Almaty Alive

I'm going to write something that, as a mathematician, I will cringe at. Not because the statement itself is cringe, but because I am going to use a term that is not well-defined. (Mathematicians are very stuck on having thorough and complete definitions for our terms.) Here goes: Almaty is alivifying.

The Almaty Central Mosque

Yes, I know that's not a word. And you don't know what I mean by it. That's the cringe part. But I hope through my post to flesh out the term.

I wonder what's in the bowl

Let me start with what I don't mean. I'm not saying Almaty is lively. Rather, I would say it is pretty chill. There is a very easygoing energy to the people here. And I'm not saying Almaty is alive. Of course, it is alive, it's not a dead city. But I don't just mean not dead. Nor do I mean vivacious or invigorating. Neither of those are the words I would use to describe Almaty.

View of the mountains on an apple in the apple city

So let's nail down more what I do mean. Almaty is the kind of city you could totally imagine living in. You'd be surrounded by life. Here are some of the alivifying elements:

The mountains seen not on an apple but still in the apple city

Nature: Almaty has nature on two levels. The city is in the alluvial plane of two rivers (cleverly named the Big Almaty River and the Little Almaty River) which flow down from the mountains. But the mountains are close. You can take a bus into the mountains. There you can hike, there are plenty of trails. There is a super long staircase that some people do every morning as an exercise. There is a high-altitude ice skating rink if that is your thing.

Hey, you got your classical architecture in my beautiful flowers!

But it isn't just outside the city. Within the city there is tons of nature to enjoy. There is a reservoir that the city turned into a park with paths all around it. Speaking of parks, Almaty is full of them. You seem to be able to find one within a few blocks of wherever you are. And these parks are full, full, full of flowers. I'm not just talking about wildflowers. These are arranged flower beds. Of course, we were in Almaty in the spring. Not all of these flowers would be blooming all year. But they are cultivated and sculpted (can we say sculptivated?) into beautiful geometric patterns.

Flowers, Trees, Nature!

And perhaps my favorite aspect of the nature is the trees. There are trees everywhere. You walk down the sidewalks and you are in the shade of a tree more than half the time. They seem to be on every street. This makes Almaty a fantastic city to talk walks in.

The interior of the Almaty Museum of Art

Art: Almaty has plenty of it. First and foremost, there is the Almaty Museum of Art. This is a museum of contemporary art. The cost of admission is only four dollars, and it is a great museum. Even the shape of walls is artistic. Normally, I don't think of myself as a fan of contemporary art. But I really loved the exhibits in the Almaty Museum of Art.

One exhibit was art by artists of Central Asia, particularly those of what are today former Soviet Republics. The art was from the period when the region was part of the USSR. Through the images, we learned a lot about the history of the period, how the Kazakhs and Uzbeks and the other peoples of Central Asia felt about the Soviet domination, the enforced programs that the USSR tried, and the changes to their own cultural identities.

You start to lose which way is which

Other exhibits were harder to explain. They were more about the experience, the sensual information you took in, or how they bent your senses. In a world where we see so much that upsets us, where we retreat into comfort, it is the artists who take on the anguish, the betrayal, the despair, and the hope.

So light it blows in the wind, except it's made of aluminum

In addition to the museum, Almaty is full of public art. We particularly enjoyed the Zodiac Monument with a camel at its center. There are stone circles for each of the animals, but the mouse isn't on his platform. Instead, he is standing on the head of the camel.

Hey, why isn't the mouse on his circle? Check out the camel's head.

On a side note, there are some differences between the Chinese Zodiac and the Kazakh Zodiac. The rat (Chinese) is a mouse (Kazakh). The tiger (Chinese) is a snow leopard (Kazakh). Both of those are changes, but changes to a similar animal. The biggest difference is that the dragon of the Chinese Zodiac is the snail in the Kazakh Zodiac.

A snail? Really?

There are monuments commemorating people and events. I saw a statue of Ghandi, a plinth commemorating the Chernobyl disaster, and plenty of images of men and women at war. Plus there are many interesting and varied fountains dotting Almaty.

