From Istanbul to Kazakhstan We Go
In 2022, this trip was on the books. But we reluctantly canceled at last minute due to…well, a “foot” problem…Regardless, it happened for a reason, not only because of everything I learned during six months of healing that year, but because we got to explore Türkiye during a very economically beneficial time….which is definitely not the case in 2025.
But alas…it’s time we go to “the Stans” for the next three months. Finally! Kazakh, Kyrgyz, Tajik and Uzbek. Countries with magnificent cultural and natural superstars which have been high on our list for years.
But first…en route…the opportunity for some first world gluttony including our premiere airport sleeping pod experience and our first Hyatt. (At least that we “paid for” ourselves.) 🤣
We’ve heard enchanting rumors about these airport sleeping pods, but since we arrived to the airport at 2 pm siesta time, it was time to segregate into our gender pods to take advantage.
They were dark, quiet, and comfortable. Aka…Flyer’s Fantasy Land. The normal cost is 15 euro per hour, but with our Venture X priority pass it was complimentary for up to three hours. Yes, we think it’s still our favorite card even though they’re getting rid of the guest access very soon.
Our flight was five hours non-stop to Almaty, the largest city in Kazakhstan. We left at 8:55 pm, and with the three hour time change, arrived at the spritely hour of 5. Thank goodness for that nap, although the seats on budget Pegasus Airlines are surprisingly plush. Not. 🤣
Anyhow, this flight cost 35,000 Chase Sapphire Preferred points for both tickets (equivalent to $350). This bonus is still 75,000 for anyone who wants to get on board with a great travel card!!
We also slept quite well the night prior thanks to our first stay at a Hyatt, sans parents. Yes…we’re a bit behind the times, but we finally realized that our Chase SP points are better transferred over to Hyatt hotels due to their ridiculously wonderful redemption value…
This one bedroom bougie suite with kitchen, for example, cost us 5000 points, or about $50 for a $200 room.
Considering this level of poshness is normally way above our budget grade, we were kinda gleeful. Oh wow! My name is even on the TV!! That’s a first! 😄
And the icing on the cake was they upgraded us to a sea view! And…when we thought it couldn’t get any better…. this nice young Turk tapped on the door to deliver us our (complimentary) welcome snack. Whaaaaa?!?? It wasn’t wine…because this is Türkiye, but a bubbly and fancy rendition of water that when placed in a wine glass feels as good as the real stuff (almost.) 🤣
They also had a complimentary “tea hour” where they offered us more snacks…and where we had additional opportunities to fight off offers for Turkish tea. No…four visits in and…we still don’t like it. Sorry to disappoint our Turkish friends.
Our breakfast buffet was also included. However, as I sat at the table with two mayo packets clutched discreetly in my hand for later, I would note that we definitely weren’t the squirreliest ones in the room. In fact, the couple next to us was packing it in takeaway boxes like they were going into hibernation. Wow…so people really do this?! 🤯
From the Hyatt out in the Gebze ‘burbs of Istanbul (ah…there’s the catch!!), we chugged our way by bus…train…bus…and metro to reach the east side Istanbul airport of SAW in just under two hours. (Yes, we are probably the only ones in Hyatt history taking a mini bus with the locals for $.69.)
And, miraculously, Pegasus Airlines let us drop our bags six-hours early just in time for our first pod siesta and Day ‘O Excessiveness. In your individual pod, one could find fresh sheets and a blanket, a fan, sound machine, TV, and WiFi. They also have showers, if you’ve really got a case of the travel grubbies.
Oooo….as a bonus, they also have tushie treatments, which our bums hadn’t endured since Japan.
From there we continued to overindulge with two lounges, which offered an opportunity to drool over the distant destinations departure board and airplanes passing by for lands we haven’t been…yet.
To the next…Kazakhstan we go!
Welcome to Almaty!
In our usual cranky and zombie disposition after flying all night, we arrived to Almaty at the invigorating hour of 4:15, just before the sun announced herself to this particular “Stan.” Yes, the first thing we learned is…it rises THIS early in Kazakhstan in August. This is not because it’s at a particularly high latitude. In fact, it sits at 43.2 degrees, which is actually the same latitude as our last home in Portland, Oregon. But that doesn’t stop it from having a quite wonky time zone, which consists of the entire country…a quite giant country that would stretch from the west coast to Chicago if dropped atop the USA, or from London to Türkiye if dropped on Europe.
