Senem & Altan’s visit to Almaty

Mr and Mrs Dundar decided to leave their warm country during Eid Mubarek break and to come to Almaty not to forget how the winter is. We had great time during 4 days, partying hard, tasting Kazakh and Uzbek cuisine including Horse Meat and Horse Milk (Kymyz), visiting Big Lake, a city tour, sisha at home, etc. More importantly, it was great to host my friends in Almaty. Now it is my turn to visit them in Dubai which is already scheduled for March 8th, 2012. Blog post will follow after my trip:)

Almaty Metro opens finally

Almaty’s long-waited Metro has been opened on December 1st, 2011. The construction began back in 1988 and couldn’t be completed till now due to financial problems triggered by the collapse of the Soviet Union. Currently, the 1st line has been opened which has 7 stops on a 8.5km distance. Luckily, Almaly stop is just 50 meters from my home and I took the chance to see the metro today.

Mainly, people are visiting the metro just to try and to take pictures. It’s kind of a family activity for the weekend to stop in every station and take pictures. It’s understandable given the fact that they waited for 23 years. It is a newer and cleaner version of Moscow Metro: Really under the ground – very steep and long stair-access to the trains, different decoration and nice drawings in every station.

After my short trip between Abai and Zhibek Zholy, I had an interesting experience with the police. I was stopped by one of the police when I was taking a picture near the entrance. I was asked to provide my passport. He asked me where I was working (I understood easily with my excellent Russian knowledge). After 10 minutes, I ended up providing my business card, since he didn’t understand my fluent accent:) Then we switched to Kazakh-Turkish and agreed that we are both “Brothers”.

Like most of the Almaty residents, I tried the metro today and took pictures. And like most of them I’m not planning to use it regularly. I hope the remaining lines are opened soon and the metro becomes primary transportation vehicle which will ease the traffic and decrease the air pollution.

R.I.P. ‘Ordinarius’ Lefter Kucukandonyadis

I have never watched Lefter alive. All the things I know about him are based on some photos in the newspapers, stories being told about him on TV, limited black-white video highlights of some games. Still, he was a football legend and he earned everbody’s respect and love in Turkey not only by his football skills but also his solid personality! Unfortunately this legend has passed away on January 13th! Rest in Peace “Ordinarius”! This country and Fenerbahce owes you a big thanks for all the legendary mmoments you left behind for us. More importantly, maybe we owe you an apology for all the cruelty we caused for you and for all Greeks in the past!

Below are nice articles published today in Radikal Newspaper by different columnists. One of my favorite is about Denktas-Lefter written by Gokce Aytulu. It was ironic that Lefter, who was Greek by etnicity and who became a legend in Turkish Football history and National Team, passed away the same day with Rauf Denktas, former President of Turkish Republic of North Cyprus, who fought against Greek people in Cyprus and his politics caused many pressures in the Greek ethnics in Turkey. It was a clear example of the dilemmas we are used to see these days.

Check the articles below published on Radikal today:
Gokce Aytulu – Leftersiz Yillarin Yildiziydi Denktas

Final notes to Lefter from Radikal columnists

Also you can check Wikipedia for more information about the “Ordinarius”: Link

Parliamentary Elections in Kazakhstan

A Parliamentary election has been held in Kazakhstan today. The result is known before it’s announced: Nur Otan, which is the current ruling party led by the President Nursultan Nazarbayev, is expected to win.

The early election is important since it’s intended to move to a Multiparty system. This can be considered as a pre-emptive action against Arap Spring’s influcence in the country. Although this is a move towards a more democratic parliament, all the steps were taken in the execution to ensure Nur Otan’s absolute ruling: “Of the seven parties running in Sunday’s election besides Nur Otan, six are closely affiliated with the government. The government has disqualified from the ballot the co-chairman of the only bona fide opposition party in the running. Two parties were not allowed to compete at all.” (For details pls read the article on NY Times)

In the past weeks, I talked to some of my friends here. Almost all of them doesn’t want to or doesn’t plan to vote in the elections since they think that the result is known or maybe they don’t have a better alternative among candidates. More worrying thing for me was that these people that I know are at their early 20s who are expected to design the future of the country. They are not very optimistic about a chnage in the political system soon and they are not willing to take an activist role to initiate the change. I still wonder if the results would change if all these people would vote in a fair election environment.

