Aksu-Zhabagyly Nature Reserve

On the second day of our southern Kazakhstan trip, we went hiking in the Aksu-Zhabagyly nature reserve.  I had heard it was beautiful there, but was not prepared for the scene that awaited me when we arrived.

I wish Astana looked like this!  We were assigned a ranger to hike with us, so we headed out.  Our first challenge was needing to cross this stream.

The ranger was helping some people to cross by stepping on a couple of largish rocks.  Other people were taking off their socks and shoes and wading across.  I surveyed the scene and decided that wading in with my socks and shoes still on was my best bet--I was less likely to fall or cut my foot on something.  It wasn't fun getting my shoes and socks wet, but my shoes were mostly mesh and my socks were of some sort of quick-drying material, so it wasn't too bad.  Poor Scott took off his socks and shoes only to get his feet muddy and not be able to clean them off easily.  On we went.

The climb was pretty steep at times, and I was grateful for all the times I had chosen to walk up to our apartment on the tenth floor.  Nonetheless, I was still sore the next day.  My main challenge was not falling.  There were plenty of opportunities to fall:  thick mud, very narrow paths, and loose rocks.  With Scott's help, though, I stayed upright and enjoyed the wonderful views.

In addition to the seeing the beautiful mountains, we saw plenty of interesting plant life, including various tulips.

Wild apple blossoms

Close-up of Greig's tulip

Hillside of Greig's tulips

We had been hoping to see ibex, which live in this reserve, but that didn't happen.  We saw plenty of evidence of ibex, but it was not of the variety worth photographing, if you catch my drift.  One of my friends saw a strange cat-like creature who disappeared before any of the rest of us could get a look.  Since we don't know what it was, I choose to believe that my friend saw the extremely rare and elusive snow leopard.  On the upside, none of us had a close encounter with a bear, which also live in the reserve!

We ate a picnic lunch here.

Then we continued on to see the waterfall.  This was the most challenging part of the hike for me--walking down a steep slope with loose dirt and gravel to slip on.  The view was pretty cool, although it may be difficult to see the actual water in these pictures.

The way back down was beautiful, too, although perhaps even harder on my cranky knees.

After our hike, we went to a museum for the nature reserve.  It had all sorts of taxidermied critters and an interesting central tree display.

Then we made an ice cream and/or beer run at a small store and went back to where we were staying to relax.  Several of us buddied up to a small striped cat, and there were puppies on the premises for the dog people.  Some of us took a short walk before dinner.

The funny thing was that there was rain in the forecast, and we were worried that we might not be able to hike or do much of anything.  It was actually pretty close to perfect--never too warm or too cold, a pleasant breeze a good part of the time, and no rain.  I'm so glad I got to make this beautiful hike, and would happily go back again.

Train-Tripping To Taraz

On Thursday evening, we set out on a trip to southern Kazakhstan with some friends.  Our trip was to begin in Taraz.  From there, we planned to spend a day hiking in the Aksu-Zhabagyly Nature Reserve, then see some sites en route to and in Turkistan, and finally end up in Shymkent, where we would catch a flight back to Astana.  We took the overnight, high-speed train to Taraz, a trip that took about 13 hours.  This probably doesn't sound particularly high-speed, but according to one of our travel companions, the trip used to take around 24 hours because the train would stop at all sorts of small towns along the way.  So, by comparison, a 13-hour option seemed quite good.

The set up was like our train trip to Almaty in the fall, with four seats, and then four beds that could be set up.  Our train departed around 11:30 PM, which was fine because it wasn't too long before we were all ready to go to sleep.  This process was somewhat delayed by one of the train attendants coming by repeatedly to tell us not to pull the red emergency handle in our compartment and to make sure to record all of our nationalities.  (Were we sure we were all from the US?  Someone in the neighboring compartment said he was from Indiana!).

By the time we started waking up in the morning, the scenery was gradually becoming more interesting.  Southern Kazakhstan seems to have much more to recommend itself than northern Kazakhstan, at least from what I have seen so far.  It has mountains, and even when no mountains are in view, you see more trees or at least interesting plants.  I didn't think this would photograph well from the train, but poppies were in bloom, so we saw this amazing bright red color highlighting the landscape.  I watched the scenery and played Farkle with my compartment-mates.

