After a quick peek at Kazakhstan’s new capital, Astana, we shown up in the gorgeous, former funding of Almaty. We decided to take the train from Astana to Almaty. After the sheer beauty of the Trans-Mongolian as well as Trans-Siberian trains, this train didn’t compare. When we shown up at the train station at 4:30 in the morning, we were having a hard time to interact with taxi drivers where we wished to go as well as exactly how much we wished to pay. luckily our cabin-mate from the train, Ary, offered us a trip with his good friend right to our hostel. We were exhausted on arrival, so we had a quick nap before setting out on the town.
Our good friend Ary From The Train
The very first thing we decided to do was to take the Lonely Planet’s walking tour of the city, for nothing more than to orientate ourselves with the major streets as well as sites. because of a combination of poorly marked streets, as well as our fundamental capability to checked out cyrillic (the Russian alphabet), we missed much of the “tour” as well as basically just walked around the town aimlessly.
Walking around Aimlessly Isn’t poor On Almaty’s lovely Streets
When coming to Kazakhstan, we pictured a land of desert as well as village life, as depicted by the pseudo-Kazakh, Borat, in his 2006 film. Kazakhstan does have vast plains of emptiness, interrupted only by little villages, however Almaty is a true, international, 21st century metropolis. With its broad leafy streets, great shaded parks, open air cafes, sheesha bars, night clubs, world-class restaurants, spas as well as towering monuments, this is somewhere we might live.
Open Air Cafes With chilly Beer, What more might You Want? (Dariece Is Upset That Her Beer Is Smaller, as well as She Was provided A Straw)
Although the walking tour had us a bit confused at first, the city itself is extremely simple to navigate. It slowly slopes upward to the south, towards the seat of the superbly tough Tien Shan mountain range, which can be seen towering over the city from almost anywhere. This means that if you’re walking uphill in Almaty, you understand you’re going south.
We utilized this to orientate ourselves when we walked around as well as visited many of Almaty’s sites. We walked to Panfilov Park, which we dubbed “panty-fluff park” for the benefit of memory (hopefully the war vets the park was named after are okay with this). In Panty-fluff park stands the stunning Zenkov Cathedral. We went into the Cathedral just in time for some choir singing as well as dedicated prayer.
Zenkov Cathedral In Panfilov Park
We likewise checked out the central Mosque as well as a regional market understood as “The eco-friendly Bazar”. It was no Istanbul Grand Bazar, however there were a great deal of great things available for sale there. The equine as well as lamb meat section was both morbid as well as interesting. The fresh fruit stands had sellers as colourful as their offerings, while the pure, raw honey samplings required us to buy a jar of the white, creamy, wonderful mixture. We likewise bought Dariece some new pants at the market as well as we enjoyed bargaining with the locals like old times… We’ve still got it!
Fruit Salesman At The eco-friendly Bazaar
While in Almaty, we likewise visited the Arasan Baths, stated to be the finest medical spa in all of central Asia. They were indeed fine! Sparkelling clean spaces with Russian Banyas, Turkish Hammams as well as surface Saunas all developed into one building… this was a relaxing experience. In the bath, whilst buck-naked as well as walking around awkwardly, I satisfied Rassul, a Russian speaking Kazakh who has resided in Almaty for many years. Rassul offered to take me for tea, as well as from then on, he was my new Kazakh friend.
(sorry, no photos of us naked in the spa)
The complying with day we satisfied Rassul as well as his wife, Zhanna, as well as they took us to an exquisite Uzbek restaurant which was method out of our usual everyday budget. They treated us to a tasty lunch as well as afterwards, invited to take us as much as Ozero Bolshoe Almatinskoe (Big Almaty Lake) the complying with day. We graciously accepted as well as walked house excited to have made such kind Kazakh friends.
Lunch With Our new Kazakh Friends, Rassul & Zhanna
At 11:00 the next day, Rassul as well as Zhanna chosen us up in their nice Volkswagen SUV as well as we headed as much as huge Almaty Lake. We spent the day taking pictures as well as chatting with our new good friends about whatever from fuel costs to Borat. We asked what they believed of Borat as well as they stated that the Kazakh government had made a statement to the public, insisting they not to take offence to the movie. It was meant to be a joke as well as Rassul as well as Zhanna agreed, although they haven’t seen the movie yet. perhaps if we return to Almaty we’ll provide them a personal screening on our Macbook.
Us With Rassul & Zhanna At huge Almaty Lake
After having a few down days because of weather condition at the begin of our trip, we were extremely happy that the sun was shining for all 6 of the days we spent in Almaty. We spent every minute we might outside, including one of our preferred days in the city when we visited Chimbulak and Medeu. These are Almaty’s mountain playgrounds as well as ski resort, just 30 minutes away. We took the public bus as much as the lifts, where we took a trip as much as Medeu, enjoying the spectacular mountain scenery from the window of our gondola all the method to the peaks of Chimbulak.
The views From Our Gondala
At the top of the gondola was the base of the Chimbulak ski resort, total with restaurants as well as bars with patios that peered up at the soaring snow-capped peaks. We were in no mood for a restaurant however, we were right here for the hiking. After our legendary 8 day Mongolian trekking adventure, as well as our treks in Nepal, we had caught the trekking bug! We hiked for about an hour up the mountain as well as discovered a lovely area for a picnic. With the noise of the river roaring below us, we cut up our sausage, cheese as well as crackers as well as enjoyed a perfect lunch in the perfect spot. This is what it’s all about!
Our lovely Picnic area With The River Below
After 7 days in Almaty we figured it was time to move on. Not since we had a train to catch, or since we had no more time on our visas, no, this time around we were just ready. Almaty treated whatever travel-down symptoms we had as well as we would like to return one day. It was the perfect location to unwind as well as get settled after moving around so commonly at the begin of our trip. now we’re off to a new country, Kyrgyzstan, which is commonly stated to be the very best “stan” for backpackers.
We took the bus from Almaty to Bishkek on September, 4th.
If you have any type of concerns about “The Stans”, Almaty or the Trans-Siberian Trains, Leave a comment below!
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