Tag: Kazakhstan

Peaceful Pilgrimage

Sometimes I just get extremely lucky! In the Lonely Planet it was mentioned that one could go on a pilgrimage to Beket-Ata. I had visited a tour company and was quoted U$85 for the day! This is too much, by my standards! One doesn’t get to travel for six months or more, spending this kind of money. The lovely girl, Lyazzat, from the Holiday Inn, who speaks excellent English, was incredibly helpful. I spoke to her, telling her I couldn’t afford that kind of day trip. She made a few phone calls, and the next minute, she asked if I was ready to go the next day? It was with thirteen other Muslim pilgrims and there was one place for me! Fabulous! Yes! Total cost for the day U$18!!! (This included three meals as well as the bus ride!)

Lyazzat was full of concern about the non- English speaking driver and guide. How was I going to cope for the day without English? Beket-Ata is 285 km east from Aktau. So a long, long day, it would be! Talking is like breathing for me, so yes, it would be tough, but I would be able to manage! I was sure! After nearly four hours on the road, I tried to ask the guide, if it was appropriate to take photos, as these places were Holy sites. The young woman behind me answered my question, in beautiful English! Her name was Dana, an English speaking flight attendant of Astana airlines, from Almaty. You have no idea how this pleased me! Meeting Dana was a gift from God!

The first place we visited, Shapak Ata, was an underground mosque plus a huge necropolis, graveyard, from the tenth century. I wasn’t allowed to photograph inside or outside the mosque. This was a shame as it was incredibly interesting. There were three rooms hacked out of the rocks, the floors covered with beautiful patterned carpets. We were all given a scarf, which I put back, as I did not know what to do with it! I was supposed to tie it to a tree! Duh! The cleansing before we entered the mosque was interesting. First you need to go to the toilet, a row of squat toilets with very low doors between them, then you needed to wash your hands, feet and face.  Using the lovely tin watering cans, which I would love to have some for my bathroom!

There was a fertility rock, shaped like a giant penis. It looked like a pottery piece, which was glazed in amazing colours. Reminded me of the Namibian artist, Jacqui Janssen van Vuuren. Women, who wanted to get pregnant, sit on top of the ” penis head” and pray. This is why the natural stone looks like it is varnished and glazed, constantly being polished! I declined! People tied scarves to the tree, so that people in need could take them with them. Some people tied money into the corners of the scarves, again for people in need, I think.There was a sacred tree, which needed to be circled three times. Then back to the bus to the next magical place.

The road by now was non existent, and rather rocky and rough. My poor back was screaming complains! This body of mine must be getting old, all this bloody complaining it does, when things are slightly tough! Unbelievable! The mind, heart and soul are still eighteen, so get used to it body! Nobody is listening! I had a horizontally challenged woman sitting next to me, who fed her two year old every five minutes. I have no problems with that, but he kicked me while feeding! The seats were designed for rather small people, so the drive down was tough going!

We arrived at Beket-Ata. Nobody had mentioned that the rock hewn mosque was three kilometres away, down the mountain, stairs all the way! The paths and limestone area were very reminiscent of Coober Pedy and the Breakaways. The going down, although hard on my knees was incredibly easy compared to the going back up! The mosque was incredible, again, no photographs allowed. Just take my word for it that it was amazing. A philosopher and Iman, I believe, was buried here. (I am sorry but I have forgotten his name!) I kept thinking, as I was going down, oh, holy cow, I have to get back up these steps on the way back! Trust me, it was exhausting! It took like forever! By now it was extremely hot, dusty, and I was so thirsty, that I finished all my water on the way down! On the way back I had to drink from the underground well, just hoping and wishing, that my stomach would cope with this! Step by step, slowly, ever so slowly I reached the top again. Totally exhausted. It was a hot, windy and extremely dusty day. We had hoped to see some wild desert goats, and at one stage everybody got very exited, however all Dana and I saw were black, unmoving dots!

Then the men all had an afternoon nap, while the women started to cook the meal! It was eaten out of a big dish. A broth, which was made from meat, and smelled very strongly. The a sort of flat pasta, all eaten with five fingers. That is the name of the dish is Beshbarmak, which means five fingers. It is a Kazakh delicacy! I have difficulties eating meat, my body reacting violently if I do so, although I did try one of the pasta pieces. On the way home the rains came, and there was a stunning rainbow, to which everybody agreed was a very positive sign!

