24 HOURS IN KAZAKHSTAN! Almaty Travel Vlog

It's a party up here.

Love Kazakhstan. Got it on. I expected.

Ahmad doesn't know this yet, but we have a plan. So far, things are not going as planned.

And it's just so beautiful.

We're about to put the drone up. There's a bunch of guards walking along the edge of the river. Horses are pets and you don't eat them. Oh, my gosh.

They're all different sizes. These have been handmade. Look how skinny this one is.

You are so scary.

He's coming.

Hello.

Wow. It only costs $6.50 to ride to the airport. 30 minutes in a Mercedes. Thank you.

We have spent the last 24 hours in Baku, Azerbaijan, but unfortunately, it's already time to leave. We just got to the airport and we are flying Kyrgyzstan.

But it turns out that the cheapest flight to Kyrgyzstan actually comes with a 24 hour layover in Kazakhstan, which is a country that we've never been to before. So that's where we're flying today. And we're going to do the best to make the Most of our 24 hours in a new country.

Quick stop in the lounge. Let's go.

Okay. Our flight landed at exactly 6pm and it leaves tomorrow at exactly 6pm but.

We'Ve already spent the first hour going through customs, getting our bags, getting cash, and trying to figure out how to get an Uber into the city. So we only have 23 hours left. So we're going to put that on the clock and try to make the most of it. Thank.

We just threw ourselves in our hotel room.

Let's go.

Because it's already getting dark. We want to make the most of this night. Our hotel is in the middle of the city of Alma Ata, which is confusing because it's spelled like Almaty. But whatever our first impressions are, it feels amazing outside and it looks amazing.

The mountains are absolutely incredible. I mean, it is the middle of the summer, the hottest time of the year, and they are still capped with snow. Our plans for the rest of the evening are to go jump onto a cable car that's going to take us up to a viewpoint because we've heard the city is absolutely beautiful at night. And then up on top of the hill is supposed to be a very unique restaurant that serves local cuisine.

That's a cool building. That's a cool building.

Oh, I was really picking up speed.

Why you come in so fast?

The views up here are so beautiful and it's so much fun. It's like a carnival. There's a Ferris wheel, a human slingshot. A dance party, some kind of sled roller coaster thing. I don't know if it's because it's a Friday night or what, but it's so fun. Hopefully the foods get it.

So I read online that there was a restaurant that was in the shape of a yurt up here on top, and either it's closed down or we couldn't find it, but to be honest, I'm not that sad because this guy behind us is cooking beautiful beef kebabs. And we've also ordered some rice that we've already dug into that was absolutely delicious. There's some fried dough balls. I didn't know what they were, so I just ordered them. It's kind of like a donut with no sugar on it. Also, it is now 9:15, and the party is hopping.

That meal cost a whopping $9.

Good morning. It is another gorgeous day in Kazakhstan. We just checked out of our hotel, and we only have six hours until we have to be back at the airport. So we have to make the most of our morning.

Our plan is to head to this huge lake that's located in the mountains outside of the town. The only problem is our hotel is trying to charge us $50 for a taxi to get there, which sounds really expensive to me. So we have a plan.

This could be a terrible idea.

Okay, so far, things are not going as planned. We think our first Uber driver just decided not to pick us up since we were going all the way out to the lake because we stood here and waited for like, 15 minutes and he was nowhere to be found. So we've just called a second driver. He appears to be on his way, and we may be heading to the lake shortly.

His name is Daewoo. Doesn't say what kind of car he's in.

It says, oh, I think that might be the name of the car.

So who's coming to get us? It doesn't have to. Apma.

Apma is driving a Daewoo.

Uber.

She just Apma came for us. He's adorable. He doesn't speak any English. This is going to be really fun.

So uber was only $10 to get to the lake. Only problem is, Uber is only one way. And I have a good feeling there are not more Ubers waiting at the lake to take us back. So we're going to attempt to use Google Translate, ask him to wait at the lake for us and bring us back for a little bit more than we paid for him to take us there.

Fingers crossed.

There's a chance we could end up, trapped at the lake and have to pay, like, a super high taxi fee to get back. I have a good feeling about this guy, though.

Yeah, he seems adventurous. There's also no seat belts back here.

No seat belts. The windows don't roll down.

Can't complain too much, though.

Kazakhstan.

$10 to go 45 minutes into the mountains on an Uber isn't too bad.

Is this o.

