At 5:00pm Saturday night we found ourselves at the Khiuaz Dospanova “Ice Palace” to watch an ice hockey match, in close proximately to the airport just outside of town.  The local team the Atyrau Beibarys play in the Kazakh Vyschaya Liga which is the top league of 10 teams in the country.  It’s fast, very fast, and skillful in an aggressive sort of way. Hockey is big here along with fishing, in fact anything it seems that involves ice.  Luckily they won again, 5-2.