As we set about planning our trip to Central Asia, I wondered what I knew about Kazakhstan. I knew it was a huge country – it is the ninth largest in the world and the largest landlocked country by area. I remembered from school geography that the Steppes were somewhere there. And I knew the entertaining tennis player, Alexander Bublik. Here are some things I did not know – Kazakhstan is largely empty – one of the emptiest in the world in terms of population density. The country is largely covered in the vast grasslands known as the Steppes. Its capital Astana is the second coldest capital city in the world (after Mongolia’s Ulaanbaatar). And its mountains and lakes are out of this world in terms of natural beauty – rivalling even Switzerland.

Let’s dive right into the trip – we start off from Uzbekistan’s Tashkent international airport. We’ll put up the itinerary and planning blog right after these (just as we had done for Uzbekistan) – so, sit tight and enjoy this journey of Kazakhstan!

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Day 1

We started early in the morning from Tashkent. Our flight was a Boeing 767-300 ER (there aren’t any of these in India as far as I know) on Uzbekistan Airways from Tashkent to Almaty in south-eastern Kazakhstan. There were plenty of vacant seats and we moved to window seats after boarding was completed.

As we took off, the landscape of the city quickly change to desert and sand dunes. It changed soon to grasslands and lakes. And by the time we reached our destination, it was completely different! The flight time was less than an hour. But Kazakhstan was 1 hour ahead of Uzbekistan and we had to adjust our watches accordingly.

As we touched down at Almaty airport, we could see huge mountains on our right side with snow capped peaks. Yes, snow! Those who have been on the Uzbek journey with us (check out those blogs after this one) know that we had just come from places that were getting baked at 38-40 degrees. So, this was a much welcome change!

There were some new airlines (SCAT, Arystan Air) and some familiar ones (Air Cairo). We also saw Russian-made planes – the ones which had wings on top of the fuselage!

Immigration took some time as the queue was long. They scrutinized our passports for a long time and let us through. We collected our bags and met our tour guide outside at the arrival gate. We quickly exchanged currency (1 USD converted to 441 Tenge during our trip).

Our car for the trip was a Mitsubishi Delica. It looked like a double evolved Pokemon version of an Omni.

Looking at our driver, one would think that he could be an Indian – from the north-east or Ladakh. Only when he opened his mouth and Russian came flowing out would we realize that he is a local here. This is something interesting we observed. As we got closer to China, the ethnicity of people was also changing. The existence of ancient trades routes and frequent invasions made sure that different tribes moved around and mixed, giving a very diverse set of cultures and features to the people of this region. Central Asia is indeed at the crossroads and a melting pot of cultures – forming a unique culture of its own.

Once the luggage was loaded, we started on our drive towards the Kolsai Lakes. The first thing we noticed was that our car had a right-hand drive similar to India. But the vehicles were driving on the right side of the road like in the western countries. When we looked at other cars, we found a mix. Most were left-hand drive while a few were like ours with a right-hand drive!

We stopped to get something to eat – a cheese samsa and some sausage rolls and fruits for Parth (we were too hungry and forgot to take pics!). The highway was very good and we were cruising at 110kmph. On both sides of the road we could see farms. On the right side, the mountains stood tall – the same ones we had seen after landing at the airport. There were dark clouds looming in the distance indicating that we might get rain. But the way ahead of us was sunny and we hoped it would remain that way.

After about an hour of driving at around 12:30pm, we got off the highway and stopped at a restaurant for lunch. The menu had a lot of lagman (noodles) options. The taste was really different from the one we had in Uzbekistan. The Uzbek one was more mild and was mainly tomato sauce. This one had a lot more garlic, had a dark sauce and was spicier. Very similar to the Chinese food we get in India. The khachapuri was also like a pizza instead of the puff pastry we got in Uzbekistan.

Parth had a fun time playing with an “akka” he met there. He was running all over the place and playing hide and seek with her. It’s really amazing how kids have the same language all over the world.

