← All articles · Kazakhstan · 7 August 2025

Almaty

Three visits to Almaty: Big Almaty Lake, the wooden Zenkov Cathedral, a golden eagle at Medeu, the Green Bazaar, tandyr bread and a smoking garden samovar.

Almaty got us three times: a first look in May 2016, then August 2024 and August 2025. It is that kind of city: mountains twenty minutes from the traffic, and a food scene that keeps finding excuses to feed you bread.

Big Almaty Lake

The classic day out. You climb the road into the Trans-Ili Alatau until the valley opens onto a bowl of milky turquoise water with glacier-topped peaks behind. Photos do not oversell it.

Big Almaty Lake under heavy clouds, pale glacial water with forested slopes and bare peaks rising on both sides — Storm light over the lake. Ten minutes later we were rained on, worth it.

Around town

Down in the city it is plane-tree avenues, Soviet-era blocks, glass malls and the occasional time traveller parked at the kerb.

Inga with her arm around an older woman in a pink Full of Love t-shirt outside the MEGA Park shopping centre in Almaty — Family photo call outside MEGA Park, August 2024.

An old beige Mercedes saloon parked on an Almaty street with Arabic calligraphy painted along its side — An old Mercedes wearing Arabic calligraphy down its flank, parked like it owns the block.

Zenkov Cathedral

Our first look at Almaty came back in May 2016, and the first thing that properly stopped us was the Ascension Cathedral in Panfilov Park: a tiered wooden wedding cake in yellow, white and green, domes stacked on domes.

The yellow and white tiered facade of the Ascension Cathedral in Almaty, patterned spires and gilded domes rising between tall pines — The Ascension Cathedral in Panfilov Park, May 2016. All timber, no modesty.

Inga and Dileep standing in front of the cathedral entrance, a white arch with Cyrillic lettering above the open doorway — Obligatory portrait at the door, May 2016.

Eight years later we walked past it again after dark, and it was still showing off.

The cathedral lit up at night, painted domes and yellow walls glowing above wet paving and park lamps — Same cathedral, August 2024, night shift.

A short walk away stands another timber showpiece, the Museum of Kazakh Folk Musical Instruments, all honeyed wood and green roofs.

The Museum of Kazakh Folk Musical Instruments in Almaty, an ornate wooden building with green metal roofs and a small tower — The folk instruments museum, May 2016. Yes, it is made of wood too.

Up the Medeu road

May 2016 also sent us up the valley towards Medeu and Shymbulak, where the welcome committee was a golden eagle with excellent balance and a spotted horse with endless patience.

Dileep in a fur hat and sunglasses with a golden eagle spreading its wings above his shoulder, a spotted horse beside him and forested hills behind — One golden eagle, one borrowed fur hat, May 2016. The Medeu to Shymbulak shuttle waits behind.

Inga in orange sunglasses smiling in front of a green valley, snow-capped peaks of the Trans-Ili Alatau rising behind — Green valley, snowy peaks, one very pleased traveller. May 2016.

The Green Bazaar

Back down in town, the Green Bazaar fed us before we bought a single thing: whole counters of dried curds and cheeses with sellers insisting on samples, and produce stacked like it is competing.

A produce stall stacked with cherries, strawberries, apricots, pears and cabbages, the seller reaching over the scales — June produce practising its pyramid formations.

A busy market hall with bananas and tomatoes stacked on counters, handwritten price signs and shoppers passing through — Handwritten prices, loud banners, zero minimalism. Exactly as a bazaar should be.

A woman crossing a paved square carrying two buckets, one full of red apples and one of apricots — Almaty logistics, June 2016: apples in one hand, apricots in the other.

What we ate

The 2025 trip announced its intentions before we even landed.

A bottle of Bacchus Kazakhstan cognac with a five star label standing on an airline seat tray, a Kazakh-language seat belt notice behind it — Photographed at the seat on the way in: Kazakh cognac, five stars, according to its own label anyway.

August 2025 was the eating trip. A whole grilled fish arrived under a snowdrift of chopped salad, and then the bread came out: a tandyr loaf roughly the size of the table.

A whole grilled fish on a white platter with chopped tomato and cucumber salad and a spiced lemon wedge — Grilled whole fish, charred properly, salad doing the supporting act.

Dileep holding a knife and fork behind a huge puffed tandyr flatbread, with the finished fish platter in front of him — Man versus bread. The bread put up a respectable fight.

August 2025 also delivered the humbler end of the menu: dumplings in clear broth, exactly what a mountain day asks for.

A white bowl of dumplings in clear broth with a cube of carrot, on a pale wooden table — Dumplings in broth, August 2025. No garnish theatrics, none needed.

The best cup of tea, though, was out of town: an evening in a garden east of the city where a wood-fired samovar smoked away with the porcelain teapot balanced on top, exactly as it has been done forever.

A wood-fired metal samovar smoking on a stool in a garden at night, a white porcelain teapot warming on its chimney — Tea the slow way: samovar below, teapot on the chimney, smoke everywhere.

Almaty gardens in August earn their keep, too: grapes ripening on the vine and brambles running the full production line from pink to done.

A cluster of dusty blue-purple grapes hanging among green vine leaves — Grapes getting on with it in an Almaty garden, August 2025.

Ripe blackberries and unripe red berries on a bramble cane, a hand reaching in from the left — Blackberries at every stage. Quality control was thorough.

Kazakhstan kept surprising us. The capital is a different planet entirely: see Astana. And the deep south runs the other way in time: Shymkent, Otrar and Turkistan.