Part 16: Shymkent, Kazakhstan
Hotel: Shymkent Hotel, price: 30 EUR/night
My hotel for the night, the Hotel Shymkent, is a renovated former Soviet hotel which nowadays is one of the nicer places in town. Even though the room was nothing special, it was perfectly acceptable. Internet was fast, the lobby was a nice place to drink a coffee, and the staff were friendly and eager to help, for example for calling a taxi.
The city of Shymkent is described in guidebooks as “southern Kazakhstan's most vibrant town”. For sure, the city is not a looker – it was only developed in Tsarist times and then massively rebuilt by the Soviets. Think broad boulevards, blocks and a couple of monuments. That said, it is certainly lively enough for a day – and a whole different world than the silk road cities of Uzbekistan. The city has a population of one million, although it feels more like it has half or a third of that when walking around.
When it comes to the sights of the city, there is this weird pedestrian crossing which I found oddly intriguing.
There was a monument of a giant rose – not sure if it is a tribute to the British Labour party or the social-democratic movement or whatever else. A full 7 out of 10 in the scale of Soviet ugliness.
It's not all Soviet though – at times some more modern buildings can be found in town, such as a big shopping centre with an indoor ice rink. If you might be travelling on the road for a longer time in Central Asia, Shymkent would surely be a great town if you are looking for modern amenities or to stock up on goods.
There was a theatre in town with the best ever smell of shashlyk around – although I couldn't locate where they were actually grilling the meet. Bummer, as I was getting a bit hungry.
Probably the most important sight is the 'Monument of Mother Earth'.
From the pedestrian bridge over the busy roundabout there are some OK views over town.
Higher up on the hill you can find Independence Park – which is well worth a stroll. It has all kinds of monuments praising the Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan.
Being in a Borat mood, I couldn't resist a selfie to Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan.
Putting aside the ubiquitous Borat jokes one must make when in Kazakhstan, I actually started to like the city. Sure, if you expect something glorious you will be utterly disappointed. But if you look for a cool Soviet urban centre, Shymkent does the trick. And given my love for obscure places, I was happy to have a full day in town to walk a bit around.
For just 4 USD I had a very tasty late lunch in a random restaurant. The menu card was only in Russian, but I could take out easily the words of 'manti' and 'shashlyk' so that was what I ordered.
Both were very good – especially when washed away with the local Shymkent beer of which the city is quite proud of.
As I had a very early flight the next morning (5.40am, ugh!) I decided to sleep in early. I re-visited the shopping centre on the way back to buy a couple of Kazakh beers as nightcap for in the hotel, and called it a day.
Next up: Flying home on Aeroflot in economy class, including a flight on the Sukhoi Superjet.