Train 707 from Almaty to Nur Sultan provided us with a great experience. We hit the bar before we had left the station and were soon in conversation with Askar and Nurbol. Both Kazakhs heading home. Askar owns a shoe shop and I think Nurbol either works for him or is his business partner. Through stilted English on their part and Google Translate on ours we established how old they were, how many children they had, what sports they liked and shared similar de...

From Bishkek it was about an hour to the Kazakhstan border. For some reason the Kazakh officials took the passports for myself and the other Aussie in the group. We were then asked questions that no others in the group were asked. After a few minutes they were returned and we were cleared through but it was a little concerning. Our local guide had no explanation for it. We arrived in Almaty late in the afternoon. It is unlike any city we have seen so far on ...