Almaty, again.

There was a point in our travels where the end of the planned part of our journey was looming nearer and we thought- what now?

Stick to the plan and go to Pakistan? 

Skip Pakistan and go directly to India?

Go somewhere else entirely?

Unfortunately, both of us hate hate hate planning things like that, but eventually, we had no choice. Operating on the assumption that Pakistan was probably more of the same compared to Central Asia so far, we opted to skip ahead towards the next big adventure: The grand subcontinent of India. 

Or so we thought. 

Applying for a Visa for India can be done online and is a pretty straightforward process. The website states that it takes up to 72 hours and then you’re good to go. 

So, we picked a date the following week, booked the flight and applied for the Visa. Fred did get an answer, however, his application was rejected. He immediately reapplied, but of course, the second application wasn’t done on time. And mine? Well, Fred has two rejected applications, whereas I’m still waiting for an answer on my first one, even though it’s been two weeks. 

In the end, we opted for catching the first flight to Almaty, and staying here, as there are slightly more flights available and they seemed cheaper. This is how we came to another, not-quite-voluntary stay in Almaty. We tried to spend the time somewhat pleasantly, but the difference in weather was stark compared to our first visit. It rained most days we were there, and it was pretty cold- it was proper autumn now. 

We went for a hike in the mountains and found lots of footprints in the snow. Fred went to the botanical garden and fed squirrels. We took the gondola to the top of the hill and had a marvellous view of the city. There were also a few exotic birds there. And a cat. Sctually, two cats, but one bit me, so he didn’t get a photo. We stumbled upon the Almaty food festival- it came as no surprise that faux street food here is just as overpriced as any steet food festival back at home, so we didn’t get anything. However, they had a live coverband playing anything from Black Eyed Peas to Modern talking and a Deadpool hitting it off on a huge coca-cola truck. 

So far, this has proven the most frustrating and depressing part of our journey. We lost a lot of money and felt stuck in a rainy and quite expensive city.