Almaty is a beautiful city with thousands of trees and with the Tien Shan mountains framing the background. We found it a city in transition from the old Soviet days to a western look (1991 to 2010). Much progress has been made. Many new modern buildings have been completed in the last few years. Marriott has a 40 story tower that will be open in a few months. Almaty and Astana (capital since 1997) are hosting the 2011 Asian Winter Games so it will be crazy in late January/early February.
We found a house, or shall I say a MANSION (see pictures in previous post). In some ways, I am embarrassed by it as it is SOOOO nice. Way more than I would pay on my own. It is definitely above my pay grade!
As usual, we Jaspers are very interested in food. There are numerous restaurants. We ate a variety of cuisine - Uzbek, Indian, Kazakh, Italian, and continental - and enjoyed them all. The Kazakhs have a saying .... the number one meat eater in the world are wolves and number two are Kazakhs! They do enjoy the meat. We visited the grocery stores and Lauri's cooking talents will be severely challenged. Fresh, green vegetables (green beans, asparagus, broccoli, carrots) were almost nonexistent. Fruits and veges tend to be seasonal so the exapts tell us that when you see something, buy in bulk!
There is plenty of shopping. We saw Cartiers, Tiffany, Nike, Timberland, Zara ... if you want it, they got it. It's just a question of how much you want to pay. Almaty is the business and wealth capital of KZ.
Geographically speaking, KZ is a HUGE country. You can put Europe inside. It is 2/3 the size of the US. Yet, the population of the country is only 16 million. Check out the Wikipedia website for more info on the Land of Kaz ....
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