I meandered back down the street, now heading south towards Gyeongbokgung Palace. Along the way, I passed Cheongwadae, or the Presidential Residence. Similar to Almaty when the President is in town, there were police on every street corner, standing around completely unoccupied. You may have heard that I have not had very good luck with Kazakhstani police, so I did what I've trained myself to do, which is keep my head down and act normal. When I glanced up, one smiled at me (smiled!) and said with a friendly tone, "Hey! How are you? Where are you going?" I cautiously answered, "Ge-ong-bok-gung? The Palace?"
Author: Jon Jay
очень конечно
International Local Media, US Presidential Elections, & I
Well, I'm officially 2 for 2 on being abroad during Presidential Elections in the United States, as well as being 2 for 2 on somehow making an appearance in the local news where I am living at the time.
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Пик Амангельды (Amangeldi Peak) – Autumn
Turns out I was to stay on the second floor of the shack, which turned into a night from hell. Russians and Kazakhs have a firm belief that heaters need to be on full blast at all times, and windows should never be opened for any reasons (this is also causing some sweaty problems at my apartment in Almaty). It was a long night between trying to sleep in a sauna and the sound of mice scurrying in the walls.
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Kok-Tobe
There is a tram that starts very close to KIMEP University, and takes you to the top for around 2000 Tenge, which is close to $14. My roommate and I opted instead to go for a little bit of a hike up the hill, which allowed us to save money and take some great photos.
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Valley of Castles
Time was getting close to 4pm, which was when we were supposed to be back at the bus. All of the crew was ready to head back, but I spied some cars further away that looked like they were at a pretty good viewpoint. I left the others in a slight jog to check it out, and sure enough, it was probably the most beautiful views of the entire trip.
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Big, Militarized Almaty Lake
The date was September 2nd. This was an important date for me because my visa, as well as the visas of my hiking companions (all three were foreign students) expired on September 1st. In addition, none of us actually had our passports because our new visas, and therefore our passports, were in processing with the immigration police. This information was telepathically realized between the four of us after seeing the gun, and after a few quiet conversations about it, we all started to feel pretty uncomfortable in the given situation.
