26 Oct – Yesterday my friend Meriah and I visited the infamous and enormous Baraholka clothing bazaar in Almaty. I was on a mission for a warm winter coat; she needed boots. Everyone we spoke with, including staff, other volunteers, and locals, all said that this bazaar is extremely busy and pick-pocketing is a problem. Other things to watch out for: look over every inch of the item you want to purchase, check all seams carefully, ask lots of questions, bargain on the price, and pray that you walk away with a quality item that you didn’t pay too much for. Despite all of that, this is the place to purchase any sort of clothing item.


The warmest coat that can be purchased is all fur. We did not see any of these, but I did not want one either. A bit too frilly for me. The next best thing is a sheep skin coat, which is really soft on the inside and withstands the wind well. This is what I was after.


To our amazement, the bazaar was not crowded as expected. It was a Saturday and a national holiday, but the weather was awful (extremely cold and rainy). We used this to our advantage and were able to complete our mission in less than two hours.


The first coat stall we stopped at had some very lovely coats. I found a sheep skin coat with rabbit fur around the hood and wrists. It was gorgeous and fit very well. But it was 30,000 Tenge!! (120 TG/$1 USD) A bit more than I wanted to pay, and a nicer coat than I really need. They had another coat that fit equally well. It had a different type of fur, but also had fur all the way around the bottom of the coat. This one was quite a bit cheaper, but I wasn’t digging the fur on the bottom. That was just a bit much.


We browsed through some more stalls and finally found another one with a decent selection of the kind I was after. I looked through a stack of coats on a table and passed them up because I didn’t like the colors; some were down-right hideous. Then Meriah saw one hanging near the top of the stall and she suggested I try it on. It was dark brown and also had fur around the hood and wrists. The fur was a reddish color and black! I was quite leery of the color, actually. But I tried it on and kind of liked it! It fit well and the price was good. The attendant suggested I try on another, a navy blue one of similar style. This one didn’t fit so well, and I didn’t care for the blue. I tried on the brown one again and realized this was the same color as one I had seen stacked on the table. The color of the fur was not nearly so obnoxious when I tried it on. After a short deliberation with Meriah, I realized that I may as well go for it. After all, I am in Kazakhstan. This is a new, fun adventure and I may as well have a fun coat to go with it. After minimal negotiating and a final price of 9,000 Tenge, I am now the proud owner of a dark brown sheep skin coat with red and black fur!! My host family liked it and thought the price was great.


We also find boots for Meriah after a bit more searching. Her host-mom was pleased with her purchase also.


I wanted to purchase knee-high boots, which I have always wanted but have never owned. I thought I may as well have some sassy new boots to match the sassy new coat. This did not work out, though. I did try on a couple of pairs but didn’t care for the fit of either. And Meriah’s foot proved to be difficult to fit. Because of that, it was getting late in the day, and it was cold and miserable, so I focused on helping her find a suitable pair. I’ll continue looking for a pair at a later date.


Having accomplished our mission, the most difficult part of the day turned out to be the trip home. As I mentioned, it was raining. When we exited the bazaar, a city bus headed to our bus station was right there so we jumped on. Unfortunately it was closing time for much of the bazaar and everyone was trying to exit at once. We spent nearly an hour on that bus, stuck in traffic, before we could finally move at a normal pace. Lesson learned: walk to the entrance of the bazaar to board a bus and try not to leave at closing time. It took us an hour and a half to return to our bus station. normally the trip takes 20 minutes!!


Today the staff arranged for us to go to Charyn Canyon, due east of Almaty and probably about 50 miles from China. The forecase called for 4° C and snow. We were determined to go anyway, although it did keep some volunteers home. The trip takes about 2 1/2 hours from our training site. Along the way we saw many gorgeous mountains with lots of snow. It rained and snowed most of the way there. The dirt road to the canyon was in horrible shape. I have no idea how long it was, (a few kilometers), but it was the worst washboard I have ever experienced. My fellow volunteers called them bumps in the road, and many had never experienced such a thing. It was horrible washboard, no doubt about it. (Maybe that’s just a Kansas/Oklahoma phrase, and I wasn’t with anybody from the central U.S.)


We parked at the edge of the canyon and took pictures before descending on foot. It is really beautiful and very interesting. There was no water where we were, which seemed peculiar and there was a road that had obviously been there a while. We walked a couple of kilometers and finally found the water. It was a strange light blue/green color that I don’t think I have ever seen before. Meriah said it was glacier water. I did put my hand in it and it was quite cold. We hiked along the river quuite a ways, and spent over two hours in the canyon before we had to head back.


I took lots and lots of pictures. One of these days when I have some spare time (probably in the dead of winter when I’m in the midst of a blizzard) I will figure out how to add photos to this blog and share the canyon with you!


We were told that Charyn Canyon is the second deepest canyon in the world, next to the Grand Canyon. After the visit I am not entirely convinced this is a fact. It was not nearly as deep as I anticipated. I think it can take hours to descend the Grand Canyon, yet it took us only a few minutes at the Charyn. I find it hard to believe there is not at least one canyon in between the two depths of these somewhere in the world. During that blizzard after I learn how to add photos to this blog, I’ll have to research canyons a bit!


Thankfully the sun appeared and the canyons cleared nicely while we were in the canyon. When we returned to the top we could see snow-covered mountains in several directions, which we could not see upon arrival. It was all really beautiful. I am so happy that we continued asking the staff about this trip to make it happen. It had been discussed time and time again and there was difficulty in finding a bus and driver, but finally they came through.