April 10

Almaty at last!
The train ride was pretty uneventful. The 4-berth sleeper cars that we rode back to Almaty were not quite as comfortable as the 2-berth 1st class sleepers we took to Taraz. It’s amazing how much more comfortable a 3 inch foam mattress is when compared to a 1.5 inch foam mattresses. We didn’t happen to get the so-called “Spanish train” either direction. The railway has a few really nice new trains that they bought from a Spanish company, and one of them periodically runs the Almaty-Shymkent route. We got the “Old Soviet train”, which looks pretty tired but still gets you where you need to go.

We took Jack and Julia to the SOS clinic for a set of pretty darn expensive immunizations before our appointment tomorrow at the US Embassy. Basically, the US assumes that any immunizations gotten anywhere else are suspect (old vaccines and diluted dosages are common in many places) and requires kids coming over to be re-immunized. They were regular troopers and took their shots in stride. I’ll bet they’re going to be sore tomorrow.

New thing of the day—escalators. The “Tsoom” store in Almaty has escalators, and by the looks on the kids’ faces, this was a first. Once we got the concept that the “up” escalators are opposite the “down” escalators, it was time for four or five highly entertaining rides. Everyone was in favor of escalators—all the stairs are the same height and if the power goes off you can just walk to finish your trip. It’s fun to see things that we stopped noticing long ago through the eyes of those who are experiencing them for the first time. Wait ‘till they see the moving sidewalks at the Denver Airport.