“Look! It’s just like Kazakhstan!” This is probably not the most common reaction to the sight of the statue of Liverpool’s most famous foursome at the Pierhead. The woman I was addressing certainly looked a bit startled. (I thought the … Continue reading Back in the USSR?
Nestling at the foot of the Tian Shan mountains, the tree-lined avenues of Almaty give it a very different feel from Nur-Sultan, its successor as capital of Kazakkstan. Even the municipal flower beds are different: petunias and marigolds in the … Continue reading Exploring Almaty
In the Central City Park in Nursultan is a colourful monument comprising figures bearing globes painted to represent the countries of the world, originally created for the 2017 Expo. It’s fun to walk round spotting the countries you have visited, … Continue reading Around the world in just one park
As a country girl at heart, after a day pounding city streets, I long for a park. Our second day in Kazakhstan did not disappoint, as we drove out of the city of Nur-Sultan to the Burabay National Park, where … Continue reading The invisible elephant
It was our first day in Kazakhstan and after a mere 2 hours’ sleep and some excellent jam-filled croissants, we met our local guide Olyssa for a city tour. Our first stop was the Hazrat Sultan (Holy Sultan) mosque, opened … Continue reading A Day in Nur-Sultan
Apples are big in Almaty. Really big. The city is even named after them – alma is the Kazakh for ‘apple’. Apples are everywhere, most strikingly in a public artwork of a yellow car bursting with red apples. The wild … Continue reading The Other Big Apple
Olyssa broke the news over lunch. Our programme for our final afternoon in Nur-Sultan included a ‘Kazakh Cultural Show.’ This had not been on our itinerary. I naively assumed it would be a display of music and dancing – not … Continue reading Cultural Experience
Smells of cooking shashlik and dill filled the air as we strolled through the street market of a Uighur village. Tomatoes and peppers were for sale by the sack load. At the edge of the village was a Soviet-era … Continue reading The Charyn Canyon: the Grand Canyon’s little brother
Travels with me aren't 