We boarded our flight from Mumbai to Almaty in the early hours of the morning while it was still dark. After sunrise, we were able to see outside our windows: parts of the world that we would otherwise never get to see. We were flying over the Hindu Kush mountain range in Pakistan.
The flight was comfortable and the service onboard was good. There was a meal served inflight, and the journey was smooth. We had a long layover at Almaty before our flight to Tbilisi later in the day, so we decided to head into the city and do some sightseeing. Immigration was quick; they didn’t ask us too much since we were going to fly out again later that day.
We booked a couple of taxis using Yandex Go to the 28 Panfilov Guardsmen Park. We saw the Almaty Eternal Flame and the Monument to Kazakh Soldiers Who Died in Afghanistan.
We walked further into the park to see the beautiful Ascension Cathedral, which was a wooden Ukrainian-baroque Russian Orthodox cathedral—very typical in style and architecture.
From here, we split into two groups. The boys and I decided to walk down Dostyk Ave. to see some sights along the way, while the rest took a taxi to wait for us at the Republic Palace. We saw the Zhambyl Monument and the Taras Shevchenko Monument as we walked southwards.
We took a slight detour to see the Shokan Valikhanov Monument and the Oriental Horoscope Fountain, designed by Vladimir Tverdokhlebov. The Pushkin Monument was also right there.
We then walked further and took another small detour to see the Shamshy Kaldayakov Monument in Shamshy Kaldayakov Park and the fountain nearby.
We met up with the rest and saw the Republic Palace and the Abay Kunanbaiuly Monument. We inquired about the Gondola Cableway to see Kok-Tobe Hill but eventually decided against it, since we wouldn’t have enough time there and would have to come back down rather quickly to head back to the airport.
For lunch, we looked for options nearby and decided to go to Qaganat, a chain of self-service cafeterias in Kazakhstan open 24/7.
All the staff members were patient and polite; they also identified a member of the team who could speak English to help us with our orders. We had a variety of dumplings and soups.
We wrapped up the meal with decadent desserts and pastries. I could easily see why this was a go-to place for tasty, fast, and affordable meals for students and working professionals.
After a nice lunch, we took a leisurely walk along Satpaev St. to see the Independence Monument and Almaty Madeniet.
We booked a couple of taxis from here and headed back to the airport for our flight to Tbilisi. The mountains flanking the city from the south were even more visible from the airport. The flight had a dinner service onboard; the meal was adequate and the journey was comfortable. We landed in Tbilisi on time. Indian passport holders can enter Georgia visa-free with valid visas from the USA, UK, Schengen area, or Japan. All of us had B1/B2 visas for the USA, and immigration was smooth. We collected our bags and headed out of the terminal building.
The rental car company had given us instructions to meet their agent and collect our van from the parking lot next to the terminal building. They also upgraded us from a Chrysler Downtown to a Mercedes Metris, which was a nice surprise. We loaded our bags, stopped by an ATM on the way to withdraw some cash, and then headed to the hotel for the night.