Asia Central Asia 2022 Kazakhstan Kyrgyzstan

Almaty to Bishkek

Almaty and Bishkek are close together, making visiting both of them (and Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan together on one trip) temptingly easy. Driving is probably the easiest way, but if you don’t have a car or the ability to drive, you can fly (super short flight; you’d spend more time at the airport than you would in the air) or bus/taxi/walking.

In the past, and maybe even now, you could/can take a bus from Almaty to Bishkek right through. From what I hear, it is convenient and comfortable. When I went though they had temporarily stopped that service, so the option was to take a bus to the border, walk across, and then take another bus. That sounded fine. I took a taxi to the huge bus station (Sayran Station) where I discovered that I had just missed the bus and the next was not for about 4 hours. I wasn’t about to spend my time sitting around, so I walked outside to where a ground of men were gathered around cars and hoped that they were taxi drivers and that one of them spoke English. They were, and they didn’t. Through a few words of Russian and a series of pointing, smiling, and nodding gestures, and writing numbers on paper, we set on a price for one of them to drive me to the border at the town of Kordai.

These are shared taxis; you can wait for others to fill up the car and pay for your seat, which is a bargain, but if you’re impatient, you can pay for all of the seats and go. Still not that expensive. That’s what I did. It cost 20,000 Tenge and took about 2.5 hours.

*mural spotted on the way out of Almaty*

The ride was pleasant and took about 2.5 hours. There wasn’t much to see. A few herds of cows and the odd monument to mark the turnoff to some other place.

*No idea what this is for, but doesn’t it look cool?*

Finally we got to the border crossing. A long line of cars and buses waited to cross, but I was walking, so I left my taxi behind, took my backpack and walked across the border, passing the cars and finding myself at the border without having to queue.

The border crossing was a wordless affair as the guard looked at me, looked at my passport, stamped it, and let me go.

*me, walking across the border to Kyrgyzstan with my backpack, a bit bedraggled but happy*

On the other side, I was descended on my predatory taxi drivers, charging too much for their services, but knowing they had me. I did overpay for the ride to my hostel, but it was still a bargain and I was not in the mood to stubbornly wait in the heat.

About 20 minutes later, my driver dropped me off at my hostel: USSR Hostel. In an old Soviet apartment block, now with a row of highly commercial shops at the bottom. USSR Hostel is really more of a shared apartment. The woman who owns it lives upstairs and the 2 bedrooms in this unit are rented out, with guests to share the washroom and kitchen facilities. My room was a cute little pink room with twin beds and a picture of Lenin on the wall. The other room had four guys from Pakistan. They didn’t speak a word of English but seemed nice and invited me to share in their dinner.

I liked this hostel. It was cheap, had a good location, and gave me a look inside one of the style of buildings I am always curious about. It was like staying in a museum or play acting what it was like to live in the USSR. It suited me just fine.

I’ll save my thoughts about Bishkek for the next post, but I’ll just say, if I’m ranking cities (I’m not and no one asked me to), Bishkek came out ahead of Almaty. More for later.

Asia Belarus/Dubai trip 2023 United Arab Emirates

Dubai Layover Part 2: Giving Dubai Another Try

I was flying back to Vancouver from Minsk and, due to the war in Ukraine and the sanctions that other countries had against Belarus, I couldn’t fly home through Europe, so my flight was taking me from Minsk to Dubai then to London and on to Vancouver. I was happy about this because it gave me an opportunity to visit Dubai, which I had never seen prior to this trip. On the way to Minsk, I had spent a shorter layover in Dubai and I had gotten out to see the city and I was largely underwhelmed. This time, I had a longer layover, and I was going to give it another shot.

I took the train from the airport into Dubai (again, super easy), but unlike last time I didn’t have to leave my bag at the airport because I had booked myself a hotel room. In truth, the layover wasn’t long enough that I was actually going to spend the night in Dubai; I was arriving early in the morning and I was leaving late at night, so it was really one long day layover, but I wanted to have a hotel room so that I could have a shower and a nap, if need be, before I went back to the airport. Fortunately, there are affordable accommodations in Dubai and the place that I stayed at, the Arabian Courtyard Hotel, was a great bargain and within walking distance to all the sites in the old Dubai historic centre. Also, it was nice; old, but atmospheric, and they upgraded my room (how could I say no?) and it was impressive.

Arabian Courtyard Hotel: My room and view

So, I started my trip there. I walked through the old Dubai historic area past some of the places that I had seen before; past the souq, which was just opening up, and along the river.

