First Impressions. Almaty, Kazakhstan.

I arrived in Almaty this morning at 5 AM. Took a cab to the hotel and had a short nap before I went down for the buffet breakfast. I hoped to find more ethnic food on the buffet, but there really wasn’t any. The breakfast was more than adequate, but not exciting. I just went back to my room for another nap before venturing out. So after my second nap, I went out to find a place to have lunch. I didn’t want to go very far so within a block or two of the hotel there with three restaurants. One American, one Japanese and one German. My quest for Kazak food is not being met at this time. I settled for the German restaurant because I was very scared to eat sushi in a landlocked country. I had wonderfully grilled chicken and roasted vegetables. Basically what I eat at home. It was tasty and cost me only $12.56 with a bottle of sparkling water and they accepted a credit card.

On my way back to the hotel I took a few pictures on the street. Almaty was basically built by the Russians. Everything is very clean and modern. You can really see the Russian influence.

Streets are very wide and have lots of trees.
My hotel
The hotel lobby
The hotel swimming pool, which I did use. There’s also a nice Jacuzzi that had great jets and was not very hot. The only problem with the pool is that it’s indoors.

Right before dinner, the tour officially started with the tour guide giving us a bunch of information.

Our guide gave us this map of central Asia. The top of the pen on the right points to Almaty where I am now and the top of the pen on the left points to Ashgabat which is right on the border with Iran. The body of water on the upper top left is the Caspian Sea. The pen on the right lies across Issyk-Kui Lake. The Roadscholar tour goes from Almaty to Ashgabat crossing five countries and stopping in eight cities. Stay tuned for all the action.

After that, we went to a local restaurant for an actual Kazak dinner. We had mostly small plates. The eggplant was incredible.

Beet, cabbage and eggplant dishes. The eggplant was breaded and fried and served with a Chinese sweet dipping sauce.
The entertainment at the restaurant.

After dinner, three of the people on the tour and I went to the annual apple festival that was happening just up the block from the restaurant. They had a bunch of pavilions with all kinds of things hanging from them. There were fireworks.

The building lit up in the background is a hotel. 
Those are actual apples hanging 
The stuff hanging from this pavilion looks like cotton candy.
Car filled with apples.
This is a plaza that has lots of mist coming up from jets to help people stay cool on hot days. This couple who are on the tour are retired math teachers from Portland. What a coincidence.

That’s all folks. Tomorrow starts the first full day of the tour. We will be going to museums, seeing falcons, eating lunch in a yurt. All kinds of fun.

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