Kazakhstan at First Sight Pt. 2

After lunch, Heath, Nate, Adamou (the translating teammate) and I took an impromptu trip to Almaty for the rest of the day.  They haven't been to explore the city yet since they've been in Kapshagay so it was exciting that we all got to do it together.  By explore, I mean we hit all three shopping malls in the city!  For the guys, it probably was refreshing to get a different scenery.  I know for sure Heath and Nate loved that they were closer to American food.

There are some official taxi cars here, but people with cars don't mind acting like they are a taxi service.    I wouldn't say it's the safest thing, and I would never go alone.  Fortunately Adamou was with us so we followed his lead.  We took a "taxi" for 45 minutes into Almaty.  The great thing is that for four passengers, it cost us less than $10 for the entire ride.

I was only in the country for less than 24 hours, but noticed dramatic differences between the two cities.  Although Almaty housed the malls, large grocery stores and the nightlife, I didn't notice much cultural identity there.  It was just a city with smaller roads, a lot of traffic and busybodies.  Kapshagay had much more personality!  Follow my adventure in Almaty with the pictures below.  Enjoy!

MALL ONE: I forgot the name!

First stop: the Nike outlet of course!

Chicken Express fast food.  I really wanted to try their spicy chicken sandwich, but I just ate a few hours ago.  Can't wait to go back!  This little mall was moreso a shopping center, so there weren't very many stores.  All of their malls include a grocery store.

En route to the second mall in yet another unofficial "taxi".  Notice the lights in Almaty have a countdown.  I think it was 30 seconds at each red light.  Traffic in the city is horrible!  The whole country is made up of crazy, angry drivers- haha.

You don't see this scenery in Oklahoma or Texas.

MALL TWO: MEGA

Their version of the Apple store.  And nope, they didn't get the new iPhones yet! 

Cinnabon! 

Someone's excited for some American food!

Everything is in Russian, but I was so proud that I could make out my favorite ice cream flavor that I had to have some.  Yummy Jamoca!

All Russian movies!

At $4 USD for a baby scoop, this may be my last time to ever have Baskin Robbins out of the states.

MALL THREE: A-SENTI

Notice the difference in malls... this mall was definitely the alpha mall of the city.  I couldn't sell enough body parts to buy some of the stuff here.

Every store in the malls (even the other two) had security guards.

We were laughing when we saw Texas Chicken because the logo was exactly like Church's Chicken.  Come to find out that Texas Chicken was the Russian chain of Church's Chicken.  They were all from the same company.

Heath and I shared a personal pan pizza and a fried chicken combo.  We had to take full advantage of this food before we went back to Kapshagay! 

It was a great full first day in the new country.  Lucky me, I still got to have some American food as soon as I got here.  Pending post about my eating frenzy before I left the states.  I was very tired come 8 PM and ended up falling asleep on the way back to Kapshagay.  I went to bed very early and woke up even earlier.  I can't wait to get on a normal sleeping schedule!  Check back for Part 3 on my second day in Kapshagay, and my adventures shopping like a local.



Until next time,