We got in to Taraz around lunchtime, and someone from the homestay near the the nature reserve where we had booked rooms came to pick us up.  We had lunch, and then visited the Aysha-Bibi mausoleum.  The story I've heard/read about this is that Aysha fell in love with the lord of Taraz, but Aysha's father did not agree to the marriage.  They made a pact to marry in secret, but Aysha was bitten by a snake.  The lord of Taraz married her just before she passed away, and later, built this tomb for her.

Close-up

Old and restored sections

We then visited a canyon.  It was great seeing the scenery along the way, at least when I was awake!  I haven't trained myself to sleep very well on overnight trains yet.  I was startled awake by lurching and noises a number of times, and the bed was a little short for me.  The result was that I was very drowsy the following day.  We saw some bee eaters with very vivid blue feathers from the van, but I was never in a good position to photograph then.  The canyon was very close to the border with Kyrgyzstan.  I think someone said that the small stream in the canyon forms part of the border.

I heard distant thunder and felt occasional raindrops while we were at the canyon.  By the time we approached the place where we were staying, it had started raining pretty hard.  Various livestock were out and about and had to be herded somewhere.  From the van, we saw a young guy on horseback herding quite a lot of cows.  It was a pretty amazing sight.

The place we stayed was wonderful.  It was scenic, and had great food.  I was happy to get a good night's sleep on a perfectly stationary bed before our hike the following morning.

Another Attempt to See the Elusive Flamingo

Ever since I learned that Kazakhstan had the northernmost colony of flamingos, seeing them has been on my Kazakhstan bucket list.  Last time we headed out toward the Korgalzhyn nature reserve to try to see them, the trip didn't go so well.  The weather had already gotten quite cold, the flamingos were wintering somewhere with a more pleasant climate, and we spent the day trying to avoid attracting the attention of a local film crew.  The weather is warming up rapidly at this point, though, so when we had an opportunity to take another trip to the area, we jumped at the chance.

Unfortunately, the flamingo was to remain unseen.

We learned that usually by this time in the year, the flamingos have returned to Lake Tengiz, a saltwater lake that has a type of shrimp that they like to eat.  This spring has been unusually cold and wet, though, so while flamingos have been spotted in Kazakhstan, they haven't settled in Lake Tengiz yet.  Additionally, the roads out to the lake were still too muddy, so we couldn't even make it out there.  We saw flooding on the way to the nature reserve, so I could see how dirt roads in come locations may not have been passable.

Despite the notable absence of flamingos, it was a great day.  We went to the Korgalzhyn nature reserve's visitor center and learned about various animals that can be seen on the steppe.  After that, we had lunch at a guest house that I think may have doubled as the proprietor's home.  We were served cabbage salad; a type of salad with corn, tomatoes, cucumbers and mayonnaise dressing; manti (Kazakh meat dumplings); and traditional fried breads.  Then, we took off to see what we could see.

We actually saw quite a lot, although not all of it photographed well.  I'm starting to realize that if I want to take pictures of critters on nature trips, maybe I should invest in a camera with a better zoom. Oh well.  We did see several species of birds, including cranes, egrets, two species of swans, and bitterns.  We also saw several steppe marmots, wildflowers, and the largest anthill I had ever seen.  The scenery was very striking, with very flat land and very few trees.

A swan!  The one critter I can recognize from my photos.

Freakishly large anthill

Wild tulips!

More wild tulips!

At the end of the day, before traveling back to Astana, we had a light picnic supper.  I also met a gray cat I wanted to take back with me.  He wasn't very cooperative about looking up at the camera, however.

I should note that the weird white oversocks are because of ticks, not a bizarre fashion statement!

I'll leave this post with the best evidence of flamingos I saw.  The Korgalzhyn visitor center seems very insistent that flamingos reside there for part of the year, so maybe I will see them one day.

I'm Glad I Was Vaccinated

In the way of cheery news in my neck of the woods, we received emails from our employer today with the subject line "Measles Prevention Measures."  NOT the most reassuring email to receive, particularly since it was sent because of a recent upswing in measles cases.  Also not reassuring was that they didn't really give us useful information on how to prevent getting measles at this given time.  Here is the first gem they gave us on measles prevention:

Regular immunization of children together with mass immunization campaigns are the basic preventive measures to protect public health from disease and mortality burden caused by measles.

