Almaty

In another blog, a mother who also adopted from Kazakhstan talked about missing that country. That feeling has remained strong in me, too, so I thought I would post some pics of Almaty and of Maia at that time. She was then twenty-two months. She was so little.





This is of the mountains along the southern border of the country. We were traveling by train in an easterly direction from Shymkint to Almaty. The mountains are magnificent. They separate Kazakhstan--and the countries south of Kazakhstan--Uzbekistan, Kirghizstan, Tajikistan, and other countries, too--from India, which is sort of due south, and China. Kazakhstan is a huge country, stretching from Turkey to Korea. It truly combines the Middle East, Europe and Asia. You can see it in the food, architecture and the people themselves.



I took this next set of pictures from our hotel room. I think I was facing south. This is of an opera house. Compared to Shymkint, Almaty, which used to be the capital, is a very sophisticated city. It has a more European feel to it, even though it is deeper in Asia than Shymkint.



The structure to the left is a hotel; it included a casino. The tower is a television tower. Sometimes, Kazakhstan seemed a hodgepodge of conflicting elements. When we first deplaned in Almaty, there was a person holding a sign with the single word, "Halliburton," written on it. There was a large contingent of businessmen from China at our first hotel in Almaty. They were there to buy oil. We spent one breakfast talking with one of their party, a very personable young man who spoke impeccable English and described a little of the differences between his life and his parents'. One has the feeling that Kazakhstan, with its oil wealth, is caught between competing corporate forces from the West and the East, and is being force fed a strange diet of MTV, Mercedes, LG appliances from Korea, and cash from everywhere.






Everyday life in Almaty features lots of parks. This one was across the street from our hotel. The pic below is of a play area in a very large park--several acres at least--about a mile from our hotel. The children and their mothers were having fun with a seesaw.




Almaty is a very beautiful city. The streets are wide, and there are often strips of trees and shrubs between the sidewalks and the main road. Such use of space gives Almaty the feel of a very old city, too.





Like the mother who stimulated this, I also don't know why Kazakhstan continues to have such a hold on my imagination and sentiment, but it does. I would very much like to go back there with Maia and Kristina. I owe a lot to the place. Maybe it's as simple as that.

John, June 13, 2006