Dana and I chatted on the way back, while she translated everything I said for the other pilgrims. Everybody thought that Dana was my private guide! People were amazed that I, a tourist, would under take this pilgrimage, and WHY? ( wanting to get out of Aktau didn’t sound legit enough, so I just thought that!) There were NO other tourists at all! I was a HUGE novelty!

Exhausted, sore and absolutely filthy, I arrived back at my hotel at one in the morning! Showered, slept, woke up, showered and slept. I just wanted to keep on sleeping!! Although the day was extremely long, I am so glad for this opportunity to experience this day, with all the Kazakh people. An experience never to be forgotten! A wonderful way to leave Kazakhstan, leaving me wanting to see more, but time has come to go to Tbilisi, Georgia

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Amazing Aktau

After ten hours on the train, I was ready for my holiday on the beach! Expectations, expectations, again, here I was, expecting a beach resort, palm trees and a warm Caspian Sea! When will I learn to google? When will I learn to go on trip advisor? ( I DO but only to write reviews on hotels!) it was raining! Booking my flight to Georgia took less than an hour! I met a gorgeous little girl called, Luciya! When I told her I had a friend called Lucia, we became instant friends! I have noticed I don’t like cold nor rain! No fun to walk around in! There is one museum here, which took less than half an hour! So now what? I had booked eleven nights, what possessed me to do so was beyond me for a few days! Until I realised, I had thought it to be a beach resort!

So to the beach I went! What a disappointment that one was! Industrial area on prime real estate! Really, what were they thinking? I was going to apply for a job as a town planner! It took me a few days until I realised there was a gorgeous walkway along the foreshore! It was just in the OTHER direction!

After a couple of days feeling sorry for myself, missing gorgeous Uzbekistan, I pulled my socks up! Enough! You WILL make the best of this! You WILL enjoy yourself! To my defence, I had booked my hotel because the Lonely Planet said people spoke English here! They lied!( well, the book is four years out of date!) so I came across the lovely staff of the Holiday Inn, where English was spoken! They booked me on a real pilgrimage!

Have told you that there are very few English speaking people here? This has become a bit of a problem as google translator does not make for good conversations! So I have a tendency to go back to the places where I can communicate, beyond asking for green tea or black coffee!
After the initial three days of being peeved at the lack of Aktau being a seaside resort, I did find that the foreshore on the other side of the city is just gorgeous. The beaches are nothing to write home about, mind you as we have the best beaches in the world in Oz, I don’t understand why I still have such high expectations of other countries!

There was an interesting museum, small and no English anywhere, so a quick visit. No art galleries! This I find strange as I saw art students painting in the street. Sun baking on the rocks doesn’t appeal to me, so what did I do? The pilgrimage took two days out of me ( read the next blob) .

On Saturday I did go to a necropolis outside Aktau, this is a cemetery, shame I was in too much pain to stay around too long. Yeah, I did it again! Have no idea what is going on! I was dancing like nobody was watching, and promptly put my back out! Belly button under my armpit, pain, agony and totally pissed off. Luckily a good chemist just around the corner of the hotel, lots of drugs, rest and sleep, and nearly back to normal. Does this mean I need to slow down?? Hmmm. Just wondering. I just bought a new bikini to do some sun baking, mind you the weather changed back to being cloudy and overcast! Sigh. Looking forward to flying to Georgia on Monday night. Good bye to Kazakhstan.

“Boring” Beyneu

Beyneu has over 50.000 people, so it is not really a small town! My, very nice, hotel was just five minutes from the station. The taxi driver told me to put my seat belt on! Wow! In Uzbekistan, the drivers take offence if you put the seat belt on, as if you insult their driving skills!
I waited till the next morning to do my exploring.

According to my map, there was a museum near by. First I came across the market, which I love to wander through, explore and enjoy. I was craving fruit, which I haven’t been eating enough, so bought fresh plums, grapes and nectarines. People are much less friendly than in Uzbekistan! I always ask before taking photographs, but here people actually said NO! One woman got terrible upset, thinking that I took photos of her produce, which I never do without asking either! It took a kind young man to look at my ipad to convince her I did not ” illegally” photograph her sweets!

After four weeks in Uzbekistan this is extremely weird! For over three months I have not seen or heard this kind of behaviour! One young woman, spraying her plants, gave permission to take a picture of her plants, then asked if I would take one of her as well! She was Uzbek!

