Sunday at Turgen Park, Kazakhstan
I went on the bus trip arranged by the travel agent in Kazakhstan, it was one of those serendipitous trips that I seem to have a knack of falling into. After a brisk walk of four blocks, I waited for the bus with many others, in what was a chill wind
The bus arrived on time and filled quickly with those waiting, mostly a lot of young people and several slightly older folks. Headed towards the snowcapped mountains that are such a feature here,it was great seeing them get closer. The tour guide went through the bus checking on everyone, realising I was an English speaker she introduced me to the rest of the passengers, apparently one young lady must have volunteered to translate for me for the rest of the day , and she was most kind, and it was lovely to have a translator on hand.
The entire group of people bent over backwards to help. The tour guide of course, gave the entire commentary in Kazak, which along with Russian are the official languages.
The first stop was to see a ‘Golden ‘Man ‘ replica, it rates highly amongst the Kazakhs, I missed the first photo op of the day by leaving my camera on the bus which had moved to a park much further down the road. The kindness of the young folk meant I had photos taken with promises to email them on to me. The Golden man was on one of the higher points of the park we stopped at, so we wandered down to a water supply from a pristine pool that had been given pipes to channel the water into bottles. Indeed while we were there, a family arrived holding at least 3-4 huge water bottles each, all to be filled. Every one delighted in tasting fresh water as it is only drinkable out of bottles here, and if the source is a bit suspect, like a street seller tampering with the bottles, may cause sickness.
We moved on down the road with the glorious mountains on our right and a river and wilderness to the left. In many ways it reminded me of the South Island in New Zealand.
Reaching the end of the road , everyone planned on seeing a waterfall. Unfortunately not knowing where I was going or doing meant I was inappropriately dressed for hiking and climbing so after giving it a go, I decided safety was more important and returned to the park. There were places to sit and enjoy lunch if you were lucky, it was a very busy place. I was tickled to see a flat deck truck with 2ft sides with a horse tethered on it, fully saddled drive by! Despite the huge numbers of people there were no toilets open for use, and on a Sunday, which I found very strange. So it did necessitate a bush walk after I had asked the guide. where to find the toilets using sign language!
A couple of hours later finds us all parking at a trout fish farm. This is where you catch your fish ,and they cook them. Not a fish eater I sat and watched as they were consumed piece by piece except for the eyes and the bones! I was interested watching the public all gathered around an artificial lake trying to catch the fish. There was almost a gala air about it! A walk showed many other ponds being prepared for the event in the days or weeks to come. The river alongside will have provided the water for the enterprise. A big house on the hill above with many horses, suggests it is probably a profitable one.
I enjoyed lunch(without the food) in the company of some russian and kazakh ladies who had asked if I would like to join them. There were Coca cola tents with chairs and tables beneath them for sitting around. The wind still proving to be a little cool, unfortunately.The men could choose to use the dining arrangements of lying around on carpeted floors of Kazakh built frames for that purpose. I understood the ladies to say only men could use those , women were not allowed. Along with the fishing there were many horses for those who wished to ride, or give the children a ride. I felt the condition of some animals was not as good as it could have been. It was a popular spot to go on a Sunday afternoon and one I certainly did enjoy, more for the atmosphere than the food!
Next it was on to an ostrich farm, that was very interesting for an ex farmer. The owner did insist that I stay and hear all about them, in his language! I tried looking interested for as long as possible, but after twenty minutes I gave up.Certainly the set up was an interesting one, cottage enterprise at its best. He had a few deer as well as the ostriches, round the corner, cages with rabbits. I don’t doubt what their future will be, you don’t let rabbits breed unless there is a pot to fill. Toilet stop again ,but this time surprisingly with a western toilet,thank goodness. There was a huge range of machinery there as well, so either he farms a lot of land or contracts out to other farmers.
While Mr was busy with the stock and telling about the African ostriches , Mrs had been busy cooking for a bus load of tourists, making tea and coffee, all for a price of course, which I didn’t think was unreasonable, There was plenty of Kazakh food there for everyone to eat and as it was close to dinner most took advantage of the genuine home cooking.
The drive home was equally interesting and very pretty, With the mountains now on my side of the bus they appeared to hang in the hazy sky in all their snow covered glory. In the fields below the fresh green of new shoots growing in the spring weather made beautiful memories, and perhaps a little bout of homesickness for our supposedly clean green NZ.
The traffic terrors while much reduced from Asia, continued on a smaller scale. I was horrified and I suspect the others were as well to see a little ?2yearold wandering onto the fast and busy road. A youngster running at full speed to get to the baby before there was a tragedy, but will never know the outcome, but I do hope it was a good one
Someone changing a tire in the middle of a 3 lane fast highway would just not happen in New Zealand, but the guy was oblivious to the hooting and screeching brakes around him. Add in donkeys pulling carts, potato sellers with their wares,it became an edge of the seat experience .and one I was amazed by, especially to get off the bus in one piece, fifteen minutes later !
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