Almaty - Round One

Saturday 16 September 2023

Change day - we flew to Almaty today.  As we drove to the airport we passed the Grand Mosque of Astana.  We’d been able to see this from our 38th high hotel room and wondered why it wasn’t in our guide book.  It turns out it was only finished last year and is the largest mosque in Central Asia accommodating over 200,000 people in its main hall.  That’s massive!  Certainly nudges Hazret Sultan Mosque down the mosque pecking order.  It has the largest handmade carpet and largest wooden door in the world.  Next time. 

The airport experience was super smooth again.  It feels as if Astana’s prominence as a capital isn’t yet matched by footfall (mind you it’s hardly a major tourist destination).  A bling city in the middle of a big steppe.  There is no city rail transport but we can see it’s being built.  Maybe in 10 years time it’ll be more popular.  I do think some of the new sparkly buildings may have lost their shine though by then.

We were met in Almaty by a female taxi concierge and driver.  My first and how lovely to see!

We spent the afternoon exploring Almaty.  We visited the bazaar and stocked up on our holiday staples of apricots, walnuts and pistachio nuts.

We wandered up to Panfilov Park, a memorial to a regiment who defended Moscow against the Germans in 1941.  The tank and guns dotted around the entrances were a handy reminder.

The monument itself, complete with eternal flame, was certainly large.  The fighters are leaping out of the mural making the shape of USSR in progress.

Our main draw for this park was the Cathedral of the Holy Ascension.  At 44 m high it is the one of the tallest wooden constructions in the world.  It also is one of the oldest buildings in Almaty by virtue of not toppling over in the 1910 earthquake when pretty much else was flattened.  So there is no quaint old corner of Almaty: it is all under 120 years old and considerably Soviet in design (no frills here).  

They were obviously geared up for tourists with 'Cinderella' horses and coaches trotting past.

We popped up to the central mosque but we’d already been spoilt by Astana’s two so moved on quickly. 

Nothing much else to report. We wandered through the shopping drag which was nice and lively on a Saturday night then settled with supper at our hotel for ease - and it was surprisingly nice to boot.

Astana Day Two - fare dodging and a model naff map

Friday 15 September 2023

We started the day by deciding to try a local bus.  We hopped on brandishing cash only to find Astana buses are 100% cash free.  You pay by app or by using a pre loaded bus card.  As we had no internet we couldn’t do the app and as to buying a card, we had no idea where to buy one.  A kind lady bought us two tickets off her phone and refused us refunding her (180 tenge between us, ~35p).

Once alighted (alit?), we started by gold hunting at the National Museum of the Republic of Kazakhstan.  It took us numerous goes to get past the ticket barrier.  First off we had rucksacks.  We deposited those in the cloakroom then were turned back for still having our coats on.  We removed those and returned only to be told that the cameras we held were banned too.  Why they didn’t tell us this in one go…?  We then were refused entry to the gold exhibit as we had the wrong ticket do back we went again.  2 tickets and 4 trips later we were in!  Of course, as our cameras were locked away we have no photographic evidence of us viewing the amazing Scythian gold from the 1969 find at Issyk kurgan.  The museum is allegedly the largest in Central Asia.  It is pretty massive: for example the gift shop was spacious enough to accommodate a 10 m high rocket (price tag not checked).

We meandered past Independence Square and the mosque.  It was prayer time and 100s of (mainly) men were streaming into it.

We then headed downtown, a distance of ~5 km. We had wanted to catch a bus but there were no ticket machines.  How tourists get buses in Astana is beyond me - which probably explains why we saw none on them (mind you, there weren’t many tourists here at all).  After an hour's walk we attempted the bus again.  Someone allowed me to hotspot their phone but I couldn’t even get to the payment screen for the tickets, and if it’s anything like Chicago their payment system would want a local address. So we pretended we’d sorted it and hovered by the back doors jumping off once we were in the centre.  Honestly we would pay if we could, but we found it impossible to sort out in the short visit time we had.

Anyway, once off the bus, and not being arrested for fare dodging, we lunched during a rain shower.  Soup and rice for Ruth.  Meat and noodles for JC.  Think omelettes, soup and rice will be my staple this holiday.  

We found Chess Park, a small green corner with a large castle piece and benches adorned with bishops, pawns and knights.  Shame they were all astroturf.  I hunted for the tree planted by Kasparov to no avail, but found the other pine trees planted by other chess winners.  Not sure how the small patch of grass will cope if all these firs grow to their full extent!  I resisted the urge to rearrange the chess pieces in their correct places.

We tried to find a fountain in Central Square which, amongst other statues, the guidebook said had a “naked boy riding a wolf” which we were keen to see.  Alas, Astana corporation had remodelled the area and they were all gone.  New Square wasn’t much better.  The ‘Tree of Life’ was actually a fountain but the sheep, eagle and other creatures mentioned in our 2018 guidebook had vanished.  More sparkly tower blocks though.

