Day 39: I Got Beaten Up Today.
(Side note: Today is already day 89 of my travel. I am in Krakow, Poland. Xmas is coming. Streets are brighten by xmas trees and decoration lights. Stalls are setup. Foods, gifts and sweets are all over the streets. Everyone is happily shopping around. Here I am in the midst of the crowd, looking at the happy faces smiling at each others. Parnts with children, friends with firends. I suddenly wish that I have someone here with me to share my joy for this festival. But when I look around me, it's just me and my shadow, who has been my best friend since I was born.)
[P/S: I am sick today, 30/11/2008. Down with flu, sore throat and cough. And I can feel that fever is going to join in. This is bad.]
Back to the travel blog, I am going to blog about day 39 today. (I am 50days lagging behind in blogging and I am so sorry for it. I do not have internet access everyday and sometimes I am just too tired to blog. Bear with me ok?)
Once again:-
Day 39: I Got Beaten Up Today.
This is my host's apartment.
And its surroundings.
A 24hours car washing. The car you see in this picture is LADA, a very typical car you see in Central Asia.
I planned on going back to the motorcycle club again. As I was walking there, I passed by the busstop and suddenly I heard someone calling my name. I was kind of shock. I am thousands of miles away from home and in Central Asia, who else do I know. I looked around and I saw Maiya, the same girl whom I asked for direction yesterday. What a pleasent surprise!
Anyway, for the 3rd time I am back at the motorcycle club and finally they are open. Went in, looked for the incharge and asked if they have any upcoming rides and that if I could join them. He told me that yes, there will be a ride to the mountains next weekend and I am welcome to join them. GREAT!! Here are some photos taken in their clubhouse. It seems like they have had some very interesting ride in the past. I am so looking forwward to be back on the saddle again.
Walk around the town abit and when I got tired, I went to the Arasan bathhouse to take a bath. It was a very interesting experience. You have to try it if you are in Almaty. Arasan bathhouse is a huge place. There were many kazakhs there taking bath, relaxing. It seems to be a very common pasttime for them. No tourists were around. I am the only one. There are different sections for male and females and so I was being led into the male section.
The moment I went in, I saw a large group of men, both young and old, kids and adults, naked. Some were lying there and sleeping, others were walking around with their ding dong bell exposed. I was being led to this area which has many tiled stone beds and there, I met the person who is going to bath for me. (Bear in mind that I do not speak russian or kazakh and they do not speak english). He is a skinny guy in his mid 30s I think. He brought me to this suna and then he left. 10-15mins later, he came back and led me back to the tiled stone bed area where I was told to lied on the bed. Then the bath begins.
I do not need to do anything. I just lied there like a king. He soapped me, scrapped my body for me and then messaged me before washing me clean from head to toes. It was kind of a weird feeling to have a naked guy washing me all over but anyway the most interesting part had yet to arrived. After the bath, this skinny guy lefted and another HUGE guy (I really mean big sized and fat) came. Its time to give me a good thrashing. Yes, you heard me right, THRASHING. I am going to get beaten up.
I was once again asked to go back to the suna room. This time round, this huge guy came in with me and he brought along a bunch of oak and birch leaves. When my body started to sweat, he started hitting me repeatedly and non stop all over my body with the leaves. This is known to be good for stimulating circulation. But becames it was so hot in the suna room, plus the heat being produced when he hitted me it was getting really painful. Really really painful. And when the water from the leaves dropped on my body, it felt like boiling water. I can feel the pain and heat all over me. And although he did not hit me on my ears and groin, I felt the most heat and pain there. I do not know why. Anyway, I was enduring the pain and heat throughout the whole process. The sun always shine after the rain. After enduring with the heat and pain, I felt really refresh.
This is the bath house.
This is the oak and birch leaves.
And this is how I look like after the thrashing. My skin is red all over.
Feeling good and refresh, I went exploring the town again. Went to see the Zendov Catherdal. I had never seen an Orthodox Catherdal before and I find it very beautiful. It was built in 1904 and was built entirely of wood. Even the nails were made of wood. Interesting. I was also lucky enough to see a wedding in the Catherdal. Here are some pictures of the Catherdal and its surroundings.
Here are other pictures taken in the city.
Another wedding. The bride is wearing a Kazakh style wedding grown.
More pictures of the city.
It's saturday tomorrow, my host was going back to her mother's place which is out of the city in another town and her brother was going to stay at his girlfriend's place for the weekend. So I had to leave their house but they were kind enough to find me an average price hotel to stay before they left. When I got to my room, I realised that the lock on the hotel room's door is not working. And so I spent the whole night sleeping in an unlocked room.
Developing country. Dont expected too much. Oh ya, forget to tell you that despite the fact that it is a developing country, despite the fact that most people earns an average income of less than USD$100 a month (I was shocked when I was told that a doctor, whose job is a respectable one, and only earns USD$400 a month and that a teacher here gets a better salary than a doctor), and despite the fact that this is Central Asia, the cost of living here in Kazakhstan is surprisingly HIGH. I wasnt expecting that. Some things cost much more than Singapore!! A good example is to have a meal. I was so shock.
