Almaty II

The next morning in Almaty was my first time taking a cold shower in Kazakhstan, and boy, it was freezing. I was glad to experience such a rush of cold again since Japan's showers had been getting a bit not too cold for my taste.

I went outside to get a taste of that fresh morning air and began my walk around the city, seeing it again for the first time in broad daylight. It was a cloudy day today but I didn't mind it at all. I passed through a park where I accidentally ended up in G. Musrepov State Academic Theatre for Children & Youth. It had that classic Soviet architecture but the star of the day here were the tulip flowers, thousands of them right in front of the theatre. A school of kids suddenly came over and I just sat down by the bench admiring the life happening right in front of me.

I continued on to the Central Almaty Mosque, a wonderful place of worship with impeccable design. The inside was empty but the main door leading to it was the highlight here. Not too far was the Green Bazaar, where I was able to see a lot of merchants selling fresh goods and poultry.

I continued on to the Ascension Cathedral, tucked away deep inside a park. A Russian Orthodox church by the looks of it, there were plenty of people here taking pictures at the front. I went around the back to find it empty except for three people roller skating with pretty much the same view. Another famous site is the Memorial of Glory, not too far from the cathedral. It size of the sculpture exceeded my expectations and it was actually quite impressive, a group of soldiers with one up front, perhaps the leader.

I also visited the Museum of Folk Instruments upon the recommendation of my soon-to-be friend, Kama, whom I was going to be meeting later that night for dinner. It was a very good recommendation too! The musical instrument collection was vast and it really made me curious as to how they would really sound when played, some looked very intricate.

It was time to look for lunch so I headed down south, towards where the Central State Museum was. I stopped by the Leo Tolstoi statue and a House Museum named after D. Konaev, who apparently is a famous Soviet politician. The entrance fee was quite expensive all things considered, yet it was an interesting stop nevertheless.

At this point, I was getting hungry so I decided to grab a bite at Trieste, an Italian restaurant, seeing as most of the menus of the Kazakh restaurants were in Russian, I didn't want to risk eating the wrong thing. On the way there, I stopped by the Abay Kazakh State Academic Opera and Ballet Theater, it had a beautiful exterior, and perhaps on a good day, there would have been a fountain show as well.

After a heavy lunch of truffle pasta and chicken, I scuttled closer towards the Central State Museum, but not before stopping by the Independence Monument. Surprisingly, the Central State Museum exceeded all my expectations. It's one of the most beautiful museums I've ever been to so far, it has three floors and each one has multiple halls with a huge collection of artifacts and displays. From dinosaurs to miniature replicas of famous landmarks. I could easily spend the whole day here. I particularly liked the ethnic hall where they had a huge display of a yurt.

With so much time left before the meeting with Kama (we were going to have dinner around 9 PM) I just sat down by the movie display for a bit. But I also didn't like to do nothing so in the end, I went out of the museum and made my way to Kok Tobe Hill. I got to ride cable car up top expecting some sort of natural place but it was more like a theme park up there with a pretty sad zoo too.

I sat by the bench and meditated for a long time until I noticed it was getting a bit too chilly for my taste. I went back down and walked towards Dostyk Plaza where Kama and I were supposed to meet but I still had 2 hours or so. I just played some tunes and let the time fly by, the opportunity to rest and do nothing was not bad at all. Soon enough, I finally got to meet Kama. She seemed like a very cheerful and fun person to be around, we went to Starbucks to grab something to drink and talked the night away. It was so fun to find out that she liked playing Elden Ring so we talked about games a lot and made plans to play in the future.

We took a bus going to Medeu which was where we were going to eat. At Ayul, a fancy restaurant that serves neo-nomadic cuisine. Coincidentally, Medeu is also the place where the world's highest outdoor ice skating ring was. I only got to see the outside of the stadium, unfortunately. Ayul, however, was mighty impressive. The interior design was top-notch it definitely felt like it was out of my price range but it was actually not that bad at all. I ordered some trout and also treated us to some dessert.

It was snowing quite hard here which was strange to see in April, and then back in the lower parts of Almaty, it was raining. Still, it was such a good day and I slept pretty well.Read more