Okay, so then what are we doing about the people on campus who were not immunized as children?  Wouldn't a mass immunization campaign have been a good idea some time ago?  Might it be useful now?  I know the students are subjected to mandatory medical checks, so those might be a good opportunity to ask about their immunization records.

Here is another piece of advice:

We strongly advise that block managers provide sanitizers and washing agents for room cleaning, and ensure regular airing of study rooms in the University and residence rooms (in dormitories).

I'm no expert on diseases but is airing out the rooms really effective?  Also, as many people have pointed out, not all the windows open readily, so this is not even advice that can be easily followed.

Many thanks to my parents for having me vaccinated as a child.  I wish everyone had that same opportunity.  You don't always know when you'll be exposed to certain diseases, and I'm glad to be as prepared as I can be.

Parting Thoughts on Vienna AND the Great Astana Thaw

Our Vienna trip made quite an impression on me.  On a basic level, I consider it my first real European trip (I've been the European half of Istanbul, and a handful of European airports, but I'd say that those were very different types of experiences!).  Also, our trip reminded me that under certain circumstances (like when I'm seeing interesting sites and eating lots of tasty food), I can still be fairly cheerful.  With that, here are a few last random thoughts on the trip:

• The Viennese we encountered were extremely friendly and helpful.  I was feeling guilty about knowing only about four or five words of German.  I would have liked it if I'd had time to learn some before traveling to Austria, but I was impressed not only with the locals' command of English, but how gracious they were about speaking it with us.  I thought that might be the case at tourist attractions, but even in less common tourist situations, such as needing to mail a large envelope of documents to the US, people were able and willing to help us.  Danke, people of Vienna!
• We got a fantastic deal on our hotel by booking through hotwire.com (I promise they're not paying me to say this).  I didn't really expect any perks beyond having a place to stay close to a lot of the tourist attractions, but it turned out that breakfast was included in our hotel price.  And it wasn't overripe bananas, flavorless apples, and Otis Spunkmeyer muffins that appear to have been sitting around since the Clinton administration like at a lot of hotels in the US.  This breakfast buffet had eggs, breakfast meats, smoked fish, all sorts of fancy cheese, cut up fruits and vegetables, several flavors of yogurt, fresh bread, and granola.  Food was somewhat pricey in Vienna, so it was a huge boon to have one of our three meals taken care of each day, especially with such a wonderful selection of foods to try.
• Vienna seemed like a very fit city.  We saw lots of people walking and biking at all times of day.  I feel like in some parts of the US, you are just expected to drive everywhere once you reach a certain age.  It was refreshing to see so many adults, including adults wearing business attire, make walking and biking a part of their day.
• This observation led to another observation regarding the lack of fitness in our lives in Kazakhstan.  Between having our home and work essentially on a construction site and having just come out of a harsh winter, we haven't been walking around outside too much.  I thought we were making up for that by going to the gym frequently, but I no longer think it works that way.  We walked a lot in Vienna, and I was shocked by how achey my legs felt.  I've never had that happen before, even though I've certainly gone on active vacations before when I've had sedentary jobs.  It was a rather sobering observation.
• Austria gives me hope for other countries.  I spent about a year studying in Syria between 2004 and 2005.  I feel so sad and discouraged about the situation there, and often wonder what they way forward is after so much death and destruction.  It occurred to me that times in Austria's history must have seemed extremely bleak.  While I'm sure that Austria has problems just like anywhere else, an awful lot seems to have gone right there.  It is heartening to know that that can happen.

We've been back in Astana for several weeks now.  When we returned, fresh snow had fallen.  At that point, I lost hope that winter would ever end here.  But it did!  The thaw happened startling quickly, leaving us with a sea of mud.  At this point, though, I'll take mud over snow and ice.  I keep getting mud on my pants, but I'm not really sure how.  Am I really dragging the bottoms of my shoes over my pants that much?  Oh well.

