Almaty, Kazakhstan

Time for Almaty which seems to be the favorite city of every Kazakhstani I met. Everyone is so proud of their country and everyone likes Almaty and after a few days here I understand why! The city is simply beautiful both in terms of walking around as it's quite green, one one side of the city are the mountains with its year round snow capped peaks and on the other side is the big steppe and flatness. 

It also has amazing restaurants and bars so pretty much it has everything, including skiing within 30 mins of the city in the winter (the ski season is from November to end of April so 6 months of great skiing)

The first day I joined a 16 hr tour to Kolsay lake, Charyn river and 3 other canyons to see the nature's beauty of the Almaty region and it definitely didn't disappoint! Beautiful places with stunning views. 

Charyn canyon or valley of the castles because the scenery looks as if there are castles on the side of the canyon. You do a relaxed 2.5 km walk with cool rock formations along and you end up in the Charyn river. 

The closest you get to the Charyn river the color of the views and rocks change. Something to do with the mineral contents of the soil closer to the river

Moon canyon (also called yellow canyon) - the view resembles as if there are yurts as the small mountains look like many yurts being there. 

Black canyon or valley of death. Due to the high iron content the rocks look black. And the reason it's called valley of death is that at night the black rocks make it seem to be simply part of the soil and people and animals would keep walking and falling into the canyon and hence valley of the death. It's 7kms long and it's actually the beginning of the Charyn canyon which runs for a couple hundred kms. 

Kolsay lake. - beautiful stunning lake in between mountains. In reality there are 3 lakes but only visited the first as it's a 4 hr hike to lake 2 and then another few hours to the 3rd lake. Plus you need to go from 1800 meters above sea level to 2800+ meters above sea level. The views here are simply phenomenal. What a beautiful place. 

One can rent paddle boats to go around the lake and it's definitely worth it. As the lake isn't that big one can go around the lake in 30 min or so. Bear in mind that the size of the boats aren't made for a tall person so pedaling isn't as nice when you are tall…but it's a nice time along the beautiful lake with the snow capped mountains as a breathtaking view. 

After a long day going to all these places the only drawback is the 5 hours bus ride back to get back to the city. But it's definitely worth it. 

Cool things to see in Almaty include:

Panfilov park which is where the Ascension cathedral is at. A beautiful Russian Orthodox church with its typical decorations 

Also on the edge of the park is the eternal flame and memorial for the fallen soldier 

Green bazaar - a pretty decent size bazaar where one can get anything from fruits, vegetables to clothes, souvenirs. You name it, it can be found there. Including a whole section on the butchery to buy horse meat which is a delicacy here and something part of the diet. It's really tasty and pretty much offered in every restaurant in some form or another. 

Kok Tobe - it's a short cable car ride to go to the top of the mountain for some breathtaking views of the city and there's a little fair at the top with games and stuff. Also a tower which is very nicely illuminated at night. I got an amazing sunset from the top. 

While I didn't get a chance to go see Big Almaty lake, I decided instead to go to Medeu and Shymbulak. 

So Medeu is during the winter the highest open air ice skating rink at over 1800 meters above sea level. It happened that when I went there was a car expo of pimped out cars so I had to go check it out. It's funny how people pimp out any car!

But the highlight is actually Shymbulak. During the winter this is actually a ski resort but in the summer one can ride the cable car to the first station from which you can ride two other cable cars further up. On one of them are actually two different rides and it takes you to the top station at 3200 meters above sea level and here even after the summer there's snow and the views are simply breathtaking. And yes it's a bit chilly even in September. 

The other cable car is actually a ski lift to a different part of the mountain and well ..it gets chilly being on the ski lift after a while. 

There's even a pretty hard core mountain bike trail all down the mountain so you see a few people bringing their bikes up the ski lift. 

This is the type of place that words won't do it justice to be honest. It's just beautiful!

At the bottom of the different cable cars and close to the Medeu ice rink, one can find Auyn which is a neo-kazakh restaurant with the typical dishes with a modern twist. And probably the best food I tried in Kazakhstan. 

They also have Kazakh inspired cocktails and some Kazakh wine (the Cabernet franc ain't bad)

As for food the horse meat tartare was phenomenal as well as the Horse meat Beshbarmak (the most typical Kazakh dish which it actually translates as five fingers food as it's meant to be eaten with your hand) which consists of some big wide noodles at the bottom with different cuts of meat on top. These included a mini rib, a sausage, steak and I guess horse bacon. 

