Chimbulak and the Stadium

We drove up to the Chimbulak ski hill a couple of weeks ago. Obviously, it was a beautiful day and it would have been a great day to teach the kids to ski. The road was pretty good but it is extremely steep in sections and the switch backs made the ones in Smithers look pretty lame.
This is what the cabins on the hill looked like. Most of them were this posh--so judging from their appearance there will be no Vanwerkhoven Chalet in Almaty. The ski hill, itself looked pretty good but the bunny slope is closed for the next while. They have it covered in chairlift equipment that is going to put up sometime soon. So, they have changed the bunny slope to the area where Kyla and Cody are standing. If any child is out of control--which is quite likely, considering how these two act on X-country skiis--they will find themselves sitting on top of the hood of a Niva. There is suppose to be another ski hill around here that has a better bunny hill--feels like we are always looking for something and it is so hard to find places b/c their alphabet is different than ours and then to help things get worse--they only have signs in the downtown area--otherwise you are on your own. We found a great set of used skiis and bindings for Dave and some boots for myself and they were a really good price so we thought that we could just buy the rest at the sporting goods store in the city. The cheapest set of skiis here without bindings is around $500.00 and they were nothing to write home about--so off to the rental shop for us.

This past weekend, we stayed around the city and did some shopping and tried to find some sporting goods store--not much luck--but we did find the stadium. There were these statues in front and we thought they were pretty impressive.

Climbing Curbs in Kaz'

Hey, Waldo, do you remember that episode in M*A*S*H where Klinger sends a jeep home through the mail, piece by piece? Don't be too alarmed if oversized parcels start arriving on your doorstep soon.

Behold the mighty-mite "Niva." I've seen a few of them in Canada, but they are all over the place here in Almaty, and I want one. Our Rabbit is in the shop (three weeks later) so the school gave us a loaner for the time being.

All four of us sit in it quite comfortably. Let me re-phrase that--all four of us sit in it. Comfort is not really a feature. But the kids have a great view from their bench in the back, and since there are no seat-belts, they are constantly cruising around back there. Edna said earlier that if we take a corner too quick or hit a major pothole, we sometimes hear a ‘clunk’ from the back. “You OK?” we ask. “Yeah, just my head hitting the glass.”

Wikipedia: The car is very popular in its home country. It is also popular in Canada (though withdrawn from sale in 1997 it still has a cult following) and other regions where the terrain requires a robust and tough car for a reasonable price--many Nivas imported to Australia were rejects from the European Market.

Production began in 1977 and continues today with only minor changes to the engine, rear hatch design, and interior trim levels. (You can stand beside a 77’ and not tell the difference between a 78’ or an 08’. Our friends have one and it looks like crap and it is a 2001).

The original Niva has a maximum speed of around 130 km/h (80 mph), and can cruise at 90 km/h (56 mph) while consuming petrol at a respectable 8.25 litres/100km (28.5 mpg(US)). ( I would NEVER take it past 100km. NEVER.) (Any vehicle that is as wide as it is high and long is already on the verge of rolling like a soccer ball, so don’t tempt it. At any speed.)

But there is something quite fun about them. In the morning, you get about half an inch of clutch, because it is cold. Depress the clutch pedal, force the stick in, and you are already moving, with your foot on the floor. The ensuing friction produces heat, and soon the plate expands and you have a relatively normal vehicle.

It comes with a spare tire that is located in the engine bay under the hood, and as with all Ladas, a 21 piece toolkit is also supplied for do-it-yourself roadside repairs. The latter feature is considered a useful and practical feature by off-road fans (and suburbanites as well). Oh, and you know when you have run out of gas because the gauge indicates 5/8’s full. We found out the hard way.

So, check your mailbox. On second thought, maybe I should send it to George or Al’s farm. Lada’s are not AirCare friendly.

Pax, Dave

Snow and Heat in Almaty

We got SNOW!! Not a lot but we got snow. It has been so warm here so it was a little bit of a surprise. They keep telling us that it has been an exceptionally nice fall but now it might change. It isn't a lot of snow but it has really changed the speed of the drivers. They have slowed down and we are quite relieved. They are still crazy but we were worried if they kept going the way they were there were going to be a lot of accidents.

Shopping in the markets isn't quite the same now that it is colder--hanging around in these shipping containers when it is cold and damp is not real nice.

Our car is still broken and who knows when it will be fixed--the mechanics are very laid back , always smiling and definitely on Kaz Time. Right now we have managed to borrow a vehicle from the school for the past 5 days and hopefully we can keep it until they decide to look at the car again. The vehicle we have right now is a Niva--believe me, we are getting the real deal of a Russian vehicle. The kids are bouncing all around in the back seat and there is a belt that is quite loose so it makes this squealing noise all the time. Pedestrians get out of the way before they even turn around to see what is coming their way. I should quit complaining though, we are very thankful that the school has a vehicle that we can borrow. We only made it halfway to school on Monday morning--we had to take a gypsy taxi--we found out later that we had ran out of gas. No one told us that the gas gauge is broken. When the gas light comes on, that means you have 10 more kms. Well, we know now!!

