More Adventures in Kazakhstan (and elsewhere)

I had planned to make it a habit to throw a new post up every time I traveled back to Canada for a break - helps pass the 20-some-odd-hour flight home. That would result in an update every 6-8 weeks, which is about right...however, the last trip home I went to Sudbury for Esso Cup hockey, and since I kept working while there (not vacation time - worked all night, slept all day and got up early for hockey), it meant I was also working on the flight over. This put me wayy behind on updates, so this is a big one. Grab a coffee.

Esso Cup
As per last update - I headed to Sudbury on a roundabout route through Poland and Belarus. Delays on LOT Polish airlines resulted in a missed Sudbury connection, so I was pissed off, stole a fuel truck and rammed the Sudbury plane about 5 times (kidding, that was some other guy that must have missed his connection about 2 weeks later...). Made it partway through game 1 and saw a great week of hockey.

Proud of Haylee, played well and the team finished first after the round robin, but unfortunately they didn't have quite enough left in the home stretch, coming away 4th. Something to work towards for next year!

Faceoff and awards dinner (great centerpiece)

Haylee with team Captain Grace (also plays on team Canada) and long-time teammate Bridgette

Haylee with a slapshot and assist

After a token Sudbury picture with the big nickel, it was back to work in Nur-Sultan, arriving at 6 am with company board meetings starting at 9 am...

I figured I would use the last 4-hour leg to sleep. 

Belarus:

Unfortunately the IIHF Div 1 Group A tournament was hosted in Nur-Sultan starting Monday that week, so the whole plane out of Minsk was filled with Belarus fans who all followed a simple formula:

1) Arrive 2 hours early for the 4 hour midnight flight, purchase a 40 of vodka at duty free

2) consume vodka, get the week's celebration started

3) keep it going with team Belarus chants and Soviet songs allllll the way to Kazakhstan.

If it was in North America, this flight would have been grounded 10 minutes in and half the passengers arrested. Instead, the flight staff on Belavia airlines was chanting right along with the fans! I pictured Russian pilots with shots of vodka singing in the cockpit. Regardless, made it back to work and meetings unscathed (minus bags, which stayed an extra few days in Toronto).

Back in Nur-Sultan

The country recently celebrated victory and defenders days - equivalent to Canadian Remembrance day, but they combine with a "father's/men's" day...so we had the men's equivalent to the March women's day at work!

 Applause and chocolate when coming it, with balloon darts and a resulting "fortune". Apparently I can expect a new Dacha this year. A country house would be great!

Pre-Summer Spring weather

Summer hit in Nur-Sultan, with a couple of weekend days going above 30C. I'm told it was exceptional for this time of year, but it was great to get out and explore. I grabbed a "city bike" card, which for about $25 gives access to these bikes all around the city. After an hour of hit-and-miss translation with the bike people and about a dozen forms (if I lose a bike, I might get deported, not sure what I signed), I was on my way to tour around.

Forms for a bike card 

(kidding, it was half the size. This is an expense claim for 4 hotel nights at 3 hotels and a plane ticket on a one-week IR trip at work...well almost 2 weeks once the claim paperwork was completed...)

 Astana bike rack

Pretty simply - swipe card, enter pin and go

Cable lock system built into handlebars for locking it wherever

App tells you where the racks are, how many bikes are there, and how many empty spots are available for returns

It's meant to be a commuter system, so as long as you stop at a rack every ~30 mins to check in, rental is free. Going in a block of time of more than 30 mins and it takes from your card balance (100 KZT/30 min...that's 35 cents in CAD!!!). Cycling infrastructure isn't that well developed, but not bad - easy way to get around and see everything!

Heading to look around, moments before being jumped to have my bike stolen by a North Korean ninja. Sergey is a friend from the strategy department at work - big into cycling and took me around.

Monument Kazakh Eli - Independence park area

Hazrat Sultan Mosque - phenomenal piece of architecture!

 

Massive screen artwork piece running facts about Kazakhstan's peaceful history

And of course - Baiterek tower - which houses a peace monument and the first president's golden hand print to visit at the top

Back closer to my flat - building that houses the national oil and gas company KMG with the purple lit Kahn Shatyr mall beside my flat in the background

They've already replaced "I Love Astana" with a Nur-Sultan sign!

Lots of impressive materials used - monuments were solid marble, bronze, and granite...found a little bit of  local "Tydall-like" stone (like UofS buildings). Here is was merely used for an electronic billboard...

A few pictures around the Ishim River, which runs through the city dividing Nur-Sultan into the "left" and "right" sides.

Flowers were starting to be put out...but just to make it feel more like Canada...one week after +30C...

A different "Bike" hobby...