Simply delicious. To top it off, their honey cake was also very tasty. 

Almatyis also know for its nightlife and there are plenty of options in that respect as the famous Barmagalot bar or bla bla bar.

And to top it off a nice sunrise sendoff at the airport

Astana - world nomad games in Kazakhstan

Astana

A very interesting city as it developed after independence from the Soviet Republic when it was decided it will be the capital of the country and it was built up, even though it's really in the middle of nowhere in Kazakhstan.

I don't think it has much to offer on the tourist side unless you are into new buildings and new things as most things have been built in the last 30 years or so. I think their inspiration is a bit in the UAE as they built big and shiny monuments and buildings all over. And for a city that's been planned and it has big avenues, it has plenty of traffic. 

Some key highlights of the city include:

• Baiterek tower which you can go up and get pretty good views of the city, plus right at the top there's a handprint of the first president of Kazakhstan 

• Opera - some people say it's one of the most beautiful ones in the world and it has a capacity for over 1200 people (sadly it was opera performance or nomad games opening ceremony)

• Ataryu bridge - made in the shape of a sturgeon to honor the second type of Kazakh gold after the oil: Caviar 

• Khan Shatyr - a massive shopping mall designed by Normal Foster. It gives the mall of America a run for its money. 

• There are a few cool parks, a massive mosque, national history museum and the palace of peace and reconciliation among other things to visit. 

While there are plenty of things to visit they are all spread out across the city and it's all new stuff. 

But I didn't come to Astana for its touristic appeal but to watch the 5th World Nomad Games. 

These are the Olympics for nomadic culture but it's not just about sports but also about nomadic traditions and there's even a science program (e.g. research into nomadic diet)

But the cultural part it's a huge part and as important as the different sports competitions, which from a fan perspective is just amazing as one gets to watch competitions while also being exposed to the country culture and nomadic culture. 

Another interesting fact is that there are many traditional board strategy games which are considered sports (e.g. their version of what chess would be in terms of sports)

Disclaimer: it's hard to get great photos of sports event and I don't know how to embed videos yet to show things)

• Opening ceremony - the ticket said 4pm but nobody explained to me that from 4 to 7pm they just have some music and the actual opening ceremony only starts at 7pm. 

It was held at Astana Arena and the ceremony is done in the same spirit as the Olympics with each country's delegation parading with their flag on the stage but led by a horse as after all these are the Nomad Games.  And yes, Mexico had a delegation. 

There were 80+ countries participating! Which makes me think it's time for me to start training for the next nomad games in 2026!

After the countries had their time it was time for an hour long show that showcases Kazakhstan nomadic culture. Pretty impressive production that combined lights, projections and 120+ artists performing. Absolutely beautiful and impressive. 

• The ethnoaul village is the main area where the cultural program happens and just visiting this made it worthwhile coming to the games. Some of the medal ceremonies are also held here each evening. 

  
  Within the cultural village, there are a couple sports grounds for different events (horseback archery, horseback wrestling, powerful nomad, eagle hunting, etc. and across the road it was the traditional archery and the famous Kokpar and Kok boru fields)

The ethnic village contained 50+ yurts and each or a few of them would represent a different region of Kazakhstan and they showcased their particular culture as well as their traditional dresses which are overall simply awesome. Some yurts were mini museums, others had 360 movie projections, others were shops and many were simply a way to show Kazakh hospitality and they would offer sweets, food, tea, camel and horse milk, etc. Many also performed music, puppet theater, dancing, a bridal welcoming to the family, etc.  so the whole experience was so much fun especially if you took time to talk to the people and realize that while traditions are similar there are also differences. 

There were also a massive yurt for cultural performance and music as well as a big stage where different performances from there traditional music to opera to a kids orchestra, dancing, etc. 

• Archery - this is done with a bow and arrow….no fancy Olympics equipment. There are 4 modalities and depending on the modality is the type of target they shoot at. (Some are like a typical bulls eye, others are round things which hang and due to the wind are moving and rotating adding difficulty, other is the kind of shape of a fat person and others are narrow bulls eyes top and bottom)

• And men shoot from 70 mts and women from 60 mts.  It's super impressive to see this. 