Chernobyl Monument

Plus there are murals on walls throughout the city. And the architecture here can be very classical and commanding or very modern and unusual. One sumptuous piece of architecture is the Ascension Cathedral.

Ascension Cathedral

The cathedral is located right in the middle of a park. The outside is painted in primary colors with a beautiful roof. And the inside is full of iconography. The main altar is quite lovely and it is flanked on all sides by paintings of religious scenes. What's interesting is that some of the words or names on the art in the cathedral is in a mix of Cyrillic and Latin letters. Like the same name will be in both. For example we saw one with COΦIA. This is the name Sofia, but the C for S and the Φ for F.

The main altar of the cathedral

Family: Almaty has a lot of family friendly locations. One day we went to Kok Tobe. This is a small mountain that touches the city proper, just on its southern side. You can take a cable car from the central city up to the top. There you are rewarded with wonderful views of the city and the mountains further south. But you can also enjoy restaurants, a Ferris wheel, bumper cars, a roller coaster, a haunted house, and plenty of other carnival activities and games. There's also a Beatles monument for fans of the Fab Four.

View of Almaty from Kok Tobe

Another day we headed to a park on the east side of the central city. Here is where we found the Zodiac Monument. But there are plenty of rides, games, and food stalls here. There is a skating rink, an upside down house, and a zoo. We visited the zoo. It was okay. They have a lot of animals, but the animals have very little space about which they can roam. That was a shame.

I think the architect made a big mistake!

Not all of these family friendly attractions are exclusively for children. Almaty has lots of bike lanes. In some of the parks, there are these columns that are opened during the day and are full of books. You can just take a book, hit a bench, and read. (If you know how to read Kazakh.) There is exercise equipment in many of the parks.

Anyone can read a book

I really enjoyed Almaty more than I thought I would. One day, we will have to come back. I'm interested to find out how their language transition goes. Kazakh has historically been written in the Arabic Alphabet, then the Latin Alphabet, and then the Cyrillic Alphabet. The government is in the process of transitioning back to the Latin Alphabet. They feel it is the best choice for an increasingly technological world. But there is a lot of resistance among the people. The plan calls for the transition to be complete by 2031. I wonder how it will go. Right now, all the street signs are in Cyrillic. The names are listed in both Kazakh and Russian, but both are written in Cyrillic.

What do you think? A metaphor for a feeling of emptiness now that I've left Almaty?

I hope I have better defined what I meant by Almaty being alivifying. I did my best to be elucidatory. Whatever that means.

Lakes and Canyons

While I think Almaty is a very lovely city, full of trees and nature, a big draw to Central Asia was to see more of the natural landscape. So Alrica and I did a two-night trip to go see some of that spectacular scenery.

Look at those beautiful layers

Our trip began on Friday at 8 PM. We went back to the circus building. This time it wasn't to see the circus, but to meet the bus that would take us on our adventure. The bus didn't leave Almaty until nearly 9 PM. It took over 4 hours to reach the village of Saty. By the time we were situated in our room in a guesthouse, it was 2 AM. And breakfast was being served at 8 AM the next morning so that we could head out at 8:30. Not enough sleep, which was something of a recurring theme on this trip.

I am walking over and along the Kaindy River in this picture

The first breakfast was uninspiring: very bland oatmeal. But it was served with baursaki. This is a fried yeast bread common in Kazakhstan, especially during holidays. It is almost like a donut that isn’t sweet.

View of Lake Kaindy from above

At 8:30 Saturday, we drove out to Kaindy Lake. The fact that the name, Kaindy, is similar to the English word “candy” is entirely coincidental. The lake is not made of candy. But even not being a confection, it was a pretty interesting place. It has an origin story.

The mountains around Lake Kaindy

Do you know the word “orogeny”? An orogeny is a period in which mountains are forming. For example, about 80 million years ago, the Rocky Mountains of North America began to form. This continued actively for about 30 to 45 million years. That period of time was the orogeny of the Rocky Mountains, called the Laramide Orogeny. Arguably, the Rocky Mountains are still growing to some degree, but the really active part of their formation ended between 50 and 35 million years ago.

