Mal-teasers - Part 1

 This trip had been planned for ages… yet it caught us rather unprepared to leave — you see, the plan was to travel with bag, baggage and child 2 to meet child 1 (well, he’s not a child anymore, but not-quite-a-child-anymore-1 doesn’t seem to have the same ring to it). But child 2 threw a spanner in the works by announcing that football trials were on, so we needed to scramble to make arrangements for her stay - our tickets weren’t refundable or flexible. Before you start gasping at our sheer negligence as parents, child 2 had local guardians, and an army of support staff who almost made child 2 wish we didn't have to return anytime soon. 

But we finally did set off, and our first port of call was Fiumicino. 

Nice enough town, if only we got the hang of their public transport

"See bridge that opens? Must wait until you see it open." Ancient family saying

We had a few hours before our next flight, so we took a small stroll along Fiumicino village to stretch our legs. Lovely little port-side village to start the holiday off on the right note. Also gave us enough time to check in on the abandoned child back home. 

Nothing to see here. Just some pictures we sent on the family group so child 2 feels like she's on this trip with us. 

We reached Valletta late in the evening and spoke to child 1, who had already checked in. Valletta from one end to the other can’t be more than 30 minutes by car, and so we assumed we would be reunited with child 1 in the next few minutes, once we had our luggage and rented car. Ah, if only things were as simple. Apparently, both our hotel name and street name were common enough to have more than one address, and as luck would have it, we arrived at the wrong one - the one with no parking, a steep climb, and a street party happening. So there I was, dropped off at the noisy street corner while the spouse drove off to look for parking. It was only after I asked child 1 to come and help me with the luggage, and he insisted that our place wasn’t slap-bang in the middle of a raging street party, that we realised we were standing at 2 totally different addresses. Took another 30 minutes for the husband to come back with the car, and another 30 for us to find the right street, but we arrived, finally, in our lovely, cosy Airbnb. 

The next day, we decided to set off to explore Malta. The country has 3 large islands- Malta, Gozo and Comino. We had planned to head to Gozo in the latter half of the trip, so we skipped the day tours to the island. 

If this feels vaguely familiar, think GoT. King's Landing. Season 1

First stop, the historic city of Mdina. Apart from it being a city that carries so much history - it looked as though we had the whole city to ourselves - we came in around breakfast time, and it really lived up to the ‘silent city’ name. Also, I’m not sure what it is, but the doors have some of the most beautiful doorknobs I’ve seen. 

see? Prety doorknobs. 

Fair bit of British Influence, and it's not just in the language. They even drive on the 'right' side of the road, unlike the rest of mainland Europe.

Cosy little sitout. They're scattered around the city, inviting you to slow down. 

St Paul's, Mdina, designed by Lorenzo Gafa

'Silent city'. We hit the streets before the crowds arrived. I'm glad we did. 

Lovely little street sign.

The next stop - Dingli Cliffs, which afforded fantastic views of the city and out to the sea. 

 From there we headed out on a short boat ride to check out the Blue Grotto.

Short boat ride, but packed a punch

 The water looked tempting enough to dive into. But of course, we were instructed to rein in all such urges while they shepherded us safely back to the shore. 

Didn't think to take videos, where you could've heard the boatman asking us to cease and desist. 

We stopped at a few scenic Wadis before making our way back to Valletta city. 

The trek that demanded the sacrifice of a shoe not equipped for the terrain. 

We then headed out to Valletta - as I mentioned, it's a tiny city, but boy does it pack a punch. Every street, every corner is picturesque - from Republic Street, to the 33 steps to the city gates designed by Renzo Piano, to St Elmo’s Fort. We did catch the tail end of the cannon firing, but what really has us was the view of the city from the edges of the Fort. 

It was a bit rainy, so we took shelter in this lovely museum and gallery 

The city gates of Valetta

The Valetta skyline and port

The saluting battery

While roaming all over Valletta was great - it was something we could cover in half a day, so we decided to do a few easy walks around the island. We started off small, from St. Peter's Pool to X Robb I-Ghagin. 

You can see why we got sidetracked while trekking

more of the coastline we walked across

Easy enough to start, but once we started, we sort of just... drifted along the coast. Why, you ask? Well, partly because it was just so beautiful, we let our eyes lead the way. And partly because we couldn't get ourselves to pronounce the destination, so we basically just failed miserably at asking for instructions. We also decided to walk the Ghajn Tuffeiha bay the next morning- but not before we stopped at a local Decathlon to replenish my walking shoes, a pair of which I'd sacrificed to the cliffs of X Robb the previous day. Small sacrifice to make, and lesson learnt on choosing the right shoes for trips. 

The boys at Ghajn

The two sides of Ghajn Tuffeiha

The various colours of the island

In the afternoon we drove to the top of Anchor Bay to look at 'Popeye Village'. Yup, that's right. Popeye Village. It started with the film set for Popeye being built in the 1980s and has remained ever since. It has now become a major tourist attraction with all things Popeye and lots of fun activities to boot (we skipped this part - none of us are particularly huge Popeye fans). 

The Popeye village

complete with cafes and sunbeds

But fun, on the whole. That evening we set out on the ferry to Gozo Island. Gozo deserved a few days of stay, and not just a day's trip. Gozo will thus deserve another post. 

Landlocked but lovely - Kazakhstan

 Following our plane ride from Osh to Bishkek, we took a taxi to the border to cross into Kazakhstan via the Korday border crossing. Once we'd crossed into Kazakhstan, we took one of the private buses - a Marshrutka (they ply every half hour, or whenever they get enough people) into Almaty. We were staying somewhat centrally at a youth hostel, since we were going to make a day trip to various places, before deciding to explore Almaty. 

