And lost not once but twice already. Sharing some similarities to Poland’s separation from ZSRR yet being much more severe and devastating in some aspects.
[ Kazakhstan, Almaty, early 2023, D850 ]
While walking through Almaty You can’t help but feel that this is a “Russian” country. By “Russian” I mean bearing a lot of similarities to Russia, pre EU Poland, or any soviet block community. Similarities like architecture, behaviors, alphabet or monuments. And that big brother approach to ZSSR regions was a first time Kazahstan lost a huge part of it’s soul.
[ small kids, like 6 and up training before military parade in Almaty ]
You can see it everywhere here how Moscow forced the same values, same heroes, same thinking. And especially for a country like Kazahstan, with not that strong and evolved culture like for example Poland before WWII it was hard to survive that tide. And the second “wipe” is happening right now. Freed a bit from Russian control Kazahstan opened too much for western culture, allowing all huge world brands and companies to take over Your daily life and dreams :(.
Why I say that? When asking locals on for example where to eat some local food or what gift to bring back to Poland I got “I don’t know” or “there is nothing like that” answers. A by just walking the streets of Almaty You see only ZSRR vibes or current western or Turkish logos and products. We dug and found a bit of that heritage vibe finally but people thinking was altered formatted…
[ there are some rare, small signs of uniqunes or lost history I noticed like these decors or awesome food here ]
Bitter part is that this country had a great nomadic past. You can find more on that on internet. Yet even wikipedia has a phrase that saddens me and supports the visible reality: ”Today's Kazakhstan is a modern culture, thriving in the post-Soviet era. The traditional Kazakh lifestyle has blended with influences from Western societies, as well as those from Kazakhstan's Russian and Chinese neighbors”.
Mountains were always a natural, valuable trip destination for me. Be it as a place to find peace, challenge, photo topic or as a tourism option especially with my kids and family. I see it as a basic correlation and something so obvious no one would ever disagree. Yet visiting Almaty made me look at it from another angle.
[ Kazakhstan, Big Almaty Lake area close to Kyrgyzstan border, D850 ]
Before arrival I knew Almaty city sits just by the Tian Shan mountains. A huge group of mountain ranges. Beautifull place to visit and trek. And so was my plan, to see and breathe this place, not worrying to much abuot winter or general lack o f trails and common hiking behavious in that part of the world.
Yet what was my surprise to hear that for local people “tourism” is only by the sea… When asked about hiking & and other worth visit destinations around Almaty, locals looked at me surprised and said” tourism? only by Black Sea, Batumi, Sochi, or in Turkey. Here? Nothing interesting…” Check the photos and answer for yourself.
Imagine that you are being chased with a megaphone from a guard tower in the mountains, in winter, in a foreign, distant country. And suddenly it turns out that you have broken the law and you are a foreigner in the guarded border zone... Yes, don't make the same mistake as we did and read a little more before leaving. Fortunately it ended with just a bit of stress and vibrant memories :).
Whoever envisioned this building did wonders. From basic, large panel system-building components, usually resulting in gray, dull, repetitive and heavy looking blocks someone created a small, hal-life like miracle. Congrats!
[ Almaty, Arbat Walking Street ]