Kokhpar - Goat carcass Polo on the Steppe!

On Tuesday, August 22, we went back out to the ethno village to the hippodrome and bought tickets to watch Kokhpar.  As part of the Expo, Kazakhstan was hosting one of the first international tournaments of this ancient game that pits two teams on horses against each other.  The goal is to rush out and grab a goat carcass and to drop it into a goal.  Variations of the game are played throughout the region - including in Turkey, Mongolia, and China - but there hasn't been a real international competition until recently when the countries that have a strong tradition have begun codifying rules and making a tournament.

For the expo more than 10 teams participated - including a team from the US made up of cowboys form the US.  Two of them had come last summer to play in an inaugural international tournament in Kyrgyzstan.  The rest of the team hadn't played.  They had been involved in Rodeos, but not Kokhpar and had only spent about three days learning the game and getting used to the horses.

The game started as all things in Kazakhstan - nearly an hour late.  The people didn't even show up to start selling tickets until the time the game was supposed to start.  When we got to the stand, the cleaning crew was still sweeping dust off the seats.  The field was being plowed and wetted, and nothing was ready.  The US team was waiting for the Mongolian team to show up.

We waited too.  When the game started we really didn't know what it was about, but we figured out the goal quite quickly.  The US team was not very good, but they tried hard.  The goat was made out of rubber and weighed nearly 40 pounds, so it is quite a task to reach down and pull it up to carry to the goal.

The US lost quite badly - even with the Mongolians not really trying that hard.  We stayed and watched the first half o the next game which was Turkey and Uzbekistan.  Both of those teams were competitive and it was interesting to watch.  A few people came from the embassy and another small group of Americans from the university - but there weren't a lot of people there to watch Kokphar "early" in the morning on a Tuesday.

At halftime we left.  We rode back to the university on the bus and stopped for ice cream at McDonald's as a reward.  We'd opened up new horizons once again!

Waiting for the tickets to go on sale.

Looking at the ethno village from our vantage point in the stands.

In the shade waiting for Kokhpar to begin.

Wetting down the soil.

The US team.

Enjoying the show.

Both teams lined up ready to begin.

Taking their places.

Action!

Reaching for the goat.

Racing once the goat had been obtained.

Shaking hands at the end of the game.

Summer Fun in Solonyeshnoye - Trip to Altai Part II

We did lots of fun things while we were in Solonyeshnoye. One of those things was riding horses. My second cousin Anya works at a horse farm. They raise and train mostly Orlov trotters but also have a couple of work horses and one of some American breed. Anya rides Orlov trotters during races but she also takes care of them all. She invited us to come over and tour the stables. Those were some nicest stables I have ever seen. Anya showed us around and told a story of each horse that was in the stable (a few of them were out at a Federal championship race in another city), and then gave girls a ride. The only horse we could ride that day was the work horse (other good mannered horses were at the race), and they didn’t have a saddle for him, so Anya just led him with the girls on top. They had fun nonetheless. And since I mostly rode bareback when I was a kid, she trusted me to ride him on my own. :)

In the stable

The girls are in love with horses

Yep, totally in love!

Almost ready to be mounted

Lina is in heaven!

Sophie

Lexa

Nika

And me!

This is the cart that Anya rides in during the races

A mother horse with her baby in the pasture

 And while we are on the horse subject, every day we would have this little herd of horses walk by our house. I just love horses!

One of the days my cousin Galya, Nika, and I went up in the mountains to gather some tea called badan. This is a famous herbal tea from Altai and it grows up in the mountains around the village. Our family loves this tea, and Nika was very excited to gather her own. My cousin also taught her which wild mushrooms are good, and Nika was very good at finding them. It was a great day!

Solonyeshnoye in a beautiful valley 

Badan leaves. These are new leaves. The ones that are gathered for tea are 2nd or 3rd year leaves (they are dark brown)

Nika gathering tea.

Sharik (translated as "balloon") was our loyal companion

Nika

After the tea is gathered, it needs to be washed and then dried. Here is my mom washing badan leaves.

