A few months back I scrolled upon a Reel, of what I thought was Europe, glimpsing trees turned all shades of yellow and being forever on the lookout for new European destinations to witness fall, I watched till the end. I was surprised to find that the setting was not Europe, rather my own continent, Asia, and the city and the surrounds were Almaty. The Reel was by an Indian, and suggested that all that was required was a passport and a ticket. I was sceptical about the claim that my Indian passport could get me there without a Visa.

Almaty a city in the south east of Kazakhstan was the country’s former capital. A quick search revealed that the city was old and beautiful but I was not able to fact check whether autumn manifests itself in Almaty, as vividly as portrayed in the Reel.

A couple of days later, in the second week of August 2024, while at work, I received an email from IndiGo airlines beckoning me to an online ticket Sale. Happy to take a break, I immediately indulged my curiosity.  I found that a return ticket from New Delhi to Almaty in October, when I assumed autumn would best manifest, would cost approximately Rs.23,000/- (about USD 280) and the flight took just 3 hours. This seemed too good a deal to pass up, my partner was busy at work, a couple of feet away. I reminded him of the Reel and the fall colours, told him the fare and said it was the last day of the Sale, he said “Buy the tickets!”. I queried, “For a 5 day trip?” he responded – 10. I felt that was a tad long for a Central Asian city, in my ignorance, supposing it would not have ten day much to offer, but my travel spirit decided against looking a gift horse in the mouth, I bought the tickets, outward on the 7^th of October, 2024 and inward on the 17^th.

The holiday was 2 months ahead, so I just forgot about it for a month. In mid-September, I started having kittens. I cross checked from several different sources about requiring a Visa, I found that a Visa was required for Indians for stays above 14 days and even then, could be obtained online. I looked up websites consulted Lonely Planet and found that there was a long list of places of natural beauty that could be visited keeping Almaty as the base. Taking local public transport to these places was not an option as the information available was sparse and language an issue. Kazakhstan being one of the states that was a part of the former USSR, is a perfect destination for anyone that speaks Russian or at least reads the Cyrillic script, without this, it is difficult to figure out the destinations on buses in time to board them. Incidentally even Kazakh is written in Cyrillic script. I made inquiries with local tour guides/ taxi services about visiting these sites and found that every quote was above 250 USD a day. This appeared more and more, a more expensive destination to witness fall than Europe with no guarantee that we would be able to witness it.

I asked my partner if we should just cancel the tickets, I feared that not only would there be no fall colours but anticipated a hostile environment where language and cultural barriers would make enjoyment difficult and expensive.

By now it was too late to apply for a Schengen Visa, and in any case, we did not have the appetite to jump through the hoops. My partner said to treat it as an adventure, his research found us a local Almaty tour company and we booked a two day tour to cover some of the sights- Kolsai and Kaindy Lakes and Charyn Canyon. I prepared lists of what we could do on sunny days, on rainy days, on lazy days. With ten days in hand, we could aim to do stuff at a leisurely pace, and we did.

For seven of the nine nights we were in Almaty, I chose a hotel in the heart of town, on the corner of Panfilov Park, the Renion Park Hotel, which conveniently, was also one of the pick-up points for our tour.

We landed in Almaty at 23.45 local time, the flight was choc-a-bloc with Indian students heading to Kazakhstan to study medicine, many on their first flight, this kept the short, no nonsense three hour flight interesting.

Out of caution, and as I would not have had KZT – Kazakh Tenge, the local currency, I had arranged the Taxi through our Hotel for 9000 Tenge, (approximately 1500 INR/ 18USD). The Hotel had arranged the taxi through the Airport Taxi kiosk, the driver contacted me on WhatsApp as soon as I landed and was waiting with a placard at arrivals. The Hotel took care of his payment. Had I taken the taxi through the facility at the airport, it would have been a tad cheaper and I could have paid by credit card or cash as, there was a currency exchange at the airport, open and operating.

Immigration, was smooth as butter. There were sufficient counters, we were efficiently pointed towards the vacant ones, the officer had a welcoming attitude, no questions asked, I breathed a sigh of relief when he stamped my passport, Hallelujah, I really did not require a Visa, someone valued my Indian Nationality.

Immigration was so fast that we had to wait for what seemed like eons for our baggage to come through, then we met our kindly driver, who chit chatted with us through google translate, he is looking forward to visiting Goa. The nightscape lead me to believe I was in a European city. Over the next 10 days it turned out to be that and so much more.

