Backpacking 48 Hours in Almaty, Kazakhstan

Traveling to Almaty, Kazakhstan was one of the most unusual experiences I’ve ever had in my life. I knew traveling to a post Soviet state as a black man would turn heads, but I never felt more foreign than I did in the 48 hours I spent during my layover here.

I will admit, I was a bit nervous when I arrived at Almaty airport. There was something about this country that was a bit frightening. I remember being yelled at by immigration minutes upon arrival. When I handed my passport to the immigration officer, she browsed through my pages and shouted “NO VISA!” with an angry look on her face.

My pet peeve is unnecessary disrespect, I had only been in the country for 5 minutes and had to deal with her yelling. I gave her the Nick Young meme face look before calmly explaining that American citizens did not need a visa for stays less than 2 weeks. As an immigration officer, I expected her to know that, or at least ask me how long I planned to stay.

Eventually, she stamped my passport and tossed it back to me. I wanted to report her for her poor attitude, but I decided to give her the benefit of the doubt.

I grabbed a taxi and headed to my hotel. As I pressed my head against the glass in the taxi I couldn’t help but notice the streets were pretty empty. It was a rather gloomy day in September too, which made the city look rather depressing.

I checked in my hotel and took a quick shower before heading out again. I walked down the street with my camera in hand looking to explore. As I began to take a photo of a restaurant, I started to hear a man shouting at me in Russian. I was shocked and had no idea what he was saying. I could see he did not want me taking photos of that restaurant, although there wasn’t anyone in the photo. He asked me to delete both photos, which I did. From that time on, I was paranoid to take photos.

After this encounter I was pretty down, I had been in Kazakhstan for less than 3 hours and was yelled at twice for no reason. I decided to grab dinner and call it a day. I tried asking for good restaurants, but nobody spoke English. Eventually, I found a small restaurant, but the menu was entirely in Russian. Tired at this point, I just pointed to the dish the person seated across the room was eating. I quickly ate and went back to my hotel.

Day 2 in Almaty

I woke up early the next day looking to start fresh and put the previous day behind me. I had no idea where I was going, I just wanted to explore the city. I started along the main road next to my hotel and just began walking.

Later I went into a supermarket to get some water and snacks when I ran into a white American woman working as an engineer. She was the first foreigner I had seen in the city and the fact she was American made me feel at ease. I had so many questions for her about Kazakhstan. I told her about my brief experience and she informed me that she also experienced similar situations. She noted that due to the lack of tourism in the city and country, many people were of the mindset that foreigners were spies, which made zero sense to me.

We parted ways and I continued on my journey. I came across a group of teenagers on the street that were quite friendly. They seemed very intrigued by my “foreignness”, but couldn’t speak much English. They accompanied me for about 5 blocks on my walk around the city.

I reached Zenkov Cathedral, my first stop. Aside from it being made completely from wood, there wasn’t anything special about it, although the colors were nice. I stayed here for about 15 minutes and moved on.

Almaty was so quiet for a big city, I didn’t see many people on the road. It was very cloudy when I went, so combine that with the lack of people, it felt like a ghost town.

After 30 minutes or so I reached what I assume to be downtown. There were a lot more people, cars, buildings, etc.

I found this beautiful mosque shortly after. I wanted to go in, but at this point, I was too hungry and needed to eat. I bought a sandwich at a kabob stand nearby and took a seat in the park. As I took my seat in the park to eat, I could see everyone looking at me. I didn’t know if the staring was due to my blackness or me just being a foreigner, but I assumed a combination of both. The stares didn’t seem to be out of hate or anything like that, just pure curiosity. In fact, a few people smiled when I made eye contact with them.

I walked over to the Green Market next. This was my favorite place in the entire city. Before Kazakhstan, I had never seen a bazaar before. Seeing rows of various dried fruits, raw meat, vegetables, nuts, spices, and plants all in one place was fascinating. You can sample everything for free too!

I spent hours just walking and walking after the bazaar, only to find nothing really. I ended up finding a nice restaurant to eat at before calling it a day.

Overall, I found Almaty to be an interesting place. It’s marketed as one of the premier cities in Central Asia, but it felt soul-less and empty. Would I visit again? Nope. But, I’d love to visit Kazakhstan again in the future and explore more of this massive country, especially in the countryside. Until next time Kazakhstan!