As the weather warms up and everyone wants to get outside, like most people (I assume), it's hard to resist the urge to start a biker gang. So for a week, I went with a couple of friends to look for motorcycles to buy. The idea is to buy 4 different styles of bikes and share the cost, reselling them later. Nurbek (VP Corporate Development) and Riaz (CFO) are first out of the gate, taking lessons at a track in Almaty and picking up a Honda 600cc and a Russian motocross Racer 

 

Riaz testing a Honda street bike and BMW

Collection in our parking garage has started

2 block commute to work on a dirt bike could be fun (view from office, Riaz down there somewhere)

Sergey (Director in Strategy group) and I are planning an Almaty trip for the track training, and then we're to complete the bike collection.

Sergey is getting more of a scrambler type bike

I'm liking a 2014 Shadow Phantom...

The Shadow is only a bit more expensive than this BMW pedal bike at the dealership...

Food

As always, a blurb on food. Touring around took me down Turan Ave, which hosts an array of restaurants. One strip in particular has several massive, multi-story cuisine-themed places to eat, been to a couple, the Ukrainian was phenomenal...

Yakitoriya Japanese and Korean House

Bagrationi Georgian and Portofino Italian 

Alasha Uzbeki and "The Mill" Ukranian 

Russian

All pretty amazing, too much to try...Sushi is awesome (despite being a landlocked country...), Georgian (above right) was very unique with lots of ground nuts, garlic, tarragon, dill and coriander.. 

This bread boat thing is called Georgian khachapuri - cheese with some spices, they bring it out, crack an egg and mix it all up for you (cooking the egg with hot cheese). You rip the bread off to dip in the cheese and it's bloody amazing...

Coming back from a work Conference

Lastly, just returned from taking the company to an investor conference in Barcelona for the week. Like most trips in and out of Nur-Sultan, getting there was a pain with limited options, leaving at 3:30 am (and I thought 6:30 am was bad...), arriving a day early. 

Istanbul from the air

The time zones were about 4 hours apart, but still didn't want to sleep, so wandered around for the day. First stop was naturally Tim Hortons...

Conference at Hotel Arts Barcelona

Walking around, I ended up at La Sagrada Familia - an amazing Catholic church designed by famous Catalan architect Antoni Gaudí (died 1926). It's now been under construction for over 100 years, still following Gaudi's original design and funded by donations and planned for completion in 2026. A massive place where every dimension and measurement, block, rock type, facade and ornament carries some type of very specific greater meaning.

Passion Facade (west facing)

Nativity Facade (east) 

Stained glass - nativity facade side with more blues and "morning" east light

Main area designed to look like trees with light shining through

Passion Facade - west side with more warmer sunset stained glass colors - pillars are huge, with different rock types based on the weight they must bear. This one will be under the ~130m high main tower when it's done. Church already dominates Barcelona's skyline, but tower will be just cms shorter than the surrounding mountains, as Gaudi believed "nothing man builds should be more grand than what God built".

I was wondering how an architect planned something this massive (with plans still used today), before computers, 3D modelling, etc, and they had an amazing display to explain. This is an upside-down to-scale model of the church, with little bags of weights representing the weights that the various parts of the structure had to bear (to scale as well). Using small chains hanging across the model, they could calculate the required angles and arches needed to support the structure. 

Similar methods were used for 100's of years in Europe, Gaudi is pretty recent compared to some others...but I'm sure today's "math makes sense" program will help today's kids achieve an equivalent math and geometry knowledge, allowing for a new generation of great projects like this. "How did the angle make you feel"?

Continuing around, went to Parc Guell - what was supposed to be a countryside subdivision with rich acreages (also a Gaudi design)...but the project failed, and became a city park

...and the first residential house Gaudi designed. This was a countryside manor on an acreage outside the city walls when it was built...now in the heart of the city and carefully restored over the course of decades.

...and on the bus back, noticed 1000's of people in "Messi" jerseys, so stepped off and caught a Sunday Spanish league game in the 100,000+ seat Barcelona stadium

2-0 win. And I still don't like Soccer.

Ended with supper at a hole-in-the-wall, jam-packed restaurant with local food recommended by the CFO's chef friend - popular among locals with a very cultural atmosphere

Back at the hotel...lots of nice cars kicking around for the Spanish F1 race on that day

And up in the morning with a Mediterranean sunrise to start with meetings

This was way too long...so I can't let the next post be too far away...

Next up will be a North American IR trip, followed by a trip home for Reece's grade 8 grad...then the BIG family trip for a week in Paris and a week in Astana and Almaty, so they can all see where I'm living and what I'm up to! Can't wait to surprise Kim and the kids with a couple nights in a Yurt with camel milk for breakfast, and eating whatever our guide's Golden Eagle catches for us!