We walked back over the Ishim River into Central Park.  This was entertainment ‘heaven’ with dodgems, shooting booths, bouncing harnesses etc.  I loved this upside down house and was disappointed to find it closed.

We climbed up to see the Monument to Victims of Political Repression.  Again, five years after the guide book wrote about it, it’s lost some features and, like many bits of Astana, the paving and steps were also crumbling.  Nice views though.

The guidebook had mentioned a kitsch ‘map of Astana’ which was a must-do on my list.  JC was very unconvinced but, for 400T each (~75p) he humoured me and joined in touring Kazakhstan in miniature models.  It really was pretty naff but a lot of fun too!

This is Almaty with its mountains behind (you'll recognise the cathedral when I blog Almaty for 16 Sep).  And look at the dried up Aral Sea!  I thought its lack of water matched the run down nature of the attraction, until I realised it was intentional.

Another longish walk back down to the central business district (we’d given up on buses by this time) allowed me to photograph the 6 lane city highways that had no central reservations.  OK, people didn't zip along at stupid speeds but I still found it a little unnerving.

We walked past more shiny buildings then had a super supper at an Italian restaurant.  Yippee, mushroom risotto time for me, not a soup or grilled vegetable for me tonight ;-)

JC wanted to photograph our local mosque by night and I sat on a big swing, rocking to and fro, (big swings seem to be a thing in Astana - a very chill thing) thinking how lucky I was - at a mosque in Astana under the stars.

Trains, planes and automobiles and off to Astana we go!

Wednesday 13 September 2023

Our trip to Kazakhstan started with a taxi, train and bus to Heathrow. A very swift check in and empty security made it all very stress free. The stress started to mount as our 1330 flight to Frankfurt was delayed initially by 30 minutes, then another 45 and once we were in the plane and nearing the runway, Heathrow airspace closed for 15 minutes! We took off 90 minutes late as our generous 2:40 connection time was evaporating in front of our eyes.  Fortunately the pilot put her foot down, we landed only 60 minutes late and we had a quick gallop through the Frankfurt terminals to our gates.  I nearly derailed the whole thing by joking with the security officer that I didn’t have a gun. Why do people (me!) say such idiotic things?  Fortunately he decided I just looked potty and let me pass without incident.  I did get frisked though and reprimanded for having a paper tissue in my pocket.  After all this we had no time to play at the cool play area.

The flight was fine and I can recommend Air Astana.  

Thursday 14 September 2023

We landed at 0500 which was midnight UK time.  An easy navigation through customs, baggage arrived intact and taxi was waiting for us.  The hotel very kindly offered us a room at reduced rate for the morning so we crashed into bed for much needed sleep.

In the afternoon we put our "let’s-explore-Astana hats on". We started with Nur-Astana Mosque. 

Then off to Khan Shatyr, a shopping centre designed by the British architect Norman Foster and claim to being the world’s largest tent.

We walked in and we could have been anywhere in the world over! Accessorise, Under Armour, L’Occitant - global brand names nestled under a fascinating domed roof.  We found a coffee shop to recharge and were super grateful for the google app and Russian dictionary we'd downloaded which worked off line: we could just point the camera at a menu and work out what it said.  I ordered soup and JC fried chicken.  This came not with cutlery, but with black rubber gloves (to prevent sticky fingers) and a bowl (for bones).  I leant him my fork (which was pretty useless for soup) so he had a fork/finger system going.  The Moroccan and honey tea was delicious.  We were in yummy tea territory.

We popped upstairs to see the adventure area and found a dinosaur park with monorail circulating.  The top floor has a beach and canal set up apparently but for 20 USD each I wasn’t even vaguely tempted.

We walked eastwards down Nurzhol Boulevard which hosts Astana’s many corporate business/finance offices gawping at the shiny buildings.  Astana is very new as a capital (since 1997) and is designed to be a sparkly architectural showcase.

Lovers Park lead on to a curiously named area “round square”. 

More shiny buildings, and getting closer to Baiterek Tower.  But not before I was profoundly amused by the sad/happy face which accompanies road crossings in Astana.

Anyway, the Baiterek Tower was allegedly designed on napkin by the first President of Kazakhstan, and is 97 m high, to chime with the year of Astana’s elevation to capital.  The views were great but photography opportunities stymied by thick glass and lack of outdoor viewing platform.

From here we hiked about 3 km east, past Ak Orda (the Presidential Palace), Supreme Court and other shiny government buildings then over the River Ishim.  Our goal was the Hazret Sultan Mosque but I spotted a frog first. 

Opened in 2012 this (the mosque, not the frog) can accommodate up to 5,000 worshippers, and is apparently one of the largest mosques in the world.

We trudged back in time to see Ak Orda lit up.  Supper saw me have my second soup of the day and omelette whilst JC had meat stuff [food turned out to a challenge for me as expected - I ate a lot of eggs - my record being 4 in one day - fried veg, rice and soup].  And an even more lit up Baiterek Tower greeted us on our walk back.