2 “rest days” in Almaty… largely ruined by excessive consumption of whisky on the first night.
Yesterday – blurrily visited some museums, a couple of pubs, and had a team dinner. And – lost my phone.
Rather than lots of taxis – many locals operate as an unofficial taxi service – pulling over and offering a lift if your destination is on their way, and you name a reasonable price. My phone somehow left my pocket, and landed in one such “taxi”… but we finally managed to get an answer from calling it earlier this evening – and hopefully, it will be at the hotel reception in a few hours.
Other than that – not much to report on Almaty. No photos (the only ones I had were on the phone). Some reasonable museums – the State Museum, including lots of stuff on the Kazakh guy who apparently led the final assault on Reichstag, or some such; and then 4 museums in one – the Museum of Rare Books, of Paleantology, of Archeology, and of Kazakh Science. With an excellent foyer built for a perfect acoustic effect of a single crystal-clear echo for every noise. Sounds boring – but it filled me with child-like glee at the time.
So – main point of this post – I will almost certainly have no internet access for at least tomorrow (camping), and possibly the next couple of days.