We flew quickly through immigration with no weird questions or onward ticket requests (good because we didn’t have one). There were also no issues at customs, and our little backpack homes chugged victoriously into our arms at the baggage belt. All good.
Finally, after dodging more taxi drivers than we cared to in our grumpy state, we entered a new world….
How the time zones work, as well as an opportunity to observe the insanely jagged borders of Uzbek, Kyrgyz, and Tajik. We are 9 hours ahead of NYC. You’ll see that Kyrgyzstan, directly south of us, is actually one hour ahead, which means when we go southwest soon, the sun will be rising nearly an hour and 15 minutes later. This is always fascinating to us…are we the only ones?
To get a taxi, we used the Russia app called “Yandex Go” and were soon greeted by a man, who pitifully looked way too old to be driving a taxi. His driving also matched the stereotype of his age…aka…not good…as he jerked through the lanes like a bat out of hell. It’s cool. One of our seatbelts was working.
We arrived to our apartment building, which would be our home for the next week. It is typical Soviet bloc style, but with a (tiny) bit of pizazz and lots of trees.
Our apartment ($25/night/Airbnb) was three rooms…a bedroom, a kitchen, and a bathroom. The kitchen was well-stocked and fully functioning, other than some very flimsy knives that threatened to send one of us to a Kazakh hospital…not an adventure we cared to experience.
We were also pleased to have a place to sit beside the bed. This is a new “must have” on our accommodation searches, which we really don’t think is too much to ask, but wow…can it be hard to find!! But to be honest, at 5:30 a.m, this was really all we cared about.
After some rest and a 1 p.m. breakfast (hey! It’s like college again!), we headed to the nearest big supermarket, which was a 13-minute walk from our place. This is when we learned…wow…Almaty, at least where we we’ve landed, is extremely pleasant and walkable! Some places even had TWO sidewalks!! All wide, clean and without any tripping hazards.
The supermarket we chose was named “Magnum Super.” Another option was “Small.” Hmmm…interesting branding?
A few things we noticed in the market when we weren’t trying to whack our way through the Cyrillic…Kazakhstan has their own brand of chocolate in eye-catching packages. We got a dark chocolate bar, which seems to be about 50% cacao. Still quite tasty.
They also seem obsessively interested in cookies/crackers/biscuits, whatever you want to call them. There were dozens of types in bins.
The salads were decidedly…Russian…in appearance. Oodles of mayo. Also Russian in appearance….their vodka aisle, where bottles started for as low as $3.
We checked out using contactless payment, with a 20-something kid who definitely didn’t speak a lick of English, as we tried to remember our Russian pleasantries for “Hello” and “Thank you.” Also, pleasurable? Our receipt from Magnum Super, which ended up being $45 for all this. Yea! We are back in affordable grocery land!
A colorful Kazakh Tenge. This 20,000 note (valued at $37) had been unspendable so far. They’d rather have credit cards because they don’t have change.
Mandy Crosses into Mid-40s Land in Almaty
It’s not everyday you get to turn 45 in Kazakhstan, but it’s exactly what Mandy “achieved” on August 9, 2025. We filled the baking August day by heading up a gondola to Kok Tepe, “splashing out” on a sensational Georgian lunch…a cuisine we haven’t had since…well…Georgia, and meeting up with Jonathan, our Colombian friend, who would be traveling with us for the next few weeks.
The view of mountain-fringed Almaty from the top of the gondola. Almaty is the largest city in Kazakhstan with a population of about 2.2 million.
Backtracking a bit, a cluster of Chinese women in matching tshirts heading up the gondola to Kok Tepe. The gondola cost about $8/ticket. Almost everywhere we’ve been takes, and prefers, contactless credit cards. Yay! More points! Up we go!
We found the different colors in the cluster of rooftops interesting
At the top of Kok Tepe is a small theme park with individually priced rides and games, including a Ferris wheel, some colorful kiddie rides…
…a toboggan-style roller coaster, and some fun ‘Gram opportunities. Who knew the Fab Four made it to Kazakhstan??
To save some money and get some steps in, we chose to traipse down the red trail rather than going round trip on the gondola. You also have the option to ascend it by trail, but it was already toasty warm by 10:30 am. The weather here is very hot and also, dry.
