Kazakhstan 2012

Here are a few of our pictures from my adventures in Kazakhstan. You will notice most of them involve food since we work late and then try to find a good place to eat. However, I tried to include a few pictures from our weekend excursions as well.

This was our only fast food outing of the trip. We thought we would give SFC (Southern Fried Chicken) a try. Let's just say KFC does not have anything to worry about.  

This is from the restaurant Alasha, where we had a really traditional Kazakh meal. I am holding up the horse meat sausages. They were not nearly as good as the bread on the table in this picture. 

Here is the rest of our traditional meal. Most of it was really delicious, some of it was not worth blogging home about.  

While we were waiting for our food, I kept hearing chirping and had no idea where it was coming from. Then  one of my coworkers pointed out the cages (wrapped up) hanging from the chandeliers. You could hear chirping as the cages swung back and forth. Apparently if you order whatever bird is on the menu, they climb up and let you pick out which bird you want for dinner.

On Sunday we got to go to the only branch of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints in Kazakhstan. The whole meeting was in Russian, but it was still really enjoyable. I was impressed, they had about 80 members there.  

My favorite traditional Kazakh meal is Shashlyk. This is my favorite restaurant, the Venetian. We had some delicious chicken and pork Shashlyk. It is very much like Shish Kebabs, they season and then cook it on a fire (usually a wood stove) and it is fantastic. 

My co-worker Brian and I visiting one of the beautiful Russian Orthodox Cathedrals. 

We did manage to find the "American Bar and Grill" for a little taste of home. However, it really served pretty much the same stuff as everywhere else, including the poor attempt at a good hamburger. There really is not any place to get a good burger and KZ. However, they do a pretty good job with....

banana splits. This was absolutely delicious. 

Here is the finished product.

I am really grateful for such a great job that allows me to support my family. It is hard to be gone from Shantel and Lydia for so long, but great to get to experience another culture and travel the world.