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Shymkent

Shymkent in June 2016: a hotel with a serious taste for gold, lunch on a carpeted tapchan, sizzling dinner plates and our launchpad for Otrar and Turkistan.

We rolled into Shymkent in June 2016: Kazakhstan's big southern city and our launchpad for the Silk Road sites further west. First lesson of the south: understatement is not a local custom.

A marble staircase with gilded railings descending into a hotel hall with a gold coffered ceiling and three crystal chandeliers
The hall of our Shymkent hotel, June 2016. Subtlety was fully booked.
Dileep sitting in a gilded armchair holding the receiver of a vintage rotary telephone, mirrors and patterned armchairs around him
Testing the house telephone. Nobody answered; the chair made up for it.

Eating, southern style

Meals here come horizontal. Lunch was served at a low table on carpeted daybed seating, with a jug of something milky and a pattern on every available surface.

Inga and Dileep at a low glass-topped table with a zigzag ikat cloth, set on carpeted daybed seating with a jug of milky drink and dishes
Lunch at floor level, June 2016. The tablecloth alone deserves its own review.

Dinner turned the volume up: meat and onions still hissing on cast iron plates, fresh flatbread, and a tomato and cucumber salad trying to keep the peace.

Inga and Dileep at a table with sizzling cast iron plates of meat topped with onion rings, flatbread and salad between them
Sizzle plates for two, June 2016. The bread did not survive the evening.

From this base we day-tripped into serious history: the excavated city of Otrar and the great mausoleum at Turkistan.