Along the way, we saw loads of apple trees. Apples actually come from this part of this world, not the Garden of Eden, and is where Almaty, which means “place of apple”, got its name.
Arriving to lunch at the Khinkali House. Yes, we realize it’s a bit lame that our first (and only!) meal out in Kazakhstan was Georgian. But it was a special occasion, and we were so ecstatic to learn that this cuisine is everywhere in Almaty!
Georgian is undoubtedly one of the world’s powerhouse cuisines that most people have never even heard of. It doesn’t matter what you put in your mouth, it’s incredible. And so vegetarian friendly as well! We chose an eggplant and pepper kachapuri, lobe (bean stew), grilled eggplant/pomegranates stuffed with walnut paste, and a salad with Georgian traditional cheese. OMG!!! Cost for four dishes and two beers was $27. Not bad for a birthday splurge! Of course we also realized we need to make a return trip to Georgia!!🇬🇪
Mandy’s birthday beer, which was about $2. 🍺
Later in the day, we visited our first Russian Orthodox Cathedral, dating from 1907, which is named Zenkov Cathedral and is at the heart of Almaty’s lush Panilov Park. Russia occupied Kazakhstan for nearly 300 years and they acquired their independence in 1991 after the fall of the Berlin Wall.
It was here we also met up with Jonathan, whom we met while staying at the Amazonian nature reserve in Brazil in 2023. He was volunteering there for over a month.
Back to Zenkov Cathderal…aside from being beautiful, it was magnificent because it was built entirely of wood without a single metal nail. At 56 meters (184 ft), it’s one of the tallest wooden buildings in the world.
The pops of colors are quite cheery…for the Soviets. The inside is more suitable.
Mandy’s birthday wine. Yes, this is following her birthday beer. No judgment permitted. This is a Kazakh wine, Saperavi. Yes, they make wine here 🙂 A bottle of Kazakh wine at the market seems to be going for about $4-12.
The Zelyony (Green) Bazaar
Of course while in Almaty, we had to check out the Zelyony (Green) Bazaar, which is truly an immersive and energetic local market experience, which began in 1875, serving traveling merchants and caravans. Today it also attracts many travelers, so as soon as you walk through the door and pause to admire the stunning displays of dried fruits and nuts, you appear to have “TOURIST” plastered on your forehead. Because of this you are naturally thrust with offers to start sampling, (but only what they give you—don’t touch!), followed by light pressure to buy.
Ah yes, the taxi drivers of the market world are always the spice and dried fruit sellers! In our experience, they are always the feistiest and most likely to rip you off. It’s happened one too many times. Therefore, we have a standing rule not to buy from these types of vendors. Fortunately, at least at this market, everyone else was pretty chill.
However, we couldn’t resist a piece of the treat we know as Churchkella, or “Georgian Snickers,” which is walnuts dipped in thickened grape juice which dries into a healthy and chewy sausage-resembling snacks. Yum!
We also had a lovely chat with this smiling lady who spoke English and was selling all types of traditional Kazakh dairy and cheese “treats”, which she allowed us to sample individually. Some of them were sweet, some salty, some tangy, and some fermented.
That said, some of them were delicious…others were a taste that had potential to grow on you, and others were simply….”um, nope. Not gonna put that in my food hole again.”
We ended up enjoying the assorted looking tray of balls in the front middle enough to purchase. These were made of cheese, but sweetened with sugars or honey. This cost $4.50 for 24 of them, which seemed pretty reasonable.
To the right was all various forms of Kurt, or dried, salted cheese curds made from soured milk or yogurt. The lady did the best sell for the one in the bottom right corner, which is still Kurt, but with “sweetened or caramelized milk curds.” To us, they looked and tasted more like…this particular emoji 💩.
The rest of them were tangy, salty, and chewy (or hard) and she said, often used as a travel snack because they keep for a long time. We will not be using Kurt as a travel snack. 🤢
Some of the beautiful fruit displays. They charged us about $4 for half of one of these containers of cherries.
More Kurt. Or shall we say, more curt?! Less smile. The crispy piles at the top right are fried dough snacks called shelpek. They are often eaten with kurt or tea, though they’re not cheese themselves. We would have some on our tour the following day.
