The living room... carpeted walls and all.
The bedroom, complete with two twin-sized concrete slabs.Room and Stuff
When we arrived we were shown 2 rooms across the hall from each other. The first room was actually a suite of rooms. You are thinking “nice” right? Not really. We were told that it smells like the food being cooked in the kitchen below. We then went across the hall to another room. This one was slightly more outdated (like 1960) but it had a fridge. So we opted for the one with the fridge. Our room actually has 3 rooms and an entryway. When you enter there is the bathroom (toilet room) on the right. Ahead is the living room with a TV, couch, and coffee table. To the right of the living room is an extra room. It has a couch and a love seat but not much else. We have just closed the door to this room to keep it a bit warmer inside. We think it is supposed to be a dining room, but no table. To the left of the living area is the bedroom. When we first arrived the beds were arranged as twin beds. It reminded us of Leave it to Beaver. The housekeeping put the beds together for us so now we have a king. The first night the bed felt great because we were so tired. Last night we noticed that they are really hard, like rock hard. We also have a small wardrobe in the room. Off the bedroom is our shower room. We have a separate shower and bath, but I don’t think I really want to use that bathtub. It has definitely seen better days, like in 1960.
The hotel has a dining room where you can get a breakfast buffet for around $10 each. We have chosen to buy our breakfast items at a little store across the street. It is a lot cheaper that way. The restaurant also has dinner which is pretty reasonably priced and has been good so far. There is also a business center with free high speed internet. There is a computer guy named Illya (sp?) who speaks very good English and can help you get hooked up.
We haven’t ventured to any restaurants outside of the hotel except a small one across the street called Aral. We went there for lunch today. Quentin had shashlik and fried sausage with potatoes. I had a dish called Chinese Lagman. It looked like homemade noodles with meat and sauce. I think it was beef but I am not sure. It was pretty good though. Quentin really wanted to try the shashlik and said it was good. The fried sausages were basically hotdogs. And he got mashed potatoes with them. We shared a liter of Coke. All of this cost us about $9. They have an English menu and as soon as we walked in the door, the waitress took one look at us and went to find it. Apparently we look like we don’t speak Russian.
We have to mention that driving around (or walking around) Kazakhstan is rather interesting. There doesn’t appear to be any lines to indicate lanes. Drivers pretty much make up their own lanes. What would be 2 lanes of traffic at home becomes 3-4 lanes here. They will use their horns a lot. At first it is a friendly “beep-beep”, then if you don’t move fast enough they lay it on. You get the feeling that if you don’t move they will hit you. We haven’t seen anyone get hit, they’ve seemed smart enough to get out of the way. We should have witnessed or been in several accidents by now, but everyone seems to be used to the crazy driving.
We went to the Gros yesterday to buy a hairdryer since I blew mine up. Gros has groceries on the main floor and upstairs is the “Technodome.” We headed upstairs for the hairdryer. Lynda and Wayne had mentioned that buying something there was a several step process. First you flag down a worker in an orange shirt. They write up a ticket and walk you over to a table where they “prove” that the item works. Then they write up a guarantee. Then you go to the cashier to buy the item. Then you take your receipt to a table next to the stairs and they bag your product. We forgot the last step and set off the alarm. It is a little uncomfortable setting off an alarm in a former Soviet country. The bagger/security guy just took the blowdryer, marked our receipt and bagged it for us. Then we tried to shop for groceries. We were stopped before we could get past the registers and shown that we had to lock up our bags in a locker. Apparently they have a shoplifting problem. Quentin and I then wandered the aisles looking for stuff we could take back to our hotel to snack on. After a bit we noticed we were being followed by security. There were probably at least 5 security guys there. The store was pretty small. So every aisle or so we would run into one. Then when we went to pay I had to go get our money out of our bag in the locker. They still would not let me take the bag to the checkout counter, so I took our money out and locked up the bag again. We were able to pay by credit card upstairs, but apparently the credit card machine downstairs wasn’t working. They also have an ATM in Gros. We have seen several ATMs and banks along the street our hotel is on. On the basement level of Gros you can find clothing. We did not go down there this trip, but will check it out next time.
One interesting thing about the security guards is that if you make eye contact they will stare you down. They are being very clear that they are watching you. It can be a bit intimidating. But I am guessing that is what their goal is.
