invariably cracked windshield stops to whisk you away (with the help of hand-signals and mumbled Russian). There was the city’s Green Market, an immense bazaar where you can buy just about anything. There was Panfilov Park, a gorgeous island of green that commemorates 28 Almaty soldiers who died fighting Nazis (immense memorials, including an eternal flame that brides and grooms pose near on weekends).

Almaty, the financial center and biggest city in the country, is a pedestrian-friendly place of tony shops, nice parks and rising new apartment towers. A leafy, cool place that stretches downward from the snow-covered Tian Shan mountains, the city was great for a morning run. It’s a busy town. It is home to the Kazakhstan Stock Exchange (KASE), the most visible sign of the nascent capitalism that could – if managed well – turn the country into a substantial regional force."  - Joe Weber.

Movie Monday - "The BEST video about ALMATY" (apparently)

Ok, so this person claims that this is the BEST video about Almaty, and I must say that while it isn't bad, I'm not sure we can call it the "BEST."

I found this poem by the Kazakh poet Abai here and thought I would share.

The ticking of clocks is not an idle sound
life flows by, my friend, their beating repeats
A minutes is like an age for a man:
it goes, it dies, and the circle of life is closed

A clock is a ticking thief,
stealing life daily,
taking it unnoticed so that without love and constancy
life is nonetheless just fleeting deception.

In a clock's rustlings is past life
if it dulls a soul or comforts it,
still reason knows that time is treacherous,
it goes past as though its tick is harmless.

A day, a month, a year goes off in to ashes,
old age comes, time flows away...
Since transient time beckons us pitilessly,
Oh, imperishable Creator, have mercy upon us !

- Abai