Sexy selfies with a tank in Taldykorgan

I don’t know anyone in Almaty who’s been to Taldykorgan, the administrative centre of the Almaty, region but I decided to visit when we had a long weekend for Victory Day. 

Victory Day, by the way, is celebrated on 9 May and it marks the anniversary of Allied forces’ victory over Nazi Germany in 1945. 

Unlike our Remembrance Sunday, which commemorates those who died in the wars, Victory Day is a major annual event with a public holiday and military parades in most of the former Soviet Union. 

Taldykorgan is just over 220 kilometres from Almaty, and although it’s on the railway line I opted to take a shared taxi from the bus station. 

The town among the willows

It takes a couple of hours and road goes northeast past the western edge of the Kapchagai reservoir (that provides Almaty’s drinking water) then through gently rolling hills to Taldykorgan. The town is only about 100km from Kazakhstan’s border with China. 

The town is in the foothills of Jungar Ala Tau mountains and its name means ‘willow hill’ in Kazakh, inspired by the willows that shield it from strong winds. 

Initially named Gavrilovka when it was founded by Russian and Ukrainian settlers in the 19th century, the name was changed to first Taldy-Kurgan and later Taldykorgan. 

Amid the small amount of older and Soviet-era buildings are a number of newly built plate glass structures; there’s been a wave of development, supported by the government. 

Among the new monuments are the Entry Ark welcoming people to the city and the monument to Kanbabai-batyr, the Kazakh national hero who defeated a Jungar invasion. An older monument in the Central Park of Culture and Rest commemorates the soldiers who died in the Soviet war in Afghanistan.

Just like in Almaty, among its population of 140,000 people there are dozens of different ethnic groups in Taldykorgan, although the largest are Kazakhs and Russians. 

Selfies for Victory Day

When I arrived it seemed most of the town’s people were milling around waiting for the festivities to start. There young families, older people, teenagers, all gathered in the central square or strolling in the central park. 

Or — in the case of some of the young women and teenage girls — posing for selfies and getting their boyfriends to snap them tossing their long hair and gyrating on top of a WW2 tank. 

I went to my hotel which I’d booked by phone that morning. As my name sounds simply strange to most people in Kazakhstan, I tend to pronounce it as ‘Klara Noo-tal”. That’s what I did with the hotel in Taldykogan. 

When I walked in and asked for my reservation, the receptionist looked surprised. 

“Oh! We were expecting a Chinese lady,” she said. “We thought you were Mrs Noo-Tau.” 

Military might

I had a quick walk around the shady streets of the town centre — where the most interesting thing I saw was the two guards with machine guns outside a jewellery shop. 

A better known venue is the old green-painted Iliyas Zhansugurov regional literary museum that dates back to 1907. 

Then I went back to the central square to watch the Victory Day procession. 

Bearing in mind this is a small town with a population of around 140,000 it was impressive. 

We saw soldiers in camouflage, soldiers in smart uniforms, female soldiers, police officers, and to resounding applause an open topped truck drove Taldykorgan’s last remaining WW2 veterans around the square.