Almaty, Kazakhstan

Before I knew it a week has flown by. So much happens in a day while I'm here, but will try my best to remember back.

Before she left for Iran, my friend Yuri and I hung out. We went to Quyun, a local, outdoor shashlyk place by the river for dinner. Then on our way out across the street we heard music and noticed another outdoor place. This one was called Isotqol and was beautiful. An outdoor Turkish restaurant with these beautiful red, yellow, and blue interlaced tents by the water, plus with the wonderful mix of local Uzbek and Russian music, the setting was beautiful.

One thing about Tashkent here is they have the most wonderful nights. The weather cools down and has a slight breeze, and makes for the most perfect outdoor weather.

Before she left we also club hopped a bit to try to find a place that was open on a Tuesday night. We first started off at CataKoumba where for the first time I felt harassed. There was a big guy who wouldn't leave me alone despite my repeatedly saying I had a really huge husband. While I was calling my co-worker for directions to the next place, the guy got into the taxi and started talking to the driver.

My co-workers and family have done an excellent job of instilling fear in me regarding kidnapping. Scared/worried they could be collaborating or scheming something, I called my co-worker again and asked him to speak to the driver. I told him to act really scary, lower his voice (his voice is kind of high), and say that he's my husband. He even took it one step further and told the driver that he would be waiting for me at the next destination. It's amazing how clever you become when your survival instincts kick in.

We checked out Platinum but it was empty. We went to Fashion bar but it was dead. Club 25 was closed. And we finally ended up at the Diplomat.

It's amazing. Only 2 evenings before I had been at the Diplomat and had one of the most amazing nights of my life. I think the chemistry and the stars had been perfectly aligned that night. It was so fun that it almost didn't seem it really happened. The night me and Yuri went it was completely dead. We realized it was probably because the soccer game had been on.

In the last week I also checked out an AmCham meeting. They have gatherings once a month, and this one was at the shi shi restaurant Jumanji.

I am the first to admit I am not fond of a lot of the expat thing. I had been hesitant to go, but am so glad I did.

I met some incredibly interesting and genuine people who have made Tashkent their real home. None of the upcomance or snobbery you often see with expats, but rather they have embraced it as theirs, and learned to do things the Uzbek way, which can often be counter-intuitive and frustrating to those of us from the west.

Afterwards I checked out the Irish pub where I met another wonderful family. The husband is American from Texas with the most gorgeous Uzbek wife, originally from Buxara and apparently Persian in ethnicity. Their daughter Roxanna was a hoot and holler, I couldn't stop laughing.

I ended up going with them to Alis, which turned out to be a go-ryo-in restaurant. It was similar to Casanova, the first club I accidentally ended up at. A large restaurant layout with dancing in the middle.

The next day on Saturday, I went to a session one of the expats held. Amazingly, he found an herbalist (han-ae-won) who comes from a family of 400 years of history. During the Soviet times he studied Archeology to basically go into hiding and preserve his life. He would've otherwise been persecuted for being a witch or a heretic. After Uzbekistan's independence he has come back to his family tradition. He checks your health the old traditional way which is to hold your wrist lightly. The true healers/herbalists can read all your vital signs and know exactly what is wrong with you by doing this.

Well, for me, he said I am pretty weak. That blood doesn't flow well to my lungs or heart. That I get headaches often. That I have some stomach problems. And that I have sadness.

Needless to say, I wasn't going to go into the last one. I would love to follow up with him and have more sessions, but my next weekends are likely to be filled with trying to go to Samarkand and possibly some more traveling if I can.