Today I’m taking a short trip back to Kazakhstan, Almaty. Actually a bit south of it in the mountains. You might already seen the first mural from this series in Chimbulak Murals #1. I took these photos right between the Medeo ice skating ring and Chimbulak ski resort. We hired a driver to take us from the ring to the ski resort and then hiked there at the alpine altitude. On the way back there were no cars for higher so we decided not to wait and took off by feet down the road. I think it is only about three, maybe four miles so not a big deal. Somewhere midway I saw a few murals and decided to record it. I bet they were painted during Soviet times and this one look to me more like a Russian influenced art than Kazakh. There is a bit of Kazakh ornamental style showing as snow on mountain peaks. Other elements are not very Asian looking.
As far as I know Kazakh government is blocking entire wordpress.com, so no one in Kazakhstan will be able to see this post and tell me if those murals are still there or they are gone as part of road clean up for last year Asian winter games.
Mentally, not physically. I had this photo seating on my drive for some time, just never felt like posting it. We were on a little hike around Chimbulak Ski Resort near Almaty Kazakhstan. This is almost as high you can get without special climbing gear. Alpine flowers are really cool, they are small but they are bright and they know how to survive in not the most friendly environments.
If you can see, on the left side of the photo, right in the middle, there is a black whole in the rock. It is actually a cave. About 3-4 meters high. I don’t know how deep it is, I didn’t hike over there.
A few days ago I showed you the “Donkey, the Parking Lot Attendant”. Here is the guy one more time. He was moving very fast and tried to eat me up, and I was trying get the best picture to no avail. The previous shot actually got his entire face and body, plus had mountains in the background, but for some reason I just like this one a little better, even that he is cropped from his nose up to his ears. You can see his eye, maybe that is, maybe that short connection between him and me is captured in this moment.
Donkey, he is my man.
Almaty is the host to 2011 Asian Winter Games. I bet right now they are working hard on fixing all of the venues to get them ready.
I took these photos back in 2005.
This is an open air ice field. It was usually open from September through May, so this August I do not expect it to be operational. I skated there many times and watched a few ball hockey games and motorcycle racing. Both on ice of course. Highly recommend, especially motorcycle racing. This rink is called Medeo, it is about 30 minutes from the city, in the mountains. Next year it will be one of the ice rinks for the winter games. And if you turn 180 around at the spot where picture was taken from and look into the mountains you will see a ski resort, called Chimbulak. It will be the main venue for all mountain sports. I hope we can make to it this summer and hike around, but again, it might be under construction.
I’m trying to remember if this is an Opera house or one of the Government buildings.
This is the view on the above mentioned Chimbulak. Far away hills right under the stony part are down hill slopes.
Ships and goats going back from the mountains to their houses. Beah, Beah, Beah. This was in small village, Kok Tube, about two hours east from Almaty.