We continued our drive and the landscape changed drastically. The farmlands gave way to open fields. The fields were barren with only some grass and they lay as far as the eye could see. There were absolutely no trees at all. We were driving through the Steppes! We spotted wild horses running through the fields – this was a bucket list item for Nam! No words or photos can describe the vast emptiness that we were passing through – the only thing for miles miles was the road we were on and a few wild horses running into the distance!

The roads were as straight as could be – we’d seen similar roads in Egypt and Jordan – both running through deserts where there was no need to build curves around obstacles. The hills were also as barren as the rest of the landscape and we felt like we were in the middle of nowhere! Soon, we took another turn and the landscape changed again. This time, it was absolutely barren – similar to Leh in India – no vegetation at all. The road curved around deep gorges and we stopped at our first sightseeing spot – the Black Canyon. 

We could see the Charyn river flowing in the depth of the canyon and a line of trees on the banks of the river. That was the only green stretch for miles! The canyon was so named because of the dark colour of the rocks. It wasn’t as jet black as we expected but it was definitely blacker than the rocks around. We clicked some photos and moved on towards Kolsai.

The landscape changed rapidly and the barren, rugged terrain now gave way to green hills and soon, we started seeing trees. There were streams flowing down the hills and some of the hills even had thick woods. We passed by a few villages – the first ones after over a hundred kilometres it seemed like. We crossed Saty village, the one where were staying that night. The picturesque landscape reminded us of Kashmir and Switzerland. There were plenty of yurts (the nomadic tents which are common in Central Asia) which acted as camps for tourists. Soon, we reached the parking area of the Kolsai Lakes.

We were going to visit the first Kolsai lake only. The second one was an 8km trek away. The third one was another 5-6km away and almost at the Kyrgyzstan border. In my head, it felt like a wonderful idea to go on that adventure – but I guess that ship has sailed for now and I’ll need to wait a bit for it to return.

It was cold and damp when we arrived – there was light rain and a strong breeze was blowing. The temperature was around 15 degrees – a huge departure from the 38 degrees we were experiencing just a day back. We walked into the view of the lake – it was beautiful! It looked as pristine as some of the lakes we had visited in Austria. We climbed down to reach the level of the lake and walked along the banks towards the starting point of the boats. The path was narrow, there were steps built into the path for the first half of it and the rest was just mud and roots. It was a challenge carrying Parth all the way but we managed it.

The place was way too crowded for somewhere so remote. We hardly saw any people and few vehicles on the way but this place was jam packed with tourists. There were a lot of locals too as it was a Saturday and people were enjoying their weekend. There was loud music playing at the boating area and suddenly from Austria and Switzerland, we were transported to Ooty and Kodaikanal. We didn’t spend much time here and walked back. The initial viewpoint was a lot more serene and beautiful. We clicked a lot of pics before heading back.

We reached our guesthouse – Algados. It was close to the arch which marked the beginning of Saty village. Our hosts welcomed us with a huge mug of kumis – fermented mare’s milk. I was looking forward to having this but not in a mug so big! As you would have guessed (seeing the word “fermented”), it was extremely sour and there was no way we finished the whole thing.

We had an early dinner. The table was covered with food – donuts, a pastry with sugar dusted on top, cheese, fresh butter, jam, biscuits, a brown powdery thing (tasted like the powder used to make laddus) and some other smaller items like chocolates.

The actual main course was a soup with lentils, meat and vegetables.

It was a simple meal and very light on the stomach – something that we all appreciated after a week of heavy food in Uzbekistan. We slept early and got more than 9 hours of sleep!

Day 2

Breakfast was at 8am – the breads, butter, cheese, jam and biscuits stayed on the table. The main course was a couple of fried eggs. It was a recurring theme – the table was full of biscuits and wafers etc and the main course was really light.

We finished breakfast, packed our bags and got ready to leave for the Kaindy lake. The road to the lake started just outside Saty village near the huge cemetery. The road was basically a dirt path and only 4×4 vehicles and local buses could make the journey. It was a bumpy ride but our driver expertly navigated our way. We crossed a couple of streams which ran across the road. The water had a strong flow but our car was upto the task.