Okay. Okay. Yeah. Great. So we just made a quick stop at a market to grab some drinks, and I think I got on his good side because I paid for his tea, and I also bought him a bag of cigarettes. So I think that's why that went over so well.

Give him something to do when he's waiting on us. This is going great. Some kind of a high street point.

Oh, trash bag.

Oh, for cigarettes. Ah, okay. You know, throwing your cigarettes out.

Show them.

Okay. Okay. Okay.

I think the police officer was trying to get me to pay 3,000, and then we just handed him a thousand and sat here like we didn't know what was going on, and just. He decided a thousand was okay.

Beautiful.

We have just driven an hour into the mountains. We have made it to the lake. It was totally worth it. The views are absolutely spectacular.

The water is this beautiful, turquoise, milky color, and the sun is shining in it, and it's just so beautiful.

It's like a color that I've never seen before. So we've heard that you can't actually go down, down to the lake because it's like a protected area, because this is where the majority of the drinking water for the city comes from. And they're like guards with guns making sure nobody gets close. So, yeah, I think we'll just look at it from far away.

Sam.

All right. We are hiking out. I don't know if I'm really out of shape or if it's the altitude that we're at that's getting to me, which is 2500 meters. But this has been absolutely spectacular. We told our taxi driver that we would be back in 30 minutes. It's now been an hour, so hopefully he's still waiting on us. If not, I wouldn't blame him. We can just jump on one of the many tourist buses that's here. Thank you.

Yay.

So we were just talking. We decided that if we had this to do again, we would definitely come in the afternoon when the light was better for pictures, when the sun's not reflecting off the water. We would also bring a picnic and plan to stay for several hours because this is just so Amazing. But we only had 24 hours, so we had to do what we had to do. Now it's time to head back to the city.

Thank you. All right, we've just made it back into the city. We have a couple hours before we have to head to the airport. And we are heading to the biggest market in the city called the Green.

Bazaar, hopefully to find some lunch.

We have found the food market. It's this massive room. Half of it is all spices and fruits and nuts.

Beautiful.

Smells amazing. And the other half is all raw meat.

Surprisingly, it doesn't smell as bad as you would think an indoor enclosed area with a bunch of raw meat would smell. It's got, like, all the typical meats that you would see at a market. There's one very unique one here that we've heard is the local delicacy that just, like, feels really weird for us as Americans to see, and that is horse meat. So they just have, like a bunch of hanging up, cut up horse parts. It's sad, but, like, it's their culture. That's the meat that they've subsisted on forever. But for us, like being from America, horses are pets and you don't eat them.

There are all these restaurants inside this market, so we thought that would be a cool place to eat. And it seems like all the locals are doing it. We're not sure what anything on the menu is, but we saw a lady be making noodles by hand in the back, so we just pointed at those and we'll see what we get. Still no clue what we're eating, but the noodles are handmade, so I think it's going to be awesome. I see some kind of meat. Hopefully it's not horse. Some green beans, red peppers, onion, dill.

The noodles are fantastic, as expected. And the soup just tastes like a classic, like pot roast. I don't know if that's a thing anywhere else but in the US like in a crock pot. Like, I think this is beef with just a bunch of vegetables.

I wonder if there's some noodles in it.

I'm not sure if this is traditional Kazakh food, but it's delicious.

We have 30 minutes left before we have to go back to the hotel, grab our bags, and head to the airport. So we've come down to the main pedestrian walking street and we've both ordered a traditional Kazakh drink because we're feeling a little tough.

Thank you.

23 hours and 30 minutes ago, we landed in Kazakhstan and had no idea what to expect. And it has been such a fun day. I'm actually kind of sad to leave. And now it's time to fly to Kyrgyzstan.

It has been a whirlwind of a weekend.

Where are we? Kazakhstan.

Kazakhstan.

Three countries that I never thought I would go to, all in 72 hours.

I can't think of a better way to experience Kyrgyzstan than in the wilderness with nomads.

I could not be more excited.

This lounge is super weird. I'm Blue Diamond. I think that's the shortest flight we've ever been.

We got to go through a special line at customs. We don't know where we're going. 2:30 in the morning. Oh, I can't move. Alex. We finally arrived somewhere. Oh, it's so cold here.

It's so tiny. What are we doing?

We still don't know what's going on.

But the cheapest flight to church.

Wow.

Onions and bread.

That's how you eat it?

Yeah. I think you use.

I just eat a cat.

Don'T.