02/03/09 Checked out of the hotel about 11 (and had to pay for an extra 6 hours... as we'd checked ın at 6am and had been payıng for exactly 24hours each tıme), prınted tıckets and booked hostel then wasted the day as well as we could by headıng to a nearby park, buyıng bıts and bobs and all that jazz. after collectıng our bags from the hotel (where we'd left'em), and havıng had a conversatıon wıth the securıty by poıntıng at a page of englısh-russıan phrases - beggınıng wıth hım poıntıng at emma and then to the words "my wıfe" on the paper and proceedıng to what ı dıd etc., we headed to the aırport by bus. ıt was around 8pm at thıs poınt. We then had the fun of a nıce long wait until 4.30am for our flight to leave.

01/03/09 attempt 2 at big almaty lake went a little better that attempt 1. e.g we got to the mountain. Emma and I first walked up to about a third of the way up for a very pleasant and hot pic-nic (the sun was boiling and i'm nicely burnt per-usual to prove it). The local population all seemed to be up there enjoying the weather too, sledging (and being pulled by cars while sledging), horse riding and having pic-nics of there own. Emma then headed back and i went on to see if i could get to the lake, which we were informed by the tour operator in the hotel was about 2 hours walk from the bottom (where we started)... supposedly thats when its dry and not covered in snow, slush and ice. By about 4 i thought i'd better head back so i didnt get stuck in the dark; it being a 2 hour walk to the bus stop. Emma had been shopping and wondering around while i was attempting, failing, to be a mountaineer (and someone who can spell). When i got back Emma produced some crazy "bread salad" that she'd found - which despite having bits of wet bread, was gurt lush.

28/02/09 At 8am we met our guide Alexander in the lobby of the hotel, then hopped into his van/car thingamy, where we met his wife, for a 3.5 hour drive to the canyon (the last 20 mintues of which was on road that wasn't really there, commonly knows as "off road"). The scenery around the canyon was flat empty desert running up to snowy mountains - a great view. The area of the canyon he took us to was the most popular sight known as valley of castles or something like that. it was incredible; "a good panoram" as Alexander liked to say. We then walked for an hour or so down through it to the river for a pic-nic. On the return trip we stopped in a small town with a market running down either side of the road (a Kazakh service station) for some sashlik (Kazakh lamb kebab) and a pot of tea. Two kebabs per person, tea, more bread than we could eat and a plate of onions cost a pound each. when we were back in Almaty he then insisted on taking us to buy kazakh chocolate ("the best") and some kazakh cognac (i asked him what vodka was good, he told me to get Kazakh cognac).

27/02/09 7am. nice little stroll to Bristish embassy. nicely confused person working in the embassy who wasn't really in the slightest bit sure what the Chinese embassy wanted them to give us and could offer us something "that might work, but i really can't guarantee it" for 50 pound... maybe we won't be going to China then. having devised a hasty back up plan we went and researched it a little and bought tickets. Exciting! We also arranged a driver/guide to take us to Charyn canyon tomorow.

26/02/09 Things just aren't running too smoothly this week. we got up early again, at 8, planning to climb a mountain to "Big Almaty Lake". However the bus we had been told would take us to it didnt appear. so we returned to the hotel and asked the tour operators if there was another bus near by. There was one that we could take most of the way, before changing and getting another the last distance... it DID come... however it was a converted white van thing in which we couldn't see out. Furthermore the stops it turned out were for some reason not named after the roads (as stops were listed on the outside). after a while the enevitable occured and we went a bit too far on the line. soo we disembarked to find a bus going the other way. Ofcourse the bus we wanted didnt come and seemed to be going a different way (though listed at the stop). disparing some what as it was now 12:30 or so (and we needed more time that that allowed to a) get to the bloody mountiain and b) go up it) we found a bus going back to the centre and headed hotel. After halfheartedly munching some luncheon Emma decided we should go see the "green market" which was described as interesting in the guide book. And it was indeed. the "green market", selling anything from clothes to food to electronics, is its self inside a big green building, hense the name, and covered several floors. But it also spilled out from there going down a heavily crowded rather manic street towards a mosque plain mosque and some rather decrepit homes. Feeling some what better having done something enjoyable we got some light eating done in a cafe where Emma supped some "chicken soups" and i consumed a "sazer" (caeser) salad (consisting of beef, tomato, and potato in adition to copious dressing and a couple of leaves... oh and croutons).


25/02/09 Hopping energetically out of our beds at 7 in the morning we had breakfast in the hotel and set out for the Chinese consular office, via the park with the monument and church. Things seemed to be going moderately smoothly; a chappy showed us to an other office further up the road to get visa forms; another man filled them in for us (as they were in chinese/russian); we returned to the first building and waited for quite a while before taking our turn at the visa booth... We were straight away turned away and told that we required either a "letter from our embassy"? or an "invitation"? not so good. We returned to our hotel, and asked the tour operators if they could help... not possible as they are only allowed to help kazakhs (a chinese policy), but they did show us where the British embassy was... close to the chinese one... so back we went and asked at the British office... "come back in the morning and we can help you". After all that fun we thought we might as well see a near by site; a pillar with something on the top, and at the bottom another hand print of their president - which wasn't too shabby. There was also a montage of important historical moments for kazakhstan. returning we had a couple of kazakh beers and i contemplated shaving my head.