Old Dubai flowers

the Souq

I went to a café that was incredibly charming, right on the water, and had a wonderful healthy breakfast watching the boats go back and forth to the other side.

café along the river

And that’s what I did after breakfast: I hopped on one of the boats called abras and took it to the other side of the river it cost 1 Dirham (maybe 30c US) and see they seem to run constantly back and forth. It was all locals on the boat save for me. It seems to be the easiest and most practical way of getting across. On the other side there’s sort of a fancy souq and I wandered around there looking at the spices and textiles and whatnot.

crossing the river

river views

I did actually end up buying myself a black abaya with little black sparkles on it because it’s something that I had been wanting for future trips. I had a chat with the boy who was selling it (and I say boy because he said he was 16); he was a refugee from Afghanistan. A lovely kid and such a good salesman. I couldn’t help but think about what it would be like to be a refugee, but also to be refugee as a child in a foreign country and working to support yourself. Heartbreaking. (Of course, maybe it was all just a scam so that I would buy from him. I guess I’ll never know. And it really doesn’t matter because there are lots of kids who are in that situation.)

Getting beyond the souq, there’s an area full of local shops and apartments and mosques. It feels nothing like the modern part of Dubai with its shiny skyscrapers; it’s just regular buildings, regular streets, regular cafés, and regular people going about their business. It wasn’t beautiful, but I liked it so much more than shiny new Dubai.

It also it’s very multicultural. Walking around, there are stores and restaurants from places all over Africa and the Middle East and Asia. Things like Ethiopian coffee shops and Yemeni restaurants and Indian stores.

I stopped and had a simple lunch of chana dahl and chai before I carried on walking. It was very hot outside, but beautiful.

I eventually made my way back down to the river and took the boat back across. I had some shisha and juice. From there, I decided it was time to give shiny new Dubai a second try.

I got back on the metro and took and took it to the Dubai Mall stop. The Dubai Mall had bested me on my first layover. I walked in, and I got irritated and confused, and I turned around and left. But this time, I would be successful. I walked down the stupid habitrail that goes on forever from the subway stop and into the Dubai Mall and, from there, I followed the signs to the “Dubai Foutain”. It was a nightmare; I don’t like malls and this was a big bloated mall with nothing terribly remarkable in its shops wise. “Hey, look! It’s all the stores that you hate in your country, but all collected under one roof!”

The only interesting thing was, yes, there was an aquarium and, no, I didn’t pay money to go into it, but I could I did walk by, and I saw sharks and manta rays and that was kind of cool. And the Dubai Waterfall with the multiple statues of men diving (or committing suicide?) is really quite attractive.

Finally, I made my way outside, walking past a Tim Horton’s (seriously) and some other disgusting fast food chains, I emerged from the Mall. I rubbed my eyes, and there it was, glimmering and tall, the Burj Khalifa.

The Burj Khalifa is (for now, and since 2009) the world’s tallest building. It is 829.8 m (2,722 feet) tall. You can pay money to go up into it and see the view from the observation deck and do various activities, but I decided I wasn’t interested in that; I just wanted to see it. And now I have, and you know what? It’s impressive. It’s tall and pointy like an ice pick and it glitters silver. It’s something to see, but maybe not something to behold for very long.

What was more of a spectacle was all of the people crowded around taking pictures. It was really busy. I got into a small altercation with some guy when I did not take him up on his offer to take my photo when I was trying to take a selfie. Seriously, if was nice of him to offer, but I said “No, thanks.” That should have been the end of it. And that was when I was called a “bitch” in Dubai. Ah, memories.

Crowds

And the whole area is, well, a little strange. It’s very impressive. All the buildings are new and fancy and there’s a lagoon and fountains and bridges and restaurants, and there’s this delicate sort of Arabian music playing subtly in the background. It feels like you’ve stepped into some sort of modern Arabian Disneyland. I felt the same way a little bit when I was in Doha. It also could have been in South Florida, like if South Florida had built some Arabian themed subdivision and mall, it would probably look like this.

*Shiny, New Dubai around the Dubai Fountains*

But it was nice enough, so I found myself a table on a restaurant patio on the water but just out of view of the Burj Khalifa (because honestly it’s nice but I don’t need to sit and stare at it) and I sat down to have lunch and shisha. It was lovely. The shisha and food were excellent, and I got to carry on and hear and see some the buzz of the neighborhood. The buzz intensified when the fountains started in the pool just in front of the Burj Khalifa. It’s one of those dancing fountain things where music plays and fountains go on and fan around in different ways. I’ve seen this in Vegas and in Shanghai and I don’t really understand the fascination.

It was a pleasant place to spend some time. When I was finished, I walked back through the Mall. I stopped at Sephora to replace my eyeliner that had been drying out (ok maybe malls aren’t all bad) and then I took the train back to my hotel.

I had a shower and a bit of a nap at which point it was dark and I walked around Old Dubai for a little bit, doing nothing in particular before I went back to the airport and caught my flight to London.

