Decent bakery near the Hotel Skif

Our translator took us by a decent bakery (at least by the standards of Petropavlovsk). I grabbed some beef and potato filled pastries for lunch and they were not bad. Apparently the pastries are decent as well although we didn’t sample them this trip.

Bakery in Petropavlovsk

For those that care, this is where it was:

View Larger Map

Decent pizza in Petropavlovsk

We were getting tired of the food in the hotel so on the advice of another couple who are also adopting we headed out to look for a pizza place they had tried and liked.

The food was decent and although they didn’t have English menus it was cafeteria style so pointing and grunting was sufficient to get what you wanted to eat.

In addition to pizza they served salads, ribs, rice and a range of other sides. It was a pleasant change to what we had been eating for dinner and we’ll be back. I will snag some pictures of the outside of the building and the restaurant itself the next time we go and post them but the highlight of the trek for our daughter Samantha was the attached playground.

For the map deprived (in other words pretty much everyone), here is where the restaurant is located:

View Larger Map

Hotel Skif – Location

I took a GPS fix outside the Hotel Skif this morning as I could never find a map of Petropavlovsk anywhere on the Internet. So here it is courtesy of Google maps.

View Larger Map

The Skif Hotel, Petropavlovsk, Kazakhstan

Since we were not able to find much information on the Skif Hotel on the Internet prior to traveling I figured I’d spend a post talking about the hotel we are staying in. Some level information on this place would have been rather helpful when making our travel plans.

This hotel seems to be the hotel of choice for some adoption agencies as there are multiple couples here going through the same process. It looks like it has been recently renovated with more renovations ongoing but even the newly renovated sections would find it difficult to climb to the level of two stars in a western hotel. I give it a solid one star.

The foyer is large, tiled and kept extremely clean (there is always someone sweeping it). On the lower level is a very large dining room, the tables attractively set with tablecloths and cloth napkins in a royal blue and gold colour scheme.  Breakfast is included in the price of the room and usually has eggs, some type of cereal, bread and with a couple of the options some fruit.

They have one menu translated to English (everyone has to share) and in case you are not inclined to eat horse meat (a meat of choice in Kazakhstan), it is indicated in the menu. The food is quite good and very reasonably priced. Dinner for four the other night rang in at $20 or so. That being said, by the fourth night you are going to be looking for alternatives as the menu just isn’t that varied.

The second floor is recommended since the rooms are outfitted to North American standards. If you need space, the suites are a good choice but are a bit more expensive. There is a fairly large foyer, living room and separate bedroom, a 2 piece bathroom and a separate shower room (some with showers only, others with tub with shower). The suites go for approximately $105 per night with the Tenge at 150 or so to the US dollar. We were offered a 20% discount if we paid for our stay in advance.

The smaller rooms are more like normal hotel rooms and are a bit cheaper.  There is also a fridge. Maid service is rather sporadic but if you tip them you get a good service. Bring slippers since the carpets are not very clean.

There is a workout room with 2 treadmills, 2 stationary bicycles, an elliptical trainer, some weight machines and free weights. The full size gym has basketball nets, a volleyball net and a ping-pong table.  The pool is all one depth and deep so it is not ideal for children. It is a requirement to wear a bathing cap which they sell in the pool area for 400 Tenge. There are change rooms, showers and a sauna but everything looks rather ex-Soviet Union, albeit with a more recent coat of paint.

The hotel is within walking distance to a number of grocery stores, restaurants and a mall. Constitution Avenue, also within walking distance is a great place to go for a walk as it is a car free zone. More to come on the area around the hotel in future posts.

We are off to Kazakhstan

At 8:00pm this evening we boarded a Northwest flight out of Boston for the approximately 7500 mile journey to Petropavlovsk in northern Kazakhstan. Our flight to Amsterdam was uneventful although my daughter Samantha was a pretty restless sleeper so we as a result didn’t get much sleep either.

It has been a long time since I flew international in coach (the benefit of racking up miles as a consultant) and I had forgotten how bloody uncomfortable the seats are. My back is going to take a few days to recover from all this abuse. Plus despite beating on Northwest I couldn’t get us all into the premier seating zone. I will be so glad when Delta and Northwest finally merge so my status on Delta will carry over correctly.

Also when I booked the flights Northwest couldn’t seem to decide whether the plane configuration had three seats across on the middle or four seats across in the second to last row which is where we ended up – the problem with booking at the last minute. It turns out they booked it as if there were four seats but there were really only three. So we got the entire row and someone else ended up in the front of the plane after we sorted out the fact that the seat they had assigned her didn’t actually exist (luckily as it was overbooked). So airline disaster #1 averted.

Once we got to Amsterdam we snagged some breakfast and then tried to figure out what to do with the rest of our ten hour layover (ugh!). Luckily we were in the Amsterdam airport which has a Yotel pod hotel. So we snagged a pod for eight hours and all of us promptly fell asleep. It was expensive but well worth it. Plus you can book online which is something to remember for the next trip through Amsterdam.

The bed folded down automatically which initially caused Samantha some concern but she got the hang of it and promptly turned it into a temporary playroom. She did seem frustrated through when everything on the TV was in Dutch.

After six hours of sleep and a quick shower we checked out of our “pod” and went hunting for coffee. Unfortunately the Starbucks in the airport is outside of the passport controlled area so I couldn’t get my fix. I had to settle for a decent cup of coffee at a coffee bar down towards the playground. That was perhaps the best part about the airport – they have a full sized playground inside. So Sam spent nearly an hour sliding and climbing which helped to tire her out for the next leg of the trip.