24/02/09 Emma was feeling somewhat under the weather, so i went on a leg stretch to see if i could find the consular office - which was in quite a run down residential area much to my confusment. after searching for quite a while for a road name so i could place where i was, it turned out i had been passed the road about three times! I did find the office in the end though so all was good. i also strolled through one of the bigger parks in almaty and had a look at the outside of another church - which was pretty and all that from the outside but feeling a bit overchurched i didnt have a look in. near by to the church was a kazakh war memorial - which was interesting to look at, being super chunkychunky and quite original as far as memorials go.

23/02/09 arrived at 5:20ish in Almaty and headed to our hotel - an old soviet building with a lift that only goes to the 4th floor (we're on the 5th) and peeling wall paper, but suprisingly comfortable, if a bit squeaky, beds. after napping for a while we set out to find some lunch and look around the city a bit. after a while we found a rather-unspectacular-from-

the-outside cafe but a pretty-cosy-and-serving-good-munch cafe on the inside. having filled up nicely we headed back to the hotel to talk with the tour operators on the ground floor; to find out about trips to charyn canyon and big almaty lake, as well as to get a map. thankfully they run trips to the canyon for at the most 30 pound, and supposedly we can get a bus for about 50p to the lake. even better we found out the location of the consular office in Almaty!

22/02/09 Got the train at 8:30 this morning, and again there is little to tell about the trip, though the views of the steppe along the way were pretty incredible.

21/02/09 errr the stupid page just refreshed when i'd typed quite a bit... poo. anywho today we went to the Palace of peace and harmony - a super modern religious centre inside a glass pyramid. we had a tour around with a nice kazakh lassy who showed us current designs for projects around the country and Astana, all of which seem insanely ambitious, but seeing as we were in one such project, believable. the top floor had a botanical garden leading up to the conference room at the very top, over looking the city. twas amazing.

20/02/09 Having got another potantial location for the Chinese embassy off the internet we set out bright and early to try and find it... after walking for a ridiculously long time in veryvery cold weather we realised that the map we had found on t'internet was lacking in acurasy (like my spelling)- and there for we didn't find it... again. so feeling cold we jumped on a bus hoping it might go toward home... it didnt ofcourse and we ended up having a nice tour of the Astana suburbs, before hitting the end of the line and changing buss- which took us atleast in the right direction. feeling rather cold, we hit a cafe to warm up then went to the hotel. we also bpught our train tickets to Almaty.

19/02/09 We thought it would be nice to see some fishys today (and sharks) so we went to the Astana aquarium, inside the "Duman Centre" - a very surreal place that is hard to describe... the word "tacky" suits it quite well though. The aquarium was alright to see though, though a bit small, being the aquarium furthest from any sea in the world! woo. we didnt do much else today however, apart from watch some un-understanable series on the kazakh tele (well it was in russian...).

18/02/09 having checked the, or rather i should say "a", location of the Chinese embassy on the internet the night before, we set out to try and find it... it didnt work too well - but it did bring us out in the super modern area of the city, still greatly under construction and rather surreal to walk through, where the baiterek tower abides. The tower represents something or other, but that doesnt really matter, what does is that its pretty amazing to see, and go up in. The bottom floor has a small aqaurium of unexciting, unmoving fish and a lift to the top - a big gold sphere, with a view of the city, a restaurant and a big gold hand print of the president of Kazakhstan - which useually plays music when you place your own hand in it (but supposedly it only works now on special occasions). After seeing the tower we trecked back towards the more central area of town to find some good kazakh food to munch on - and went to a moderately pricey restaurant in a yurt shape. in here emma had some tasty chicken kebaby stuff, while i decided to avenge my horse allergy by eating one, drinking its milk and munching its cheese. This was done through a meal called beshbarmak (or something like that) - consisting of horse "bits" and pasta sheets, kumiss - fermented horse milk that tastes f***ing terrible and the horsecheesy stuff that i was supposed to put in broth to make horse cheese and broth soup... the pasta/horse was nice at least. feeling content and full we headed back, via a bar as emma was close to weeing herself.

17/02/09 We had an exciting little tour of Astana today while trying to find the damned registration office (the guide book was bleeding useless on this), and after a few hours had to ask in atravel agents (who didnt really know, but eventually worked it out). By the time we had succeeded in registering our visas it was getting late so we thought a nice little stroll to the top end of "city park" would be a nice idea, and indeed it was. On the way to the park, on the north bank of the river flowing through Astana, was a kids play ground - with ICE SLIDES! twas a truely exciting and childish moment. The view from this side of the lake, with the sun setting, was spectacular - encompassing many of the modern buildings of Astana. We then headed across the river (frozen very solidly) to an ice rink cut into the ice opposite the beach, complete with umbrellas - though seeing very little use for obvious reasons. as it was getting dark we then decided to head back.

(14/15/16)/02/09 train. train. Train! yes it was slightly less uneventful than our initial long distance train journey with the notorious Andrey, but it passed smoothly enough to be fair. The kazakhs/russians on board were extremely suprised to find english people in their carriage - a) because we were going to kazakhstan b) because we were in third class! and c)...well there isnt a c unfortunately. as we crossed the border, a nice sweaty long wait of an experience, a small group gathered around us (none speaking english) and looked at our guide book, and pointed where they lived etc. was rather entertaining (and one chappy was kind enough to take me through several photos of his family...). We allso had the joy of a sweet little baby and a lil joker of a toddler trotting around the train investigating all he could. On the 16th, around 13:30 we arrived in Astana, and checked into a hotel near the station. a bit later we decided to go for a stroll to look around, and found our selves moderately frozen as the temperature dropped nicely to - 20, if not lower. we headed swiftly back having just about reached the town centre and got some shopping in. to be honest it was nothing exciting our first day there, but at least it wasnt cloudy!