We went down to the mountain river Anui a couple of times while we were there. The kids wanted to swim in it, but because it has rained for three weeks straight, the water was very cold and somewhat muddy. They were disappointed that they didn't get to swim but were happy to at least wade in it and skip rocks. Summer is fun!  

Anui with some cows coming to drink

Playing on the river is always fun!

Astana Days

We returned to Astana from our vacation in Utah (which we still need to do a lot of writing about) at the end of June.  July 6 is President Nazarbayev's birthday, and it is also a holiday (The Day of the Capital).  We missed the celebration last year because we were in the US.  We decided to go to the festivities that were held near Khan Shatyr (the giant tent mall that is one of the famous landmarks of the city).  We went with our friends the Petersons who were getting ready to leave the next day for the US where they took a new job.  We also met our friends the Stice family, so it was a good time.

The kids posing with an eagle used for hunting.

The square across from Khan Shatyr and the Opera theater was set up with tents, yurts, and stadium seating.  There was a lot on display - local crafts, local dances and singing, and eagles (for hunting) and horsemanship displays.  We looked around at what was going on for a few minutes, and then went and took seats for the horse show. We picked seats on the front row, and that ended up being a problem because it filled up and people stood, making our seats the worst ones.

The horse show was amazing - lots of acrobatics, shooting, and trick riding.  We really enjoyed it.  After the show, we wandered around and looked at the other displays for another 90 minutes and ended our day with a meal at Khan Shatyr.

It was a fun day and a nice way to spend our last day with our good friends.

And this post is mostly about the fun pictures below!

Kazakh folk dance on the main tent stage - we peaked in.

Women riders. They were part of a chase game traditional among Kazakhs.  If the boy wins he gets a kiss.  If he loses, the girl gets to whip him the next time around. Fun!!!

Demonstrating Falconry

Horse game traditionally played with a goat carcass.  This was a bundle of wool.

Taking turns attacking using spears and bows.  Thinking about Ghengis Khan sweeping across the Steppe with his cavalry.

One more with the lady riders.

Nika was interviewed for the local news.  She did well - her first television appearance.

Alexandra poses in front of some Yurts.

Lexa with her Mama - her favorite person in the world.

A booth with crafts - leather and wood.

Our Trip to Shchuchinsk (The Switzerland of Kazakhstan)

A few hundred kilometers to the northwest of Astana is a region of hills, lakes, and forests that many call the "Switzerland of Kazakhstan."  The most famous lake and town in the area is Burabay, but the largest town and the rail station is in the town of Shchuchinsk - which is named after a lake that is in the area.  We decided to visit the area in the week after New Year.  We went with our friends from church and the university - the Stices.

We met at the train station on Tuesday morning at around 10:30.  Our train arrived just then and we loaded on.  The train was coming from somewhere else and the seats where we were sitting for our 3 hour and 15 minute train ride had been occupied and were quite dirty.  The Stices have two fourteen year old daughters that they adopted from Kazakhstan about 12 years ago.  Our girls love them and really look up to them.  They had a great time laughing and talking and playing games on the way.  The adults talked as well.

Girls having fun on the train.

When we arrived in town, we took two taxis to our hotel - the Park House - which was located in the National Forest on the other side of the lake from town.  The hotel had been built just a year or two ago and was nice.  The rooms were small, but the beds were comfortable.  We checked in and then the girls spent the afternoon sledding on the ice slide hill that was right outside of the lobby.

Park House Hotel

This is the view from the top floor of our hotel. You can see the lake a little bit.

Just gorgeous!

Sliding hill right outside of the lobby

About ready to be pushed down

Tired but happy

Teamwork!

Train!

We ate dinner in the hotel restaurant to check it out.  It turned out that the food at the restaurant was good and very affordable, so we ended up eating there the entire time that we stayed.

Kids' table! They fell in love with the place!

The six of them also spent a lot of time playing card games at the end of each day.

