Burabay National Park, KZ

The steppe in this country is so vast, one needs to travel at least 3.5 hours to see anything resembling hills and mountains. So, for a $1.50, I took a first class train to do just that, and visit Burabay National Park for the day. Sure, the train car doors don't stay closed and the windows only open fifteen degrees, but the squat toilets have a sturdy grab-handle for stabilizing from the non-regulation track gauges. The seats are surprisingly not uncomfortable and there is a food service car that the ticket taker promised to offer tea, coffee, chips, and cakes - except not on this particular day when the vendor never showed. No worries, because I packed GORP and water, surely a highlight for every child and adult.

 

Suddenly, the flat turned into Burabay hills and the second our feet hit the ground, my friend immediately began negotiations with a cab driver to transport us the rest of the way for a 30 minute drive in a van with 1/2 functioning seatbelts and music videos queued up on YouTube. The national park felt like a mix of Dirty Dancing nostalgia and a tin of sardines, with tightly packed resorts and tightly packed trees lining the road that circles the park. Paddle boats, row boats, cheddar wheel shaped boats, pontoons crowded on the most picturesque side of the lake. Bike and scooter rentals lined the pedestrian path, as were opportunities go dress like a regal Kazakh to enhance core memory making. I just about lost my mind when I found out I could hold a real hawk while posing as a powerful nomad.

Some of the mountain hikes surrounding the lake take 4-5 hours to climb, but they require guides and advanced equipment with peaks having noticeably sharp inclines and treacherous drop offs. Most visitors stick to the less demanding 30 minute incline to the Bolektau observation point. At the top, we were met with gusty winds, sunshine, and Kazakh teens dancing to love ballads blasting from a portable speaker. One person gave us beef jerky and another person gave us hard boiled eggs. I handed out fistfuls of GORP, because everyone loves it. Talk about winning! 

Toward the end of the day, we grabbed proper food at Coffee Boom, a popular Kazakh restaurant chain that does some things well like soup, coffee, and cakes, and a few things terribly, like bruschetta. My friend insisted we experience at least the short tour of the park’s museum before our 5pm pick up, so we did. Normally, I champion the idea of trying everything at least once - but the price of the tour was stupidly expensive for what was on offer: fiber optic stranded “leaves” hanging over tree peep holes of Kazakh cultural sites, an immersive video of a swimming whale, and a mural of nomads on horses, the end. 

The driver who brought us to Burabay was the same one who took us back to the train station. He challenged all notions of safe driving the winding roads by texting and voice messaging his wife who was zero percent pleased he had not come home yet to deal with his domestic responsibilities. Insisting he’d be home in 20 minutes, he sped up and drove with ferocity insisting too that we’d surely hit traffic, and miss our train if he didn’t hussle… and drop us a safe 45 minutes head of schedule. The train ride home was mostly uneventful,  though the fear that open windows cause health problems is still very prevalent around here, so our fellow train mates demanded all windows be shut, so we were trapped in everyone’s body odor, farts, and fish snacks. But hey - the price to travel was right. Right?

Ruling fairly and wisely.

View from the lake on a row boat while listening to Kazakh techno at full volume.
This is the way.

Janky cheese wheel boat.

Mid-paddle pit stop.

Birder photobomb.

Bolektau Obs Point. A good spot for snacking and selfie-ing.

Psychedelic and random.

She’s a total natural.

A literal peep show

Progression of springtime in Astana

Over the course of a 7-day spring break trip, all of the snow in Astana disappeared. No more snow bar, no more gravy colored snow piles, and no more rutty ice streets. No more shoveling! Outdoor activity has now evolved to pot-hole repairing, bike commuting, and enjoying longer periods of daylight. It's only April and we have over 14 hours worth of it! Hello 5am sunshine!

Green color is exploding everywhere. Except, for our yard. Our grass looks like it’s going through detox from waterlogged soil, embedded stuffed animal fluff, unsupervised dog mischief, and her spring-is-here zoomies. Mark has faith our yard will recover and wants to plant a sea of mint, green beans, and pumpkins. Considering my skills in gardening and keeping-the-dog-out-of-the-theoretical-garden are subpar, I don't share his positivity.

