So we have done it again. Nate and I have quit our jobs and decided to be nomads for another year. This time around we looked at the world and decided to challenge our comfort zone and take on some pretty epic trekking, so we hope to share some unheard of and beautiful mountain ranges in the months ahead. First up, a trip through the “Stans.”
After meeting up in Istanbul, Nate and I caught a flight to Almaty, Kazakhstan. Almaty was the old capital of Kazakhstan until the powers that be decided to pack up and move to the desert of Astana further north for a fresh start after the Soviet era, however Almaty is still regarded as the most cosmopolitan city in Kazakhstan. Immediately, we were blown away by how westernized and beautiful the city presented itself. Almaty boasts wide and well-maintained sidewalks and bike paths, pedestrian crossings that are strictly adhered to, which we found ironic considering the disregard for other road rules. The cute cafe culture that lines every street downtown cemented our positive vibes for this new city. Coming from Malaysia, the pedestrian friendly culture made our start on the streets of Kazakhstan stress free and enjoyable leading to 20km of walking the city nearly every day. Public transport (buses and metro) are easy to use, VERY affordable, and even take you all the way up to the ski resort in the mountains.
The food in Almaty was also a delightful surprise. You can find almost any type of cuisine that your palate desires. The only drawback is that the local take on foreign foods often lacks spice and seasoning, so coming from a spicy food culture such as Malaysia, or the states you may end up with a pizza that lacks any real taste or a flavorless Ramen. We were able to find restaurants that suited our palates perfectly where we enjoyed fabulous beef cheeks, truffle crusted chicken, and diavola pizza which were superb and affordable. As mentioned before, cafe culture is alive and well in Almaty, and on most streets you can find many cafes that line the streets with good food, coffee, and all types of flavored lemonade and teas.
The one drawback to Almaty, which we anticipated in this part of the world, is the language barrier has been a bit tough. Most people are bilingual, but the languages spoken are Kazakh and Russian with very little English to be found. In restaurants, most of the bigger establishments have an English menu and at least one server who can speak a little English. Google translate has been a great friend on this adventure thus far, and I can see it being crucial once we exit Almaty and really start heading into the countryside. In general, the Kazakh people are slow to smile on the street, but super kind when you engage with them and are always very generous with their time as well.
Our first day of exploring included over 25,000 steps as we sought out many of the main attractions in town. We started our walk about at a cafe called the Jumpin Goat Coffee shop. They had a great western breakfast menu with cute outdoor seating. From there we started to walk. We found the Monument of Independence which was opposite to their main government building. The building and surrounding parks were unfortunately being remodeled, which is well overdue as it felt that a lot of the old Soviet era buildings in town were in need of a facelift.
From there, we walked to Ascension Cathedral which is the cities signature Russian Orthodox Church. This brightly colored building reminded me of a castle out of a fairytale. After walking in, I was instructed to take one of the scarves hanging by the door to cover my head. I didn’t know that the Russian Orthodox Church was so strict what women must cover their heads, but I politely abided to the church usher’s instructions. The church was as ornate inside as it was outside. The entire inside seemed to be made of gold, every inch gilded and covered in paintings and candles. It was quite stunning!!
Outside of the church was a very different scene. It was almost like a children’s dream. The whole park was filled with hundreds of pigeons that you could surround yourself amongst with food from a local vendors. There were remote control cars for young children to drive around the church square with parents steering via remote controls. Horse rides with a carriage designed to look straight out of Cinderella entertained young couples and the older children. Ice cream was sold on nearly every corner as well making for a truly enjoyable park to take in.
On the other side of the park is a memorial to the World War II soldiers who lost their lives fighting for the Soviet Union in World War I and II. There is a large memorial in honor of those soldiers from Almaty with a flame that is never extinguished. The architecture of these monuments has a very Soviet feel.
From the park we ventured on to find the famous Arbat walking street along the Zhybek Zholy street. This is a well manicured path with fun art exhibits along the way that light up at night. Tunnels of flowers, lights, and even large bells can be found along the path as well as local vendors selling their art, jewelry, even belts as well as plenty of cafes and restaurants to indulge. Nate and I took a rest here after a day full of walking to have a coffee and take in the culture and people of Almaty.
After a rest, we returned back to Arbat street for dinner at Del Papa, a local Italian chain restaurant in town. While the ambiance of eating outside on their patio at night was wonderful, we found the food a bit flavorless with the exception of a really good bruschetta appetizer. After dinner, we enjoyed a walk to see all of the lights and art on the street, as well as treat ourselves to ice cream. It was a great first day!
Our second day began with a lazy morning and nice late morning breakfast at Vanilla Cafe where we had to do some computer time and trip plan. From there, we went to the Green Bazaar. The Green Bazaar fits perfectly with it’s name in that it is a giant green building with vendors everywhere you look both inside and out. Upon walking in, we saw many stands selling nuts and dried fruits. What took us by surprise is that every stand was exactly the same, and even set up in the same way. As we continued to walk we made our way through the fruit section, the milk/cheese section, the meat section and then the spices section. Throughout each section of the market every stand was nearly exactly the same as their neighbor. I don’t know how you decide who to buy from. We bought from those vendors that were friendliest to us and graciously let us try some of their food before purchasing.