Lake Kaindy from the lakeshore

A more recent (still beginning 50 million years ago, so not that recent) orogeny is the Himalayan Orogeny, which created (and is still creating) the Himalayas. But what its name doesn’t imply is that it also created (and is still creating) the Tian-Shan mountains, including those here near Almaty. The Indian tectonic plate traveled north and met the Eurasian Tectonic Plate. When they crashed (a slow motion crash, but with immense power because of how massive these plates are), the land was bent upward, forming mountains. This orogeny is still active today. And, unlike the ring of fire in which the Pacific Ocean plate is subducting (sliding under) the North American plate and the Eurasian Plate, in this particular collision, the two plates are nearly equal in density. So it isn’t one sinking under the other. It is both of them smashing upward.

Kaindy River downstream of the lake as I hiked up to it

Because this process is still active, there is a lot of geological activity in this region. Almaty has earthquakes everyday. But almost all of them are so low in magnitude that no one even feels them. On occasion, a big one happens.

That occurred in 1911. There was a powerful earthquake that did damage to the city. But it also did damage to the mountains. In the Tian-Shan mountains, there was a landslide. Limestone crashed down, blocking the flow of the Kaindy River. This formed a natural dam and the water began collecting behind it. Soon an aspen forest was submerged and a new lake, Kaindy Lake, formed.

Look at the bare rock there. I wonder if this was exposed in the same earthquake.

It is a beautiful, but eerie, lake. The water is turquoise, due to the limestone base of the lake. That’s artistic. But the eeriness is the bare vertical trunks of the trees sticking up out of the water. The formation of the lake killed the aspens, but the water is so cold, it preserved the trunks. Over the decades since the lake formed, those trunks have lost all their branches. Now only these vertical wooden shafts lurch upward out of the lake.

Like tree skeletons, the plant kingdom's undead

To get from the parking lot to the lake, you need to travel. You have three choices as to how you do this. There are vehicles which can take you closer and then you have a short walk down a long staircase. Or you can hike a trail the entire way. Or you can ride a horse along a different trail that takes you most of the way there. Alrica opted for the horse and I opted for the hike. My hike was very pretty, much of it along the path of the Kaindy River that flows out of the lake when it spills over the natural dam.

Pretty flowers

Alrica had a good ride, though her horse decided it was shy of horses going the other direction. It walked Alrica into some brush and trees. So she had scratches on one arm and one leg, which is like a mark of courage.

Mosque in the village of Saty

After Kaindy Lake, we returned to the guesthouse for lunch. We had a rice dish, not sure what its name is. We were given a short rest period, and we needed it. But it wasn’t long enough for a real nap. Because in the afternoon, we headed to Lower Kolsay Lake.

That's me at Lower Kolsay Lake

There are three Kolsay Lakes, upper, middle, and lower. These are much older lakes, formed when the mountains were growing. In some ways, Lower Kolsay Lake was similar to Lake Tahoe back at home. It was much larger than Lake Kaindy.

Alrica on the pier at Lower Kolsay Lake

Alrica and I walked down to the lake an onto a pier. Here we decided to remove our shoes and socks and to dangle our feet into the water. OMG! The moment I plunged my feet into the water, my brain reeled with pain sensors. It was like acid was eating my feet. Except it wasn’t acid, and it wasn’t pain. After a few seconds, my brain corrected its first incorrect impression. These weren’t sensations of pain, but rather cold, intense cold. It made sense. Of course the lake is fed by snowmelt. But I had underestimated how close to snow and how barely warmer than melt that water would be.

Brrr!

It was actually pretty fun to dip our feet in, let them chill for a few seconds, and then pull them out so the sun could warm and dry them.

