I have never seen a city with so many trees. Every street is lined with big old lime trees. It was the capital before they built the tower blocks in Astana and it certainly has more character.
The smart side has shops selling mink, fox and snow leopard coats + designer labels. The other side has street vendors and markets with spices, lots of fish, (huge salmon) and all kinds of smoked meat and chicken. Wonderful smell.
One row of shops had M+S, Gap, Monsoon, La Senza, Zara. I may as well have stayed in Tunbridge Wells!
Nice street with various entertainers, girls having henna painted hands, families strolling; it could be anywhere in Europe except about half the people look Oriental, the rest Russian, which is hardly surprising since it is sandwiched between the two.
Its nice to be somewhere I do not stand out as a tourist. People keep talking to me, unfortunately hardly anyone speaks English. I managed to get around ok on buses and the metro was amazing; huge halls with gleaming tiles an enormous chandeleirs.
It was getting hot, 35C and I really wanted to get out of the city. There are snowcapped mountains nearby, but so much pollution, quite hard to see and more petroglyphs.
The only tour I could find did not leave until the weekend and I realized my planned journey overland would just take me to more new cities so I decided to cancel my flight to the coast and fly straight to Georgia.