Does Anyone Live (Full-Time or Part-Time) in Almaty?

If you're after the expat community, a great starting point is Mad Murphy's irish bar, just north of the park.

Cheers, luke

Try the website expat DOT nursat DOT kz, all for Kazakh expats.
It has a forum at, not surprisingly, forum DOT expat DOT nursat DOT kz

There's also an Almaty Kazakh expat blog at expat DOT blog DOT com

Thanks so much folks. Keep the information coming. Two posts was more than I expected while flying back from Texas to the East Coast.

Luke: I appreciate it.

Central Asian Traveler: I take it you just travel in and around the "stans" and do not live there full or part time?

My husband lives there full time and I join him for weekends (from Tajikistan). It's a nice place to live; mountains within very easy reach plus other tourist spots such as Charyn Canyon relatively easy to get to, lots of restaurants (but quite pricey), good guinness (very welcome after the limited beer selection in Taj), lots of expats. Whatever sort of things you like to do, you should find people to be able to do them with. Pretty much anything you need is available foodwise or general living-wise. Housing is expensive so having it paid for by your company is well worthwhile.

Re #1, Mad Murphy's is actually just south of Panfilov Park (corner of Tole Bi and Zenkov), not north of it. I get similarly confused - being a Brit I assume that mountains ought to be in the north and that if a street's sloping upwards then it should be going in a northerly direction. But actually the mountains are in the south.

McQuetta:

What do you and your husband do?

I will be working for an American company and will have a two bedroom apartment. So housing will be taken care of for me. My salary is a good one for the USA or Britain so it should be more than adequate for Kazakhstan I am sure. I am outdoorsy so I will definitely enjoy the mountains and the hiking and any fly fishing I can do. I have a mountain bike in the US. Should I have it shipped there? I am sure they use bikes there quite a bit to get around. I just was not sure if there were adequate places to secure it besides in my apartment.

I am coming off a serious relationship last year (August 2006) and have dated here and there. As a single American, I was a bit worried about dating scene for a single guy. I am not naive. Glad to know there are a lot of ex-pats there. I have no knowledge of Kazakh language and limited knowledge of Russian language. Read better than I write. Listen better than I speak. I am sure that will improve with time.

As a former teacher of Russian and European history, I travelled all over Eastern Europe, some parts of Central Asia, Russia and the Baltics. I know the newly independent states well and am knowledgeable of local and "imposed" culture in Kazakhstan. No "ugly" American syndrome in the making here. I will be staffed there from six to twelve months before being restaffed to Russia or Ukraine on another project.

So tell me some of the the places or things you and your husband have enjoyed doing.

Talk soon,
M

See your PMs.

Okay,

Next question in this string...or thread...

Will I need a good set of boots to bring (mid cut) to deal with muddy roads in Almaty and or sidewalks?

Is there a rainy season?

For historical weather information try www.wunderground.com<BR><BR>You might also want to look at the Tales of a small planet website for reports from residents.

Ruth

You can check out http://www.northkazakhstan.com/info_english and get all instructions about how to survive in Kazakhstan. If the information will not be enough you can mail me. I'll help!
Best regards,
Alex