Art Gallery in Petropavlovsk

We had a chance a few days back to visit the local art gallery. It is located in a 100 year old building in the traditional Kazakhstan style that used to be the home of a wealthy merchant. It was renovated a number of years back and turned into an art gallery.

It is small but has a pretty varied collection of more traditional art as well as modern interpretations from local artists. We got a tour from the Director as we were the only people there. It is worth the hour or so it takes to walk through.

Are here it is on Google Maps:

City wide heating in Petropavlovsk

One of the weirdest things we found when we first came to Petropavlovsk is that the majority of the buildings in the downtown core are heated centrally. I don’t mean that they have central heating systems but that they are all heated from a central, city-wide heating plant and the heat is piped to each building via a network of above ground and below ground pipes.

Each residential or commercial building has pipes running to it in which hot water (or steam?) is moving to transfer heat from the central plant to the building. The entire city is covered in these huge pipes.

The other strange thing is that there is no way to limit the heat from this system. The buildings don’t have thermostats or any other limiter on the radiators. So whenever you walk into a room, the hotel Skif included, the temperature is always sweltering. We’ve spent the entire trip wearing t-shirts inside and leaving the windows open even though it has almost always been near or below freezing.

Apparently in early May the heating system is shut off for the season and for several weeks the situation changes and everyone freezes. Then in the fall they flip it back on and for awhile the residents of the town are back to roasting until it gets cold again.

I guess this is the result of Soviet central planning at its finest but in today’s age of green heating technology and skyrocketing fuel costs, just keeping the heat on must be a huge financial drain on the town of Petropavlovsk.

So bring light clothes to wear around the hotel or rented apartment if you come…you are going to need them.

Here are some more photos of the pipes:

The Kazakhstan Museum in Petropavlovsk

Petropavlovsk has its own museum just off the downtown area and we finally got a chance to visit it today. Our previous attempts had been thwarted by power outages (which are common here).

The museum is small but has a really nice collection of original Kazak artwork, weapons, armor and dress. It is definitely worth the hour or so that it takes to get through it and is especially educational if you bring a translator to read all the information that goes along with the exhibits as everything is in Russian and Kazak…neither of which I can read.

Here are some pictures from inside and outside the museum:

And here is where it is located. What is interesting is that the Google satellite shot is obviously a couple of years old as it shows the ruin and not the fully renovated building (started in 2005 and finished in August of 2008).

To get to space you need to pass through Kazakhstan

One of the cooler things I’ve learned since coming to Kazakhstan is that Russia still leases a huge block of land to operate its space launch facilities. The Baikonur Cosmodrome is where all of the missions to service the International Space station originate and pretty soon, once the Space Shuttle is retired, it will be pretty much the only way to get to space in the world. Or at least until the Chinese or a whole range of potential space tourist outfits get going.

So unless you’ve purchased a ticket from Virgin Galatic, or NASA owes you one hell of a big favor, to get to space you need to come to Kazakhstan. Bring your wallet.

Worldwide poverty

If you travel any amount you are sometimes amazed at the level of poverty that exists. You see it on the streets of New York City, in the less prosperous neighborhoods in London and Paris and in pretty much in every country in the world to some degree or another. I was pretty shocked when I first went to Sri Lanka and I can only imagine what exists in sub-Saharan Africa (I’ve not yet made it there)

While there is poverty here in Kazakhstan I’ve actually see fewer homeless and less evidence of it that might be expected given that the entire ex-Soviet union went through a pretty bad spell when it broke up. It is obvious not everyone is living well but generally people seem to be getting by – even outside of the city core where there is less in the way of facilities. The rich natural resources of this country are more than likely helping.

Of course those of us from the West shouldn’t ever point fingers as things are pretty bleak back home as well. From a recent article in The Independent:

“Dismal projections by the Congressional Budget Office in Washington suggest that in the fiscal year starting in October, 28 million people in the US will be using government food stamps to buy essential groceries, the highest level since the food assistance programme was introduced in the 1960s.”

Anytime anyone gets self righteous around me I simply point them to pictures from the aftermath of Katrina. Definitely a case of “fix your own problems first”.

Tipping in Kazkahstan

One of the things I always try and figure out before I go to a new country is their opinion on tipping. Unfortunately I forgot to look it up prior to coming to Kazakhstan so it took me a few days to determine whether it was appropriate or not.

What I’ve been told is that since Kazakhstan’s independence from the Soviet Union, tipping has come back into vogue and is welcomed by most people in service industries. We’ve been leaving a tip (15% or so) whenever we go out for meals and the housekeeper who takes care of our floor here at the hotel is great and every time we give her a little extra for the great service we get a beaming smile (she doesn’t speak any English) – which my daughter Samantha returns just for fun.

We took a cab today and had to convince the driver to take a tip (he did after a couple of attempts to give it back) so perhaps it is not universal but plan on tipping for good service when you visit.

Kazak’s don’t like diet…anything

One of the most striking things when you land in Kazakhstan is that every woman under twenty-five is tall and model thin. So imagine my surprise when I realized that there are no diet soft drinks to be had anywhere. If fact there is no “diet” anything. Normal, sugar laden drinks are everywhere but nothing with the word diet on it – in Russian or not.

Very strange…I smell a conspiracy here somewhere.

So if diet is your thing, I’d suggest you bring your own if you come and visit Kazakhstan. But of course with luggage weight limits being what they are you can’t  do that either. So no good coffee and no diet soft drinks. I’ll keep my eye out for what else is missing and perhaps we can get to the bottom of this.