The hostel in Almaty offers tours to lakes and canyons in the area but we have been unable to join a group of three to keep the costs down so we have given it a miss.
We caught a local bus to the winter sports centre of Medeu at 1700m above sea level. The Asian Winter games were held here in 2011.
The ice skating rink and stadiu
The Tien Shan mountains.
The restaurants at the top of the cable car with their sheep skin covered seats.
We caught a bus from outside the hostel to the the cable car station near the ice skating rink and stadium, rode to the top, then walked down for two hours back to the bus stop.
Some of the wooden lodges near the ski field.
On the side of the road was a thermal area. This older woman is warming up in the thermal pool on the right after cooling off in the cold water pool to her left. Quite a few people came to soak here where there were change rooms and it was all free.
This shelter was covered with broken cups, bowls and teapot lids.
A sculpture of speed skaters in the national colours.
Kazakhstan has 17 million people with 63% being Kazaks, Russians are 24%, Uzbeks 4% and Ukrainians 2%. 100 nationalities make up the rest.
We walked about the city visiting some of the local sights. This is a replica of the Golden Man standing on top of a snow leopard in Republica Alany Square. It is Kazakhstan's favourite national symbol.
The gas pipeline in the garden of the hostel.
The streets of Almaty are lined with birch, beech and fir trees making it a very leafy green city.
We have organised a train ticket to the capital Asana. It was delivered to our hostel as the online site had trouble identifying our passport numbers.
Most of the time we have walked to a huge shopping mall nearby to buy food from the delicatessen to reheat at the hostel but one rainy night we headed off to a nearby Chinese restaurant for some tasty vegetables.
We have spent a day researching our next move, buying train tickets and flights to get around the country. There is an international energy Expo on in Kazakhstan at present and with the increased number of visitors it is more difficult than usual to make travel arrangements.
Next stop Astana, the capital city.
We caught a local bus to the winter sports centre of Medeu at 1700m above sea level. The Asian Winter games were held here in 2011.
The Tien Shan mountains.
We caught a bus from outside the hostel to the the cable car station near the ice skating rink and stadium, rode to the top, then walked down for two hours back to the bus stop.
A sculpture of speed skaters in the national colours.
Kazakhstan has 17 million people with 63% being Kazaks, Russians are 24%, Uzbeks 4% and Ukrainians 2%. 100 nationalities make up the rest.
We walked about the city visiting some of the local sights. This is a replica of the Golden Man standing on top of a snow leopard in Republica Alany Square. It is Kazakhstan's favourite national symbol.
We visited the Central State Museum for a couple of hours viewing dinosaur bones and relics from diggings around Kazakhstan showing life from the stone ages and the bronze ages as well as life in traditional villages today. Sadly the only signs in English were 'Do not touch'.
The Golden Man (or woman) costume from around 5th century BC was discovered in 1969 in a Saka tomb 60 kilometres from Almaty. It is made from 4000 gold pieces.
One of the buildings in the city centre with a glittering golden dome and surrounded by spruce trees.
The gas pipeline in the garden of the hostel.
We have organised a train ticket to the capital Asana. It was delivered to our hostel as the online site had trouble identifying our passport numbers.
Most of the time we have walked to a huge shopping mall nearby to buy food from the delicatessen to reheat at the hostel but one rainy night we headed off to a nearby Chinese restaurant for some tasty vegetables.
We have spent a day researching our next move, buying train tickets and flights to get around the country. There is an international energy Expo on in Kazakhstan at present and with the increased number of visitors it is more difficult than usual to make travel arrangements.
Next stop Astana, the capital city.
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