Wednesday morning after our complimentary breakfast (which was also good), we took some taxis to the big resort hotel the Rixos that is just a few miles down the road.  They have a "Santa Village/Lapland" area that is a tourist area.  We went in and did a tour of Santa's house.  The tour was kind of like "it's a small world" at Disneyland, but without the boats, singing, and animatronics.  The tour went through India, Egypt, London, Paris, Astana, and finally Santa's house.  The kids took pictures with Santa and then wrote letters to Santa (we had them write thank you notes) and got glitter tattoos.

The quality of the pictures isn't the best because Yulia forgot her camera that day, and all of the pictures were taken with my phone.

Writing "Thank you" letters to Santa.

We also signed up to take a reindeer sled ride.  We walked out to where that was located.  There were three little reindeer tied to a sleigh.  Our four girls went, with the driver going along. He let me "drive" the reindeer with Yulia.  That consisted of me poking them with a long stick every once in a while so that they would remember to go - they knew where to go on their own since it was a circle.  There were also dog sled rides, snowmobile and four-wheeler rental, and other activities.  We signed up to go horseback riding.  We had to wait until they were ready and a van was available.  We were picked up and driven to the outskirts of Shchuchinsk to a horse farm.

Girls riding the reindeer sleigh

Everyone, including our 7 year old twins, got to ride on their own horse.  We went on a 5 km trail out in the forest and back to the farm.  The ride was beautiful - the area really is nice.  It is much different from the steppe around Astana (which also has a beauty to it).  The snow was on the ground and frosting the pine trees and it looked like something out of a postcard.  There was a group of four German tourists who were riding off the trail and faster than us, but we just had a nice walk/trot ride through the forest which lasted about 40 minutes.  The total cost was about 8 dollars per person, and it was very much worth it.

Nika got on her horse first. Everybody else is still waiting.

The camel in with the horses - he'll be important later.

Waiting for our horses to be saddled.

Lexa is getting her stirrups adjusted. The dark brown horse is Sophie's.

Yulia on her horse with German "cowboys" in the background. Unfortunately we do not have any pictures of our ride through the forest for the same reason: Yulia forgot her fancy camera. So, you will just have to believe us that it was beautiful scenery. 

When we arrived back at the farm and dismounted, one of the "cowboys" asked us if the kids wanted to ride a camel.  We had seen a large Bactrian (two-humped) camel behind the horse pens when we arrived.  The cost was about $1.60 for each of the girls, so all six of the girls took a trip around the yard on the camel and had a great time.

Lina and Lexa on the camel.

Taking a camel ride.

We had a nice big dinner at the end of the night back at our hotel.

Our last full day at the Park House was nice and quiet.  After breakfast the kids spent the morning sledding on the hill.  We had a nice late lunch and then went out and rented skis (about 50 yards from the lobby) and spent an hour and a half skiing on the trails through the forest. It was the first time any of our girls had skied, and they all did great.  My skis were a bit short and my boots a bit small (I'm bigger than the median Kazakhstani), but we all had a great time.  We had one last nice dinner that evening.

Our happy Lexa

I think kids spent about 8 hours just sledding in three days that we were there.

More sledding

Beautiful trees

Beautiful nature

Lexa trying to figure out how to move on skis

Nika got the hang of it on her first try.

Sophie was a good sport even though her ski poles were too long for her.

Lina did a lot of this in the beginning and was very upset when her mom took her pictures. That didn't stop Yulia though!

Mountain Man

Sophie with papa

Sophie

Friday morning we woke up and had breakfast and then checked out of the hotel.  We took the train back to Astana and arrived back at our house on campus by about 4:00 p.m.

Riding a taxi from our hotel to the train station through the forest.

Ready to get on the train.

We had a very nice mini vacation.  We were glad that we got to see another part of Kazakhstan and to spend time doing some winter sports.  The horse riding was definitely the highlight for everyone (when we include the camel ride as part of that experience), but the whole retreat was great.  Now we want to go back in the summer and hike and swim in the lake.