Located at the doorstep of the Northern Tian Shan Mountains, Almaty used to be the country seat up until 1997, when the Soviet-friendly president Nursultan Nazarbayev moved the capital north to Astana to be in closer proximity to Russia. Formerly call Alma-Ata, meaning “full of apples”, the Almaty region is where the granddaddy of the current day apple originated. The wild apple ancestor, Malus sieversii, can still be found in the Tian Shan mountains.

With tree lined streets and avenues, Almaty is a quaint small sized metropolis of 2 million people.

It is a pedestrian haven with ample transportation options. A lot of the younger folks can be seen zipping around the city on public e-scooters. Besides buses on surface roads, there is the single line subway system that connects 11 stops along the 8-mile route. From start to finish, construction of this one line took 23 years (1988-2011). Cost of a ride is only 120 tenge, or 25¢.

One of the major sites in the city is the Ascension Cathedral, a Russian Orthodox Church, in the Panfilov park near the Zhibek Zholy station.

A few blocks from the park is the large green market where locals can buy anything they need ranging from meats and produce to household goods.

Unlike some markets in other countries, there were very few tourists strolling through. Most tourists in Almaty hail from Russia and China. Few Americans make it this far, as locals are surprised when they hear that we come from the US.

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