Ticks are also exploding everywhere. This week alone we've picked 7 off the dog, even with routine application of Frontline, so you can imagine how much fun I'm not having. Our previous dog got sick a couple of times from probable tick infections, once in Brazil and once in Namibia. Watching him malinger and fight off infection was hard on everyone. Then there's the human side of the family, all of whom enjoy wrestling our current dog, Ginsburg, and exploring the great outdoors, preferably in shorts and going barefoot. Tick checks just might end up being an awkward family affair because I'm not cool with anyone getting sick. 

I don’t have time for anyone getting things like tick borne encephalitis (TBE), Crimean-Congo Hemorrhagic Fever (ominous right?!), tularemia (rabbit fever, cute but no thx), or Lyme - all of which have similar initial symptoms such as fever, headache, body aches. Later symptoms make each individual illness shine… 

Entomologists think three of the 30 known tick species in KZ carry these diseases, and about 50 cases per year are reported according to Parasites & Vectors. On paper, prevalence isn't super high but with TBE, infection is immediate so we recommend KZ long-timers to get vaccinated for it. Plus the full vaccine course is like 90% effective. It’s kind of a no-brainer. (For clarification, CCHF infected ticks give you about a1-7 day window after the tick bite, tularemia is about 3-5, Lyme disease is 48-72 hours.)

At any rate, I’m super glad spring is here. I look forward to see what the city does for its vast amounts of garden beds and pedestrian walkways. I look forward to trees and plants blooming, even though I might end up quadrupling my citirizine to get through it, and seeing pale, wan faces turn into the warming sun. In conclusion, ticks are gross.

My favoirite is the team of 3 standing in the back of the truck
Which is full of hot asphalt.

First commute of the season!
Ishim River

Puppy taking in the sun along a 6-lane street.

No idea what these are in our yard, but they are GREEN.

The a-hole that was in Ginsburg’s fur but I panicked  And flung my arms in despair, resulting in whipping my pants off looking for it, but I couldn’t find it, until it crawled down my shoulder 15 minutes later in the kitchen and I freaked, taking a meat hammer to it. but not before taking this picture of course.

Freshly shaved giant schnauzer and hubby on the weird colored lawn.

Thailand

Recently, I attended an emergency medical conference on the island of Ko Samui. Most of the attendees were Australian nurses, paramedics, and doctors craving a hot beachy getaway, but there were also 25 State Department colleagues from all over the world there too! Meeting new embassy colleagues made the whole sweating, eating, and learning sessions feel extra special. The Australians were as interested in our collective health unit specialty of working within an embassy, as we were of them, but some did think we were spies, trying to collect intel on Australian medicine. Or maybe they were joking? It was hard to tell.

Most of the speakers were engaging, sharing their stories and medical expertise, but what ended up being my favorite session, took me by surprise: “Hand and Finger Injury Management in the ED” led by two nurse practitioners who reminded me of Frankie and Grace. They were funny and grody, but still delivered meaningful information on assessing and managing things like ruptured hand tendons, finger amputations, or hand fractures. These two women were so inspiring, that by the end of their session, I was looking into grad school options to find my special purpose. 

It was a fun week, but it was also lonely without the family. I took myself on one excursion to snorkel, see pigs, and hike around several beaches collecting shells, but mostly I spent time walking around the island on the main road, trying to avoid scooters, cars, and trucks, and people-watching at the night markets. I also spent a lot of time washing my underwear in the sink, I was sweating so much. Normally I like hot, and maybe it’s my age, but wow, Thai hot is something else.

Spring break was the following week, so the kids, Mark, and I rendezvoused on Ko Tao for scuba diving and snorkeling, and a whole lot of steep hiking, because our Airbnb was situated on a mountain top. Parts of the road had a 20-25% incline, getting my heart rate to 180 beats per minute trudging up the hills. We did hire a taxi (the back of a pickup truck) for some of the commuting, but for the most part, we hit the pavement/beaches/trails on foot. We fueled ourselves on mango smoothies, coconuts, and as much Thai food as we could eat. Every day we’d get home, salty and sandy (and terribly uncomfortable), and immediately jump into the pool to cool off before we could even think about doing anything else. Usually that “anything else” was drink gobs of water and Netflix, then bed. 

On the way back from Ko Tao, after a ferry ride, bus ride, and plane ride, we took an extra night to visit Bangkok which I immediately fell in love with. That city has a vibe. The four of us were on a bicycle tour when the earthquake happened so we were none the wiser. Only after wading through horn blasting traffic and throngs people in the streets of Chinatown did we figure out what had happened. (I stupidly thought someone famous was visiting that area, because nearly everyone had their phones out filming.) The guides pushed us along on a strict timeline, so we didn’t get a chance to think about the earthquake’s impact until after we got back to the hotel. Luckily, our Bangkok friends were okay, though a few got stranded outside of the city had to wait hours and hours before finding a taxi to get home. Some had structural damage to their apartments and others were evacuated from their buildings but overall, everyone was safe. 

Our flight home was the next day which took off without incident and got back to a totally transformed, now winterless Astana. Getting used the city’s snowless look felt a lot like seeing Mark without his beard: a little startling at first, but also… nice. 

Turtle

A less gross slide from the Hand Injury presentation. 
This hit close to home because I once had a patient who had this.

Pig Island. Gimmicky. But pretty. Also hot. 
Sand is SO hot.

Margo en route to Ko Tao

Water Taxi 

Self study portion of the conference. Subject: OB Emergencies

Honestly, it was too hot for beer.
I drank mostly soda water.

I want this logo on a t-shirt

Embassy crew, representing
London, Thailand, India, Greece, Tel Aviv, 
Qatar, Iraq, Vietnam, China… <3

Should have been a 10 minute hike.
Ended up being 45 min due to the line for the view.

Black tip reef shark

Best part of my trip: Thai food every single night with these guys.

Hiking to get a good view.

The view.

Jim View Bar with a cover charge
And mandatory food order (which we did with pleasure)

A good view.

Hiking back down from the good view.

Bangkok. I love this city.

Paying our respects.

 

Springish Moods In Astana

I am surprised by the number of people, locals in particular, who have been shocked by the extra 8” of snow we received the first week of March. I assumed winter would run through June, honestly. I can’t complain, the freshest batch nicely covers up the shades of gray, brown, and yellow crusty snow, but we are running out of space in the yard to shovel it. The piles are so high the dog could easily jump over the neighbor’s walls and I fear she might, given an opportunity. On one side is a school, the other a Kazakh family with a guard dog, and the house behind us, we think, is a private banya. So, not great options for Ginsburg to explore.

At any rate, spring is near. I didn’t see any effigies of Maslenitsa get burned to bid winter farewell, a common Slavic pagan tradition, but we did eat many pancakes/blinchiki - another custom that decrees  "spring-is-nigh!" Ramadan began, a time honored tradition too. Once the pancake binge has finished, fasting begins… and blood sugars plummet. The pre-spring vibe is full of renewal, devotion, declaration, hangry people, and dumb amounts of traffic as people distract themselves from their empty tummies by running errands, planning meals, and driving aggressively into a sea of cars and road blocks. 

In the spirit of our own renewal and distraction, we’ve been trying a few new things. Small things, like horse meat flavored peanut snacks (salty), camel milk (salty), dried fish crisps (salty), shelf stable yogurt (not salty). Fairy dish soap now comes in watermelon scent, so now the dog smells like a Starburst when we wash her. Mark and his buddy dug out a snow bar in the backyard, while smoking pork loin and enjoying a sunny day that got above 30F. Then there's big things, like Margo and Deets joining volleyball teams at school, which I am to understand is the sport for which the school is known. It’s a short season, lasting less than 12 weeks, but it’s a fierce period of practice and tournaments. We went to our first KZ Premier League match with the FC Zhenis club and bought team scarves, so I guess we are Zhenis fans now. The capital has two teams, them and FC Astana, an oligarch owned team. Naturally, we picked the underdogs.  

As for my personal attempts at springtime renewal, I’ve been focusing on trying to be an overall softer human being, and less of the jaw gnashing shrew I feel I have become these past months (I completely disagree with this characterization, the author is now and always has been awesome.-ed). A while ago, when I was struggling with an uncomplicated, simple yoga pose- the seated forward fold, my teacher pointed out that I’d get more benefit if I relaxed more into it than muscle my way through it. I later heard this same suggestion from a work colleague about a problematic, bullish person whom I had no control over (why can’t people just do what I want them to, when I want them to do it?? Ha ha). And the same advice to soften and chill out came a third time when I felt my anxiety bubble over when I was leading a triage review and emergency preparedness. 