I enjoyed this layover much more than my first one in Dubai, although I have to say my impression is: Dubai is not really my thing. Old Dubai is fine, but it’s not as lovely or interesting as the old city centres and souqs that I’ve been to in other ‘Middle Eastern’ cities, and new Dubai just isn’t my thing at all; it’s too car-centric, too sterile…it’s just not for me. But I’m glad that I saw it. That’s the great thing about the long layover: you can have a taste of a place and decide whether or not you want to come back and see more. In this case, I’m satisfied.

I was onward to London where I would have another long layover in my favourite city before returning home to Vancouver.

Asia Belarus/Dubai trip 2023 United Arab Emirates

Dubai Layover: Part One

I was flying to Belarus from Vancouver. A long journey. I had already had a layover in London (on Coronation Day) and my next layover was in Dubai. I know that doesn’t make any sense. The shortest route between London and Minsk is not the United Arab Emirates, but this was May 2023 and the war in Ukraine was ongoing. Although Belarus was not actively fighting in the war, they were supporting Russia and using their territory as a staging ground for the Russian military. As a result of this, there were embargoes by nearly every Western country against Belarus and they had cancelled all their flights. Normally, if I was flying to Belarus I could have flown through Germany, for example, but this time, the only way to get to Belarus was via Dubai.

So what this meant was, I had an excuse to go to Dubai. I’d never been to the UAE before and, honestly, I had no interest in going to Dubai for more than a long layover, so this seemed like a great opportunity. I would have two visits to Dubai on either end of this trip.

Arrival in Dubai

Map & Flag of the United Arab Emirates

I landed at the airport in Dubai and no visa was required. A great bonus. Fascinatingly, going through immigration, when they handed me back my passport, they handed it back to me with a SIM card with one gig of data on it, which was kind of amazing. I’ve never seen that in any country before. Of course, I had no interest in being online while I was there so I just left it behind for someone else to use, but what a nice welcome gift. I left my bag at a baggage storage facility at the airport and hopped on the train. I love a city where I can get on a train to go from the airport into the centre of the city. I wish all cities could have this.

The train into Dubai was in itself fascinating because I got to see all of the modern buildings. It’s an above ground train, so riding it was a little bit like being on some sort of futuristic tram ride at Disney World.

*View out the front window of the train*

Views from the trains of the Frame and the Museum of the Future

The Dubai “Maul”

I didn’t have a long time to visit so I thought that I would try to see the Burj Khalifa, the world’s tallest building. I got off the train at the Dubai Mall and from there I should have been able to walk through the mall and then exit it to be at the Burj Khalifa. I exited the train and I walked to the mall, however, the walk between the train station in the mall is incredibly long. I was above ground in this windowed tunnel walking on moving sidewalks, but there’s no way to exit and you just have to keep walking until you get to the mall. It took maybe 20 minutes of fast walking and I found it extremely frustrating. I’d come all the way to the city and now suddenly I was trapped in a tube, walking towards a mall. When I looked out at the city, I was not impressed. There were massive highways and cars everywhere and it just didn’t look like the sort of place that would be pleasant to walk at all.

*Me, in the tunnel to the Mall before I got irritated*

Views from the stupid tunnel and the only glimpse I got of the Burj Khalifa on this trip

I finally reached the mall, and I walked through it for a bit, realizing pretty quickly that I was not going to find my way out anytime soon. The mall is massive, and I got frustrated. I thought, I didn’t fly all the way to this country to spend my time lost in a mall, and so I turned around and I walked out.

I did see the Burj Khalifa on my second trip to Dubai a week later, but this time I decided to skip it.

Bur Dubai

I got back on the train, and I headed to the closest train station (Bur Jaman Station) to “Bur Dubai”, which is Old Dubai. This was much more my cup of tea. Old Dubai is not the most beautiful or picturesque of Arabic city centres, but it has its appeal.

On the edge of Bur Dubai

It has old buildings and mosques and narrow alleyways and wonderfully a Hindu temple with people outside preparing flower and food.

Near the Hindu Temple

I then made my way out to the water (Dubai Creek) and there’s a waterway that separates the city in two parts. I would, on my second visit to Dubai, go across to the other side, but this time my layover was a little shorter so I just stayed where I was.

Around the Bur Dubai souq

I walked around, had some fresh juice, and chatted with some local merchants.

I then plunked myself down at a table by the water and smoked some shisha and had a bite to eat. It was very pleasant. A young travel and fashion influencer from Saudi Arabia came and sat with me for a while and talked about her travels with her family. And then I just sat with myself smoking and watching the people go by.

