The Wandering Monkey: 69 dude! (bus that is)

This weekend was a great time for us to take an epic bus ride! We had the idea to just hop on a bus and ride it for the entire route, Sunday was our chance. The bus stop is right outside of our building, and we constantly hear them pulling up and yelling out their destinations. Since they yell in Kazakh it’s very difficult for us to understand where they are going, but we figured it’s an adventure and doesn’t really matter.

The front view of the bus. (I know it says 76, but the other side says 69)

We stood on the curb watching a few buses come by that were pretty full – not our ideal situation to be squished on a bus when we’re trying to take in the view. Finally, number 69 came rolling up and we took our chance. We found a great spot to stand by the window and take in the sights. Once the bus pulled away from the curb the ‘yeller’ came through to collect the fare. It cost us $0.66 for both of us. He made small talk and asked where we were from and we explained that we are from America and that I’m there to teach. He smiled and moved on to collect other fares.

Graffiti - I have no idea what it's about.

We’ve seen this bus pass by the big mall, Mega, so we had an idea of where we’d be off to at first. There are only 2 stops to Mega, so we know that in the winter, when it’s icy, this bus will be ideal to take for grocery shopping.

Only a few blocks past Mega the bus took a right turn and we headed into familiar territory. Two of my co-workers live on the street, pretty far down, but we recognized it right away. So we’ve made another note of where we might take this bus if needed.

An interesting building. Love the colors!

It followed that street pretty far before taking a left. Now we were in unknown territory. What could it behold?

We were on the outskirts of the city, so the shops became fewer as houses started to take their place. We could see large houses with high gates and we could see smaller houses smooshed together side-by-side. I started to think that maybe this ride would be boring and uneventful, but I was wrong. The bus was caught in a slow-moving traffic jam with a lot of horn blaring. As we inched along a huge market came into view. It looks very similar to the one behind our apartment, but much larger. Both sides of the street were crammed with cars, while shops and people lined the road. There wasn’t really a bus stop, per se, but the bus just stops in a general area on the road and people run over and jump on.

Since we were just having a look as to where the bus was going we didn’t jump off to check out the market. The bus moved on through some back streets that were part of several neighborhoods, but as we emerged from that area we found ourselves driving along the road near the airport. Although the bus only stayed on that road for a short time it gave us a better idea as to where we were. There is a huge, white mosque on the side of the road that we were unable to get pictures of, but would like to go back and check out (we can’t go inside, but to get some pictures would be nice).

The last stop for the bus (before starting back on it’s return route), is a small market near the mosque. All of the shops are in an enclosed building and a few make-shift shops are directly across the street.

Overall, this bus route wasn’t too bad. It can get us to some key places and some interesting markets. Next week we’ll try a different bus with a different route and hopefully discover something new.

As we returned back towards Mega we jumped off the bus and went walking up the street. We’d heard tell that there is a fast food burger joint whose burgers are pretty similar to home. About 3 blocks up we found it. Inside was packed with people. There were only about 12 tables, each big enough for 4-6 people. Behind the counter a lady was taking orders so we placed ours and took a seat. We watched as a worker slowly carved meat off of a schwarma stand and lay it in piles on a baking sheet. On down the line they were stuffing the meat, cucumbers, tomatoes, mayonnaise into tortillas and grilling the whole bit ready for eating. It looked pretty awesome, but we’d come for burgers. Once our order was ready we realized that we should have just taken a seat and they would have taken our order at the table. Oh well! We sat with our ‘to-go’ bag at the table and they brought us proper glass plates for our food. The burgers were better than we’ve had in other places in the city, and enough to hit the spot, but there was something missing that I can’t quite put my finger on. At least I know there’s a place I can go if I feel the need for some good [sic: nasty] fast food!

A Burger Land worker preparing to cut schwarma.

After eating we walked a bit further up the street to hunt for the bowling alley. It was only about 2 blocks up and looked just like any other bowling alley. Right next door is a 24 hour karaoke bar and on the other side is some other type of pub. Across the street was an Italian and Chinese restaurant.