Kazakhstan

Day #1: Almaty is the former capital of Kazakhstan and is still its largest city. Being a financial and cultural centre of Central Asia, Almaty boasts moderate sized tourist and expatriate communities. We visited the Park of 28 Panfilov Guardsmen, located in the heart of the city. This park is the memorial of glory and in eternal memory of those who defended the country with great courage and honour.. Then we continued to the orthodox Zenkov Cathedral which is deservingly considered the most interesting architectural monument in Almaty. This wooden building, towering at a height 56m, was built without using any nails. We always love a trip to the local bazar and then we ended the adventure by touring the Kazakh Museum of Folk Musical Instruments.

In the afternoon, we visited a Ethno Village. And rather than dine on their local delicacies, we opted to go back to the Ritz-Carleton and have dinner on the club level.

Day #2: We walked over to the Almaty Botanical Garden to soak up some sunshine and fresh air. Next we visited the famous ice skating rink the Medeu and took the cable car to the top to the mountain village of Shymbulak And then we were off to an afternoon to drive east towards Kyrgyzstan.

A horrible picture, but the best I could get from the cloudy cable car window.

And a fun gift from our guide encapsulating all of the highlights of our Kazakhstan adventure.