The train that was somewhat modern, went slowly through the endless steppes. It stopped at stations in small town with single-storey houses every two hours. In the steppes, you could see herds of horses, grazing and enjoying their freedom. When night falls, I try to sleep on my seat and luckily, I manage to do that, so I wake up in the morning and find myself at the station in Ust-Kamenogorsk, which is surrounded by hills. You can already see the high mountains in the distance, known as the Altai, which is the reason why I wanted to visit this part of the country.
It’s a working-class city in eastern Kazakhstan, approximately 50 kilometres from the Altai mountains, which are rich in gold. Most of the gold is transported to Russia. The Altai offers a beautiful view of the pristine nature.
I go and explore the city. While discovering the old town with low buildings, wooden houses and small parks, I arrive at the city centre where a regional parliament proudly stands, with a fountain in front, where people gather to spend their free time. And behind the fountain is the city’s largest mosque. Speakers are playing music, and the young ones as well as mums with their children are having fun; some of them are dancing, some are doing karaoke, while others are sitting by the fountain and observing what’s going on. All this becomes even livelier in the evening when people return home from work. It all gives the impression of a small sleepy working-class provincial town, but it also has its charm, and I feel very relaxed and safe.
In the evening, when I’m on my way back home, it starts to rain and I seek refuge under the roof of a nearby block of flats. I run into Vasya, an elderly Kazakhstani. He’s been living in the city his whole life and lives in a block of flats, together with his mother. He used to work in the industry, but lost his job at the end of the Soviet Union, and now tries to make it through each month. He doesn’t see a bright future and missed the old Soviet times.
The next day, I head for the mountains, all the way to the city of Ridder, which lies at the heart of the Kazakhstani Altai. I make an arrangement with the taxi driver to take me there and back for one whole day. It’s a very scenic drive and there’s little traffic on the road, once you get out of the city. I ask the taxi driver why there are so many trees by the road, and he says it’s because of the snow. The trees act as a shield in winter, preventing the snow to be dispersed onto the road by the wind.
We pass by small villages where villagers sell their homemade products by the road, from honey, various concoctions and jams to mushrooms and the likes.
We arrive in Ridder, which is another working-class city where mostly gold miners live. They work at a gold facility just outside the city. It’s lunch time. I honour my chauffeur with lunch and then we continue onwards, deeper into nature and closer to the Altai mountains.
The locals have picnics outdoors, make shashliks (skewered cubes of meat with onion that’s slowly grilled), enjoy fishing, which they call rybalka, and naturally drink vodka, an essential part of it all. We join a group and we exchange a few words. We also try the local vodka and then hit the road again. The locals are very friendly and they warmly greet every visitor.
Sadly, I’m out of luck when it comes to weather, as it starts to rain, which means our way up the mountains will be more difficult, due to muddy roads and us not having an off-road vehicle. We decide to head back to the city. I spot a herd of horses freely grazing in a meadow in one of the villages along the way. Truly a wonderful scene. After all, Kazakhstan is a land of horses, and a land of the Cossacks.
The green hills and mountains somehow remind me of Switzerland, so one could say the Altai is the Switzerland of Kazakhstan.
We arrive in Ust-Kamenogorsk, or Oskemen in Kazakh, and the next day I set out south, towards the country’s former capital, Almaty. You can read more about it next month in the next Globetrotter issue.
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