Asian Winter Games Photo Album

Kazakhstan is MUCH nicer than expected....and Almaty is MUCH cooler than expected. This was a great week with good people, good hockey and bad coffee....

The Olympic Council of Asia awarded the Player of The Game Award. I never found out who voted but they usually got it wrong.

Me - Baluan Sholak Sports Palace. Named after a famous Weightlifter.

South Korea were quite bad at Ice Hockey it turns out.

The week before I arrived I noticed -22 degrees temperatures and it did get chilly but it wasn't half as cold as I expected. Didn't need to buy long johns but was very happy to have these boots bought for me as it was icey on the streets. 

China were my favorite team, but let me down badly.

The buildings in Almaty looked a bit Eastern European and many times you might think you were in Russia or Poland or  even a bit of central Europe, but then all the people looked Oriental. This was a shocker for me and I felt a bit stupid not knowing to expect this. Most of the men looked like this guy.  



The Cable Cars. These were awesome. And free for media. The Asiada Logo of the White Tiger was everywhere, although I saw no actual White Tigers  



The Amazing Shin

China v South Korea

Bandy up in the mountains

Kazakhstan pose for team pics after Gold Medal win

And line up to get their Gold

The Real Life Borat

Don't Milk It Girls

Car Park After Gold Medal Game, the Kazaki Girls mobbed like Rock Stars

They even had a customised team bus

If you put your hand in here and make a wish it is supposed to come true. Let me tell you something. It doesn't work. 



Big screen outside the Baluan Sholak



Canadians Let Loose. The crew for the Ice Hockey was massive and mostly Canadian. I thought I'd be working with a small local crew but these guys were top notch. Luke Coley is on the left and bloody hell I can't remember the guy on the left, except he was from Nova Scotia and probably called Steve. Both excellent chaps and brillaint young TV talents. I really regret not a) learning their names and b) not getting contacts for these guys. They were great.    

Kazaki medalists...and an unknown helper. The volunteers at the AWG and in Baluan Sholak who all had these red ski suits were so so good. Helped make the event what it was. 

Lost my free hat early on so had to go with green cap. Not quite warm enough. This is me at the finish line of the Giant Slalom. We were working for the Host Broadcaster so had loads of free stuff to wear some of which I brought back, some of which I left behind as there was just so much....so happy days for my maid at the hotel. But the ski jacket was a keeper....although I doubt if I will ever wear the snood. 

Last Day in Kazakhstan. Maybe I Saw China. Borat Is Mentioned.

After a string of coincidental meetings, weather induced cancellations and some pretty slick work with a friend's FOP pass, I ended up going up three cable cars to the very highest point of Chimbulak in the company of Russian Ice Hockey Legend Alexander Maltsev. (Actually 'Aleksandr').

He had coached the Kazakhstan Women's Ice Hockey team to Gold the day before. He had not smiled throughout the competition but was in a very good mood today.

Maltsev was Alex Ovechkin's favorite player growing up and an absolute legend for the Soviet Hockey Powerhouse of the seventies and eighties. It was a thrill to chat with him. After all this was the man who scored a record 213 international goals for Russia. Seriously.

His assistant coach (sitting alongside) said I had slightly mispronounced 'Tukhtiyeva' in my commentary. Thanks for that mate.

At the top of the mountain, you were meant to be able to see into China, but I don't think you really could. It was still a pretty long way away, and Kyrgyzstan was in the way.

It was awesome up here.

Me & China (a long way behind me) 

Then I went to watch the Giant Slalom. They were giving away free hot chocolate which was a bonus. I'm not sure that Giant Slalom is a great spectator sport. Also, the range of competition meant that some athletes took 50 seconds to come down the course and some took 4 minutes. There were snipers in the mountains and all over the place there were mean looking stoney faced security guards who looked like this:

Stoney faced security guard, almost certainly armed. 

A Ski Marshall Tests The Giant Slalom Course

  

Then I got the bus down the hill back to Almaty. Walked for miles around Almaty to get a last-day look at the place I'd spent the last week and a bit in. Someone said to me the other day that all the best food in Almaty was Turkish food. So didn't resist when Kalbaeva and some local students insisted on buying me a little kebab wrap, although really I should have been allowed to pay for it myself. Ridiculous kindness. One of them told me about the history of Kazakhstan in extraordinary detail and pretty good English. Then I chatted with the guy in the Juventus cap about football. A lot of football chat goes on here. For some reason, I ended up playing a game of Russian snooker which turned out to be impossible and much less fun than it sounds, and then said some goodbyes, handed back my mobile phone and took another bus to the IBS to pick up my cheque. Now, let me tell you about getting a bus in Almaty.... There were modern ones like the ones the media used, then there were the public ones. An Almaty bus. It had curtains on the windows, like the sort of curtains you would get at a home, and normal wooden chairs for the drivers and ticket collectors, not secured to the bus in any way, but like house chairs, and the lights had sort of tassels like a lamp shade on them.

Lights in the bus

I don't think Almaty gets a lot of English or American visitors so often you are asked random questions about life, especially by young Kakakis. All the young people I met, volunteers, translators, students were bright and delightful and were fascinated to know what we like in England, especially football, music and films. I was asked if I liked Twilight and The Notebook. I explained that they were really popular in England but that I hadn't seen them myself. I was asked about Muse and Shane Ward. Then one young girl asked me if I had "seen a film called Borat?" Oh boy, I had gone the whole week without anyone from Kazakhstan asking about it and without mentioning it, but now it seemed that none of this group of students had seen Borat and were keen to find out what it was about. I left out most of the offensive details, in fact ALL the offensive details, and assured them that people in England didn't really think that cars in Kazakhstan were pulled along by donkeys. They said that it story was accurate in one respect in that people in Kazakhstan used to be obsessed with Pamela Anderson.   

So, that is just about it. For the record. A week in Kazakhstan commentating on Ice Hockey. Working for IGBS with whole bunch of really great Canadians and the UK commentating legend Simon Reed. Broadcasting in a nice but sometimes strange country. Nothing like in Borat. Hours can go by and you could be anywhere in Europe, but then something odd happens, or you try and get a coffee and realise you are a long way from home. I missed home a lot, but this was an interesting and fulfilling trip, I met some fantastic inspiring people, and there were some really good hockey games thrown in.

Me with Neil Chiplen my summariser

http://www.astana-almaty2011.kz/

For CC, MC and MC