Thanks for doing this blog. Being an unofficial expat myself (i spend most of my time in the Netherlands) I love stuff like this. I find that everything is new and exciting for a while. There are so many things that are different that you wouldn't have cared to think about when living in England. The things that top the list are pubs, food and architecture usually.
So things like milk and bread taste really different? What part of a staple British diet is ignored in Kazahkstan? Do people have a poor sense of humour? Do people have strong family values? In the quieter suburbs/villages/towns do people say hi on the street? Do people stick to 3 meals a day and follow the British "small breakfast, small lunch, big dinner"?
Odd questions I know but thanks again for doing this.
Evening all, apologies for the lack of updates but I was fully engrossed in Cheltenham last week and felt a bit crappy over the weekend.
Anyhow...
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Last minute preparations are under way for my trip to India. I'm on the 7:55am flight from Almaty to Delhi, my dad is arriving in Delhi sometime before me so first plan is to meet up with him then pick up our tickets for England v Afghanistan on Wednesday. I'll try to update everyday with some interesting pictures and stories.
lucky_scrote thanks for your post pal, lets answer your questions.
Milk is all UHT so tastes different to me but I only drink it in my coffee. Bread is made using a different strain of flour so tastes different yeah, interestingly(?) my wife's mother is gluten intolerant but she was able to eat Kazkah bread without any of the effects.
Quite a large number of British staples are ignored unfortunately, mashed potato, bacon, battered fish, chicken tikka etc. Sandwiches are just not eaten here anywhere, no packaged ones at supermarkets, no ham or decent cheese is available.
Sense of humour is divided between the generations, as you would suggest for most places in the world. Older people are very traditional and don't take kindly to jokes whereas the younger lot, especially those with no recollection of living under the Soviet regime prior to 1991 are more self depricating and easy to joke with. They know elections are rigged etc and appreciate how it looks to foreigners.
If I go to a small village people hear me speaking English and look at me like I've got three heads. Then they make a big fuss of impressing the foreigner so I'm not the best person to ask. I get the impression that smaller places are very very tightly knit, it's the only way to survive but that strange locals are treated with suspicion, after all small villages have very little to offer or things to do so it makes little sense for any strangers to be there.
Hope that answered your questions and keep on reading.
I'll finish with an interesting story that happened to me yesterday.
As I previously mentioned I'm meeting my dad in Delhi so my mother took the opportunity to fly here to visit the grandchildren. I was dispatched to collect here from the airport at 2am and used a local taxi, arranged for him to wait for me at the airport and bring us home.
Anyhow someone mistook my mother's case for their own so I'm waiting around for about an hour for her. Finally it's resolved and I go to find the taxi but he has gone, "balls" and strange because I hadn't paid him but had left my travel coffee cup in his car. I was annoyed as he hadn't called and knackered as it was approaching 4am so I flag down another taxi and head home.
I'm laid slumbering at around 7am and my phone is going crazy, after about 5 calls I pick it up. It's the taxi driver "excuse me but I've been waiting for 4 hours. What's going on?"
Jesus H Christ, he had been moved to a different part of the car park by the plod and sat for 4 hours waiting. I felt absolutely terrible. Poor bloke. Told him to drop my coffee cup off and I'd pay him, he actually started to apologising. Made me feel worse, the taxi was on a meter, the total bill for two fares at about 25km each way and four hours waiting time? A tenner. Good old Kazakhstan, I trebled it and promised I'd use him as much as possible in a way of apology.
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