Almaty was the capital of Khazakstan until 1998 when it was replaced by Astana, but it is still has the reputation of being the most cosmopolitan city in Central Asia. We were there just for two days when the Khazaks were clelebrating Victory Day making it even more lively.
Children were marching and singing songs in the streets, old people who were veterans from WW2 were standing alongside soldiers by the park monuments to be taken pictures of and the young people were raving with us in the clubs like there was no tomorrow. Some being quite rich and insisted on buying us drinks for a small chat that usually only consted of them only asking about our nationalities and what had brought us to Khazakstan as that was as far as their vocabulary reached.
On our guided city walk we got to visit a couple of museums, we saw a beautiful cathedral built only by women and the Tian Shan mountains laying South of the city, separating Khazakstan and Kyrgizstan. There is a cable car going all the way up from the city to the Chimbulak Ski Resort, laying at around two thousand meters height but we decided to rent a van with a driver for a cheaper price plus having the possibility of stopping at several viewpoints along the way.
