After lunch, we were supposed to visit an Ostrich farm, but Bette pushed for the tram ride, which take you to a high point overlooking the city of Almati. We had tried to go yesterday, but the tram wasn’t running. For the sum of $10, we took the round trip on the tram. It was definitely worth it. It was a pity that we didn’t have more time. I would have liked to wander around and look at the gift shop and other items up there, but we were supposed to be at the restaurant by 4:00 pm to finish eating in time to get to the airport by 5:30 pm since our flight out was scheduled for 7:45 PM. The food at the restaurant was acceptable. We loaded into the bus and arrived at the airport with time to spare. In fact we had to wait before we could enter because we were too early for our flight.
View from top of Tram Line
View from top of Tram Line
Almati's "Big Apple"Video Clip from Top of Tram Line
Having spent about 48 hours in Kazakhstan, what can I say? Most Soviet era buildings show significant signs of wear. There is a lot of new construction going up all over the place. Apparently Kazakhstan has oil money. Pictures of the president were widespread. I didn’t see abject poverty, but then where I went, I probably wouldn’t. I got the feeling that things didn’t always work but that they were improving. For example, day one, the tram didn’t work, but day two it did.
The Flight to Urumqi was with China Southern Airlines. It was originally scheduled for 7:45 PM. It was delayed until 9:15 PM. I caught a cat nap while waiting. The plane actually left at 9:05 PM. Before we were permitted on the plane, they checked our temperature using a scanning device.
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