An Afternoon in the Mountains

Over the course of an hour and a half or so, we drive up to the top of Little Almaty Gorge in the Tien Shan Mountains. Frequent stops are made for picture-taking and narration by Max and his dad. We learn the following:

• A lot of what I admire about Almaty is the result of the execution of a master plan for the city developed 225 years ago, when the Russians determined that they needed a major outpost near the Chinese border. The plan called for mapping the major streets such that they would capture breezes from the mountains. This is also the function of what I presumed were drainage ditches (see “Tomorrow is the Big Day,” June 20): this is actually a system to keep water flowing to help cool the city; this idea was dreamed up in the original master plan and is maintained to this day. The city has been destroyed by earthquakes twice, most recently in 1911, and each time rebuilt to the original plan.
• We passed what can only be described as McMansions under construction in the hills above the city. These are being built by new oil money in what were apple orchards and public parkland. Special permission – nudge, nudge, wink, wink – is required to build in this area.
• As we drive up, we can see the Little Almaty River rushing down. This is the part of the river where Ivanov (see “Everything We Different….,” June 22) and his followers bathe. When the First Lady comes to visit, the road to the mountains is closed so that she can bathe in privacy. (BTW, People who bathe in ice cold water are called “seals,” not “polar bears” here.)
• We enter the national park and see some large, sideways V-shaped steel structures, which turn out to be the last defense in an increasingly complicated (as you go up) flood and avalanche control system. The most important piece of this system is a massive dam. The Little Almaty floods every year and, before the dam was built, then reinforced (see pics below), trees and rocks, along with lots of water, would wash into central Almaty every spring. In 1973, the original dam, built in 1966, was breached – water rose to the level of many of the pictures taken below.
• Medeo, after whom the park is named, was the landowner when the Bolsheviks took over. His land was confiscated, but they named the park after him. Max thought that was pretty nice of them (joke).

After our trip to the mountains…. Uzbek lunch. More beer, more horse meat, more salads, yummy lamb soup with mint and dill, good samsas (the local version of samosas), and good lamb plov (the local version of pilaf).

Then to the Museum of Musical Instruments in Panfilov Park, which was pretty cool if very much of the old-fashioned, static displays behind glass school of museum. However, we had a guide and Max as translator so actually had some fun looking at the evolution of the three or four instruments that are the core of traditional Kazakh music over almost 1800 years. Bought a CD. Milena bought Otis a replica of an ancient clay flute.

A nice day.