We arrived in Almaty 2 rail terminal at 0645.
I’d managed to negotiate with the hotel, which we’d used twice already, to ask if we could have our Saturday breakfast on Friday as we were leaving middle of the night later today. They agreed, so we had a lazy breakfast, stoked up on coffee, stashed our luggage then headed off to explore Almaty.
And we're off. Oooh, more concrete animals! The name Almaty comes from the Kazakh for apple, "alma", so it's the main symbol of Almaty. More apples to come.
We started by exploring the metro. It’s not very extensive, only 11 stations right now, but JC wanted to take photos. They weren’t as impressive as the ones in Tashkent, Uzbekistan, but grand all the same and massive (and empty) escaltors. This is Baikoner.
I was taken by the name and shame approach of the police for wanted people.
We went via Independence Square towards up to the museum.
We spotted again this strange sign we’d seen before in Almaty - perhaps it’s reminding drivers that wearing sunglasses mean they miss pedestrians on the crossings? Nope, it turns out (after a Google) that the signs are warning drivers to be aware of blind pedestrians on the crossing.
It wasn't a terribly exciting museum but we had a little peruse. We came across a copy of Catalan Atlas which I’d never heard of. The original is in Paris (clocked that one to visit) and it’s a mighty fine portolan chart.
We headed for the cable car which JC wasn't at all bothered about, but I had determined an essential Almaty experience. We passed not only a car full of apples but a Villeroy and Boch shop. This made JC feel very at home.
The cable car was a lot of fun (for me at any rate). And you have great views of the city.
The warnings were a little ominous though.
The cable car goes to Kok Tobe, a mountain 1100 m high, just outside the main city.
It was quite hazy/cloudy so not as beautiful as it could have been, but we certainly got the measure of the snowy mountain range skirting the southern edge of the city.
Much to my delight, they had a high ropes course so I paid in a wink. JC was more than happy to hold my bag whilst I indulged - high ropes aren't just for children remember.
There was also an upside down house and various children's must-do activities such as driving an armoured vehicle complete with rocket launcher.
Once down we wandered lazily back through Almaty. It's quite an easy city to navigate as it's built on the mountain slope - so if you are walking downhill you're going north, away from the mountains, and if uphill you're going south. I very much liked this mode of navigation. East and west were obviously easy to suss out.
An astronaut/rocket launch mural in the style of Van Gogh Starry Night. Very nice. Riona take note.
And another Almaty apple. They were everywhere and quite hard to miss at this size.
We did a few more metros on the way back including Zhibek Joly.
Then back to our hotel for supper and a last glance at the Almaty Moutains before sunset. We managed a few hours' sleep before our flight.
Our taxi was at 0030, joy of joys, as our flight was 0430. Almaty Airport turned out not to be as disorganised as some reports we'd read, and we got through into departures smoothly. I settled down with coffee and a pack of cards.
Almaty Airport didn't seem to have departure gates, which may explain why we'd read it was a bit hard to know what was going on. They called our flight with under 30 minutes to go, but then we went straight through onto the plane (maybe Almaty doesn't do gates?).
It was a direct flight back, except a stop at Aktau to refuel where more passengers joined. The flight was pretty empty, especially on the first leg, so we all stretched out to sleep on 3 seats each. Having a few more hours sleep actually made me feel quite human - I'd been bracing myself for being really ratty most of the way home. We flew over the Caspian Sea, which isn't a sea in the truest sense in case it bothers you.
We landed on time, then faced the joys of the British transport system and a rail strike. It wasn't too shabby - if you brace yourself for a long wait, then a wait of only 30 minutes is easy. We arrived back at my Dad's in Basingstoke mid afternoon whereupon I started a 2.5 week catch up of fresh salad and veg! It was a brilliant trip and I am really liking the 'stans. Starting to think of the next trip already ;-)
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