*Click HERE to return to the Main Page of The Cold Journey.*
[P/S: I am sick today, 30/11/2008. Down with flu, sore throat and cough. And I can feel that fever is going to join in. This is bad.]
Back to the travel blog, I am going to blog about day 39 today. (I am 50days lagging behind in blogging and I am so sorry for it. I do not have internet access everyday and sometimes I am just too tired to blog. Bear with me ok?)
Once again:-
Day 39: I Got Beaten Up Today.
This is my host's apartment.
And its surroundings.
A 24hours car washing. The car you see in this picture is LADA, a very typical car you see in Central Asia.
I planned on going back to the motorcycle club again. As I was walking there, I passed by the busstop and suddenly I heard someone calling my name. I was kind of shock. I am thousands of miles away from home and in Central Asia, who else do I know. I looked around and I saw Maiya, the same girl whom I asked for direction yesterday. What a pleasent surprise!
Anyway, for the 3rd time I am back at the motorcycle club and finally they are open. Went in, looked for the incharge and asked if they have any upcoming rides and that if I could join them. He told me that yes, there will be a ride to the mountains next weekend and I am welcome to join them. GREAT!! Here are some photos taken in their clubhouse. It seems like they have had some very interesting ride in the past. I am so looking forwward to be back on the saddle again.
Walk around the town abit and when I got tired, I went to the Arasan bathhouse to take a bath. It was a very interesting experience. You have to try it if you are in Almaty. Arasan bathhouse is a huge place. There were many kazakhs there taking bath, relaxing. It seems to be a very common pasttime for them. No tourists were around. I am the only one. There are different sections for male and females and so I was being led into the male section.
The moment I went in, I saw a large group of men, both young and old, kids and adults, naked. Some were lying there and sleeping, others were walking around with their ding dong bell exposed. I was being led to this area which has many tiled stone beds and there, I met the person who is going to bath for me. (Bear in mind that I do not speak russian or kazakh and they do not speak english). He is a skinny guy in his mid 30s I think. He brought me to this suna and then he left. 10-15mins later, he came back and led me back to the tiled stone bed area where I was told to lied on the bed. Then the bath begins.
I do not need to do anything. I just lied there like a king. He soapped me, scrapped my body for me and then messaged me before washing me clean from head to toes. It was kind of a weird feeling to have a naked guy washing me all over but anyway the most interesting part had yet to arrived. After the bath, this skinny guy lefted and another HUGE guy (I really mean big sized and fat) came. Its time to give me a good thrashing. Yes, you heard me right, THRASHING. I am going to get beaten up.
I was once again asked to go back to the suna room. This time round, this huge guy came in with me and he brought along a bunch of oak and birch leaves. When my body started to sweat, he started hitting me repeatedly and non stop all over my body with the leaves. This is known to be good for stimulating circulation. But becames it was so hot in the suna room, plus the heat being produced when he hitted me it was getting really painful. Really really painful. And when the water from the leaves dropped on my body, it felt like boiling water. I can feel the pain and heat all over me. And although he did not hit me on my ears and groin, I felt the most heat and pain there. I do not know why. Anyway, I was enduring the pain and heat throughout the whole process. The sun always shine after the rain. After enduring with the heat and pain, I felt really refresh.
This is the bath house.
This is the oak and birch leaves.
And this is how I look like after the thrashing. My skin is red all over.
Feeling good and refresh, I went exploring the town again. Went to see the Zendov Catherdal. I had never seen an Orthodox Catherdal before and I find it very beautiful. It was built in 1904 and was built entirely of wood. Even the nails were made of wood. Interesting. I was also lucky enough to see a wedding in the Catherdal. Here are some pictures of the Catherdal and its surroundings.
Here are other pictures taken in the city.
Another wedding. The bride is wearing a Kazakh style wedding grown.
More pictures of the city.
It's saturday tomorrow, my host was going back to her mother's place which is out of the city in another town and her brother was going to stay at his girlfriend's place for the weekend. So I had to leave their house but they were kind enough to find me an average price hotel to stay before they left. When I got to my room, I realised that the lock on the hotel room's door is not working. And so I spent the whole night sleeping in an unlocked room.
Developing country. Dont expected too much. Oh ya, forget to tell you that despite the fact that it is a developing country, despite the fact that most people earns an average income of less than USD$100 a month (I was shocked when I was told that a doctor, whose job is a respectable one, and only earns USD$400 a month and that a teacher here gets a better salary than a doctor), and despite the fact that this is Central Asia, the cost of living here in Kazakhstan is surprisingly HIGH. I wasnt expecting that. Some things cost much more than Singapore!! A good example is to have a meal. I was so shock.
*Click HERE to return to the Main Page of The Cold Journey.*
posted by ZeeVinCeZ at 1:47 AM
2 Comments:
WAh~.. from your title i tot you were really beaten up.. got me anxious for a moment. aight.. that probably shows tat ur title for the day is attractive enough!
Are you really happy if I really got beaten up?? :(
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