Old timer and old times

Taraz was originally just a place I found on the map. I wasn't very keen on travelling almost 20 hours by train to Turkestan, so I opted to break it into two trips. And Taraz was about midway between Almaty and Turkestan. But after some reading, I realized it had an old archeological site. Of an old walled city. 

After breakfast, I walked in the direction of the site, but since I had no idea how to get there, I just wandered in the general direction. 

At one point, a very drunk guy came over to "talk". I don't understand Russian. And definitely not slurry "Russian". He almost fell over when he pointed at a road behind me. A woman yelled at him, and he kept in stumbling along while slurring some Russian. She smiled as I passed her. I did find the wall of the city, but not how to get in. 

I walked past something that looked like gates to the walled city, So I figured I must be near the entrance. 

In the end, I ended up in something that looked like a car repair shop. A guard dog woke up and trotted over too me. But he looked more interested in getting petted than to bite my hand off. I turned around. Another look at the map, and checking the internet, I realized that the drunk guy had assumed that as a tourist, I wanted to see the archeologic dig. And the road he had pointed at, was the correct way to the site... Oh well.

After a lot of walking, I found that the way to get to the site, was to look for signs to a huge shopping centre. Of course. 

When I arrived at the site, there was a ticket booth present. I walked over. Only to find a young lady, busy putting her makeup on. She looked at me and continued looking in the mirror and putting on the last touch, before attending to me. Got the impression she was more keen on becoming a model than selling tickets. But finally she found the time in her busy schedule to sell me a ticket.

As per usual many places, no change was available. So in the end, I just gave her the smaller notes I had until she was happy. Less than I should have paid. But, when you don't have any change? Not my problem. And she couldn't care less. She went straight back to her makeup.

The site was interesting. A lot of old ruins. The story has it that they were building some homes here when they realized they had come across old ruins. So they stopped the construction, moved the houses already built, and escavated the whole site. There were like "tents" convering the whole site, and bridges where tourists could walk. 

There was a museum with some artifacts extracted from the site. I managed to take a few photos before a guard gave me a very clear "No-no!" sign. So I packed away my camera and just enjoyed the rest of the display.

This book was maybe 2 cm wide. Talk about saving paper...

In the same area, I found an open door, and it proved to be an art gallery. Free entrance. The gallery itself was quite nice, and the paintings were interesting. In many styles. Again, a lady stopped me from taking photos...

After this, I walked back towards my hotel and found a place that sold delicious doner kebabs. Then I returned to my hotel. Tired of walking, and sweaty, I spent the rest of the evening in my room.

Ragnar

Old timer enjoying old times