As you exit the big main food hall you find tons of other types of stores that sell clothing, jewelry, sunglasses, and local wares. Downstairs was more of the same except it seemed that is where locals did more of their shopping as it was a bit more disorganized with bigger crowds and felt more rushed. Outside the bazaar we bought a pastry (almost like a croissant) with chicken inside for approximately $0.75USD. It was so good and worth far more than the going price! Almaty has an amazing bread/pastry game, and all bread is incredibly inexpensive.
From there, we headed over to the Almaty Central Mosque which was close by. This is the second largest mosque in Kazakhstan and stands out as a large white building with gold and blue accents. As with most mosques, while the outside is beautiful, the inside is a bit more toned down and presents itself as the traditional large hall for prayer. After the mosque visit, we followed the local Muslims across the street for a chai masala tea while looking out at the beautiful mosque.
From here, we had to work our way across town so we braved the metro. Almaty has exactly one metro line, which makes it easy with no changes in lines necessary. You simply pay a teller at a booth (approximately 15 US cents) and get on the next train. Our 5pm train was really packed leaving us relieved to alight at our stop across town, but first we were surprised with a HUGE escalator out of the metro. We were really far underground and needed over two minutes to reach ground level.
Our next stop was the Koke Tobe cable car up to the mountain. When we originally read about this we thought that we were going to go up a bigger mountain. Instead, it was more of a hill in the city. At the top we were blown away by what we saw. It was like a kids paradise up here. There was a Ferris wheel, high ropes courses, virtual reality games, carnival games, a mini roller coaster, a small zoo, and even a little train that rolled through the whole seen playing “My Humps” by the Black Eyed Peas. We took in all the sights with some laughs, watched the sunset, and the headed back down.
The following day we had our first adventure outside of the city and hit the mountains. I had researched a hike called the Four Peaks Hike that was a 11 km hike that should take us around 7 hours with 1759 meters (about 5770 feet) of elevation gain. What this meant is that all we would be doing is climbing up for about 6 miles. Also, Kazakhs don’t believe in switchbacks, so this hike was literally straight up. Add the already high starting altitude of 1691 meters (5547 feet) to the hike and you can imagine how much we were huffing and puffing to get up. The hike started at the outdoor skating rink in the mountains called Medeo and went up to the top of the ski lifts of Shymbulak Ski Resort. The good news about this was that we could take some of the ski lifts down.
We had a bit of a rough start since we started on the wrong track (just hike up the road to the trailhead seen on maps.me!) Terrain was tough here and it was easy to fall. Finally, we found our way back to the road and we were back on track. The beginning of the trail winds through a beautiful pine forest with some areas unwooded where we could see spectacular views starting to form. Very soon we could see out all the way over Almaty.
About halfway up we found a very instagramable swing. I’m not sure who decided to haul up the materials to put it together, but I haven’t been on a swing in awhile and it was fun just to sit, swing, and look out at the view.
Finally, we reached our first peak which was Furmanov Mountain after a tough final push up. At this point we were at 3,053 meters up and feeling it. I would consider myself usually a pretty fast hiker, but Nate and I had to take this hike really slow because we would find ourselves quickly out of breath. We had our lunch here looking out over Almaty and we were given a little sneak peak of the snow covered mountain range that would be seen once we reached the next peak.
From here, our next two peaks were not as hard and instead we were more hiking along the ridge. While we were still going up, the grade was not as steep. Our next two peaks were Panorama Peak (3,260 meters) and Bashut Peak (3,355 meters). Along the ridge we had sweeping views of Almaty on one side and a magnificent glacier covered mountain range on the other. This was some of the most stunning hiking I have done in awhile.
Our final peak was Chimbulachk Peak (3,450 meters, 11,318 feet). I was disappointed coming off of Bashut Peak because we were starting to come down and I knew that meant we would have to go up again to our last peak. What I didn’t realize is how treacherous that up would be. The final push up was essentially a boulder/rock climb straight up hill where you were just hoping that the rocks were stable and you didn’t slip out. It was a little scary there and along the ridge, but we finally made it!!
Coming down was a little disappointing. I thought after the 40 minute descent from Chimbulachk Peak we would be greeted by a gondola to whisk us down the mountain to food and beer below. Instead, we found the gondola was under construction and would have to walk along a loose dirt and rocks path (ski slope) to the next chair lift below. This added on kilometers, fear on my part of falling, and a lot of strain on the already tired quads to get down. It was more of a mental game at this point than a physical. Finally down the mountain to base camp, we were rewarded with a much needed beer looking up at the effort we just made.
The next day we needed to take it a bit easier since our first few days were so action packed and we were exhausted. For lunch, we took a taxi over to Zhailjau Golf Resort to meet up with the British pro there Gavin. Nate was put in touch with Gavin through a member of his golf course in Malaysia who frequented the course and knew the owners of Zhailjau. We had lunch overlooking the mountains and golf course and then Gavin took us around in a golf cart to look at the course. It was absolutely stunning with all of the lakes and views of the mountains. I’m not a golfer but I would be happy to walk around the course any day.
From there we walked over the President’s Park which was an expansive green park with many paths and benches. Almaty has some amazing parks and green spaces! We went over the see the postcard monument there with the fountain and mountains in the background.
Our final stop that day were the ski jumps that were housed right in the city. Almaty held the 2011 Asian Winter Games and are outfitted for all the sports. These ski jumps could even be used in the summer months. We were hoping that some people would be jumping, but the slopes were empty. Instead, they were using the grandstands there to set up for a concert.
That evening we would be taking a 9:30 pm bus out of town on a local Kazakhstan bus tour. More to come on that in my next post.
