Almaty just might be our new 'fav' destination of this trip. Previously named Alma-Ata (father of apples), it is a beautiful city, with pretty tree-lined streets, friendly people, good food and great sights.
We had allocated three days in Almaty prior to our side trip to Aralsk, with the hope of getting our Uzbekistan and Iranian visas from the respective embassies in that time. We knew that this was probably optimistic, given some of the visa horror stories we had heard, and that we also had to find time to re-register our Kazakh visas, and we were also hoping to fit in a little bit of sight-seeing as well.
Uzbekistan Visas
The embassy opens at 2:00pm daily for foreign visitors. We left our hotel at 10:00am for the one hour walk to the embassy, with the intention to find the notoriously tricky entrance, go and get some lunch and then come back early to write our name on an apparent list that we'd been told about. Arriving at 11:00am we were greeted with an unexpected sight: at least fifty people were milling around outside the entrance (which at least made it easy to find), all holding passports and documentation in their hands. We could see no obvious order to proceedings, no signs in English, no list for names to be written on, and the guard blocking the gateway only knew one English word: 'visas'. Given the huge crowd and fearing that we'd miss our opportunity if we left to get lunch, we joined the horde of Kazakh and Uzbek people. The crowd was quite calm although there were no queues or organisation. I left Richard with our documents and disappeared to get some burgers from Hardee's (Kazakhstan's equivalent of McDonalds) for lunch. At 1:00pm, two hours after we had arrived, suddenly there was pandemonium. Fifty crazed Kazakhs and Uzbeks instantly launched themselves at the gate that was being opened, madly pushing and shoving and waving their documents wildly in the air. It appeared that the guard was just plucking people out of the crowd randomly, allowing them to enter the embassy. This resulted in the remaining throng pushing and shoving even harder and yelling more urgently, their documents flapping in their hands as they gestured in frustration.
Richard and I watched in amazement - here were apparent adults, behaving like children. We were trying to work out our own strategy to run the gauntlet and enter the embassy, when an American man arrived and spoke to us. We were elated for two reasons: Firstly, he spoke English! And secondly, he was an archeologist who regularly works in Central Asia, and therefore knew how the embassy proceedings worked. We learnt that at 1:00pm the local people have to fight their way into the embassy. And at 2:00pm, the 'foreign' group would get invited in without fuss.
And he was right. At just after 2:00pm, seven of us 'foreigners' were escorted through the crowd of frustrated locals, straight into the embassy. Amid a little bit of chaos lining up, a walk to the bank, and a fifteen minute wait once back at the embassy, we emerged with our Uzbekistan visas! A one hour walk home and the whole process only took us 7 hours.
We are going to Uzbekistan!
Iranian Visas
We had read that the visa formalities at the Iranian embassy would be much calmer than the Uzbek embassy. But, with Richard's British passport causing us initial delays in the process, we were nervous about what we would encounter when we arrived at the embassy in person.
We didn't plan on the one hour walk being up a steep hill, and at 9:00am in the morning it was already hot. We eventually arrived, out of breath, and as a precaution I donned long sleeves, long pants, and a head scarf before entering the embassy.
The process was formal and efficient. The man behind the counter spoke English, we filled out a form, went to the bank (hitching a ride with a random car each way), and returned, only waiting twenty minutes before we emerged with our visas. No fuss, no chaos, no stress.
We are going to Iran!
The Sights of Almaty
We were beside ourselves that we now had a day and a half free for sight-seeing in Almaty. We visited Zenkhov Cathedral in Panfilov Park, Kok-Tobe Mountain via cable-car, St Nicholas' Cathedral, Gorky Park and the Green Market. We also had to make yet another appearance at the Migration Police, in order to re-register our visas, despite already going through the rigmarole in Astana. Again, the police office was chaos, again there were no English signs, and again we had to fill out and sign a form that was entirely in Russian. We became very good at using our elbows to fend off the pushers and shovers in the queue, and after an hour we had the necessary paperwork and were free to leave.
We have opted to make our way around the city of Almaty by walking, rather than public transport. As a result, we have seen much more of the city that we would otherwise have missed. When we happened to walk past the State Opera and Ballet Theatre, we took our chances and went in to the ticket office. I had previously hoped to book opera tickets on their website, but I had been unable to decipher the Russian instructions. The woman at the ticket office spoke no English, but after a lot of gesturing and attempts at communication, we left the office with two tickets in our hands, although we weren't quite sure for what. Upon closer inspection, we could read the word 'opera' in Russian, although not the title of the opera, and the date and the time fortunately coincided with our time in Almaty when we return from Aralsk. We are looking forward to whatever the performance may be, as this theatre is deemed to be the top cultural venue in Almaty!
Almaty is a place we feel at home in, and we could easy live here, although the extreme temperatures (35 degrees in summer and -30 degrees in winter) might deter us just a little! Richard has fallen in love with the burgers at Hardee's, and the cafeteria just around the corner from our hostel serves a variety of great local dishes at super cheap prices - my huge plate of salmon and vegetables cost less than $3.
We feel very excited to be returning to this city in just under a week from now!
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