They turned the heat on in the apartment. It still is weird not to have a thermostat in the apartment and to think that the only way we can control the heat in this place is by opening a window or putting on another sweater. I guess when it gets a little colder they will turn the heat a little higher. Should be interesting.

I wish I could put a picture of the kids bouncing around in the Niva it is pretty funny. Sometimes there is a bit of a bang in the back seat and one of us will ask--are you okay back there--Oh, I am fine, just hit my head on the side. I will try to take a picture this week.

Halloween in Almaty

We found Halloween in Almaty. It wasn't easy but there is a gated community right next to the school and many of the people there are ex-pat's and they celebrated Halloween in the compound. When I say compound though--that means we live in the projects. It was great--extremely safe, almost no cars and the houses that were willing to do the Halloween thing were really into it. There is a fence around the whole place with a couple guards at the front gate. Needless to say--we have enough candy to keep us going til Christmas.

Finding costumes wasn't easy though and a little pricey. Finally, an older lady in the market went digging on her top shelf in her container and pulled out a bag with three costumes--thank goodness they fit Kyla and Cody. Being that we don't have much extra here and no sewing machine it was pretty hard to be creative or alter something. Cody wore his knap sack backwards so that he could have the candy put in directly. He was pretty quiet but he did get into the whole scene. As you can see on the last picture--Kyla was a little too much into it!!!

Flying at the Farm.

Multi-culturalism defined: last weekend I met an American with a heavy Latvian accent (if there is such a thing) who told us that there is a local paragliding club in Almaty. He told me to wait on a particular corner any Saturday, at 10am, and look around for jumpers. These kind of people are an easy breed to identify in the wild: chain smokers, fidgety, poorly dressed in ratty, but previously expensive gear. My Latvian contact wasn’t there. And it turns out he’s Lithuanian. And his name isn’t Jag, it’s Ginn. But the group took me in and we drove 25km out of town. It didn’t seem to faze them that I couldn’t speak much Russian: the language of gear, equipment, meteorology, and curse words has been anglicized anyway, so we had a good trip on our way to the hills.

Upon arrival, we unloaded 4 hang-gliders, and a half dozen 50lb bags filled with paragliders. More hung-over jumpers trickled in as we were getting set-up. Dimitri, an excellent (and licensed) instructor asked me to assemble one glider while he worked on the other. I hesitated a little. His English was pretty good. He said “I thought you said you were a pilot and a jumper.” To which I responded “Yeah, a hundred years ago, and I wasn’t really good at either task.” He said “Don’t worry. That glider is a hundred years old.” Upon closer inspection, I think the Wright brothers may have borrowed some of the technology on this old bird.

But I went to work, and within an hour we had two workable gliders and about 500lbs of paragliding gear to haul up the hill, the old fashioned way. Dimitri and Denise are two excellent instructors. Very friendly and very willing to help share the excitement of flying.
The glider practise was great fun. I hardly got it two feet off of the ground. But it was heavy and awkward to carry back up the hill, as the one photo shows. My arms, shoulders, ribs, lower back, and legs, are in agony today. We took quite a beating running down the hill, falling and jumping, willing these crates to get airborn.

But the paragliding work was the highlight of the day. It’s surprisingly hard work to get them in the air as well. I’m used to just falling out of a plane while the canopy opens it itself. But these needed to be pulled up behind you at the right time while you start running like someone just lit a match in a meth-lab. And you have to pump your arms up and down to inflate all of the air cells in the canopy. Then hopefully, it steers straight and you get a bit of a glide as you untangle the brake lines from the risers. A few minutes later, start looking for a place to land. Or in my case, slide to a stop in the field full of sheep shit. The Almaty Paragliding Club leases a couple hundred acres off of a local sheep ranch. The picture with the Kazak kid looking at us in our gear is a local shepherd taking a break.

It was a great way to spend the morning and I am going to become a member of their little club. But I need a helmet, some padding, and a scarf because these savages jump in the winter as well. A cup wouldn’t hurt either--their harnesses aren’t, how can I say, ergonomically comfortable.

As I started hitch-hiking home, I looked behind me and noticed how picturesquely and idyllically situated the Muslim graveyard was at the bottom of the gliding hill. Look closely at the exact centre of the photo and you will see my new Kazak friends ready to start running down the hill. Kind of like one-stop-shopping.

Pax, Dave