The expanse of Lower Kolsay Lake

We never visited Middle Kolsay Lake, but we learned a great story about its other name: Thousand Horse Lake. After Russia (pre-Soviet Union) conquered Kazakhstan, the Russians would do this thing that the Kazakhs hated. They would just come through and take away the Kazakh people’s livestock and call it taxes. Quickly the Kazakhs had enough of this. So they rounded up their horses and drove their cattle up into the mountains. There the cattle and horses could graze on the grasses and drink from the lakes. It is said that when one of the Russian explorers finally “discovered” the Middle Kolsay Lake, “discovered” being a relative term since the Kazakh people had known it was there for a long time, the lake was surrounded by a thousand horses, those of the Kazakh people.

After Kolsay Lake, we returned once again to the guesthouse. We had manti for dinner. Manti (the Kazakh name) or mantou (the Chinese name) is a kind of dumplings, a lot larger than say wontons or more traditional Chinese dumplings. These have a great origin story too. The word literally means “barbarian head.” You gotta know why, right?

This goes back to the third century, in what is called the Warring States Period of China. A military leader, Zhuge Liang, had just successfully led his forces in a battle against some barbarians from the south. He was trying to return home, but he had get his goods, horses, and men, across a river. The river was very turbulent and the only way to calm it was to make a sacrifice to the river gods. They demanded five hundred decapitated heads.

This is manti

Zhuge Liang was not a fan of human sacrifice. He opposed it. And being a good military leader, he also opposed killing his soldiers just to appease the river gods. Instead, he had a clever idea. He told the cooks of the legion to make big dumplings out of wheat dough and fill them with meat. He then offered these head-sized dumplings to the river gods who were like, “Awesome, thanks, man!” And the rivers calmed and Zhuge Liang and his troops were able to cross.

The manti served today are large, but not human head sized large. Maybe more like the palm of your hand sized. The ones we had were filled with chicken and potato.

That evening there was a bonfire and party with games. We did go, but decided reasonably soon that this event was geared towards people in their 20s and 30s who were keen to drink a lot of vodka. So we walked back to our guesthouse and got some of the sleep we badly needed.

Not the bonniest of bonfires, but somewhat bon.

On Sunday, breakfast was at 7 AM. We got fried eggs and buckwheat. I’m not sure I’ve ever eaten buckwheat before. (I’ve certainly eaten fried eggs before.) Buckwheat was good, not amazing, not something I am going to buy in bushels to make in the future. But I would eat it again.

At 7:30 we left the village of Saty and headed to Charyn Canyon. (That is pronounced more like shar-EEN.) Charyn Canyon is often referred to as the Grand Canyon of Kazakhstan. It isn’t nearly as big as the Grand Canyon of the United States, but it isn’t tiny and it is very pretty.

The beginning of Charyn Canyon

Our first stop was at the start of the canyon, the most upriver part of it. Here the rocks are dark, mostly black or dark gray. So one of the names of this area is the Black Canyon. Our tour guide on the bus was funny. She asked, “Now we go to the Black Canyon. Can you guess why it is called that?” Pretty much everyone could guess.

The Charyn River coursing through the Black Canyon

It is interesting that different parts of the canyon are very different in appearance. There are different types of rock with different minerals in them. So the colors are different, but also the shapes.

The Yellow Canyon or the Canyon of the Yurts

Our second stop was the Yellow Canyon or what is also called the Canyon of the Yurts. The Kazakh people were nomads. They led their herds across the land in different seasons to find grazing places. And they lived in yurts. These are fabric tents over a wooden frame. The base is cylindrical and the top is a cone. They are designed to be sturdy, easy to break down, carry, and rebuild. And they are designed so that in different seasons you could build the walls from different materials. For example, using wool in the winter helped keep the inside warm.

Do you see the conical tops? Those are yurt-shaped-ish.

The Canyon of the Yurts is named that because the tops of some of the stone sides of the canyons have that cylindrical with conical shape. Looking across at points, you see the yurt like forms, almost a skyline of yurts.

The Valley of Castles (as was the very first picture of the post)

Our third and final stop was the most visited part of Charyn Canyon, the Valley of Castles. (It does have a color name too, the Red Canyon.) The Valley of Castles is a canyon perpendicular to the main Charyn Canyon. It was formed by a tributary, not the main Charyn River itself. The walls of the canyon look like the towers of castles. For about two kilometers, you can see these pillars and marvel at what nature can do.

