Fancy seeing you here

When I took the cable car to a hilltop funfair outside of Almaty, I found the coconut shies, gift shops and roller coaster which I had expected. I was more surprised to find these Liverpudlians, frozen in a glade which resounds with their music.

Prayer sock

Like many of the peoples of Central Asia, the Kazakhs attach prayer ribbons to trees in auspicious locations. It seems that some latitute exists with regards to the nature of the ribbons. Alongside the more traditional strips of coloured cloth, this tree sported toilet paper and ... a sock.

Higher! Lower!

Almaty is an enormous uphill grid iron, orientated towards the Tian Shan mountains in the south. This means that directions in Almaty are idiosyncratic. Like many other twentieth century cities, everything is measured in blocks, but in Almaty there is the added dimension of elevation. Thus "Three blocks higher, on the left" is a normal way of describing things. If I am on the right track, I sometimes feel that I am in a gameshow, as the only directions I will get are "higher, higher", or "lower, lower"!

In search of old Faithful

In 1854 the Russians established a fort here which they named Verny ('Faithful'). The streets around the site of the fort are still colonially chic, with wooden shuttered houses along dust or tarmac roads; younger children play with acorns and building debris, older ones squat pensively in conversation.

Pub Loud

When I feel like a pub,

When I feel like being loud,

I go to Pub Loud!

Day 4: Дома (home)

Arrive in Almaty 10 minutes late (not bad after four nights and 4017km). Met by rain and representative of my school. Snow-capped mountains brooding over the low cloud. Welcomed into spacious flat in 4-storey prefab block by 25-year old Englishman.

Day 3 (part 2): Into the mountains

At last we leave the steppe and climb up into the Black Mountains. By Almaty these will become the White Mountains, topped with snow all year round.