Almaty, Kazakhstan – any recommendations?

I’m off to Almaty, Kazakhstan, for 5 days with work. I’ve never been and wonder what to expect. I won’t have a bike with me but apparently I can borrow one from the hotel.

Beyond Borat, would quite to read any recommendations, advice or tall tales 🙂

Never visited.

Just from google street view,it looks like the entire population each own 4 cars 😆

Other than that looks quite similar to other former Russian republics.

There’s some good walking in the Tien Shan mountains to the south and a cable car to a ski resort accessible by public transport.

A friend of mine used to frequent a Turkish spa thing. Apparently not seedy at all. I haven’t.

Watch out for the police. They are corrupt as f. They took me to the side of a park once and tried to fleece me because my visa was out of date – it wasn’t. I just played the long game!

Other than that, it’s grand. Plenty of nice restaurants and bars etc..

I couldn’t help with any details, but a good friend lived there for 5 years and LOVED it. I’ve got the most amazing curved Kyrgyz dagger….