Karaganda

It was a relatively short train from Astana to Karaganda, at least compared to the trains that I've been taking lately. It was only a five hour voyage, and it only cost around four dollars. When I got to Karaganda, I found that bus #43 went to Mira Blvd., which was only a few blocks away from my hostel, so I took the bus. But at first I was waiting at the wrong bus stop...it was a bus stop only for out-of-town buses. I figured this out after a couple of buses stopped there with placards indicating they were going to other cities. I walked down the road a few blocks to the next bus stop, and had success.


Karaganda's history is intertwined with two nain things: coal and gulags. Karaganda's economy has historically been dependent on coal mining, and I saw more than one monument around town that had some heroic figure(s) triumphantly displaying an enormous lump of coal to the sky. And to some extent, it is still dependent on coal, though the immediate area has been pretty mined out to near depletion. There are some serious environmental consequences from the coal mining. The former mine tunnels are filled with chemically laced water, and the ground around them is too unstable and polluted to build on. There are some sections of the city that had to be relocated because there were mine tunnels underneath that could collapse at any moment. And there are large bodies of water all around that look like lakes, but in reality they are collapsed mine tunnels, revealing the water in the tunnels that came to the surface after the tunnels collapsed.


And the second legacy of Karaganda is gulags. The Kazakhstan gulags were where many intellectuals from across the Soviet Union were sent for anti-Soviet activities, and many of them were forced to ply their professions in the camps, so scientists made many discoveries, doctors ran infirmaries, and engineers and architects designed many wonders that were built by laborers, all directed from behind barbed wire and shadowed by guards. Artists and musicians created their art; the artists were not allowed to sign their works so many of the paintings and sculptures are of unknown origin.



Despite these grim marks on their history, Karaganda is kind of a charming place with upbeat, friendly people. The first day, I mostly wandered around the vicinity of the main street, Buqar-Jyrau Avenue. It was cold, windy, and rainy, and sleet fell for a short while, but it switched back to rain. There was an immense monument to Yuri Gagarin, the first man in space, and many sights along the main avenue. There was a monument to Kazakh Independence, a big, sprawling Central Park with a long walking street adorned with glitz, an amusement park, and a lake in the middle.


I had been corresponding with Anastasia, who went by Nastya, who was an English teacher at a local school there. I had been introduced to her by my friend Pete in St. Petersburg, who was introduced to me by Dave in Missouri; they had all been English teachers at the same school there. Actually, I think I've met five people now in different corners of the world who taught at that school. Nastya set up dual adventures for me; a visit to Karlag, the headquarters of a vast forced labor camp that covered an immense part of the Kazakh SSR's territory in Soviet times, and an authentic Kazakh meal prepared by her mother-in-law. It was great meeting Nastya and her husband; it's always nice to have a connection in the cities I visit. Both of them were from Karaganda and knew a lot about the area.


The next day, I had planned to visit some parts of the city that I hadn't been to, but I came down with a violent stomach bug. I must have gotten a local bug from some food or water. So I started in my room and waited it out. Then I remembered I had some psyllium in my pack, so I started taking a small spoonful every few minutes or so, along with some baking soda in water to douse the sour stomach. Sure enough, the psyllium soaked up all the demons in my belly, and I was feeling much better. It was too bad I didn't make it out that day because the weather was mostly better.


But the next day I had to move on to Almaty. This time I walked to the train rather than taking the bus; it was about an hour's walk. Sometimes I don't feel like walking that far with my full pack (it weighs about 25 kilos), but sometimes I don't mind.


I stayed at: Gostinitsa Alians, Jambyl Street 43, кв 1-7, Karagandy, 100000, Kazakhstan, telephone +7 701 772 4466. This was a guesthouse rather than a hostel. I had my own room there, though it had three beds in it so I am unclear as to whether I booked the whole room or just a bed and nobody else showed up. But I'm fairly sure I booked the room; that's what it looked like in the online booking. Also, there was a huge Kazakh wedding there so it was packed over the weekend (the first two days I was there), so if the were more beds available, I'm sure they would have filled them. The rooms were very economical, about eight dollars a night, but lacking a lot of basic amenities. There was no toilet paper at all the first day I was there. I probably could have asked the front desk for some, but I had some in my pack, so I just used it. But toilet paper showed up in one of the bathrooms the next day, and I had to ask on the third day. Also, it got really cold in the room at night. It got down to near freezing at night, and there was no heat, so I had to get up in the middle of the night and put on thermal underwear and steal another blanket from one of the other beds. Apparently most Karaganda houses don't turn on the heat until October and bear any cold that arises until then; they really need it for the winter when it regularly gets down to 30 below zero (it doesn't much matter at that point whether we're talking C or F; it's bone-chilling cold). And there was no kitchen to prepare food, though they had a restaurant with reasonable prices. I was hoping for a kitchen, though, because I had brought a lot of food with me. The wifi hardly ever worked. It would come on weakly for a few minutes, and then sputter out. There were adequate electrical outlets for me near my bed, but no light near the bed. There was decent storage but no big storage and no lockable storage, though the room door locked. The guesthouse was decent to middling shelter from the weather, but nothing fancy at all, and some might find it lacking, though I did appreciate a private room for a change.