The King's Castle

Dear everyone,
Things are going well. Alea is a big, chubby-cheeked, smiley, inquisitive ball of delight, the initial feedback from the adoption doc has been positive, and the group of Americans whose trips coincide with ours are social and fun. Jet lag is slowly becoming manageable. The first snow of the season is falling as I type.

Sal & I agree that Kostonai is thoroughly unlike anywhere else we have traveled. In some ways it is an Asian/European hybrid, but there is something quite singular about it as well that I’ve yet to put my finger on.

Our first night here, immediately following our 30 hours of marathon travel, our coordinator took the stuporous bunch of us to a restaurant called the King’s Castle. The exterior resembled exactly that, down to the larger-than-life sized knights guarding either side of the door. Inside, after checking coats, scarves, hats and gloves (required for outdoor existence) we were escorted to a banquet hall with baroque prints on the walls, red carpet, a crystal chandelier, and a large center table, with thrones at either end and elaborately carved lions and other features on the arms of each chair. The walls were surrounded with smaller booths, for other diners, and then, just behind the throne at one end, was a dance floor, replete with disco ball and colored lights. The menu was a russified version of traditional british fare (served with either vodka, or the regional beer Baltika, which is ordered by number (0-9) depending on how drunk you need to be today). Unlike most restaurants, they had an English menu with dishes such as "Onion Happiness" (onion rings) and "Some kind of Fish, with Olive, Pickle and Mayonaise, In the Fantasy Style." The initial entertainment was an excellent classical guitarist, and he was followed by a long-haired, Jack-Black-esque vocalist who crooned heavy metal ballads in Russian, while a caucasian woman in a flowing red dress and a full set of gold teeth danced with an asian man, ballroom style, and a few other locals did a “bump and grind”. Alternating with the dance music, a group of stunningly attractive Kazakh women did a variety of burlesque dance routines, with varied (but always r-rated) costumes. There was even a belly dance, where the American daddy’s-to-be were fortunate enough to be able to place a neatly folded 2000-tenge note in their skirt or bikini top. By the end of the evening, most of us had gathered the nerve to join our fellow Kazakh diners on the dance floor.

That was our first night here, immediately following the 30-hours of travel. It was a lot of fun. I don’t know what I expected from our trip to Kazakhstan, but it wasn’t this. And it gets better. Tomorrow evening, we are going ice skating.

Alright, now for what you really want – more pix. And there’s a new video, “alea3” at video.yahoo.com. Love to all -t