Excuse Me, Can You Tell Me Where.....
Trip Start
Jan 08, 2005
1
4
13
Trip End
Feb 12, 2005
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Almaty, Kazakhstan
Friday, January 21, 2005
The next morning after a good breakfast, I headed off to try to secure a Krygyzstan visa. This was supposed to be a relatively simple process and I was thankful that my travel agent advised me of the new address on Luganskova Street near Hotel Kazakhstan. So I headed off thinking it would be a simple process, especially after having been given further details from my agent. It was pleasantly cool morning with a 1-2 inch layer of snow on the ground. So once I found Hotel Kazakhstan, an easy process, I started to scour for the consulate. But after walking around for about 20 minutes with absolutely no hint I was even close, I headed to the Hotel to ask for assistance. There, the doormen were very helpful, or so I thought, and sent me off again with new directions. After another 15 minutes of looking and even asking a couple other people who each gave me different directions, I returned back to the hotel. This time it was to use the phone and call my travel agent. This did not seem to be a lot of help but he indicated the consulate was probably further from the hotel than I had traversed. So I headed off once more....by this time having worked up a pretty good sweat. Trudging off once more I headed much further away from the hotel, trying to figure out the names of the various side streets and looking at my LP guidebook for any sort of revelation. Asking for help once again sent me in a new direction which again was wrong so I backtracked and again continued wandering. Finally, I approached another man and just as I was about to ask him for directions, I noticed he was standing in front of a small sign saying "Krygyzstan consulate". Finally! Once I convinced him what I wanted, I was in the consulate about 1.5 hours after my initial search began.
From there things were much more positive. After filling out the application and chatting a bit with the friendly consulate man and paying the somewhat hefty fee, I was given my one week visa. Thank goodness! This is just another joy of dealing with visas.
From there, I headed to meet my "travel agent" at the Soccor Boy restaurant. David doesn't really have an official office in Almaty which gives you an idea how this guy operates (SanTours focuses on travel in Central Asia). But he is extremely, friendly, helpful and efficient which is all I was really concerned about. After that I decided to check out the sites of Almaty and headed off to see the Independence Monument and various other "significant" buildings. Fortunately, there were no cops I encountered which I had read so many warnings about. Actually, my transfer driver had informed me that since the capital of Kazakhstan had moved to Astana (in the north) the police presence in Almaty had decreased substantially. This was good since I was really looking forward to having to deal with police seeking bribes (not that I couldn't sympathize with them given low wages they likely receive).
After stopping into a internet cafe which was really a modern and large online internet gaming place for students (quite the impressive place but there were some terminals for e-mailing too) I headed to check out the main downtown park, Panfilov Park. The wooden cathedral was quite pretty and it was nice to see people feeding the pigeons and strolling around despite the snow and coolness. The fact the sun was out helped make things feel much more cheerful. However, as I turned the corner to the backside of the Cathedral I was surprised and saddened to see a number of probable pensioners sitting and begging for loose change. This reminded me of scenes I had seen in Belarus and Russia where the old people are being forgotten and are truly suffering. So it appears that even though Kazakhstan has broken itself from the former Soviet Union, many of the conditions still remain and are very similar.