Interesting toys that the kids were playing with

Felt an immediate urge to dine at this restaurant. Sadly, they didn't serve dinner at 4:00 pm in the afternoon

Our first day tour covered the Charyn Canyon, Kolsai Lake, and Kaindi Lake. 

Charyn Canyon

Our tour started early in the morning from Almaty, taking us to the Charyn Canyon, a national park situated close to the Kazakh-Chinese border, about 200 kms away. 

We walked down the canyon to the valley of Castles with our guide, before climbing back up. Now, we've been to the Grand Canyon, and while that is massive and awe-inspiring, we didn't get to walk through its valleys - and that is an experience that is altogether unique. 

The walk was a short one, but we stopped so often to click pictures that it took us about 1.5 hours to cover the distance. 

The winding Charyn river

There are refreshments and restrooms at the top of the canyon, and if you ever decide to take the tour, I'd strongly urge you to make full use of the facilities, because the places we visited later were woefully short of toilets. 

A serendipitous visit to the washroom

Kayindi Lake

We then went on to Kayindi lake - by went on, I mean we went there part of the way, after which, we were loaded into a dodgy-looking 4 x 4 which looked like a relic of the soviet era, with a bus driver who looked barely out of his teens, and completely in love with Bollywood music. The chap played the Kazakh translation of every Bollywood song you could think of, all with a huge grin and a complete disregard for the rear ends of his passengers.  

You've got to admire the change of colours

We reached a river crossing, where you get on a horse (yes, another adventure with horses who have absolute scorn for me) to get to Kayindi. Kayindi, or Quayindi , meaning the "birch tree lake", has a wonderful blue-green hue, with trees jutting out from the water. 

The birch trees jutting out of the water

The trees are part of the forest that was submerged during a 1911 earthquake. It was one of the most beautiful sights and of course, like all tourists, we went slightly nuts clicking pictures of the lake from various angles. 

Here's another view

And another

Another death-defying ride atop a wayward horse back to the 4x4, and my rear was thanking all the fat I'd consumed during the trip, which had helped form a decent cushion. 

This horse with a deathwish, that chose to walk at the very edge of the cliff, occasionally stopping if he felt I was getting too comfortable. 

Kolsai Lake

We had to walk down to lower Kolsai, which wasn't half bad, except for the crazy fellas proposing to their girlfriends, complete with balloons, photographers and an army of event managers

Our next stop was Kolsai Lake, but not before we stopped for lunch in the local village. The food stop was absolutely chaotic - people shouting out orders, struggling to get a decent table, and the less we talk about the toilets, the better. If you're planning to take this trip, come armed with toilet spray, wet wipes, tissues, and a strong bladder (start practising those kegels, ladies). But all of this was completely wiped out from memory once we got to Kolsai Lake. 

Hello blue skies

The waters were too tempting not to dip our feet. We unlocked a new level: Retractable toes. Bloody freezing waters.   

Also, pretty windy. But oh-so-pretty

These lakes, fed by glaciers, are beautiful bodies of water surrounded by Spruce trees. We walked down to lower Kolsai, but decided against the trek to middle and upper Kolsai - it was a good 2-hour trek, we were told (and I had had enough of horses for the day). We did, however, walk along the shores of the wonderfully clear waters,  where you could feel like you were the only two people on the riverbank. 

We headed back to Almaty, tired, but SO glad we decided to take this day trip. 

The national circus building was close to the stop where we got off. Looks like it would be an interesting watch if we ever came back here. 

Almaty and Medeu Valley

The next day, we decided to cover Medeu Valley rather than stay in Almay, so we made a quick trip to Ascension Cathedral (Although Kazakhstan is largely Islamic, it has its fair share of churches. 

They wouldn't let us in the church the first time. Clearly, we didn't look Christian enough. The second time around, we passed muster. 

The Ascension Cathedral, or the Zenkov Cathedral, is one of the tallest wooden structures in the world. It survived the 1911 earthquake (yes, the same one that gave Kaindi its in-house trees) despite being built without any nails. The recent restoration seems to have returned the church to its former glory.  

Such a pretty wooden structure! 

Here's another view at night. It really is a very pretty building

Beautiful on the inside too

It was just after easter, so some of the easter decorations were still up

We caught the local bus to Medeu on the outskirts of Almaty. It is the world's largest high-mountain speed skating and bandy rink- but since we were visiting in April, there was snow in the upper two levels, and the ice rink was more concrete than ice. 

The stages are connected by a cable car, rising to a height of 3200 metres. I have never seen these many desis congregating at any one place outside India. There was even a large gaggle of aunties in chiffon sarees, with their pot-bellied spouses in colour-coordinated jumpers, fulfilling their Shah Rukh dreams of posing in the snow. I promise you, there were more pictures taken by the Kazakhs of the aunties than of the surroundings. We ended the day with a metro ride around Almaty (can Indian metros please take a leaf out of their book and pretty up our stations?)

Got to love the subways of Almaty - they even have  book vending machine

Also loving the subway staff's uniforms. And the murals and floor mosaics

We did do a quick round of the supermarkets and parks. Nice. Pleasant. The president's park was a bit worse for wear. 

Some local tipple. Didn't try them but they looked interesting

The trip ended far too quickly for our liking - would we visit again? Definitely! Would I want to have samsas again? Not for the next decade or so, thanks. 

That's the entry to the President's Park. Massive, but the insides were a bit run-down.