The idea of visiting Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan was an adventure to begin with. Kazakhstan got added last minute as I realized distance between Tashkent and Almaty was not long. My colleague who had visited 75+countries had referred to nothing much beyond endless steppes while describing Kazakhstan, unlike raving reviews of Uzbekistan. As I started reading more, I realized Tian-Shan mountains around Almaty are like Switzerland. We also figured Baikonur, the Russian space launch pad was in Kazakhstan. The idea of visiting snow-clad mountains, lakes, canyons and deserts within 300km radius of Almaty excited me the most. Our adventures in Almaty started immediately after landing
Almaty is expensive compared to Tashkent. I started exploring options for Airbnb, tours and realized that local tour companies offer differentiated pricing for English language tours vs. local, also to differentiate domestic and foreign tourist price. English speaking tour guides are very proficient, offering only slightly better language than Russian tours. Most of them operate on Instagram and Whatsapp, confirming tours without any advance payments, which is also a good thing
We decided to go on a day tour to Charyn Canyon, Kolsai and Kaindy lakes. We chose Panda travels. We knew we would be covering 700 km within a day, which is too much, but we didn’t have the luxury of spending more days. We reached the pickup spot to find many travelers lined up waiting for their tours. A small minibus came in with all amenities possible: comfortable seats, charging points, AC, snacks etc. Some of the foreign tourists walked into it. We realized it was the English speaking guided tour by the same company which was priced more than twice as ours
As we continued to wait, we were surprised to see a huge group of Indian students. They turned out to be medical students studying in Almaty. We had only heard about medical education in Central Asia when thousands of Indian students were brough back during the Ukraine war, only to realize that many more have started going to Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Georgia after Ukraine was not an option. We got onto our large bus soon
The thought of fellow country folks brought some comfort to my mom. Among them, only one girl named Nadira knew Russian. Often called Narada (a messenger sage in Hindu mythology) aptly by our guide, she was the translator for the entire tour group. The students had spent 4 years of medical school without venturing anywhere. They wanted to go on a trip before the final exams after which they planned to head back to India
We paid for the tour after boarding the bus. The guide had no clue that our payment was pending. After about 2 hours on a straight road that felt leading to nowhere, our bus stopped abruptly. The driver started to try out different things to get the bus back to normal. After about 20 minutes, we realized that the breakdown was a major one.
Some students went outside to chill out and realized it was literally so cold outside. Soon, they were back onto the bus hoping and praying some miracle would happen. After 60 minutes of waiting, all passengers started requesting an alternate bus, which easily meant 2 hours of further waiting since the closest city was Almaty. There was no other town in between where we could get help from
There was absolutely nothing else we could do during the wait. We couldn’t venture outside since it had started raining, in addition to the cold breeze that was already there. Some students started eating home packed parathas and singing, trying to distract the rest who got bored and frustrated. Our guide was useless, just chanting something like a Buddhist monk with a string of beads
My parents started hinting that had we taken the English-speaking tour we wouldn’t have landed in this soup. We started wondering if our entire day would be washed out. Some students wanted to go back after the replacement bus arrived since there was no way we could cover all 3 stops after losing 3-4 hours. The catch was we could go only one way with one bus- either forward or backward! Few others started convincing others to go forward so that we could at least see something that day. They did not have the flexibility to come back another day with the exam schedule. Some of them started demanding a refund since their day was ruined
The guide offered them a free tour another day as an option, as he didn’t want to return everyone’s money. We never asked for ours since it was not their fault either, and probably they would have incurred twice the cost with replacement and repairs. At some point, the guide surprisingly returned our entire money since we couldn’t come back another day to take the tour again. It was a nice gesture, unexpected
We started thinking of different scenarios of what to do depending on when the replacement bus would arrive. It finally reached after 4 hours. Depending on majority vote, we decided to move ahead
The first stop was Charyn Canyon, compared in grandness like Grand Canyon. Although not as long or deep, the canyon was still impressive, especially near Valley of castles. Rain played a spoil sport. We walked for about 30 minutes to see the most important sections
Our next stop was Kaindy lake, which was 120 km away. It is a unique lake with a sunken forest, emerald color of water, yellow trees making it picture perfect. Buses don’t go to the lake. We had to take a bumpy, fun UAZ ride off track to reach a point from where we had to take a taxi further till the trail point. Basis reviews we were wondering if we needed to take a horse. However, the walk was manageable, not too hectic despite the slope. This was probably the best spot of the day
We started racing towards Kolsai lake so that we could reach it before dusk. We barely made it and got views of the silhouette of the lake, not much of the snow-clad peaks. We finally made our way back, reaching Almaty after a long ride past 11 PM We covered all spots albeit with some hurrying around. It was a long day but gave us contentment with what we managed to visit. The tour company did everything possible in their control to ensure we visited all the places
Best experiences happen when you step out of comfort zone and interact with locals. I never regretted this booking, rather it was a good interaction with the students, getting to know their journeys. Our adventures in Almaty remain memorable for various reasons!