Den' Rozhdeniya, part II

(Den' Rozhdeniya = Birthday)

My doorbell rang around 7:30, and there stood my friends with their son, also carrying a bouquet of flowers and gifts. I was told that the lovely pair of silver and blue flower earrings and matching necklace was from them, the flowers were from Steve, and the card (featuring a stout little dog with his tongue hanging out) was from Pookie! :) How sweet.

Then we went to a Chinese restaurant near the ginormous, Soviet-esque Almaty theatre, circus, and new Hyatt. I enjoyed my 0,6 liter bottle of Tsingtao and the food very much. No American-i-fied Chinese food here. We had cow stomach, among other more pedestrian choices like bean sprouts, spinach, Chinese seafood soup, and the like. The toasts were flowing, with them wishing me a long life, good health, much happiness, and our celebrating more birthdays together. After several hours of conversation, we realized it was nearly midnight and had a lovely long stroll back to my place.

On the walk back home, we passed one of the camels. No, not a real-life camel. As with the crabs of Baltimore and the cows of Chicago, Almaty has camels decorated by local artists and scattered throughout the city.

I went to bed tired and happy. It had truly been a lovely day full of surprises, kind words, and kind sentiments that helped take my mind off of being so very far away from home and those that I love on a special day.

This last shot is a view from the restaurant: the partially obscured white glowing dome with the green body and yellow tip on the left is the circus, and you can see the mountains in the background. Some newer buildings are also visible. Almaty is experiencing a huge construction boom, and the difference between these sleek, modern, glass-and-steel buildings and the hulking Soviet behemoths is jarring. I'll get some shots of some good Soviet architecture when I get back.

Saturday I am off to Ashgabat, Turkmenistan for 8 days. Don't know how much posting is going to happen from there, so I may be taking a brief hiatus from blogging if access isn't widely available. Look out for future posts about 110+ temps and what a crazy dictator can do to a nation...