Joyce and I decided to visit the ski town of Chimbulak outside Almity. As with everything else, getting there is half the adventure. The #6 bus departs from a stop across from the Hotel Kazakhstan on Dostik. The hotel is a Soviet-era edifice with a "crown" of gold trim on the roof. The rooms are reputed to be expensive, even though many of them are not yet renovated to western standards. The #6 bus departs about every 35 minutes. While there never seem to be many people waiting at the stop, it's amazing to see the crowd emerge as the empty bus arrives. Within seconds we are pushed to the back of the line and find ourselves standing on a crowded, but not yet packed bus. As the bus heads uphill, more and more passengers join the 25 minute ride to Medey. The 50 tenge (40 cents) fare to the skating rink avoids a 1000 tenge cab fare - a 20:1 savings! However, from Medey there is no choice but to pay another 1000 tenge for a cab to Chimbulak. Two chair lifts carry passengers a couple of thousand feet vertical. We didn't realize that each lift was required a separate ticket, so we elected to hike underneath the second chair lift. Again, no switchbacks. It's not clear to me what kind of vehicles are able to make it up these roads. However, and extremely scenic view of Almaty emerged the higher we climbed. We felt transported back to Colorado as the rocky peaks shed their tree coverage. Our high alpine experience peaked at around 9600', but could easily have gone higher if we'd been willing to "do the vertical." The trip back to Almaty involved the same taxi to Medey and bus to town. Again, standing for the whole bus ride. While public transportation is plentiful, it is not always pleasant.
Joyce and I decided to visit the ski town of Chimbulak outside Almity. As with everything else, getting there is half the adventure. The #6 bus departs from a stop across from the Hotel Kazakhstan on Dostik. The hotel is a Soviet-era edifice with a "crown" of gold trim on the roof. The rooms are reputed to be expensive, even though many of them are not yet renovated to western standards. The #6 bus departs about every 35 minutes. While there never seem to be many people waiting at the stop, it's amazing to see the crowd emerge as the empty bus arrives. Within seconds we are pushed to the back of the line and find ourselves standing on a crowded, but not yet packed bus. As the bus heads uphill, more and more passengers join the 25 minute ride to Medey. The 50 tenge (40 cents) fare to the skating rink avoids a 1000 tenge cab fare - a 20:1 savings! However, from Medey there is no choice but to pay another 1000 tenge for a cab to Chimbulak. Two chair lifts carry passengers a couple of thousand feet vertical. We didn't realize that each lift was required a separate ticket, so we elected to hike underneath the second chair lift. Again, no switchbacks. It's not clear to me what kind of vehicles are able to make it up these roads. However, and extremely scenic view of Almaty emerged the higher we climbed. We felt transported back to Colorado as the rocky peaks shed their tree coverage. Our high alpine experience peaked at around 9600', but could easily have gone higher if we'd been willing to "do the vertical." The trip back to Almaty involved the same taxi to Medey and bus to town. Again, standing for the whole bus ride. While public transportation is plentiful, it is not always pleasant.
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