Exploring Shymkent

 I took a day to wait out the heat in Shymkent. I also felt a little obliged to my host to spend some more time with him.

He had to work so I slept in. Then I took a walk around Abay park and stopped at a calisthenics area in the park to work out. I stretched for a while and did handstands and bent arm strength. Other people were there working out, as well but we didn’t really interact.

The entrance to Abay park 

Calisthenics parks are ubiquitous all over Central Asia. I didn’t have to look far to find one like this.

Then, Kuanish invited me to the art history museum where he worked, which also happened to be at the opposite end of the same park. I went over to the gallery. It was fairly small, but the art was fairly interesting, ranging from the Soviet to Post-Soviet era.

A WWII memorial featuring names of soldiers from Shymkent and the surrounding region who died in the war

I was surprised by a couple of things depicted in the art - one was that a lot of the art celebrates professions. There are paintings of machinery, factory workers, and people doing their jobs. The second were many reminders that Kazakh people were responsible for winning WWII (known in Kazakh as Ұлы отан соғыс, or “The Great Honor War”) for Russia, with images depicting Kazakhs storming Berlin and planting the Russian flag on the Reichstag, or other depictions of famous Kazakh soldiers or leaders on the battlefield.

Depiction of a famous Kazakh soldier who planted the Russian Army flag at the Reichstag in Berlin

I went back to Nur Sultan’s place to escape the heat, although without air conditioning, his apartment wasn’t much better. When he got back he wanted to go with me to a Russian banya, a common activity here that I had not yet experienced. The banya itself is a private bathhouse with a sauna and attached cold plunge. I was too hot to get into the sauna at first, but the cold plunge was very nice.

Afterwards, we walked through the city center and through the “Metallurgists” park. There didn’t seem to be any evidence of metallurgy itself in the park, and when I asked why they call it that, he said it’s common to name things after professions. The park did have a large statue of Vladimir Lenin, however. 

Since I spent an extra day in Shymkent, I will try to reach Tashkent in one day to stay in schedule, rather than the two I had originally planned. That means an early start!

Statue of Vladimir Lenin in the Metallurgist’s Park