The day started with a quick flight from Ürümqi, China to Almaty, Kazakhstan, marking a new country for us on our world tour. The flight had some of the best views we have ever seen on a flight. We flew over mountain ranges, glaciers, lakes, and enjoyed sunset on the tarmac. There were several taxi drivers waiting in the airport terminal trying to get us to go with them for outrageous prices. Instead, we just asked the tourist information desk if they knew about any public transport we could use. They showed us on a map where the bus stop was, which bus to take, and what our stop would be to get as close to our hostel as possible. After searching for our unmarked hostel for some time, we eventually found it and ended the night with some incredible doner from Shoq Doner.

We had a few days in Almaty before heading off on a roadtrip to Saty, and a few days back in the city after our roadtrip as well. During that time we tried to see as much of the city as possible. Nick and I loved Almaty so much. The city things to do are great, the food at every price point is incredible, it’s walkable and had great public transport, there is easy access to nature, and everyone is nice. A young woman from the tourist information center helped us purchase the city pass (which gave access to museums and attractions) since we could not do this without a local phone number. In exchange we posed for pictures for her in traditional coats.

One of our days started off by walking through the botanical garden. Nick enjoyed this more than I did if I’m being honest. To me it felt like many of the other parks in the city (but those ones are free). After that we headed over to the cable car that we took to Kök-Töbe hill. At the top there were amusement park rides, a ferris wheel, food, viewpoints, and a ‘fast coaster’. We enjoyed some pomegranate sodas, rode the ferris wheel, and then rode the best ride ever. The fast coaster is a one person rollercoaster that took us for loops on the mountain side with views of the city. We got to decide the speed ourselves and it was a total blast. While out and about we tried a pastry with chicken and potato inside, which was delightful. For lunch we had the best shawarma I’ve ever had from Just Shawarma.

On another day we went to the Abikhan Kasteev State Art Museum. Personally, I am not that big into art museums, but this one was incredible. It was well curated, showed the different influences of neighboring countries, as well as pre and post Soviet Union influences. 90% of the labels were written in Kazakh, Russian, and/or Chinese, so we didn’t get to read much about the art, but everything was so beautiful that it was still easy to enjoy.

After the art museum we headed over to Tyubetayka, an Uzbeki restaurant. There we tried our first lagman (a hand pulled noodle dish) that was so delicious. Accompanying the noodles we got a tall airy pastry that was extremely crispy on the outside and the inside had lamb meat. We enjoyed this as well. The day ended with a 3 hour city bus tour that took us all around some notable historical areas. The bus runs most days of the week once a day. We were surprised there were only 5 people on there with us. On one of the stops we got to see the musical instrument museum, which was a fun and quick stop. For dinner we had horse steak and the best cheeseburger ever from Vilka. We seriously never had a bad meal in Almaty.

Once we were back from our roadtrip we decided to do a classic hike near Almaty, Big Almaty Lake. It used to be much easier to visit there as visitors could drive straight up to the lake. Now there is a road block. In total the hike was 11 miles and took us 3.5 hours. It was all uphill but fairly gradual and along a road which is easier than a trail. There is another option to hike on or along an old pipeline but that looked much steeper. The view of the lake was gorgeous; the water was a milky turquoise color. At the top of a hill where most people sat and ate their picnics there were many wildflowers. To the left there was a glacier in the distance, and looking right there were mountains and trees around the lake. A few teenagers chatted with us for an hour who were eager to practice their english and completely flabbergasted as to why we would visit their country. A little boy also crashed our photoshoot. He came up to Nick who was squatting to take my picture to give him a snuggle. After that he took my hand to show me his dinosaur toy. He was such a sweetie and had his mom in stitches.

After the hike we were lucky enough to get last minute reservations at AUYL. This was a slightly more upscale Kazahk restaurant. Nick tried farmers shubat (fermented camel’s milk). He wanted to try the horse milk, but that one can have alcohol in it. I tried their oregano and green apple mocktail. My favorite dish was the horse cheeks with eggplant puree and mushroom stew. Nick loved the lagman they served as well, but it was a little spicy for me. For dessert we tried the shelpek tau, fried dough crisps, sumac caramel, sea buckthorn, and farm-made irimshik ice cream. The restaurant itself was a cool historic building that the waitress told us the history of. It was fun getting to watch the completely open kitchen. We stopped by the First President Park on our way home. The park had many lanterns and amazing butterscotch flavored cotton candy.

Our final day was jam packed. It included seeing 28 Panfilov Guardsmen Park, and the Ascension Cathedral. The church was beautiful with many colors on the outside and amazing decorations inside. We also made a stop at the Green Bazaar. Nick enjoyed this more than me as he doesn’t get bothered by people trying to get more money out of tourists. The tourist prices were so much higher, which I didn’t like as much. However we did get some nice fruits, ice cream, and pastries.

The day ended with getting a quick final dinner in Almaty before heading to Kyrgyzstan. We ate at a Russian style cafe, Cafe Shagala. There we had lamb shashlik, mashed potatoes, and salad. The salad was imitation crab, dill, egg, and corn. It doesn’t sound like much but it was delicious. We also noticed that there is a huge market for bouquets and large gifts for women in Almaty. So many streets have flower shops. Our walk to the night bus had so many large bouquets and teddy bears for sale along the street. Our night bus ended up being 14 hours instead of 10 hours to get into Kyrgyzstan, with a long and painfully unorganized border crossing.