When we arrived we were shown 2 rooms across the hall from each other. The first room was actually a suite of rooms. You are thinking “nice” right? Not really. We were told that it smells like the food being cooked in the kitchen below. We then went across the hall to another room. This one was slightly more outdated (like 1960) but it had a fridge. So we opted for the one with the fridge. Our room actually has 3 rooms and an entryway. When you enter there is the bathroom (toilet room) on the right. Ahead is the living room with a TV, couch, and coffee table. To the right of the living room is an extra room. It has a couch and a love seat but not much else. We have just closed the door to this room to keep it a bit warmer inside. We think it is supposed to be a dining room, but no table. To the left of the living area is the bedroom. When we first arrived the beds were arranged as twin beds. It reminded us of Leave it to Beaver. The housekeeping put the beds together for us so now we have a king. The first night the bed felt great because we were so tired. Last night we noticed that they are really hard, like rock hard. We also have a small wardrobe in the room. Off the bedroom is our shower room. We have a separate shower and bath, but I don’t think I really want to use that bathtub. It has definitely seen better days, like in 1960.
The hotel has a dining room where you can get a breakfast buffet for around $10 each. We have chosen to buy our breakfast items at a little store across the street. It is a lot cheaper that way. The restaurant also has dinner which is pretty reasonably priced and has been good so far. There is also a business center with free high speed internet. There is a computer guy named Illya (sp?) who speaks very good English and can help you get hooked up.
We haven’t ventured to any restaurants outside of the hotel except a small one across the street called Aral. We went there for lunch today. Quentin had shashlik and fried sausage with potatoes. I had a dish called Chinese Lagman. It looked like homemade noodles with meat and sauce. I think it was beef but I am not sure. It was pretty good though. Quentin really wanted to try the shashlik and said it was good. The fried sausages were basically hotdogs. And he got mashed potatoes with them. We shared a liter of Coke. All of this cost us about $9. They have an English menu and as soon as we walked in the door, the waitress took one look at us and went to find it. Apparently we look like we don’t speak Russian.
We have to mention that driving around (or walking around) Kazakhstan is rather interesting. There doesn’t appear to be any lines to indicate lanes. Drivers pretty much make up their own lanes. What would be 2 lanes of traffic at home becomes 3-4 lanes here. They will use their horns a lot. At first it is a friendly “beep-beep”, then if you don’t move fast enough they lay it on. You get the feeling that if you don’t move they will hit you. We haven’t seen anyone get hit, they’ve seemed smart enough to get out of the way. We should have witnessed or been in several accidents by now, but everyone seems to be used to the crazy driving.
We went to the Gros yesterday to buy a hairdryer since I blew mine up. Gros has groceries on the main floor and upstairs is the “Technodome.” We headed upstairs for the hairdryer. Lynda and Wayne had mentioned that buying something there was a several step process. First you flag down a worker in an orange shirt. They write up a ticket and walk you over to a table where they “prove” that the item works. Then they write up a guarantee. Then you go to the cashier to buy the item. Then you take your receipt to a table next to the stairs and they bag your product. We forgot the last step and set off the alarm. It is a little uncomfortable setting off an alarm in a former Soviet country. The bagger/security guy just took the blowdryer, marked our receipt and bagged it for us. Then we tried to shop for groceries. We were stopped before we could get past the registers and shown that we had to lock up our bags in a locker. Apparently they have a shoplifting problem. Quentin and I then wandered the aisles looking for stuff we could take back to our hotel to snack on. After a bit we noticed we were being followed by security. There were probably at least 5 security guys there. The store was pretty small. So every aisle or so we would run into one. Then when we went to pay I had to go get our money out of our bag in the locker. They still would not let me take the bag to the checkout counter, so I took our money out and locked up the bag again. We were able to pay by credit card upstairs, but apparently the credit card machine downstairs wasn’t working. They also have an ATM in Gros. We have seen several ATMs and banks along the street our hotel is on. On the basement level of Gros you can find clothing. We did not go down there this trip, but will check it out next time.
One interesting thing about the security guards is that if you make eye contact they will stare you down. They are being very clear that they are watching you. It can be a bit intimidating. But I am guessing that is what their goal is.
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