As we'd been yesterday, we were charmed by all the trees in Shymkent, a city in southern Kazakhstan.
Even the local ice cream stand had closed down because of the cold weather. Too bad as one would have been nice.
Another pretty park was located near downtown Shymkent. There were also trees lining both sides of all the major thoroughfares.
Judging from the designs on the stars, these were musical plaques.
I wondered why there was a large monument representing a tulip and not a rose as roses seemed to be everywhere in Shymkent! It reminded me right away of the similarly large and unusual Floralis Generica monument in Buenos Aires we saw last year and which I included photos of in a post.
Too bad it was too darn cold for us at least to sit and enjoy the statue as this woman had.
This was the first time we'd seen the English word 'street' listed on any non-English speaking country sign!
Seeing the bike rentals made us aware we were in a far more affluent nation than Uzbekistan, where we'd just been for the last three weeks, was.
On almost every corner was an imposing statue.
After seeing so many beautiful roses yesterday and again today, that just confirmed my thought the city should be called the City of Roses! How lucky we were to see them still blooming in mid October.
Another pretty park was located near downtown Shymkent. There were also trees lining both sides of all the major thoroughfares.
What we thought and hoped was the Regional History Museum turned out to be the Library now once we entered. The museum, we discovered, had been moved way north.
Since beginning our tour of the Central Asian countries over a month ago, I had been surprised to see how many cities had an opera house. Here was Shymkent's.
In the middle of busy Ordabasy Square was Independence Monument with Mother Earth atop it.
We made our way around the square toward the mosque of the same name. I read that despite Kazakhstan's close links to Russia and the Orthodox Church, Islam still dominates proceedings in the country.
It was more than a tad bizarre seeing about ten empty stretch limos lined up near the mosque.
Behind the monument were the steps leading up to Independence Park, which had been our initial goal since starting our exploration of the city.
A view of the square from halfway up the steps, i.e. a handy excuse for a breather!
At the top of the stairs were the emblems of the State of Kazakhstan: the country’s unusual turquoise and yellow flag, the coat of arms, and seven huge columns that represented "the courage and the combativeness of the Kazakh people."
Independence Park was inaugurated in October 2011 to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the independence of Kazakhstan.
The map of Kazakhstan was another example of the crazy geographical borders Joseph Stalin drew when he outlined the countries in Central Asia. Shymkent is located almost near the bottom of the middle part.
The central monument, Altyn Shanyrak, honored the unity of the people of Kazakhstan. The 137 nations cohabiting in the country were represented by 137 steel pillars supporting a shanyrak, the circular opening at the top of the yurt.
A line of 21 granite steles, each engraved with the major events of the year in the country’s history, were also part of the park. Too bad none of the info about the events was in English as it would have been interesting to know more about the country's history.
The lighting throughout the park was very innovative.
While we were admiring the monument, these young students came up to chat with us and practice their English for a bit, seemingly amazed that we had chosen to visit their city and country.
The very impressive park would have been a glorious place to sit and relax for a good long while if it had not been so blustery there at the top of the hill.
I thought this light fixture looked like a rocket!
I wonder why the same tulip monument or sculpture was so popular in Shymkent as it was the third one we'd seen in less than a day in the city.
These bushes were among the oddest ones we've seen anywhere as they jutted out at angles, almost like pages in a book.
We were so cold we decided not to put off any longer our visit to the Ordobasy Mosque, hoping it might warm us up in more ways than one!
After warming our souls and bodies, we walked to the Central Bazaar, which, while smaller than it once had been, was a reminder of Shymkent's long trading history.
These sausages looked the most unappealing sausages to me ever although the woman in the next photo didn't seem to share my opinion! Unlike any market we've ever visited, there were signs everywhere not to take photos but this woman insisted I take hers. Luckily, I didn't get into any trouble taking any photos there.
I didn't know whether these bright green things were a fruit, a vegetable or a sweet!
This lady had the biggest laugh at my expense as I couldn't figure out the price of the tangerines because it looked like the price on the scale indicated they were 2,460 tengue, the Kazakh currency. That would make it a whopping $6 for just four of them, which was a little rich for my blood. Then I realized they were only 246 tengue or just .60!
Imagine grating all those carrots by hand - no thanks!
The man in the fish section also insisted on my taking his photo. I guess Shymkent doesn't get many foreign tourists so we were considered a novelty.
The park across from the bazaar was about the only other 'attraction' in the city left for us to explore. More than once that day, we asked each other why we'd decided to visit Shymkent as there clearly wasn't much to grab our or any other foreign tourist's attention apart from the very impressive Independence Park and the Museum to the Victims of Political Repression that we'd seen the previous day for about thirty minutes. Our guidebook had described the city as "southern Kazakhstan's most vibrant city, with bustling bazaars and a lively downtown." I wonder who had been paid to paint Shymkent like that as what we saw was very different.
Judging from the designs on the stars, these were musical plaques.
Had no idea who the 'Gold Man' was in the park and why he was smiling but the statue was fun to look at.
There were other unusual sculptures in the park, perhaps more a mishmash would be a better description!
When we'd arrived at our apartment the day before, we were quite shocked at the exterior appearance and stairway up to it as both looked horrific and we had to hold our noses going up the steps as the stench was so bad. We couldn't understand how this place had a 9.2 rating out of 10 on booking.com. It seemed the previous reviewers must have also written such glowing things about the city itself!
I had to use the flash to take this picture as there were no lights on the stairs.
At first glance, the cozy apartment looked charming until we realized the oven didn't work, there were virtually no cooking supplies, there was no space to store anything except on the floor, the bathroom sink flooded, it was very tough to sleep because the blinds were ineffective, etc! As you can imagine, we weren't looking forward to returning there for one more night before flying back to Almaty in a few days but we could no longer cancel our reservation.
What the apartment did have going for it was a washer - hallelujah - and its proximity to restaurants and the local sights, such as they were.
Next post: Hightailing it to Turkistan, Kazakhstan!
Posted on November 10th, 2018, from Segovia, Spain.
Quite a sketchy looking place! You were both very brave not to turn around and go looking for something better!
ReplyDeleteThis seems to be the trip of stairs!
Travel safe! Chris
I guess we try and take the good with the not so good with equal aplomb when it comes to accommodations. Still surprising, though, after all the exhaustive research I do finding us places to stay on booking.com, that previous reviewers wouldn't have commented on the appearance and stench at this place as it was really, really bad!
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