Almaty 27.04.2019


Image for Almaty

So, here it is Verniy city. Well, I wanted to say Alma-aty. Hm. I meant Almaty (though in Russian it's still called Alma-aty). Looks like Kazakhs really into renaming the cities. Just look at recent Akmola. I meant Astana. Well. Nur-Sultan. Not sure if it wasn't renamed again.
Though nevermind. Kazakhstan. Here I am. Hooray!

Photo 2094
(cc) by Rushan
Photo 2094
(cc) by Rushan

City exploration started early in the morning: at 7am I already was out of plane. So the first place I visited was local canteen. I was shocked by two things: number of people who came for a breakfast at Saturday morning at 8am (!), extremely low prices for food (in US not every place will serve you a cup of coffee for the price of full breakfast).

Photo 2095
(cc) by Rushan
Photo 2095
(cc) by Rushan

Companies are located in a clustered manner here. Here's a pawnshop block. In the other place there was travel companies block. I had an impression that city government allows to put a certain kind of business to a specific area. Even though a number of pawnshops really impressed me. There are tones of them.

Photo 2096
(cc) by Rushan
Photo 2096
(cc) by Rushan

They even have an internet cafe. I was pretty sure they're already off from business (:

Photo 2097
(cc) by Rushan
Photo 2097
(cc) by Rushan

Green bazaar. Huge market with Chinese clothes, but the most interesting part is a building with fruits / vegetables / meat. 2 floors for a market. The ground one there are often foreign tourists groups. Sellers are not very friendly and they keep prices high. On the underground floor there aren't much tourists, prices are lowers and sellers are more open for a bargain.
Though fruits are mostly from neighbor Uzbekistan.

Photo 2098
(cc) by Rushan
Photo 2098
(cc) by Rushan

And of course Qazi (traditional sausage-like food from horse meat). It's only on ground level, bug different kind of it are available (cooked, jerky, smoked). Sellers give you some to taste and these pieces are so big, after a couple rounds you might not need a lunch. Prices are also good. Almost 1.5-2 times lower than in a shop. You also will be provided a paper you might need to show on the customs if you decide to bring it home.

Photo 2099
(cc) by Rushan
Photo 2099
(cc) by Rushan

In general cars look a bit old here. Though it really depends on a part of city you're in. Sometimes you might see really cool expensive cars out there.

Photo 2100
(cc) by Rushan
Photo 2100
(cc) by Rushan

On a walking street I ran into local ethnic market. "Hm, looks interesting", I thought...

Photo 2101
(cc) by Rushan
Photo 2101
(cc) by Rushan

... and jumped into guys in national costumes. Very cool.

Photo 2102
(cc) by Rushan
Photo 2102
(cc) by Rushan

Kazakhs take a course to the West. In some advanced schools last two years are completely in English. Universities switch to English complete courses.

Photo 2103
(cc) by Rushan
Photo 2103
(cc) by Rushan

A small piece of USSR.

Photo 2104
(cc) by Rushan
Photo 2104
(cc) by Rushan

Almaty is surrounded by mountains. The air is very fresh in here. Thus you can take a cable car right from the city and go up.

Photo 2105
(cc) by Rushan
Photo 2105
(cc) by Rushan

All these houses are still the city.

Photo 2106
(cc) by Rushan
Photo 2106
(cc) by Rushan

The view on the city. It's very green. However locals told me that is was much greener in the early days. I can't believe it could be more greener than now.

Photo 2107
(cc) by Rushan
Photo 2107
(cc) by Rushan

Kazakh falcon is very valuable in hunters world (especially Arab). Though for this particular bird I don't think so. Nobody will put a pricey one for a photos with tourists.

Photo 2108
(cc) by Rushan
Photo 2108
(cc) by Rushan

Young people (:

Photo 2109
(cc) by Rushan
Photo 2109
(cc) by Rushan

Central Mosque. That's a new building. The old (and small) one was reconstructed into this.

Photo 2110
(cc) by Rushan
Photo 2110
(cc) by Rushan

Inside there was a competition between children Quran Hafiz (guys who know the entire Quran by heart). Some guy from jury will stat to read a part from Quran and a child should recognize it and continue reading by heart, do not get lost and read as beautiful as he can. The winner will get a car.

Photo 2111
(cc) by Rushan
Photo 2111
(cc) by Rushan

Nearby there is Panfilov Park and Ascension Cathedral which survived 8-balls earthquake in 1911 (!)

Photo 2112
(cc) by Rushan
Photo 2112
(cc) by Rushan

Panfilovs division was formed exactly in Almaty.

Photo 2113
(cc) by Rushan
Photo 2113
(cc) by Rushan

Evening Almaty.

Photo 2114
(cc) by Rushan
Photo 2114
(cc) by Rushan