We were so excited; I don’t know how we slept.

We woke up to fall colours right outside our window and snow peaks in the backdrop. We had won the lottery. After a sumptuous breakfast at the Hotel, our first order of business was to find an ATM for cash and finding bathroom slippers, in our sizes. Hotel slippers are not for us and I had never before forgotten to carry ours, this transgression though gave our holiday even more purpose.

The shopping district of Arbat was at our doorstep, we easily withdrew cash on the Niyo Debit Card, from a local bank ATM, limit was 85000 Tenge, this would have been more than enough cash for the entire 10 days, as credit cards were readily accepted. The slipper shopping we left for after sunset.

Cash in hand, we set off to discover the city. We walked lovely tree lined streets, resplendent in autumn colours. The people were going about their business. Every interaction was kindly, we walked past the Green Market, choosing not to enter it, we didn’t want to be indoors. We knew we were wandering in the opposite direction of Panfilov Park where we had planned to head, but we just kept on walking.

On seeing a golden orb in the sky, we gravitated towards it, it was the Almaty Central Mosque. With flamboyant golden domes but an understated exterior. There were mostly tourists around the mosque, no call by the muezzin, in fact in 10 days we never heard a single Aazaan. While admiring the mosque façade, I eavesdropped on a guide explaining that the mosque used to be an unassuming wooden house in the soviet era, as religion was not practiced openly and the present mosque was built in the recent past when that house burnt down. I slowly understood that the Kazakhs had taken the best of the soviet and blended it with their spirituality, religion here was deeply private not to be brandished not to be imposed, not to be talked about. This so resounded with us.

Back to the group with the guide, she lead them into the mosque covering her head, as did the other ladies, I followed suit, and we entered the mosque, viewing it from a gallery that appeared to have been designed exactly with the purpose of tourists getting a glimpse within without disturbing those at prayer. It was peaceful, full of light, with lovely blue tiles and a handful of people offering prayers. As we all exited the mosque, I realized the group was Italian, not one to miss a chance to chat in Italian with people, who like me love to chat, I greeted them with ‘Salve Signori’ and that is all that was needed for us to discuss their country, our country, their travel to ours, ours to theirs and then I said to them that I was happy that I had met them on a day on which we were rejoicing in the immense sense of freedom that we felt on being able to travel outside our country for the first time, without requiring a visa and one of the ladies said so you are ‘Kazakh’, I said no I am Indian, she smiled and reminded me that Kazakh literally means freeman, as this was a land of nomads and I repeated proudly, yes, I am Kazakh.

The rest of the day was joyous and free dedicated to the sights, sounds and sensations of Panfilov Park. We strolled leisurely through it, our heads breaking the fall of the golden leaves as they cascaded down in the gentle breeze. Sat before the Ascension Cathedral dumbfounded by this intricate wooden wonder, which is built without the use of a single nail, breathing in the roses that surrounded us, then entering it to be blinded with its byzantine lucre. Admired the mammoth Monument of Glory. Were amused by the horse carriages carting around tourists with loud Hindi music playing for the benefit of the Indian tourists who are so so welcome and cared for, in every establishment in Almaty. Charmed by locals who while walking through the park on their daily business, were observant and kind, and insisted on taking a photo for you, on spotting you taking a selfie. Surprised by the warm sunny weather.

When hunger pangs struck, we walked to the opposite end of the park from our hotel and had huge bowls Borscht (Ukranian Soup) at the Russian Restaurant Marina Roshcha, with interesting curios on its walls, including AK47s.  This was followed by imbibing amber coloured, apricot Arak at Agosto Cofffee in the Park , it felt like we were sipping autumn. It was cold by now and the warm clothes that had been shed in the morning warmth now came handy to sit out in the strong breeze and witness the falling leaves.

We managed to find slippers for me, after a lovely interaction with the stall owner, all thanks to Google Translate. We had a not so interesting kebab dinner at a canteen type establishment and then an interesting chitchat with a couple of security guards at a supermarket that we ducked into to buy water.  

Water dumped at the Hotel, we went back into Panfilov Park to see the cathedral by night. We were awestruck. It felt like fairyland. In this backdrop there were youngsters playing sport, putting the space to good use, enjoying life, with us as spectators, enjoying the view, enjoying the game, enjoying us and enjoying freedom.

We walked the short distance to our hotel and went to bed early, in anticipation of the early start the next day for our adventure to the Big Almaty Lake.