2025 Central Asia Adventure – Almaty Kazakhstan
Today’s Huntington’s Disease report is about an online petition to accelerate drug approvals for AMT-130 for HD. This one is asking the FDA to reverse its recent decision to decline its initial positive position on the previously-mentioned AMT-130 brain surgery + cell injection. I know that these online petitions don’t really mean much, especially under RFK Jr’s tenure, but every little bit helps, and it’s easy to do from the comfort of your La-Z-Boy recliner. https://www.change.org/p/accelerate-breakthrough-drug-approval-for-huntington-s-disease-uniqure-amt-130 Thank you!
Hello from Almaty, the twentieth stop on the trip and the largest city in Kazakhstan hosting 2.2 million people. Alama-Ata means “Father of Apples” and springtime is an explosion of, strangely, apricot blossoms. Due to the complete lack of forward transportation options, I flew here from Dushanbe, and I’m back in Kazakhstan for the second time! I’m in the far-eastern corner of Kazakhstan now, and I overflew western Tajikistan and fully across Kyrgyzstan in the plane. I tried to get into Kyrgyzstan but again due to geographic complications, it just wasn’t possible.
I packed up at my hotel in Dushanbe, the front desk lady booked a taxi, it arrived in 1 minute. I walked into the terminal building and through x-ray. I looked around inside the terminal – it’s deserted! Then the x-ray guy then tells me to go outside, left and into the next terminal. Wow, OK. Why let me through in the first place? I went out and realized my own confusion – the active terminal is clearly under construction. A pack of humanity had to go through a single-lane gate then into an area with several lines for the check-in desks. As usual with the god of multiple lines, mine was slowest, but eventually I got checked in. Nobody ahead of me at security or outgoing immigration so I got to my gate 1 hour early. Went to a snack shop, showed the guy my 6 remaining coins and asked what I could buy. He looked around, came back with a small waffle cookie with chocolate in the pockets, perfect!
Another plane was going from our gate, nothing on the display, the lady at the desk just shouting in Kazakh. As people were looking around in confusion she finally said ‘Almaty no’. Got it. Another 30 minutes I’m third onto the next plane, it’s quite full. Watched Goldmember on my laptop. Trolley came past with a cheesy pizza, dark chocolate and Coke Zero – nearly my perfect meal!
We pulled up to the gate, of course we had to take the stairs but it took 20 minutes for the stairs to arrive, then a bus to the terminal – just let us go on the jetbridge you cheap buggers! I’m 10th in line for immigration, very slow.
I asked at an information desk how to get to my hotel, she said Yandex Go is 5000 or taxis are a little bit more, so it’s a taxi for me then due to my lock-out from Yandex. An old guy walks up, says he’s an official taxi driver. I ask him “Visa card?”, he says yes. I do have a lot of Kazakh cash left from my first stay but I want to preserve it if possible. He offers 8300 but I said, no we use the meter, which I assume will be fair for both of us. He starts what is clearly a fake app in his dashboard that’s flying through the numbers, and he covers the number by sliding down his temperature control dialog, tricky! The street for my hotel is blocked for construction so we had to go around a bit. We find the hotel, the app says 18,000! I point and say no way, fake app. “Yandex 5000” and I held out 8500, more than his original offer. He starts trying to give me a discount, 15,000 then 12,000. I keep waving the 8500 and he finally takes it with a grumble. Not my first time off the turnip truck sir.
I checked in, nice room with a good bathroom, view and fridge. Wifi works but is very slow again, the hallway far better, so I whipped out the booster, set it up in the hallway and wham – super fast!
In the dark I walked 5 big blocks to MEGA mall. Big food court on the top floor. I found some guys selling some kind of lottery for a ticket to the Abu Dhabi F1 race for $50 – wow that’s a lot of money for a microscopic chance of winning, and their bin was full of tickets. Fell asleep to wind and rain.
I awoke the next morning to find my Vietnam e-Visa application saying the payment failed and I have to make another profile from scratch! Ugh. I asked the nice front desk lady to book me a Yandex Go, costs 1100 to go to the Dostyk Plaza, a giant shopping mall. I spoiled myself and went for a wine tasting then Italian late lunch. I leisurely walked back through the Arbat neighbourhood with a pedestrian street with arts & crafts tables. I went to the Irish Pub for dinner quite nearby my hotel, it was open but no customers there yet and the staff were preparing for a Halloween party. No beef for burgers tonight, so got a chicken burger, a pair of heavy rubber gloves, and a double amber German beer. On the way back to my room I talked with the desk lady, she said there is no laundry service here or nearby but says she will do it herself at her house for 1500, wow how sweet!
The laundry finished at noon as promised, but she doesn’t have change for a 10,000 and I have to pay cash for the room so I have to hit an ATM today and get her exact change. I plotted a walking path to things to see – first up was Panfilov Park & Zenkov Cathedral, the world’s tallest all-timber building! Very Russian onion-dome style. Next was the Green Market – an extensive bazaar-style place with housewares, clothes, meat, veg, fruits. On the way out saw a crowd of people around some paramedics using an automated machine to do chest compressions on someone on the ground, I hope they pull through! I walked many blocks down to and through the massive Central Park, with a large children’s play area and dinosaur cave. The leaves are turning now and the effect in the parks is just spectacular. For lunch I had two orders of 8 piece sushi, I was hungry! Then to the Zhibek Zholy metro station, I couldn’t see the area on the turnstile to tap my phone so I used coins to buy a token for 130 / 24 cents. Down a long escalator, beautiful stonework everywhere and a very modern train. 3 stops and off at Baikonur station. I walked to a Thai spa, my assigned lady turned out to be a Thai woman from Chonburi on the opposite side of the Gulf of Thailand from my town. Great work on my hip, I can walk straight up and down again after all of these treatments. Went to an ATM, then bought some snacks to get the right amount and paid my hotel and laundry bill. Back in the room I looked into a day trip to one of the “nearby” huge lakes but it’s 12-18 hours in a minivan there and back so not going to try that.
In the morning I got a taxi to Journalism Park and walked around several clustered parks among the government buildings. I spotted a sign for another Thai spa so went inside, fantastic decor and booked a 1 hour massage for 3pm. To burn time I walked to a cafe next door, had a pasty and talked with the waitress with excellent English and a very neutral accent, which helps her as a translator. Her uncle used to live in Toronto, she wants to go to University there for languages. Back at the spa I got changed into a fluffy robe, then had tea and dried fruits and nuts. I went into my room and was met by a lady from Bangkok, she was surprised I can speak a little Thai. She really worked on my hip when I told her my problem. I then went for a very long walk up the river channel in Central Park, across and then back down. It’s nippy after dark so I had hot chocolate at a little cafe next to the river.
The next morning I found my Vietnam visa has been approved so that’s a relief. Packed up and headed to the airport to go to Mongolia.
Bottom line: Almaty a VERY large city, spread out so it’s hard to see all of the interesting things without taking taxis – luckily they’re very cheap but you need to get a local to book for you. Being so large l I expected more in the way of culture and arts but I really didn’t see much of that – perhaps the capital city of Astana has more of these features. The parks are quite nice and the street sidewalks very walkable so no problem getting around if you just want to hoof it for the day.
Next stop: Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia
