We finally got to Altyn Orda for pictures last week. It was rainy and muddy at first, but then got brighter before we left. We met a bunch of nice and friendly people. It was fun.
fruit fruit fruit!
and veggies and greens
stuff is getting so much cheaper now that it's summer :)
this is our pickle lady, really sweet
spices
buying onions
this is the stand where we get our oatmeal. we got it at a different stand once, and it was really bitter. So now we only come to this one. And we taste-test it before buying. That gets us a few funny looks :)
berries :)
Rahat candies
Rahat cookies
Shashlyk man
a nutman. Our regular guy wasn't around that day, so I took a picture of this one.
our greens guy
Abdullah, a tajik man who allegedly speaks 8 languages. I'm inclined to believe him too. So far I've heard English, Russian, Kazakh, Tajik, Pashto and Arabic.
He sold us lemons for 50 tenge, and told a russian babushka 60 tenge and a kazakh lady 65 tenge. Yay for friendly guys who like foreign girls :)
A few months ago one of Abdullah's brothers (there are 5 of them here) gave us a whole bunch of bananas for free, because he liked us. Funny guys.
These lovely ladies really enjoyed the photoshoot. Once they found out Emily was American they got all excited and started kissing her and hugging her.
I like our market people :)
Kok Zhailau
the ridge after a hefty climb up the side of the mountain
