Borovoye May, 2008

Trip to Borovoye May, 2008
06/12/08

This past weekend we took a road trip up north of Astana to check out some of the beautiful sites we've been hearing about. We were hoping to check out the beautiful sites in the mountainous lake region of Borovoye located 3 hours north of Astana to see if they really were as nice as our national friends have told us.

So, we packed an overnight bag, a picnic lunch, and filled our tank and took off. About 2 hours north of Astana we began to see trees and about a half hour later we were in some beautiful forests of pine and white birch. As we got out and walked around, we were surrounded by the wonderful aroma of pine and with sites that reminded us so much of Colorado.

An old cabin greeted us with a cherry tree blooming next to it and was worth a photo. Then it was around to a spot on the lake with a formation called "The Sphinx". It's quite a well known site in Kazakhstan.

We hiked up and down some nice hills and got a few photos. If you will look at the photo entitled "Sphinx at Borovoye" and look to the hilltop across the lake, you can see the point from which the lake photos were taken. Can you see the Sphinx from the photo from up on top?

The photo entitled "The Hotel on the Lake" is the only hotel in this section of the lake and it overlooks the Sphinx. It has 5 floors and a conference room we could use, as well as countless trails to follow and paddle boats and row boats to use on the lake. If some things come about, we just might be able to go to this place for a 3 night retreat with our team next Spring!

One formation the locals told us about is called "The Sleeping Hedgehog" - can you see him sleeping on his back?

An Eastern

custom is to tie prayer cloths to trees in high up areas. We ran across this tree on one of our hikes.

We came across the local Mosque in Borovoye and when we stopped to take a photo the Imam came out and we struck up a conversation. It was quite a conversation about the Bible and the Koran. More specifically about Jesus in the Bible and how He is different from Jesus in the Koran. The Imam's name is Muksat and he would explain a few things to me and then it was my turn to share Scriptures about Christ. We left with a shake of hands and a photo with which to use to pray for him.

As we were entering the park area by the lake, there's a guard post (sort of like a Park Ranger post) with a gate to let you in or out and we struck up a conversation with the Park Ranger. This was before we checked into hotel prices and I asked him about prices in the park compared to prices in town and he said, "I've got a clean one room apartment that I rent out with hot water, TV, stove, fridge, etc and you can have that for the night (for a small fee of course). So we went and checked it out and it was just fine for our one night stay. It was on the second floor - (The shashlik place is just around the corner!)

During the drive home we passed several road side stands with jars of all kinds of preserved goods. We stopped and sampled some tasty stuff and purchased some dilled mushrooms and some raspberry jam. In the photo there are jars of various kinds of honey on the closest table and then various kinds of pickled mushrooms and canned berries and such. This young couple was selling items and we had a great conversation with them as well.