Backpacking Kazakhstan: A 10 Day Roundup

We weren’t as well sure what to expect when backpacking in Kazakhstan. We understood it was the ninth largest country in the world, that Ewan McGregor as well as Charlie Boorman rode with right here on motorbikes in The long method round (awesome series by the way) as well as that the movie Borat was supposed to be portraying this central Oriental nation.

I don’t keep in mind seeing anything such as this in Borat…
We only spent 10 days in this big country since we wished to make sure we were in Kyrgyzstan as well as Tajikistan for the trekking season as well as to make the legendary Parmir highway journey without freezing to death. even though we only spent a week as well as a half here, we had an unforgettable time.

Here are some highlights from our journey with Kazakhstan:

We took a extremely long overnight bus journey from Russia to get to Kazakhstan – as well as almost overstayed our Russian visa!

It was a extremely long overnight bus ride!
We wandered around the streets of Astana gazing in awe at the incredible feats of architectural engineering. From egg-shaped buildings to warm taking in tent-like structures, from mosques to museums, from grand palaces to huge malls, Astana has a few of the most fascinating structures we’ve seen.

Standing at 97m high, the Bayterek Monument is impressive
We boarded yet one more train as well as made the 21 hour journey from the funding city to the former funding city, Almaty.

Nick on the train…reading up on our next destination: Almaty!
We ate meat stews, meat skewers (shashlyk), fried rice with meat, steamed meat dumplings, as well as more meat! The Kazakhs like their mutton, lamb, poultry as well as beef. different breads, soups as well as salads gone along with our incredible meat dishes.

Some tasty mutton shashlyk

We wandered with regional markets, sampling dried fruits as well as nuts as well as honey along the method from excited vendors.

Some tasty dried fruits at the market
We enjoyed some western comforts of pizza as well as beer as the sun was setting.

mmm….pizza!!
We bought tons as well as tons of fresh raspberries, strawberries, blackberries as well as honeydew melons from street-side fruit vendors.

The fresh berries in Almaty were amazing. We bought some every day!
We scrubbed ourselves down in one of central Asia’s finest bath houses.

We satisfied some incredible buddies in Kazakhstan who treated us to lunch as well as spent the day with us at the radiant huge Almaty Lake.

Enjoying the scenery at huge Almaty Lake

We took a gondola as much as the close-by ski resort as well as hiked to the perfect picnic spot.

Off to discover the perfect picnic spot
We enjoyed days spent in gorgeous parks, while gazing up at brilliantly coloured Russian Orthodox Cathedrals.

Inside the stunning Zenkov Cathedral
But most importantly, we relaxed! We had some incredible down time in Kazakhstan as well as liked wandering around the leafy streets of Almaty as well as not having to be somewhere. We had been dealing with some “down days” before coming to Kazakhstan, however after costs 10 days in this gorgeous country, we were cured! No more low days for us, we were back in travel mode as well as loving life.

Feeling rather happy here! enjoying an ice cream cone from a quite awesome vendor

Rakhmet Kazakhstan!

Check out this quick video of our time spent backpacking with Kazakhstan:

Have you ever travelled to a country as well as weren’t truly sure what to expect? tell us about it below!

top 10 things TO perform in ALMATY

THE LEAFY streets OF ALMATY: ARE WE IN KAZAKHSTAN?

ASTANA: THE DUBAI OF central ASIA

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