Shopping in Petropavlovsk

Before we left for Petropavlovsk, we really had no idea what is and is not available to buy locally. We have since found out there were things we really didn’t need to bring and our balancing act with baggage weight would have been easier.  Toiletries – bring only the the little sample sizes.  Once you get here, you can buy just about any mainstream brand of shampoo, conditioner, lotion, toothpaste, etc. you want.  No need to cart multiple weeks’ worth with you.

The Blue Mall which is within walking distance of the Skif Hotel and on the way to the Baby House is like a farmer’s market on the street level where you can buy fresh and dried fruits, vegetables, nuts, cheese, sandwich meat, baked goods, etc. etc.  For those who are doing their own cooking, there is a large fresh meat section.  On the upper levels of the mall, you will find kiosk after kiosk jam packed full with toiletries, clothing, shoes, kids toys and clothing, kitchen stuff – the list goes on. It appears that each kiosk is individually owned. The prices are all very reasonable.

So save your luggage weight allowance for stuff you cannot find here.  It would have been really helpful to have had this information when doing our packing.

Hotel Skif – Floor Plan

As I’ve mentioned before, I was pretty frustrated when we were planning out trip over here that I couldn’t find any information on the Hotel Skif (given that it is the the main hotel that is used by adoption agencies who are working with the Baby House). We had to take it on faith that it would be adequate and that the rooms would work for us.

I found this floor layout for the second floor (the only floor that has western style rooms from what I have been told) on the wall this morning. So if you are planning a trip, at least this will tell you where your room is assuming your agency will tell you which one has been reserved (which they should – make sure to ask). We’ve got 201 and 211 for this trip which are the two largest.

Keep in mind that the current Internet wireless attenna is pretty much in the middle of this diagram on the first floor so the outer rooms have no usable WiFI within the room – you need to go out into the hall.

Kazakhstan beer

We have been partaking of the local brew for the last few days. It actually isn’t bad.

Perhaps the coolest thing we’ve seen is the pull top beer cap:

Pictures of Petropavlovsk

I haven’t posted a lot of pictures of the city of Petropavlovsk so far so here are a bunch to catch me up.

The one thing that might not come out in the photos is how dirty the streets are – there is mud everywhere. It is no wonder the locals always wear black. Anything else and you’d be changing clothes multiple times a day. I was pretty amazed about the mud actually. Even where there are proper curbs and sidewalks there is nothing growing in the boulevard except some weeds or random grass. For the most part it is just dirt – or when it rains mud.

They do have street sweepers out all over the place right now sweeping up the dirt. It really doesn’t help….

Found the wood playground…sort of

We had heard rumor of a wooden playground towards the end of Constitution Street (the pedestrian walk down the middle of the city) so this morning we set off to find it. There are a lot of playgrounds in Petro but they tend towards rusted metal installed over mud so we’ve been avoiding them so far and sticking to the indoor variety. This time we were hoping for a more modern style playground for Sam to play on.

We did end up finding it way down at the end of the street (about a 30 minute walk from the hotel – GPS: 54.873641,69.123852) but unfortunately it didn’t turn out to be anything that Sam could really play on. As you can see from the pictures it wasn’t exactly what you could call safe. So we are still searching for a decent playground.

Found a chocolate shop

We found a pretty good chocolate shop today and loaded up on sugar. It is right across from the bakery I posted about a few days ago (GPS: 54.866002, 69.142828‎). Worth a stop in if you have a sweet tooth.

Kazakhstan Dress Code

Not that outrageous by the standards here

When we were getting ready to travel one of the things that seemed to be emphasized over and over is how well the Kazaks dress. We were encouraged to leave our faded jeans behind and bring nicer things to wear or we would stand out.

So now the reality. Yes, the majority of women dress up to go out and I haven’t seen a pair of ripped jeans since I got here. But dress up means that if they are under 30 they wear high-heeled boots, tight jeans (dark not light) and lots of make-up and over 30 they look like grandma going to church. There doesn’t seem to be any in-between.

The men wear dark dress pants, pointed (really pointed) shoes and dark jackets – often leather. Think Neo in The Matrix.

So the reality is that unless this is how you actually dress, nothing in your wardrobe is going to make you not stand out. Plus as soon as you open your mouth you are tagged as a foreigner. So my advice is to wear what makes you comfortable and ignore the stares as they are going to happen anyway. If you want to temper it a bit invest in a couple of pairs of black jeans and a wool coat (it is still cold here in April) which is what I did. There is no way they are getting me into one of those pairs of pointed shoes though.

Laundry at the Hotel Skif

(not really but you get the idea)

We were told a number of times there was laundry available at the hotel so we were counting on being able to do some wash and didn’t pack enough clothes for the full week (not that we could have anyway with baggage weight limits being what they are these days). To us, laundry meant machines we could use. Unfortunately “laundry is available” actually means that they will do your laundry for you which sounds great except that it is ridiculously expensive – about US$30 a load if you have a jeans and sweaters.

So we dropped to the backup plan and only sent out the minimum (still rather expensive) and did most of it in the tub. Luckily Heather brought some soap (Woolite works well for cold-water washing) and we invested in a portable laundry line which we have hung in the bathroom. That and a plug for the tub and we were good to go.

Travel Tip: Guyot Designs Squishy Bowl and Cup Set

One of the things I hate when I travel is having to head down to a restaurant for breakfast every morning. It is fun for a few days and then the time it takes and the general hassle just gets on my nerves. Give me my coffee and a bowl of cereal and I’m happy. Plus try convincing a two year old to sit still every morning waiting for breakfast. It cuts into valuable playing time.

For this trip we brought the Guyot Designs Squishy Bowl and Cup Set and these things rock. The bowl is great for cold or hot cereal (I’ve been making instant oatmeal in it) and it cleans up fast. Plus given that both our bags were just under the 50lb international limit, the fact that these two weigh nothing was helpful.

Recommended – worth the 15 bucks. Add a Light My Fire Spork and you are self sufficient in the breakfast department.

Credit cards…not so much

A word of warning to those of you (like me) who hardly ever carry cash and rely on your credit cards to get you by. No one in Kazakhstan seems to take them with rare exceptions. I did manage to charge our hotel to a Visa card but only after being told for three days that the credit card machine was down. Funny thing is that I was told the same thing when paying for our overweight luggage charge in the Almaty airport. Either the credit card infrastructure here is pretty creaky or people just like cash (guess which one is true).

So bring a wad of cash and switch it to Tenge at the first opportunity. You are going to need it. The good news is that there are a lot of places in Petro to exchange money so it is pretty painless.