Shisha and juice by the water

Finally I got back on the train and went back to the airport. I was pretty satisfied with my layover, even if I had been defeated by the Dubai Mall. I wasn’t that impressed with the little I saw of Dubai, but it was pleasant to go to the city it was interesting to be somewhere new, and somewhere that was completely different from London (to place I’d come from (and Minsk (the place that was going to), but I wasn’t that taken with Dubai. The new buildings are just … big new buildings, and the city does not seem very conducive to walking. The old section is nice, but there are much nicer places to go to see have that sort of old Arabic city experience. I will say that my second visit to Dubai would prove to be much better and I will write about that at a later time.

There were no issues getting back to the airport or getting onto the plane. I spent some time at a fabulous lounge at the airport and then I was off to my final destination: Minsk, Belarus.

Asia Asian capital trip 2023 Japan

Goodbye, 3D Cat: My final day in Tokyo

Good Morning, Goth Girl

I spent my third night in Tokyo (but my first sleeping in my bookstore hostel bunk). I awoke to my third day in Japan realizing that I would leave in the later afternoon. I had done so much in my first two days in Tokyo. I felt satisfied but I also realized it was a place that merited a very long visit to really see the city and to get even a good understanding of it. Months. Maybe years. But I didn’t have that long. I had hours. I showered and scarfed down the complimentary breakfast at the hotel: an ink black dyed bread sandwich with a strawberry and whipped cream filling washed down with a latte dyed black to match the sandwich. I assure you: this is not my customary breakfast, and, despite my appearance, I would not normally pick out a goth-looking breakfast. This is Tokyo, not missing a moment to surprise me.

A cemetery wander

I hadn’t been to a single museum or gallery in Tokyo. Normally I will visit a couple, but I had so little time and I wanted to spend my time walking. (I will have to return just to see museums and galleries.)

I made sort of meandering path over to Yanaka cemetery on foot. It seemed like a nice stroll and who doesn’t love a cemetery walk on a grey day?

I left Shinjuku and made my way. It was pleasant, if not remarkable. I passed some different looking buildings and some small shrines, many with pink blossoms stretching open. I walked down a couple of narrow alley ways and sneaked peeks at wooden buildings and their serene courtyards.

The streets were quiet. It was raining just a little and people must have been at work. It felt peaceful.

The cemetery itself (Yanaka Reien aka Yanaka Bochi) was virtually empty. It started to rain, so I did not linger long, but still enjoyed my walk among the tombstones and shrines.

I wandered back to Shinjuku where I had a final bowl of ramen.

Costs. An aside.

A word about the expense of being in Japan. Ever since I was little, I heard about how expensive Tokyo is. $200 for a lunch. $500 a night for accommodations. That sort of thing. I am not about to tell you that Tokyo is a budget destination…but it isn’t extraordinarily expensive. I’m Canadian, which means my currency buys me far less than US dollars, Euros, or British Pounds, and still I found Tokyo affordable.

My two centrally located, atmospheric hostels were over my usual budget, but were still less than $100/cdn a night (and there are far cheaper places to stay). My meals cost me less in Tokyo than in Vancouver. The food and drink prices were the same or lower and there is no added tax and no need for a tip. (Tax and tips in Vancouver add an extra 33%, assuming a 20% tip.). The subway was cheap and convenient. I spent most of my sightseeing just walking around and gawking at the city, which is free. Again, not cheap; but far from exorbitant. Don’t be afraid of the expense of Japan. (Be afraid of the expense of Switzerland.)

Sayonara, 3D Cat

I went for a final walk about Shinjuku and then checked out of my hotel and walked to the Shinjuku train station.

That train station is a bit tricky with its many entrances, and I knew if I took the wrong one I would never find my hostel, so I always made sure to exit from the same door, which was across the street from 3D cat – a stories-high 3D cat. It meows, sleeps, stretches, and lazily gazes at the people below. Sometimes it wears a little police hat. Why? I don’t know, but it served as my reassuring landmark every time I exited Shinjuku station. I gave the cat a final look and entered the station. (I wish I could say that I gave the cat a final nod as I left, but I didn’t. I am not in the habit of nodding at cats, real or virtual.)

I took the train from Shinjuku station; a very easy and efficient way to get to the airport (Haneda).

Tokyo was amazing. I was happy to have been surprised and, at times, challenged by it. I really want to go back and see more of Japan. I know there are so many things to experience. I’m even thinking about how I could easily fly there for a long weekend, just to eat perfect strawberries, smoke cigars in the coolest bar, and enjoy and the peculiarities.

I flew home by way of Los Angeles and Seattle. And so ended my Asian capital ‘whistle stop tour’ that had started in Manila 11 days prior.

I usually feel a little sad when a trip ends, but this time I had the comfort of knowing that the next month I would be in Oslo.

Wandering North

Almaty to Bishkek

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Arrival in Dubai

The Dubai “Maul”

Bur Dubai

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Good Morning, Goth Girl

A cemetery wander

Costs. An aside.

Sayonara, 3D Cat

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