I don’t know if I need more reminders to CTFO (chill the eff out) than the average person, but I have literally forced myself to set alarms and calendar invites to do just that: Breathe. Meditate. Read a Pema Chodron or Anne Lamott quote. Doodle. Sing karaoke, make beaded bracelets with affirmations saying “Let Them” or whispering “very demure, very mindful” to myself every morning or before a staff meeting. I’m doing the work, but is it working? I’ll let you know come spring, or at the end of winter, whichever comes first.

horse meat peanuts:
neither thumbs up, nor down. 
fantastic crunch, not good for mindless snacking

I get shelf stable milk,
 but shelf stable yogurt?
I can't wrap my head around it.

soapy fruit

fishy snack bites - they all taste the same. fishy.

ginsburg and her two toys: winter and margo

deets and ginsburg CTFO better than anyone

bar babes

office amulets

FC Jenis Logo. I think it's a leopard. 
Mark thinks it's a polar bear.
Margo reckons it its monkey-cat.
None of us know what the 2nd tail is for.

 

Winterizing: Outside

Two observations: I’ve hit an age where I can’t remember if my weather app has been set to Celsius or Fahrenheit, and Astana’s temperatures are now low enough that I can’t tell what the temperature is without double checking if I set it for C or F. Sure, it’s cold but make no mistake winter this year isn’t nearly as bad as the last one, or the one before that, they all say. Plus, I still “don’t know what real cold is” according to my wizened, embassy colleagues.

Either way, the Ishim River has frozen over allowing for additional meandering and winter sports. Ice skating, tubing, snowmobiling, ice fishing, and cold water dunks. In fact, winter wonderland popups are all around the city and they are too cute to pass up with all the holiday cheer, music, and neon lights. The happiness distracts us from the worn gray sky, or the cloudless blue sky that robs of us short wave radiation.

With the snowfall, plows, bull dozers, diggers, dump trucks, and roll onto the streets with their gangs of orange clad workers armed with iron rods, shovels, and sleds. This spectacle, depending on your affinity for construction vehicles, is also too cute to pass up and watch. The snow moving feat is impressive. Piles of snow sometimes 20-30 feet tall and 50 feet wide, are removed within hours. Thick gravel-ice-snow layers that have been left behind are painstakingly chipped and hauled away.

During the 2023-2024 season, the Mayor of Astana reported they removed 4.5 million cubic meters of snow, enough to fill 2,500 Olympic sized pools. Last month (12/19/24) during a hearty snow fall, the city removed 16,000 cubic meters of snow in a single night the equivalent of nearly 6.5 Olympic sized pools. I feel like that is a lot. I also feel the “a lot-ness” when I spend three hours shoveling our own driveway and sidewalks but I feel it most when our path is finally cleared and a drive-by plow blocks us back in. It’s good exercise, I keep telling myself.

For the dog walks, a long coat, Boggs boots, mittens, fleece hat, and a balaclava over long underwear and sweater fill the not-cold (but not totally warm either) requirement. My kids do just fine with a hat, gloves, snow pants, winter jacket, and boots over shorts and t-shirts for school, where they inevitably roast inside. And Mark-the-Furnace-Schlink wears little beyond a coat and hat. He’s practically naked as far as I am concerned. And I am okay with that too.

Fun fact, this bridge was designed to look like a sturgeon.
Now I can’t ever not see it. Credit: mark

New Year’s Day walk. So many regrets for not wearing my long coat.
But I looked cool. Credit: Mark

Tubing sans tubes. Credit: Mark

Central Park X-Country Ski Practice

Tubing on the Ishim.
1,000 Tenge (2 USD) for 30 min to rent a tube.

Hoarfrost 

Dog-frost.

Early season snowman building. View from orthodontist office.

New Year’s Day on the Ishim River
Credit: Mark

Little guy helping the big guy out

The pile vanished overnight. Margo was mad that she couldn’t hike to the top.

Dump trucks and dumpers make a good match

Honey badgers of Siberia in formation - you get stuck behind them, they don’t give a f***