ALMATY, KAZAKHSTAN: THE MEDEU SKATING RINK AND KOK TOBE HILL

1. MOUNTAINS AND MEDEU SKATING RINK

Our bus took us out of the city of Almaty, up a winding mountain road, and through some breathtaking scenery. It was October 5th, and the first snow of the season had already fallen the previous day. 

The buses parked in a lot next to the Medeu Skating Rink, the highest Olympic-sized skating rink in the world. It is situated at 5,548 feet above sea level, making it a great place for high-altitude training:

The rink was built  by the Soviets in 1949 and opened in 1951. It reflects the grandiose style of that regime, and during the next 30 years, it was one of the top speed skating venues in the world with about 120 world records being set there. When it is operational, there is over 110,000 square feet of ice.

It isn't too hard to imagine these stands filled with cheering fans:

There would be long lines of people waiting to order at these little food huts:

There are a couple of booths that I wish had been open when we were there, but there was no one but our group on the premises.

Just a reminder not to walk too far away from the group:

I kept my protection close by:

2.  KOK TOBE HILL

We returned to Almaty only to ascend another mountain, or in this case, a hill, but a pretty big hill known locally as Kok Tobe, which means "green hill." A tram was completed in March 2016 to take visitors to the top.

It's more than a little ironic to have a poster for the latest Tom Cruise movie, American Made, in front of the tram building:

This was our second tram ride of the trip, the first having been in Hong Kong, a much longer and steeper tram ride.

Still, we got some great views of the hillside neighborhoods of Almaty . . .

. . . and, off in the distance, the business district:

Near the top of Kok Tobe is an interesting design made out of growing greenery. I'm not sure what it is supposed to represent--some kind of critter, I think:

On the top of Kok Tobe hill is a tall television tower, originally constructed in 1978 and reconstructed in 2001. A huge ferris wheel is also on top (and it isn't actually about to fall over like the picture makes it look):

An apple fountain is the focal point of the square. Remember that "Alma" means "apple." For some unknown reason this is called "The Fountain of Desires":

It's a rather peculiar place up on top of Kok Tobe Hill, as you can see:

There are little scooters for rent for young children, and for the teenagers there is a roller coaster that goes down the hill at almost 30 mph:

But we didn't take the tram so that we could ride on the ferris wheel, the bikes, or the roller coaster. We went to EAT in the very nice Restaurant Abay that overlooks the city from it's perch on the hill:

A detailed mural showing a Kazakh family preparing a meal got us ready for our first experience with Kazakh food:

Our meal began with a dazzling panoply of appetizers and salads, and in spite of being cautioned about eating raw vegetables, we devoured it all.  The slices of meat in the center of the table are shuzhuk, or horse sausage. Many of those who cringed at Bob's packaged horse meat the day before ate and liked this horse sausage, showing that sometimes it's all about presentation:

There was so much food on the table that we thought we were done, but then they came out with the main courses--roast horse, lamb, wonderful flat noodles, potatoes, and more.

The horse course (hee hee), called besbarmak, was not quite as tasty as the sausage and not as enticing to our fellow travelers:

Our dessert was a rather strange dish that looked like chow mein noodles glued together with caramel sauce. Definitely not a winner:

What WAS a winner was the music we enjoyed while we were eating:

After lunch we had several options for where to go next:

We chose the final option on the sign, a bronze statue of The Beatles by Eduard Kazaryan, a Kazakh sculptor. The sculpture was the result of a national competition and was installed in 2007. Can I just tell you how bizarre it is to see the Fab Four in a park at the top of a tram in Almaty, Kazakhstan?

Supposedly this is the first sculpture in the world to depict all four members of The Beatles in full length.

Time to head back down the hill:

It looks like some of the horrible pollution from China (or maybe it's Almaty's own) has drifted menacingly over the city:

At the bottom of the tram we got distracted by this magnificent metal sculpture of a warrior on a horse. It looks like it could have walked off the screen of a hi-tech video game:

There is also an equally massive, imposing sculpture of a bull pawing the ground with his head down, ready to charge:

I haven't been able to find any information on these two sculptures. I wish I knew who made them and why they are rearing up on/pawing the pavement of the square near the tram entrance.