Exploring Almaty, Kazakhstan

We arrived in Almaty, Kazakhstan late last night so we went on a walking tour this morning. Kazakhstan is the 9th largest country by area in the world with a population of about 20 million people. Almaty was the capital until 1997 when it was moved to Astana. Almaty was planned for 600,000 residents but the population is now about three million.

Our tour leader, Xenia, is actually from Almaty so she was our guide today. We started with taking a city bus to the old town and walked around Soviet era buildings including the
Rasan wellness centre/public sauna which was built in 1982. It’s still well used.

From there we visited Zenkov Cathedral. Completed in 1907, the cathedral is made out of wood but without nails. It stands 56 metres tall, and is claimed to be the second tallest wooden church in the world.

We also visited the Museum of Folk Musical Instruments – a fascinating collection of Kazakh instruments like dombra and kobyz. From there we went to the Green Bazaar, the city’s market, and walked along Arbat Street, the lively pedestrian area.

The afternoon was free time and Brad and I chose to go to a coffee shop our tour leader recommended. Called Tereze, it’s a unique located in a historic Stalin era apartment from 1950. So cool.

We were back at our hotel by late afternoon to have a rest before going out for dinner. Food in The Stans is quite “meat and potatoes” but we found the meat to be universally overcooked. Our leader assured us that in Kazakhstan, we had a chance of having beef cooked medium rare. She was right! She recommended a restaurant and it was fabulous.Read more