Day 440 - Getting lost in the Almaty suburbs

This morning we made our way to the Kyrgyz Consulate by our first Kazakh public bus - the difference from China is that you're not jammed in like sardines, and you usually get a seat!! At the Consulate we were surprised with the lack of any line, but were immediately told we had to go to a bank a kilometre or so away to pay for our visa!! An hour later we returned to the consulate and handed our passports over, which we'll get back on Tuesday hopefully with a Kyrgyz visa in it.

From here we headed down to the Kok Tobe cable car, unfortunately the ticket price had gone up from about $4 to $10, and on our already stretched budget we decided we'd just walk up. So we followed Adam's nose and went zig-zagging through the back suburbs of Almaty, eventually finding ourselves in a tight overgrown path leading to, well, nowhere. Along the way we did we great views of the mountains surrounding Almaty, as well as making it about half way up the hill, but we were unable to find the path leading to the top.

With tummies rumbling we sat down outside the Palace of the Republic with a statue of the famous writer Kunanbaev looking down upon us while we searched through the guide for somewhere close by to eat. In the end we bused back to our hotel and got another yummy doner kebab from our (now) friends across the road!!

After relaxing the afternoon away we went to Panfilov Park where we saw the amazing Zenkov Cathedral designed in 1904. While Liv read her book Adam people-watched - mainly enjoying people of all ages skate-boarding, rollerblading, and biking around.

Also in the park is a war memorial with an eternal flame commemorating soldiers from the civil war and World War II.

Adlibing dodgy back roads.