Central Asia Lazing

It was time to cross the border.

Now, for the next two weeks, our tent and sleeping bags could stay packed, and all of our clothes found shelter in an unfamiliar home; for once it wasn't stuffed inside a packing cube or shoved into a grocery-store-bag-now-made-into-a-laundry-bag bag, they were for once in a closet. We had an airconditioned apartment of our own in Almaty, Kazakhstan, and our heavy backpacks finally had somewhere to sit other than on our shoulders.

We were still riding the high of our hikes and adventures in Kyrgyzstan, excited for the next chapter of our travels: Central Asia lazing. Or, maybe more accurately, two weeks of putting some routine back into our lives. After the past three weeks of hiking and being outdoors, our bodies were ready for a rest. We traded marshrutkas, guesthouses, and long hot days in the sun for a cozy apartment and days filled with exercise, work sessions, dinner dates, and coffee runs. It was a familiar sort of life, and I was surprised by how excited I felt about getting back into it.

There was something fitting about how it began. A month earlier, on our second day in Kyrgyzstan, we’d been enjoying coffee with our new friend Chihoon. Now, on our second day in Almaty, we were taking our first sips when a familiar face spotted us: Chihoon!

Coffee at Chihoon’s coffee shop!

I call it serendipity, but this was now the second time we'd run into him, at his own coffee shops. From his perspective, it was maybe more suspicious then serendipitous.

He was on his way out, in the middle of a stressful workday, but came over with the biggest mouth open smile, almost giggling as he greeted us. It was that same lively personality we remembered from a month earlier when getting coffee recommendations from a then stranger. Our coffee gave us the space for a brief catch-up, and before leaving, he invited us to his friend’s concert later that week. He offered the invitation with the warmth of someone welcoming friends into their home. We already liked Almaty, but the feeling of arriving in a new country and almost immediately having someone who was happy to see us felt like a warm hug. Two days in, halfway across the world, we already had a friend to make plans with.

Filling the rest of our days came remarkably easily. We committed our two-week Kazakh life to two priorities: keeping active and making time for our own passion projects.

Keeping active meant joining a gym, which happened to be a five-minute walk from Cece, a pan-Asian restaurant that quickly became one of our favorites in Almaty. I promise the restaurant wasn’t a factor in which gym we chose. But, it did however become a good motivator to keep going. That motivation helped when our bodies encountered what felt like the toughest challenge of the trip: being fully-body sore for the first time in months. Even more than our hikes demanded. Apparently, we’d saved that particular pleasure for our relaxing city break. Fortunately, there were bowls of deliciously seasoned ramen, rich curries, and refreshing teas waiting nearby. Food is fuel, right? At least, that was how I justified trying nearly everything on the menu.

During one of our last workouts, we ran into another familiar face: Neal. He was living almost exactly the same post-hiking-in-Kyrgyzstan life as us, enjoying the food, spending time in the beautiful downtown area, and now going to the gym. Our conversation also gave us the encouragement we apparently needed to follow his lead and book a luxurious massage before leaving. Our sore bodies had no complaints about that part of the routine - despite fighting the urge to softly yelp for help whenever my calves had the slightly amount of pressure on them.

Happy after our massages!

Making time for our projects took us between the comfort of our apartment, a handful of coffee shops we soon knew very well, and the local library. It’s not often you become a library member in a city you’re only visiting for two weeks, on the other side of the world from home. The librarian seemed amused as she patiently collected the information needed for our membership, gathering details about why we were there and what we did for work before helping us understand the library’s layout. And there we were: two unemployed travelers sitting among students from the nearby university. They might have been cramming for exams, getting through homework, or deep in a study session. We were happily creating, writing, and coding, with no deadline hanging over us or responsibility pulling us away. We were working diligently, too, which made the whole thing especially enjoyable. It was refreshing having somewhere to go and something to work on, without either being an obligation. We were playing at local life, with the privilege of leaving out most of its ordinary pressures.

I felt deeply grateful for how much freedom we had in those two weeks. We treated ourselves to especially nice places when we ate out every day, tried different foods, treated ourselves to a massage, and came back to an apartment that genuinely felt like our own cozy home. For a little while, the usual questions of cost and timing seemed far away. Even our ordinary days were indulgent. But when I think about what made Almaty stand out, it’s less the comforts than the people who became part of those days.

It’s the librarian patiently helping two temporary residents get their library cards. It’s a server at a nearby restaurant who offered to show us around the city, then later helped us secure a second reservation when we invited Neal to join us for dinner before his flight.

Those interactions gave us reasons to feel familiar with a place beyond simply knowing which way to walk. And, just as in Kyrgyzstan, our favorite moments were the ones we spent with Chihoon.

We went to his friend’s concert and grabbed a late-night meal with him afterward.

Over food, we learned more about his family, his time in the US, his roots in Korea, and the way he thought about life. It was a chance to get to know him beyond the brief conversations we’d suspiciously serendipitously had. Later that week, we spent time with some of his other friends, from around the world. There never seemed to be a lull in the conversation, and nothing felt forced. We weren’t searching for the next question and our conversations were naturally more deep. There was always something else we wanted to talk or philosophize about. We found ourselves not just having a favorite restaurant or somewhere to work, but spending time with people whose company felt easy. It didn't feel like we were halfway across the world. We were enjoying just getting to learn more about our friend.

Central Asia had given us rough and demanding travel days as well as some needed comfortable ones. After the hiking in Kyrgyzstan, Almaty was our chance to rest, work on a few things, and enjoy staying put. By the time we left, it also meant saying goodbye to small and more meaningful connections we'd made along the way. I could have happily had another ordinary day there - spending a few hours at the library, lunch at Cece, and another coffee with Chihoon. But, now we have a new friend to meet up with and re-experience the caucuses in a new light! See you soon Derrick :)