The meat section was at the back and one Mandy preferred to avoid. Here you’ll find a wide variety of meats…including of course, of course…it’s a horse….it’s a HORSE. Also, lots of mutton (sheep), goat, and beef. Pork was notably busy, likely because of the Islamic population.
An aerial via of the historic market.
More Almaty Explorations
At 2.2 million people, Almaty is the largest city in Kazakhstan, which is crazily the 9th big country in the world. We chose to spend a week here, which by the time we’d started to recover from losing a night of sleep on our red eye, was more like 4 days. And then…we lost another full day recovering from our 18-hour tour. All this said, we’re realizing more and more, we simply can’t travel like the spring chickens we were 7 years ago. 🤣
We also made a poor location choice in our apartment out by First President’s Park. Although the park itself was wonderful, and we enjoyed it when we got to exercise, we thought it would be easy to figure out the buses. But it wasn’t…and by the time we did, it was too late and we had already spent quite a bit on Yandex taxis.
That said, it definitely wasn’t enough time to adapt in this green, mountain-fringed, livable and walkable city where we could actually probably pause for a month, so we have many of excuses to come back.
Here’s a glimpse of the things we observed and experienced during our few days…
Almaty is practically blanketed with trees and parks any direction you turn which undeniably makes it magical. In the park on Astana Square we found something rare….a statue of two women! This is the Memorial of Aliya Moldagulova and Manshuk Mametova, two young Kazakh women who fought on the front lines, which was quite rare, and died during World War II. They also have some nice Kazakh-inspired street art.
First President’s Park was about a 5-10 minute walk from our apartment with a quite ostentatious gate and stunning views of the mountains. It had a 4k track, mostly shaded around the perimeter and a Japanese Garden with a viewpoint of the mountains in the middle. The park is dedicated to Nursultan Nazarbayev, the first President who led the country after independence in 1991.
One thing definitely worth checking out in Almaty is some of their metro stations…
….which certainly blows most metro stations out of the water with their classiness, and striking art.
There is only one metro line in Almaty with 11 stops. It cost $.22 a ride and can be paid for using your contactless credit card on your phone. You will notice that the signage is in Russian and with Latin letters. Most places, only Russian and/or Kazakh is available.
The Kazakh language, though it also uses Cyrillic, is very different from Russian and actually sounds very similar to Turkish. It used to be written from right to left, like Arabic but this has changed. Also, in an effort to further distance themselves from Russia, the country will be soon switching their own language to Latin script.
Not sure why this guy has to show itself everywhere in the world! 🤣 Everyone sure loves Paris…
This fountain in front of Caspian University was unique and made entirely of a walk through misters. Perfect when the sun is baking the pavement.
The Glory Memorial in the Park of 28 Panfilov Guardsmen is one of Almaty’s most important World War II monuments. Its shape represents the Soviet Union and the 15 soldiers bursting forward together, symbolize the 15 Soviet republics united against Nazi Germany.
The Museum of Musical Instruments, as well as several others might be on our “next time” list as well.
A giant sculpture, seemingly indigenous, in front of the art museum
On the main pedestrian thoroughfare in the center, where they sold lots of ice cream, and interestingly, bubble tea.
There are also fountains…everywhere! One of the many universities in Almaty. Despite the number, we were a bit surprised that English was rare to encounter, even from young people.
Despite this, they still had little slices of Americana. 🤣
Speaking of Americana, Mandy had an unexpected medical issue to attend to while there and there was shockingly an “American Medical Center” available with excellent ratings. To see a doctor at last minute was a steep 156 €, but was worth it for peace of mind.
A worm emerges from Almaty’s namesake…the apple.
In our neighborhood, where we’d often take nightly walks. The residential blocks, though Soviet, were absolutely lovely compared to ones we’ve seen in other post-Soviet countries. All were connected by delightful tree-covered walking paths, and central squares with playgrounds.
Another huge bonus was the water filling stations where we could fill large 5 liter jugs for about $.10…a heavy haul for this tough ‘lil dude.
Also, street libraries! Always terrific! And a Caravan stand which is where we needed to go to buy an Onay card…a necessity to ride the public buses. Alternatively, if you buy a Kazakh SIM card, and therefore have a local number, you can use their online app, but we relied our free Gig Sky for data.
Anyhow, unfortunately, we could not find a Caravan stand until the last couple of days. So, for people coming to Almaty who want to use the buses, we recommend buying an Onay card at the airport before you leave!