The mountains were covered with a thick cover of coniferous trees – the view was out of this world! The mountains were getting closer to each other and we were right in the middle of them. Once again, we felt photos and words could not describe these incredible landscapes!

We reached the parking where our horses were waiting. Our guide, Aida asked whether we wanted our horses to be tied to each other – the answer was, of course, yes! We didn’t want our horse running off crazy on the side of the mountain! The initial path was a gentle upward slope which kept going for about 10 minutes. The last 6-7 mins was a steep descent and we got our first view of the lake. The horses dropped us at the end of the trail and we walked the last stretch for about 8-10 mins. There is also a walking path which is slightly longer – takes about 20-25 mins to get to the lake.

We had got perfect weather for today – the lake was an amazing shade of blue and there were many dead trees sticking out of the lake. Dead trees? Let’s quickly have a look at the story of this lake – Kaindy is a very young lake – it was formed as an aftermath of the devasting earthquake of 1911. An entire side of the mountain collapsed and brought down with it all the trees which now stood silently in the middle of the lake. The lake isn’t exactly dead – there is a lot of algae growing under the water and we could see ducks wading around.

We clicked a lot of pics. We also spent some time standing at the viewpoint and enjoying the remoteness and silence of the place. Such pristine beauty was best enjoyed in this kind of an environment. Aida told us that we got to enjoy this because we came early. By evening, even Kaindy would be full of tourists! During winters, the lake would be completely frozen and the mountains covered in snow.

We made our way back on the horses and reached the parking. My parents and Parth were waiting for us. Parth wasn’t too thrilled to see us on horses and when Nam tried holding him, he quickly wanted to get down. We were glad we didn’t take him. On the way back to the guest house, we saw many many mashrutkas (local taxis) full of tourists making their way to the lake. We stopped near the point where the stream crossed the road and clicked some pics. The water was not too cold. 

We reached the guest house by 12, had lunch (plov and lentil soup in addition to the breads etc and a new pastry coated with condensed milk) and then started on our way back.

The landscape changed again in reverse – thick woods gave way to green hills which gave way to barren craggy mountains. We made our way to Charyn Canyon – it was a narrow road and it felt like we were going into the middle of nowhere. The entire setting was very similar to the road leading to the Wadi Rum desert in Jordan. We were cruising at about 100kmph and suddenly the car got caught in the wind! The driver immediately slowed down as the car was swaying from side to side. We saw a board that warned travelers about natural calamities and one was the wind!

We entered the parking area to be greeted by many tour buses – these would be the day tours starting from Almaty. We walked along the path towards the “valley of castles” and to our surprise, there was no river! The bottom of the canyon was dry and there were vehicles running there and people walking! We had seen the river flowing through the Black Canyon but it seems to have diverted once it reached here. The canyon looked quite impressive but the heat was scorching.

We took refuge under umbrellas and clicked pics. The walk back seemed longer than the way towards the canyon as we just wanted to get out of the sun.

We headed back to Almaty, only stopping for some coffee at a petrol station. Parth had some apple juice there and was jumping up and down for the rest of the ride thanks to the sugar high. Our driver and guide dropped us at our hotel, D’Rami. We checked into our room – it was a very nice hotel. The only issue was that it was on the 3rd floor with no elevator. But the room made up for it and it was a good upgrade from our guesthouse stays! Time to take some rest and continue our trip!

The Kazakh series is here:

• The Kazakh Itinerary – the perfect short and sweet itinerary through the Steppes
• Almaty – The Origin Of Apples And An Amazing City!

Check out all our blogs from Uzbekistan here:

• The Uzbek itinerary – plan your perfect trip to Uzbekistan
• The Roughest Start We’ve Ever Faced – a cancelled flight, a delayed one and many other challenges kicked off our trip to Central Asia
• Time Traveling in Khiva – A Hidden Treasure of Uzbekistan
• Enchanting Bukhara – A Treasure of the Silk Road. Join us as we explore this oasis
• Samarkand – Where History and Beauty Converge
• Tashkent Tales – The Uzbek “Metro” Capital

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