Now that spring has actually sprung, we have a few excursions in the offing, so I hope to have some more pictures soon!

Last Days in Vienna

Our last couple of days in Vienna were pretty low-key, aside from visiting St. Stefan's cathedral on the Friday.  On Thursday, we wanted to do something different from visiting churches or palaces.  I did a little bit of research and suggested Hundertwasserhaus, an apartment building designed with the concept of man living in harmony with nature.  Not only did this promise to be a quirky site, but there was supposed to be a penny squasher (er, a Euro two cent squasher) in a nearby shop.  For anyone reading this who hasn't traveled with me recently, I think squashed pennies make some of the best souvenirs because (a) they are inexpensive, (b) they are small, (c) they generally incorporate the name of the place you visited, and (d) I can turn them into charms and make jewelry out of them.

There was actually quite a crowd of photo-takers at Hundertwasserhaus (architecture buffs, perhaps?).  It was a cool building, and I did find that coin squasher.

Coin squasher, Austrian style!

We also went to the second half of the Jewish Museum (it is housed in two separate buildings).  Both buildings had guards at the entrance.  It is sad to think of the need to have guards at so many public places, and very sad to think of a place needing protection from hatred, but this seems to be the reality we all live in.  The first half of the museum we visited focused more on Vienna's Jewish community centuries ago; this one focused on more recent history, particularly how the Holocaust and then waves of immigration from Central Asia had shaped the community.

On Friday, we visited St. Stephen's cathedral.  We stayed at a hotel near it, so we had seen it from the outside every day.  Our guidebook suggested devoting half a day to it, so we though it would be a good activity for the day we left.

The reality was a little different from what I expected.  From the guidebook, I was under the impression that we could pretty much explore at leisure.  The reality was a little more complicated, with all sorts of separate tickets to see different parts of the church, package deals, and places where we had to wait for guides to start tours and then pay them in person at the end.  It was also extremely crowded inside.  Granted, this is a very popular site to see, but I also have the sense that the number of tourists was increasing with every day we spent in Vienna.  I think we arrived just at the end of a tourism lull.  Anyway, I got a few pictures inside and outside.

This one was taken on another day.  :)

We decided to forgo much of the confusion of different ticket prices and tour options, but did decide to see the catacombs.  This entailed loitering near a staircase for a tour guide.  We actually had to wait a while because someone leading an organized tour (one of those deals where the guide carries a brightly colored sign that everyone follows) sort of muscled in and took the other guide's time slot.  Sigh.  Anyway, it was interesting, if pretty creepy.  I was horrified to see human bones in the catacombs!  I couldn't take pictures there, but maybe that is just as well.

Our last couple of days in Vienna were also an exercise in eating.  I had been curious about the various sausage stands on the street, and ended up eating sausage for lunch on both Thursday and Friday.  I had some sort of bratwurst on Thursday.  American hotdog vendors should visit Vienna and take notes.  First of all, both the sausage and the bread were good.  The bread was a baguette-type bread, rather than a squishy hotdog bun.  Secondly, the vendor poked a hole through the center of the bread, rather than cutting it in half lengthwise.  That ensured that the sausage and the mustard stayed in place and that my hands stayed clean while eating it.  A perfect hotdog-eating system!  On Friday, I tried a currywurst, something I had heard about, but couldn't quite believe would be good.  It was, though--there was just a slight taste of curry in the sausage, just enough to make it interesting.

We also did some wandering and eating at a couple of outdoor markets we found.  These markets had a good mix of crafts and food.  And plenty of Easter eggs.  :)  I feel lucky to have visited so close to Easter so I could see all of the beautiful eggs.  I'm wondering what was made with the eggs that were blown out of their shells.

There were even ostrich eggs.

We also each had a fascinating pastry at the market.  It was some sort of dough wrapped around wooden poles and baked in an oven.  I've never seen anything like it.

I fear this photo does not do the pastry's structure justice.

Late Friday afternoon, after purchasing some cheese and chocolate to take back to Kazakhstan with us, we sadly bid Vienna farewell.  We couldn't have asked for a better vacation.  I had forgotten what it was like to not feel tense all the time.  I am relieved that grouchiness doesn't have to be a permanent part of my personality.