Day 448 - A 25 year pilgrammage

Today we spent the day exploring Kazakhstan's most famous site: Yasaui Mausoleum - some say 3 visits to this place is the equivalent of a visit to Mecca. Kozha Akhmed Yasaui was a Turkish Muslim who is highly revered in Kazakhstan, praised because he could convey his Muslim understandings through poems and sermons. The area has a number of things to look at including a semi-underground Mosque with awesome wooden pillars inside and an ancient bathhouse.

The main tomb itself is huge and absolutely stunning - it echoes with the sounds of chanting of the faithful inside. You can wander around looking at some artifacts inside, and also go into several different rooms with different purposes (we're not entirely sure what). Women wear white head scarves inside so Liv borrowed one from outside. It's possible to see the tomb through intricately carved wooden panels. Outside we ambled around the grounds, but it was hard to take out attention away from the domed roofs and the phenomenal variety of tiled patterns. It's quite cool because the mausoleum was never fully finished so you can see how original brick structure was turned into a tiled masterpiece. After a good few hours taking in the magnificent monument we finally headed off in search of lunch. Once again Liv had major trouble getting a vege meal - after asserting many times that she was vegetarian and wanted something without meat, you can imagine her surprise when her meal was an entire grilled chicken! Excellent. When the waitress spotted Liv not eating her chicken, she asked if everything was ok and to Liv saying again "I don't eat meat" the helpful waitress replied "this isn't meat, it's chicken"! So to Adam's delight (or dismay) for his birthday lunch he got treated to an entire Chicken and some meat kebabs. Liv got "vegetarian" meat soup.

In the afternoon we made our way again to the huge bazaar with renewed hope of finding a Kazakh souvenir, but after an hour or so of wandering through the bustling market we came away empty handed. We did manage to find a cute stray dog to give some of our left over bread and meat from lunch to though!

We also went back to the Mausoleum to get a view of it at sunset. While Adam was taking photos of the now golden beauty Liv chatted with some local cops, who ahd already nick-named Adam "Bin Laden" after seeing him minutes before!

When we returned to the hotel we noticed the room next door was occupied and when Adam went to find out if it was a fellow traveller we found Sian and Jack who we had met at Almaty train station last week! What a small world. We decided to go down the road for some beer and snacks, and it turned out to be quite a celebration for Adam's 25th birthday! Adlibing a birthday with new friends.