Kazakhstan Travel Blogs

People i met here who contributed to and improved my trip: Julia (Russia)   We said goodbye to Valentina at the station and accompanied a little old lady to her apartment. She had agreed to rent us a room for 2500 Tenge ($21), which was as cheap as we had found in the city. I felt a little b…

Big Almaty Lake is one the most admirable mountain lakes of Almaty outskirts, located in Trans-Ili Alatau in the gorge of Bolshaya Almatinka river on the height of 2510 above see level. Three main peaks tower over the Lake: Peak of Soviet (4317m) – in the South-East, Ozerniy (4110) – in the South, Tourist Peak(3954 m) in the South-West. Depending on the season the Lake changes its color from light-green to turquoise-bleu one.

Almaty is the city where I live.

Kazakhstan 2006

The last day of November was also my last day in Almaty, so I had to check out of the hotel and find a place for my luggage until my evening train. Luckily Hamid came to the rescue again. Pernille had other plans, so Hamid met me around 11am and we drove to the Central Park, which is still called G…

From Beijing I flew across China, changed planes in Urumqi and then continued on to Almaty.  I arrived quite late so was glad I had pre-arranged a hotel and transfer to meet me at the airport.  I was taken to Hotel Kazoo which was about what I expected, in a more residential are…

One of the most remarkable nature wonders, left by world ocean is the canyon of Charyn river in 200 km from Almaty. Canyon is considered to be a miniature of Great Canyon in Colorado. It is unusual and very diverse in its forms that remind the towers of fairy-tale castle. That’s why canyon has another name- the Valley of Castles. On the slopes there could be found the remains of fossil fauna, dated 300 mln years.

Mountains surrounding Almaty were beautiful

Kolsay Lakes are located in the gorge of Kol Say between the North chains of Kungey Alatau Mountains. There are three of them. These lakes lie on different height above the sea level - 1000, 2250 and 2700 m. The distance from Almaty to the first lake is 330 km. Three hours of hiking and you can enjoy the sight of the second lake. There, nature is absolutely wild and virgin, without any traces of civilization. The third lake- the coldest one- is 6 km higher.

Russia:Sunday 27th July. It has been an eventful day, finally a bit of adventure! Though shall start with yesterday. After a long drive we pulled over to sleep in a woody track, where I thoroughly managed to convince myself that there was something in the bushes and didn't want to get out the c…

In the National preserve Ile-Alatau in 90 km from Almaty a delightful place of the nature – Turgen Gorge - is situated. In the gorge that has a depth of 44 km. you can take pleasure from visiting hot springs, waterfalls and plenty of forests. Gorge is famous with its waterfalls and relic Chim-Turgen moss fir-woods that spread over the ground and create a dense fir-tree carpet.

Only stopped in Almaty, a huge, dusty kinda town, but a beacon of civilization after the desert. Hey, any town that has an “American embassy” (as a bus driver in New Zealand calls McDonald’s) can’t be all bad. As some of you may remember, I was in potato withdrawal at the time. {see end}

beautiful nature

Í'm working here as a teacher for 9 months. It's way colder than I ever realized but it's a growing city. The locals call it the Dubai of Central Asia.

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