Welcome from BC, Canada. Talgat, what pipes and tobaccos are available to you in Kazakhstan? Do you have tobacco shops near your home? Are there pipe makers nearby who you can purchase from in-person or do you have to order online? Is pipe smoking popular in your country? You must have some interesting pipe smoking stories to tell. Please do share some of your experience with us.
Well, in our country it is not very popular to smoke pipes, I think there are very few of us. I can tell it by the number of pipes in the local store, they sell slowly, and bulk purchases are not done very often. We don't have our own pipe makers, the nearest place to KZ where you can find pipe makers is Russia.
We have several major suppliers. The import of tobacco is prohibited by law for individuals, we have to choose from what is in the store. There are 5-6 shops in Almaty. The assortment of tobacco is not very large, there is MacBaren, Dan Tobacco DTM, Davidoff, Scandinavian Tobacco Group, Larsen. I think this confirms that the pipe smoker market in our country is very narrow.
From the pipes we have Peterson, it seems that the showcase has preserved models that are no longer in production. There are also Savinelli, Chacom, Stanwell, Vauen, Brebbia, DB Design, Big Ben, Mastro de Paja, Mauro Armelini, Porche Design, Meerschaum. A lot of beautiful pipes, but I personally prefer to buy pipes online.