Last day in Central Asia

Breakfast at the hotel’s buffet was pretty good but not as good as the Kazzhol.  There were many Indian guests.

I needed to convert my remaining Kyrgyz som into Kazakh tenge as a priority so I could work out the money situation before flying out tomorrow.  I found a money changer nearby whose rate wasn’t as good as that I had seen but the difference would have been equivalent to a bottle of water.

I had enough for lunch, dinner and maybe some snacks.  I was hoping that the sights for the day would all accept card and they did.

It was a 30 minute walk to Green Bazaar.  There wasn’t much new to me by now except that there was a huge horse meat section (just so strange that horse meat is so widespread, I thought it would have been something you eat when your workhorse get old).  Then the huge pork section too, but I guess about 15% of the country is Christian.

It was only a short walk to Arasan Baths, a Soviet interpretation to the Turkish hammam.  It was quite cheap at KGT1200 (USD3.60) for the hour plus add-ons for towels etc.  The two main halls had (1) a cold swimming pool and (2) a mildy heated marble slab with adjacent rooms with hotter heated marble floors..

I guess it was like Turkish hammam with Western options and showers.  And people were not shy about exposing themselves whereas in a traditional hammam, the wrap always stays on.

For lunch, I returned to Kaganat (last night’s place).  It was so good to have vegetables again.  I ordered the salmon, mash and a salad.  Ooops!  That used up nearly all my money except for about USD1.  The salmon was more expensive than last night’s dinner.

That meant that I had to put dinner on card (which I can) but in the end I used my remaining coins and buy milk and had muesli for dinner again, together with an apple.  That seemed to do the job as I had a big breakfast and a late lunch.

I finished my sighseeting by taking the cable car up to Kok Tobe, a hill on which a TV tower sits.  It does offer a glimpse of the mountains and the city panorama, but just barely.  The haze is quite bad.  But it didn’t cost much and I’m not sure if I’ll ever be back.

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Well, this is my last day in Central Asia.  After three and a half weeks in Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan, I will leave for the biggest “stan” of them all … Hindustan.  I knew so little about Central Asia before I came and feel like I have a new understanding of the region.  I had some free time and compiled some summary charts to help my understanding.  So I’ll share them here. Bear in mind some aspects are less than scientific and more for fun.

What surprised me was that people were quite cheerful despite their Soviet past.  Even the Russians here are pretty nice and cheerful. No one is as serious as in Russia!  And you don’t feel like people have the “me first” attitude seen in China.  I really do wonder how countries and cultures evolve and I had expected some similarities with Russia or China due to their communist past.