Mountains, Canyons, and City Vibes: 10 Days in Almaty
With Kyrgyzstan, and my new friends, in my rearview mirror, I looked at a problem I’ve never had before: I have nearly unlimited time, and equally nearly no restrictions on where to go next. I knew I wanted to meet Matt in Bangkok in September, and I began to price out flights – and found Almaty, in Kazakhstan, is about $25 cheaper than flying out of Bishkek, in Kyrgyzstan. This was enough reason for me to book a flight out of Kazakhstan and begin my trek across the border.
Travel Roster
8 full days in Almaty
Charyn Canyon and Black Canyon
Kaindy Lakes
Kolsai Lake
Highlights
As the 4th country I'd visited in the span of 5 weeks, I'd done very little research on Almaty, or Kazakhstan in general. I was blown away by how beautiful the city was: impeccably clean, full of parks with gorgeous trees/flowers, and one of the safest places I've ever visited.
Traveling through ex-Soviet countries, full of brutalist architecture and Cyrillic text, can be intimidating. Almaty residents mostly speak Russian, and as a second language, Kazakh. English proficiency is mostly saved for the younger generation. As a result, I was navigating through the world with not much more than "privet" (hi) and "spasibo" (thank you). By the end of the trip, I've added two new words to my repertoire: кофе (coffee) and бар (bar).
While Kazakh is the official language of Kazakhstan, many people in Almaty's first language is Russian. There's a rule that all public buildings, such as schools, must have both Kazakh and Russian text - since both of these languages are character-heavy, this can lead to some pretty funny scenarios. I found myself wandering around trying to find the longest building title.
A place that was intimidating at first glance quickly showed to have a warm and welcoming interior. Taxi drivers picked up Google translate to say hi, ask me where I was from, or recommend their favorite place for Beshbarmak. This was a huge culture shock from NYC taxi drivers, who have no desire to chat.
Alone in a city on a new hemisphere, I was a little daunted to start my solo week - however, I didn't need to feel this way. My first stop was a free walking tour of Almaty, where I met a kind German girl - next thing I know, we're sitting down to lunch, and booking a 4am tour to neighboring Charyn Canyon the next day.
When travelling to Almaty, there are 4 nearby natural landmarks that are considered "must-do's". My first goal post of this trip was hiking through all of them: Kaindy Lake, Kolsai Lake, Black Canyon, and Charyn Canyon.
Besides hiking through nearby lakes/canyons, I found most of my time was spent wandering the city: shopping for trail mix in the historic Green Bazaar, running along the many parks and rivers, stopping in to museums, and taking ski lifts to the nearby mountain viewpoints.
Green Bazaar
Full of great trail mix ingredients for my hikes - and some surprises, such as these sheep heads, which are traditionally boiled and served or special celebrations.
Essentai Park
Almaty is one of the greenest cities I've ever seen!
Almaty Museum of Arts
Shymbulak Mountain
My last interaction in Almaty was a testament to how kind the population is: on my flight from Almaty to Bangkok, I sat next to a nice guy on the plane. We struck up a conversation (normally a big no for me on red-eye flights: let me sleep!). Next thing I know, we'd turned into a table of friends sharing my first dinner in Thailand. Like I said - Kazakhstan was a real culture shock for this New Yorker.
What I'm Eating These Days
Hint: mostly carbs!
Beshbarmak, Kazakhstan's national dish, often served with horsemeat sausages (Kazy). Navat is the must-try restaurant for this.
Baursak: deep fried dough balls, served on the table ahead of a meal - kind of like how garlic bread would be served at an Italian restaurant
Kumys: Fermented mare's milk, the national drink of Kazakhstan. I tried to limit both horse and camel milk, since they're both known to upset an uninitiated stomach, but they kept sneaking up in unexpected places; such as this kumis cocktail, or the famous camelchino.
The good: Traveler Milestones!
The official language of Kazakhstan is Kazakh and the lingua franca is Russian, English is at best someone's third language here. It's very infrequently spoken by anyone over the age of 30. I spent a lot of time using Google photo translate - with great success, including having to do my first load of laundry and purchase shampoo in Russian.
The third photo is how I felt when "Пyck" successfully started my load of laundry
The bad: What I Messed Up This Time
Going too cheap with the hostels! I've historically been a huge advocate for hostel life: I even lucked out with a bottom bunk bed in my first room. At least I thought so... until I woke up on night 1 to hear my top bunk-mate vomiting after having too much to drink!
This started me on a journey to find an AirBNB with the best city views possible - which thankfully I achieved.
Almaty has one of the best skylines I've ever seen!
Where to next?
Those that read the whole post, instead of skipping right to the end, might already know: I'm headed to Thailand! I'll be meeting Matt in Bangkok, where we'll spend a few days before starting the journey down to the small island of Koh Tao, on the southeast coast.
Comments