To see the voting environment, I have been to a school today. Unfortunately I can’t share any pictures since I wasn’t allowed to take. The only different thing I recognized was the balloons used for the decoration of the room.

Singing Sand Dunes in Altyn Emel National Park

After having the 1st round table on Friday night, we travelled to Singing Sand Dunes in Altyn Emel National Park. Although in all the tourist guide books it’s said that it’s only 180 km away from Almaty, we drove 300 kms to reach the dunes. The road is not the best (or normal highway in Kazakshatn) and the last 50 km of the road is in the steppes. It was fun to drive 4×4 in the steppes. You can only enter to the National Park with the official tourist guide after paying a huge entrance fee. For locals, they charge 600 KZT (4 USD), 4400 KZT (30 USD) for foreigners . After some negotiation, we got a discount for Turkish and I paid 2500 KZT.

However, it was definitely worth it! The dunes are amazing – standing in the steppes between mountains and Kapchagai Lake! It was not singing since it was not dry but instead we sang at the peak with Ukulele. On the way back down the peak, we slided down and then it started to sing which sounded more like farting:)

We were also prepared to have a picnic – we had our own barbeque and sisha and we already bought sashlik meat before we left Almaty. The only thing was to find a proper place. Our guide took us to a home of some locals living in the National Park. They were so kind to offer their garden and the table to us. We had great time playing with their dogs, smoking sisha and having a delicious sashlik!

It was a long day trip driving 600 kms after partying on Friday but it was a must see in Kazakhstan!

1st ESTIEM Alumni Round Table in Almaty

3 Finnish ESTIEMers, Mikko, Terro, Joona, come to Kazakhstan after 42 days of traveling! While they camp in Aral Sea they remember that one ESTIEMer from Almaty gave a call to Terro last year just before CM Helsinki! Mikko remembers him and sends a message on Facebook informing that they will be in Almaty in 2-3 days! That’s how the unplanned 1st ever ESTIEM Alumni Round Table / Activity Week in Almaty starts!

Yacht Tour – Marmaris

It has been again a while since my last post! So some of the following posts will be about the past 2 months!

To start with I had one of the best vacations this summer! Idea was born in one of the nights in Istanbul with friends – sail for a week in the summer! It was difficult to arrange a perfect plan which fits into 14 people’s calendar especially when these people live in 5 different countries! But everybody was committed and surprisingly we arranged everything well in advance! Master of planning was Onur!

So 14 friends – original gurmeyan crew and the new recruits – met in Marmaris to get on the yacht of Dursun Reis! 8 days, 7 nights full of nice memories – swimming in the best bays, perfect Turkish cuisine prepared by Huseyin the chef – containing kilos of garlic and onion, enjoying wine in the evening and raki every night, smoking sisha, not very successful attempts in fishing, swimming at night, sleeping outside, enjoying the great view before going to sleep, listening to chorus of snoring Erinc and Altan, celebrating birthdays, anniversaries, wedding to come, and many more!..

Thanks to everyone who made it unforgettable!…

My New Car

In my previous post, I mentioned about my ‘lovely’ Subaru Legacy. Finally I got my new car in Almaty – Chevrolet Captiva. It’s time to try and enjoy SUV:)

Big Almaty Lake Trip

Last weekend, I drove to the mountains and ended up discovering the Big Almaty Lake (Bolshoe Almatinskoe Lake). It’s surrounded by three mountain peaks: Soviet (4317 m), Ozerniy (4110 m) and Tourist (3954 m) and it sits about 2500 m above sea level. The view was stunning. I’ll definitely visit again especially in winter.

Kazakh Wedding #2

Videos from the Kazakh Wedding

Kazakh (Robot) Dance

Traditional Kazakh Dance

Sending off the bride on Ak Jol – White Road