I’m still kicking around Kazakhstan and it’s still awesome! I’m in South Eastern Kazakhstan, in the former capital of Almaty. It’s one of the nicest cities I’ve ever visited and along with Beirut it’s certainly one of the cities that has surprised me the most.
With wide, tree-lined boulevards, huge designer shops, gorgeous people waltzing the streets and brand new cars spinning around everywhere it feels more like Monaco that ‘one of the stans’.
The city has a backdrop to equal Cape Town, South Africa with snow-capped mountains propping the city up from the south. As soon I got here, after 40 hours in the train, I made a beeline to the mountains, I need some fresh air.
After chatting to some very friendly locals we found out how to go hiking in Kazakhstan, the mountains are so easy to get to from Almaty, I decided to daytrip it from the city.
Jumping the bus, then the cable car and I’m in the mountains at the quaint town of Chimbulak. It’s like Switzerland before it got popular, turn one corner and there’s a sole luxury ski chalet, walk another 100 metres and you’ll spot another one. It’s empty, with the most amazing vistas.
The skiing here is the best in Central Asia too, although the season has ended so I missed out there. But walking through the snow for a couple of hours is exactly what I needed after the journey here!
All in all the I spent about 5 hours on my daytrip, spent about $15 and had a cracking day. Hope you guys get to explore this country soon, it’s guaranteed to surprise you too. Happy travels!
Going hiking in Almaty is pretty easy, here’s how to do it:
1) Take bus number 6 from opposite Hotel Kazakhstan, near the cable car in the city
2) Go to the last stop, it cost 50 Tengge ($0.30) and takes about 40 minutes.
3) Take the cable car to Chimbulak (2000 tengge/$13)
4) Hike from there! Return the same way
Remember, never travel without travel insurance! And never overpay for travel insurance!
I use HeyMondo. You get INSTANT quotes. Super cheap, they actually pay out, AND they cover almost everywhere, where most insurance companies don't (even places like Central African Republic etc!). You can sign-up here. PS You even get 5% off if you use MY LINK! You can even sign up if you're already overseas and traveling, pretty cool.
Also, if you want to start a blog...I CAN HELP YOU!
Also, if you want to start a blog, and start to change your life, I'd love to help you! Email me on johnny@onestep4ward.com. In the meantime, check out my super easy blog post on how to start a travel blog in under 30 minutes, here! And if you just want to get cracking, use BlueHost at a discount, through me.
Also, (if you're like me, and awful with tech-stuff) email me and my team can get a blog up and running for you, designed and everything, for $699 - email johnny@onestep4ward.com to get started.
Do you work remotely? Are you a digital nomad/blogger etc? You need to be insured too.
I use SafetyWing for my digital nomad insurance. It covers me while I live overseas. It's just $10 a week, and it's amazing! No upfront fees, you just pay week by week, and you can sign up just for a week if you want, then switch it off and on whenever. You can read my review here, and you can sign-up here!
As you know, blogging changed my life. I left Ireland broke, with no plan, with just a one-way ticket to Thailand
and no money. Since then, I started a blog, then a digital media company, I've made
more than $1,500,000 USD, bought 4 properties and visited (almost) every country in the world. And I did it all from my laptop as I
travel the world and live my dream. I talk about how I did it, and how you can do it too, in my COMPLETELY FREE
Ebook, all 20,000
words or so. Just finish the process by putting in your email below and I'll mail it right out to you immediately. No spam ever too, I promise!
