Fueling and immigration is easy and within half hour we are in our hotel where we have a burger and meet Tatyana, our guide.
Almaty, Population 1.4 million its Kazakhstan’s biggest city where at times you could almost believe you are in Europe. Expensive international shops lining the streets and there are many expensive Mercedes, Audis and BMWs in the traffic jam. This leafy city with a backdrop of the snowcapped Zailiysky Alatau has always been one of the most charming Russian creations in Central Asia. No one even seems too bothered that Almaty has been replaced by Astana as Kazakhstan’s capital.
We drive to the Panfilov Park where we visit the war memorial. It represents the 28 solders of an Almaty infantry unit who died fighting off Nazi tanks in a village outside Moscow in 1941. The eternal flaw commemorates the fallen of 1917-20 (the Civil War) and 1941-45 (WWII). The Zenkov Cathedral was designed by AP Zenkov in 1904 and is one of Almaty’s few tsarist-era buildings. It is entirely built of wood (including the nails). Used as a museum and concert all in the Soviet era, then boarded up, it was returned to the Russian Orthodox Church in 1995 and has been restored as a functioning place of worship with colorful icons and murals.
Next is the Museum of Kazakh Musical Instruments where we get a short tour. The displays on giant iPad-like screens are impressive. Tom even becomes a conductor of a traditional Kazakh orchestra.
Next we climb up about 1’000m to a dam that protects the city from mudslides. Here runs also the cable care that goes up to the Chimbulak ski resort. So you can be in 45 minutes from the center of Almaty on your skis up on 2’200m! On the way down we pass the famous Medeu Ice Rink before visiting Kok-Tobe, meaning „Green Hill“. There is a very simple zoo (would be closed in Switzerland by the „Tierschutz“ and after enjoying the nice views we take the cable car down. Another stop at Respublika Alangy, the Soviet-created Ceremonial square. Here is the Monument of Independence, a stone column with a replica of Golden Man standing on a winged snow leopard. The Freedom monument honors those killed and injured on Respublika Alangy on 17th December 1986 during the first unrest unleashed in Central Asia by the Gorbachev era of glasnost.
Dinner at the hotel’s Turkish restaurant and we all agree: a dynamic, wealthy city but not really much to see.

The world’s nigh-biggest country has finally edged into the global consciousness. Long regarded as little more than a big blank space in the middle of Asia, Kazakhstan has made it onto the map thanks to the judicious use of its vast mineral resources. The most economically advanced of the „stans“, Kazakhstan has reinvented itself since the Soviet collapse as a uniquely prosperous and modern Eurasian nation.
Native Kazakhs, a mix of Turkic and Mongol nomadic tribes who migrated into the region in the 13th century, were rarely united as a single nation. The area was conquered by Russia in the 18th century and Kazakhstan became a Soviet Republic in 1936.
During the 1950s and 1960s agricultural "Virgin Lands" program, Soviet citizens were encouraged to help cultivate Kazakhstan's northern pastures. This influx of immigrants (mostly Russians, but also some other deported nationalities) skewed the ethnic mixture and enabled non-Kazakhs to outnumber natives. Independence has caused many of these newcomers to emigrate.