Spring Has Arrived

Is it unique to Nur-Sultan that a sure sign of spring is that they begin power-raking the walls of the mall (look close)?

As has been the case since I arrived, the weather here changes almost in sync with Saskatoon - melting and >0C temps began within days in both places, and it's now a great walk to and from the office every day. Might be a little nicer at this end at +20C today.

Work
The work end of things is humming along well with new and interesting developments every day

I'm slowly...very slowly...starting to catch the odd word as my colleagues ramble along in Russian. I have an hour every Tuesday and Thursday at lunch with my tutor Marina, and it's truly back to basics. Unfortunately, all Russian verbs are conjugated like French, so it's that much more difficult (spelling and pronunciation of the end of verbs change depending on singular and plural, and all nouns have a gender - think "I broke the chair" and "They have broken the chair" - but for EVERY verb). Feel like a kindergartner learning to put key sentences together:

Food
...Is still awesome. A couple of investors came through town from the UK, so we arranged a lunch meetings with a couple of staple Kazakh dishes - baursaks (basically unsweetened donut), samsa (triangular dough with beef in it), lots of vegetables, and plov (rice pilaf).

Yes, the meat in the pilaf is horse...and it's great. It's taboo in North America, but as it's been explained to me here, like any animal that's consumed, they're bred for food and riding horses/pets are completely different. It's among the cleanest meats because they only drink clean water and eat clean grass by their nature (unlike say a cow that will eat and drink everything). As the UK guests put it: "ok, whatever you've gotta tell yourself..." In my travels I've eaten all kinds of random things, so I eat based on whether it tastes good or not...

Restaurants tend to be themed around one cuisine, not like an Earls or Moxie's where you get burgers, Cajun, Asian, Indian dishes in one place. But the menus are thorough...take this one from a Chinese restaurant - it's the size of a magazine.

While there's a ton of selection and according to my colleagues, even for normal weekend meals there is usually more food laid out than there is space on the table, people are not overweight. I personally chalk that up to better metabolism by virtue of the fact they are continually eating. Breakfast...second breakfast (a real thing), snack, home for lunch, afternoon snack, supper, second supper. I signed up for a service that delivers me fresh cooked meals every night for the next day, and there's a lot of food (this is one day)!

They take your age, weight, etc. and give you a meal plan for your ideal calories, so I get this every day (works out to <$20 day - expensive by their standards, but I don't have to think about cooking, so it's nice...). Important note from the company is that you must eat in the time ranges, which are continuous! I still take a day off each week and hit the Sunday brunch with a nasty desert bar...

...and I do break the rules with the odd $1 beer. I grabbed the "BeerKahn" one night (awesome name), and was confused to be a little buzzed off one tall one, but turns out it was 10%! Colleague remarked the next day that people work such long hours, they don't have much time outside the office, so when they drink, they need to get drunk fast.

Back Home in Canada

Just after leaving on March 24, the Saskatoon Stars AAA team won provincials, and a week later, won regionals vs. Manitoba, so it's on to the Esso Cup in Sudbury over Easter!!!

Pretty big once-in-a-life event for Haylee - something I hated to be missing, but was happy to see it'll all be live streamed by Hockey Canada. However, after mentioning the big win to the CEO (who is Kazakh, but understands the importance of hockey to Canadians), he said it was something I couldn't miss. So off for a week to work from Sudbury, with the last minute ticket purchase resulting in a few extra miles next week on a trip through Minsk, Warsaw, Moscow, Toronto to Sudbury, and a return flight through Toronto, Berlin, Warsaw, Minsk, Moscow to Nur-Sultan (to arrive at 5:45 am and get right into work for board meetings...) Not going to complain about the journey when the company is being so accommodating. Once back, it's hectic, with the release of an annual report, quarterly trading update, 3 days of national holidays and then an investor conference in Barcelona...madness, and next trip home will be June.

Other randomness
- I was looking out my window at work, trying to decide why the paved parking lot looked so odd...yeah, it's all paving stone. In fact there is a TON of paving stone here. When work has to be done or freeze-thaw messes up the ground, they just pull up the bricks, level and put them back.

- Decided on a hobby and brought a set of drums back...stuck with digital so the neighbors don't kick me out...

- Got a birthday present from my team - Dombra key chain and a tie and cuff-links set in the Kazakh "pattern". That pattern is everywhere here - monuments, benches. They asked what the Canadian equivalent would be...guess it's the Maple Leaf!

- The view out the window at work speaks to the wide gap between the rich and poor in this country (Kazakhstan is the richest central Asian country) and speed of development. A poor village still sits in a field with the city growing around it! Looks like Warman (sorry Warman).

Go #StoonStartsAAA!