Hotel Zhambyl and other information on living in Taraz

Hotel Zhambyl and other information on living in Taraz
By Kara


I wanted to write a bit about our stay at the Hotel Zhambyl. When we arrived we were given a choice of two rooms. We chose a suit of 3 rooms. It has a living area with a TV, an extra living space with a sofa and loveseat, and a bedroom. The floor is hardwood with a large area rug in each room. The floor is old and rather dirty in the corners and along the edges and if you step in certain areas the floor goes down. The walls are carpeted with a blue and orange material with wooden diamonds in the center of orange circles. Very 1960s. We have large windows in every room with curtains across. We do have an AC unit in our living room window, but we have not had to use it yet. They gave us a small portable heater when we arrived as well. We have used it some, but mostly to dry our clothes with. The windows do open, but we only have one window (in the bedroom) with a screen, and since there are a lot of bugs outside I haven’t opened any but the bedroom one.

The TV gets several channels. We have been watching the Russian music videos to try to find some music we would like to take back with us. So far we haven’t been too successful. Most of the videos are very graphic and since we don’t know what the words say we are nervous about getting any of those. We have also seen the Russian version of Bewitched and Lynda and Wayne mentioned seeing Married With Children (the Russian version) and Scrubs dubbed over. There are other English shows that you can hear the English under the dubbed Russian. There is also a Kazakhstan channel that gives the news and weather. We don’t turn the TV on much, just when we have nothing else to do.

The hotel has a restaurant and a smaller bar area where you can order pastries and drinks. The restaurant is good and the menu in English (can someone explain to me what “Chicken Ham” is?) but it is a little expensive. They have opened an outdoor area now since the weather is nicer. They have a shashlik grill going in the afternoon and evenings. The breakfast buffet is nice, too. It costs $1000tenge each. They have cereal, lots of bread choices, some sausage (we think lamb), a mushroom salad that is good, yogurt, crepes, and some little potato and cheese things. They serve tea, coffee (like a tea bag), juice, water (in a pitcher so I am not sure if it is out of a bottle or not) and milk. The milk is like 4% though so expect thick and creamy.

Mostly for breakfast I go down to the mini bar area and get a couple croissants or other pastries. They sell juice boxes there as well as containers of juice, Coke, Pepsi, Sprite. They also have chocolate bars, snickers, m&ms, Pringles, and some other snacky things. Expect those to be a bit expensive though. The Coke costs 210tenge for 1 liter. The pastries are about 30-40tenge each which is very cheap! We have been getting breakfast here then having a large lunch at a local restaurant around 1pm then just having cheese and crackers and summer sausage from the grocer across the street for dinner. Doing this has kept our costs down a bit.

The hotel also provides laundry services. If you bring your laundry down to the front desk (there is a checklist in your room in Russian/English) in the morning, it will be done sometime in the late afternoon. You need to specify if it is just washing or if you want it ironed too. They charge per item, I think jeans are the most expensive we have had washed at 280tenge each. T-shirts are 80tenge each. I have been taking our jeans and a couple T-shirts to be washed once a week. The rest I do in our bathroom sink (you can get packets of Tide at Target for hand washing. Look in the travel section). I strung a clothesline in the room we don’t use much and use clothespins to hang everything up. The heater comes in handy to quick dry stuff too. Instead of having them iron everything you can pay to use the iron for only 70 tenge. There is a room just a couple doors down from ours that has an ironing board, iron, and water bottles to wet your clothes.

We have two bathrooms in our suite. One has the sink and toilet (the western kind), the other the bathtub and a separate shower. They do not have wash cloths here at the hotel. You get a two towels, two hand towels, and two bath mats daily. If you want a wash cloth, bring your own! Not all rooms have a tub. We use the tub to rinse the clothes we have hand washed as it is easier to get larger shirts rung out in the tub. Beware the toilet paper! It is like those brown paper towels you get in some public restrooms, only a bit thinner. I really haven’t used any other public restrooms except one at a restaurant. It was a nicer version of the Asian toilet. It looked a lot like the ones they had in Japan. Just a long porcelain hole in the floor.

The hotel does have a business center. They have high speed internet there. It has been very easy to just take our computer down and plug it in. We were informed last week that they charge 220tenge an hour. We have only been asked to pay a few times, so they seem to be kind of lax on this charge. We usually do our blog and emails in Word then cut and paste when we go down to the business center.

They like you to pay for your nights in advance. Our cost is about $67 a night. We are in the older part of the hotel that has not been renovated yet. You can get a regular room (not a suite) for about $99 a night if you want in the newer section. We have been paying for 3 nights at a time. They take VISA and I think Mastercard. You cannot bill meals or any other services to your room. You will need to pay cash. They don’t always have the change though so you want to keep your bills small. When you change your money you can ask for “malenki” tenge. It has worked for us=) There are several banks around the hotel as well as ATM machines you can use in English. Our credit card charged us a $10 fee to pull cash out, so it is better to exchange dollars for tenge than to rely on pulling cash out.

We have been passing our free time blogging, playing puzzles, cards, and cribbage=) We each brought a couple books along, but they are heavy so we tried not to bring too many of those. We haven’t had too much time since we have been exploring Taraz with Lynda and Wayne and trying out new restaurants. It helps that I go to bed around 8:30=) I figure then I will get to see Symbat that much faster since we usually go to Umit around 10am. I have been waking up around 5am though after tossing and turning all night. Usually by 6:30 my back hurts enough that it is time to get up. Sleeping on the mattresses here is a challenge. There is no give to them at all.

Many of the hotel staff speak a little English and a few speak a lot! They are friendly and helpful as are most people we have encountered. I have managed to ask for directions several times and through mostly pantomime have figured it out. The people I have asked have been good sports about it. Trying to figure out menu items can be tricky, but most of our waiters have been very patient with us. Most of the time we can figure out the main meat of a dish and that is good enough. Whatever comes out of the kitchen is worth a try! I haven’t had anything that I didn’t like yet, but I like to try new foods.

This is a long blog, but I wanted to share all the stuff I have learned about just living here. If you have any questions let me know!