Kazakhstan 2025
Kazakhstan was on my "to-travel list" since few years now. Those wonderful pictures I saw on the Internet, with horses running wild on the enormous steppes with landscape spreading up to the horizon.. Something I firstly fell in love visitng Iceland, just with a different taste to it. There was a plan at the beginning of the year to go and see Saiga antelope, but once that fell through I started looking for alternative topic, firstly looking at other wildlife options, but after that I found breathtaking region of Mangystau and thought "This is it!".
Plan was created to spend first week in and around Almaty, then fly to Aktau and go explore Mangystau with Photosafari Travel, local tourist company. And so I went..
Day 1&2
Staring my crazy flight route from Wrocław, on 14th of September, through Stockholm, Istanbul, Aktau and finally Almaty, I finally arrived after around a day of travelling. Went straight to my hostel, took a much needed shower and slept for a little bit. After that refreshment I was ready to explore the city. I walked a little through streets, saw the Panfilov Park. I must say, those monuments from soviet era, looked kinda familiar. ;) Ascension Cathedral, which is located on the outskirts of the park is very beautiful. Constructed out of wood, but without the use of nails. It was build (finished) in 1907 and survived 1911 earthquake, which destroyed most of Almaty.
After walking some more I went to the Köktöbe viewpoint to enjoy the sunset. I used the cable car to reach the top. It offers an amazing panorama of the city.
Day 3
On the 3rd day I went towards Big Almaty Lake, visiting Ayusai Waterfall on the way, and taking a short hike up the stream of the waterfall. The waterfall itself was rather unimpressive, the weather was bad, but the hike was nice.
I didn't make it to Big Almaty Lake as I didn't have enough cash on me to pay for the further access to the road, I had to go back and look for an ATM. After I found it, I decided I am too far to go back, so I went to Lake Esik instead. The road to it is quite scenic (although not on that particular day with lots of clouds). There is a parking spot (free), where you leave the car and can go by foot or use local company, that will drive in a something like a golf cart. I decided to walk, it was about 20-30 min by foot. The water colour on the lake was amazing, even in this weather. But with each minute it was getting worse and eventually it started raining, so I quickly went back to the car.
Day 4&5
Day 4 was used to mostly sleep off and recuperate, as I was still somewhat tired from the 24h route. I tried to visit mount Shymbulak, as it has great view on the city, but the peak was very much in the clouds, so I resigned from going (the weather was still bad). I also checked one area near the city, with herd of horses, but it wasn't really photogenic, so in the end I didn't do any photos that day.
Day 5 was spent still in the city, I went to see Green Bazar. It's been operating since 1875 and sells all variety of foods, clothing, produce, even furniture and antiques. There used to be many bazars like this in Poland, some still operate to this day.
Almaty, when you translate it from Kazakh, is an "apple city", which is visible throughout the city with big apples standing on the sidewalks in different places. Kazakhstan itself is recognized as a birthplace of apples in general, with Sievers apple originated from southern parts of the country.
I walked around the city quite a bit, went to few souvenir shops and also bought some candy to bring back home as I didn't want to leave buying things to just what's available at the airport, which was a good move. While popular chocolates from Rakhat company are available everywhere, other things like magnets and earrings (that I bought) were really much better in the city.
Common myna birds were quite everywhere in the city (accompanied by pigeons) and I did enjoy their singing while walking. :)
Day 6
Day 6 was mostly about Turgen Gorge. It started as a beautiful, sunny day, highlighting the beauty of the Trans-Ili Alatau mountain range. There I saw my first big herd of horses (and got stuck on the road because of them :) ). I visited well known Bear Falls (or Medvezhy Waterfall), which required a very quick hike (easily accessible, maybe 10-15 min walk up the stream). I thought maybe to hike a little bit into the mountains but after rainy clouds rolled in, when I was at the waterfall, I decided against it, which was a good decision.
Pretty much rest of that day was me driving towards Kegen village, where I would be spending next 2 days in the area. It was raining pretty heavily while I was driving there (making me pretty pissed as views are stunning along the A-351 and then A-362 road. It finally stopped raining just before sunset (and me being very close to my destination) and I saw the most amazing sunset on the steppes with horses in the foreground. Pictures, I've taken, definitely don't make for the views I saw with my own eyes.
Day 7
On our last day, we took a bit shorter hike but we got to visit WWII bunkers along hiking route and lovely situated ruins of Dolsky Mlyn (an old mill).
