It is great that you both made it to Chimbulak. It looks like you had a tremendous time. Such a great way to escape some of those adoption pressures.

When we were in Almaty, we managed to make it to Medeu but were told that the road that day was too dangerous to proceed out to the ski resort. And when Kazakhs tell you that a road is too dangerous, well…

To answer you question from earlier, we stayed in an apartment at the intersection of Seyfullin and Qabanbay Batyr (same block as "Real Sport"). While it had the traditional Soviet-era austere appearance on the outside, it was very comfortable on the inside. We have pictures of it in the Feb-08 section of our own blog if you are interested. While some people develop very close relationships with their in-country team (as you seem to have done), ours basically abandoned us to our own devices – so we essentially went native Kazakh during our entire time in country. And we definitely did get out and about as much as we possibly could. A great way to learn a new country/city/language in 64 days. Hence Almaty really does almost seem like a "home city" to us.

(And if you want one additional "favourite" of ours to add to your potential list for your next time in Almaty – we both liked Govindra's, a vegetarian Hare Krishna restaurant experience entirely in Russian – where else in the World could one have such a ridiculously surreal outing).

It is great that you both made it to Chimbulak. It looks like you had a tremendous time. Such a great way to escape some of those adoption pressures.

When we were in Almaty, we managed to make it to Medeu but were told that the road that day was too dangerous to proceed out to the ski resort. And when Kazakhs tell you that a road is too dangerous, well…

To answer you question from earlier, we stayed in an apartment at the intersection of Seyfullin and Qabanbay Batyr (same block as "Real Sport"). While it had the traditional Soviet-era austere appearance on the outside, it was very comfortable on the inside. We have pictures of it in the Feb-08 section of our own blog if you are interested. While some people develop very close relationships with their in-country team (as you seem to have done), ours basically abandoned us to our own devices – so we essentially went native Kazakh during our entire time in country. And we definitely did get out and about as much as we possibly could. A great way to learn a new country/city/language in 64 days. Hence Almaty really does almost seem like a "home city" to us.

(And if you want one additional "favourite" of ours to add to your potential list for your next time in Almaty – we both liked Govindra's, a vegetarian Hare Krishna restaurant experience entirely in Russian – where else in the World could one have such a ridiculously surreal outing).

and please!!!! have gary put a hat on……..when in rome after all.