Nursultan Nazebaev's home

Recently I have been moving too fast to keep track on my blog… So I will write about Almaty while I’m already in Bangkok. Maybe I’m becoming lazy.

Almaty. I had read many things about this place, and yet nothing could have prepared me to what I saw. Ok, this sounds maybe a little too dramatic; yet what to say when I saw about 10 different wedding processions in 2 days, each of them constituted of an enormous limousine followed by several by white Mercedes S600 (the biggest, most expensive of all Mercedes). I was also shocked by the big contest taking place in this city: the one who gets the biggest BMW or Porsche SUV! I could have been in L.A.

And the worst is that apparently 5 or 6 years ago the streets of Almaty were almost empty of cars, except for a couple of government cars and some old Ladas. Now rush hours are synonym of traffic jam.

That was the first thing I noticed. Then I went to have some food in the evening with a British guy I had met in my hotel room, and we ended up spending 15$ each for a basic meal with a local beer. And the place was packed with locals Kazakhs drinking 9$ pints of imported beer, or even mega-margaritas for 15$ a glass!!! Even in Montreal I would never spend that much money, unless it’s a special occasion. And yet the beer was flowing! And this is not particular of that restaurant we went to; all restaurants are packed the same way!

A daily situation: car crash on busy streets in Almaty, with big construction in the background

The next morning I walked around to observe the situation. I straight away noticed the many construction cranes all around, which gave me the feeling of being in Beijing. I could maybe even say that Almaty is the Shanghai of Central Asia. Zee Almaty Blast!