  

• Kokpar and Kok boru - this is the highlight of the games and central Asia takes this super seriously. It's like playing polo but the difference is that the two teams need to take a headless goat carcass (for the games it's a plastic dummy one) that weights 33kgs and be able to pick it from the ground and then take it to the small circle (kokpar) or the cauldron (Kok boru) to score a point. 

While there are 12 horses/people per team, it's played 4 vs 4 and it involves a lot of strategy as to how to first pick up the goat carcass from the ground while on a horse to then how to attack in order to score a point. And how to defend as the team defending will use their horses to block the other horses path and it gets kind of aggressive. Quite a spectacle. 

And even the USA has a Kok boru team. Just for the sake of it as clearly they are not good…. To the point that the stadium announcer and narrator offered 50,000 tenge (~100 usd) to each American player if they scored one point. It was super funny…..I don't think the American team ever had the goat in their possession in the whole game…but great effort!

And the two best teams are Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan which have a very fierce rivalry even though Kyrgyzstan normally wins. Both finals were between these two teams and Kazakhstan pulled an upset winning the kokpar final 5 to 4 amid plenty of controversy but then lost 10-4 the Kok boru final

• Horseback archery - if you think archery is difficult, try doing so while riding a horse. Super cool sport to watch. Some targets are on the ground, others are 5mts up and you need to hit them from below. Lots of skills involved. 

  

• Horseback wrestling - you need to fight the other person and throw them off their horse. Really cool to watch as clearly this ain't easy

  

• Asyk Atu - this is similar to what canicas would be in Mexico and it's a traditional game played by kids. It used to be played with the spine bones of a goat and the idea is that you put 9 bones in a line and there's a big circle of like 3mts in diameter. And then you stand a few meters behind the circle and you throw another bone with the intention of hitting one of the 9 bones and getting it out of the circle to score a point. 

Super cool game and there were many countries competing (Spain, Hungary, Czech republic, etc). What I really love about many of these competitions is that manybare about skills that don't require being born as a super athlete to be good at. 

• Wrestling (in its different modalities) is one of the most popular events and I saw the belt wrestling in which each opponent grabs the other by a belt that's around them and by just using the belt needs to throw the other to the ground and put his back against the floor. Crazy impressive the technique and how they do this. And there's men and women categories.  

  

• Powerful nomad - part of the world's strongest competition. Includes throwing a 13kgs javelin; doing squats while balancing a 100 kg wood pole and other events. 

  

• While watching one of the events, I ended up meeting Dikanuly Shaman who happens to hold a few Kazakhstan records and some Guinness world records for some crazy strength stuff. 

He pulled a vehicle with many people on top of it by just using his mouth. Or he climbs up a platform in which the steps are sharp knives all while carrying I don't know how many kgs in each hand and then while on top of the platform standing on knives edges, he carries someone with his mouth. Crazy crazy stuff. 

• Mas wrestling. Two people grab a stick and the idea is to pull it off the other person to win. Sounds easy but it's super difficult.  I tried it for fun and got destroyed. 

  

• Other cool events include eagle hunting, beige (horseback races but the rider needs to move little obstacles from the ground while riding) and a couple other sports

• TOGYZQUMALAQ (TOGUZ KORGOOL) - Let's not forget the 3 or 4 different strategy board games (kind of like chess and checkers) of which Togyzqumalaq is the most popular and one that its popularity has been steadily increasing worldwide and one I will start playing as I already bought my board game. 

The other super cool thing is that all the athletes are walking around and also going to watch other sports so you can go and talk to them. Very interesting talking to people from all over which one wouldn't expect at the nomad games such as Switzerland, Ireland, Ecuador, Zimbabwe, etc. 

My most important takeaway of the world nomad games is that it's already on my plans for 2026 or maybe even the version of games that apparently happens in Mongolia next year. 

As highlighted in terms of food and traditional Kazakh food I can recommend both Qazaq gourmet restaurant and Arnau restaurant. 

At Qazaq their mini starter of flaky bread with white honey to dip it in is amazing and you can accompany it with a shot of Arkyn - a 45% drink made from horse milk. I would say it's a very tasty vodka. 

As for what to order, definitely try the Chsheke of horsemeat (traditionally it's the whole head but here they just serve you the best parts)

The classic beshbarmak is different cuts of horsemeat over some flat noodles. Really tasty and the Kazakh specialty.