Maybe that one is a wizard's tower

That was not just our final stop in Charyn Canyon, it was the last stop of the tour. After that, we drove several hours back to Almaty. We were away for less than 48 hours. And we packed a lot of nature into those hours. And not enough sleep.

Doner and Circuses

I went to the circus! There is a circus building here in Almaty. And lots of circuses (circusi?) come through. At present, the visiting circus is called the American Extreme Circus.

Couple of notes on the name. It is American in that many of the performers are from South America and Central America. But it has some distinctly foreign elements to it. I will get to one of those in particular. As for extreme, well the performers did a lot of things I would not be capable of. I would not say it crossed the line into extreme. But it definitely crossed the line into fun. 

Note: Alrica isn't actually that color. but under the lighting in the circus building she is, or was, at least for a little while. 

One great thing about a circus is that it doesn't matter what the emcee says. Call him a ringleader if you prefer. He told us things, but all in Russian, so I have no idea what was said besides the names of the performers. But you don't need to understand the words. The enjoyment of the circus is in the action. Even the clown never needed to speak to deliver his comedy. 

The show started with dancers and then the first Extreme act involved two men in a structure shown below. 

One of the men was larger than the other. The larger man's job was to keep the device going by standing inside one of the rings and moving closer to our further from center. The smaller man did various acrobatic leaaps and maneuvers both inside the other ring and walking on the outside of the other ring. He even stood on the outside of the ring and jumped rope. 

There were two men in bicycles doing all kinds of tricks. They bounced on just the front wheel. They made the bicycle spin under them. They stood up while riding, standing on the handlebars.

There were motorcycle acts. In the first act the riders did jumps from a ramp.

In the second act, they got inside of a sphere and drove upside down. There were three motorcycles in the small sphere at once and they avoided each other as they did tricks. 

Perhaps the most foreign feeling of the acts was the bear tamer. It was a woman with two muzzled bears who did a variety of tricks. At home, animal acts are no longer a part of circuses, because they are cruel to animals. Seeing those bears in muzzles being made to do handstands or ride on a barrel, I felt uncomfortable. 

Between the acts that required more set up, we were entertained by a clown. Sometimes he had big silly props. Sometimes he had something as simple as a Frisbee. Perhaps his most outlandish routine involved a tennis racket and tennis ball. But the ball kept being replaced by larger and larger tennis balls until he ended up with one bigger than he was which was launched into the stands and bounced around by the audience. 

Some of my favorite acts were the sumptuous choreographed dances of wonder. In the first act there was a couple who presented a dance. Do you know the magic trick where someone changes clothing in a fraction of a second? This routine was based on that happening over and over for both the woman and the man. But they found so many creative ways to present that trick. I don't know how that trick is done but it can't just be underdressing. Number one, with some of the ways they did it, they're would have been nowhere for the discarded clothing to go. Number two, the woman changed her outfit about a dozen times. She was not looking bulky enough when she came out to be wearing 13 outfits. (I could be completely wrong too. The fun of the magic is that you don't know how it is done.)

In the second act, that same couple presented a dance in which they were hanging from a crescent moon lifted way above the floor. They spun and writhed and at one point I was certain the woman was about to fall to her death, but she was caught with the man's feet holding her under her armpits. 

There was a rope dancer who was also high above the floor, tangling herself in her rope. Then she would fall or spin down, but always get caught by a knot she had made or a loop she had put around her. 

There was another woman who had a ring much like a hula hoop, but larger and made of some inflexible material. She danced and got the ring spinning. Then she put her hands and feet on the ring and kept it spinning. All the while she did tricks and it was all so graceful. 

We had a great time. After the circus we rode the Almaty metro. It only has one line with only 11 stops. But one of them is right at the circus. 

The metro stations are quite lovely, upscale in appearance. Getting out there was a large decorative wall with wonders of the world. 

We went to the Arbat walking street. Here there were lights, and street performers. We had delicious doner for dinner. (Doner for Dinner, that should be a song title.)

It's not everyday you go to the circus, but when you do it's fun in any culture.