One stall sold some strange looking stuff, which I was not allowed to photograph. One was a black paste and one looked like mouse droppings. This young man showed me how to put the mouse droppings under my tongue, and then what!? I stood there looking stupid, until this foul taste hit me, I had to spit it all out as fast as I could! At least it entertained the local market! Spitting is a favourite past time here, so nobody looks up about that, local people use the same sound effects as in India. I think it was the faces I was pulling, that was entertaining them!

Anyway on to the museum, which was a derelict building, which has obviously been closed for the last two decades! Most houses, like Nukus, were empty! Strange, eerie and very boring to look at! I walked for about an hour. And decided that I wouldn’t stay beyond the two nights I needed to recover from the train trip. So late afternoon, back to the train station, booked and paid for a ticket, all in Russian, with Google translator! Worked on my blob, and drawings in my diary! Totally blissful, as nothing to be done! Hallelujah!

There were NO restaurants or eateries open! Hm! No dinner! Okay, fruit for dinner, and semi fasting, should be good for me right? It is Ramadan, so I can just join in! Woke up extremely hungry, also good, enjoy this empty feeling, there are lots of children in this world who don’t eat daily! Bought cherries and peanuts for the train! I don’t like eating while on the move, the less one has to use the toilet the better it is!

No breakfast on my second morning, okay, I am fine, starting to feel svelte! My brother Tom, called me from The Netherlands, and after a wonderful chat, I got dressed and left for the station.
The first class looks the same as the third class, but I do believe the mattress is slightly thicker! The white crispy sheets are a delight, the free coffee and tea appreciated! The toilet gets cleaned! Although still no paper, though!! Another ten hours of pure bliss! Meditation, catching up with e mails, and cross words! Good rest for my ankle!

Kool Kazakhstan

Getting up at 2.45 AM is never a strong point of mine, unless I have a sleepless night! Of course this particular night I was in a deep sleep when the alarm went off. It took exactly FIVE minutes, from waking to being in the taxi! A record, I am sure! At this time of the morning, there was barely any traffic on the road, the occasional stray car, so we arrived at the railway station in record time.

Here in Central Asia, catching the train is like flying, countless passport checkers, luggage gets X- rayed at least twice, sometimes more. Finally I was on the train. I had forgotten to mention first class, when I booked, so I was in the third class! It was a sleeper, a thin mattress was provided, with sheets and a pillow case. My bed was rackety, broken and very uncomfortable! No longer at an age that I keep my mouth shut, I spoke up and received another bed! Made it with the thin, threadbare, often mended sheets, and promptly fell asleep!

Such a deep sleep, that I had a vivid dream of being at the border, meeting with Lucia and Lisa, I was so happy to see my friends, we laughed so much, it was so real, that when I was woken up, I had no idea where I was, who I was, and where were my friends?? Completely confused, I had to open my bag, hand over my passport, I still thought I was at the border! Not really it was just a ticket and ID check. Okay, back to sleep.

Finally we reached the border, as my passport was already collected, I thought it would be fast and easy, no such luck! Altogether it took over four hours. The Kazakhstan border patrol carries portable ID checking kits. Photos were taken, bags were searched, and just when I thought we would move on, an incident happened. A young woman with a two year old child, was crying and screaming. All I understood was the ” please,please” bit! Her two year old was crying, it was all very emotional and loud. There were no English under titles, so it was like watching a foreign movie without translation! It couldn’t be that she had no passport as they were checked more than three times before one can board the train! In the end , we went on, but the police sat with her. So something was obviously not right!

Just over the border the train stopped again, and again a bag check! Personally I thought it was overkill, and a lot of people agreed with me as the grumbling got louder and louder! When we arrived at Beyneu, the police insisted in taking photos of each and every passport on his mobile phone! The doors stayed locked, commands were given, and suddenly, this pimply, never shaven face of this young cop looked panic stricken! There was mutiny on the Bounty, people forced their way over him, the doors opened, and the whole train steamed out! Scary to see such behaviour, kids screaming, this woman detained by the police still crying, all very strange to watch!

I was the last one of the train, as I could see no valid reason why I should put myself in danger of being squashed, I just waited till the mob dispersed, and quietly left the train! There was one taxi, I went to the hotel, booked a lovely room with private bath for two nights, showered, changed and slept like a babe till the next morning! Welcome to Kazakhstan!

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