Last day at Almaty and the train north

Today it was raining most of the day. Had a slow day for a change, packed my bags for checkout and headed out to Green Bazaar with a couple of Israelis from the hostel. Looked at souvenirs and bought some fresh fruit for the journey ahead. Dates are also a delicacy over here, don't leave the city without trying some.

Dates were common at the bazaar. Don't leave town without trying some

I went over to the chocolate factory, Rakhat. The staff claimed that there were no tours today. I spoke to a young Kazakh dude outside later who said that they do tours at least a couple times a day. I should've just showed them some money, that would've done the trick. To avoid leaving empty handed, I bought a bunch of individual chocolates completely at random as well as the iconic blue Kazakh Blue Chocolate.

Anytime I entered the Rakhat official store, there was always a queue

I decided to try the highly recommended and cheap Shashlik place called Shashlik na Pastera. Had to wait quite a while for the dish but the mutton was nicely chargrilled. The meal only set me back about a 1000 tenge for two skewers plus a bowl of onion and Kazakh bread for an extra tenge.

A simple, yet very popular and tasty dish

If you get the chance, come down to Shashlik na Pastera. Just expect to wait a while

On the road again

In the evening the rain started again however, it stopped just as I was leaving the hostel, so I decided to catch the bus instead of a taxi. The train was a bit old school, however, I can only imagine what the Platzkartny class would be like (in 3 days time) as on this particular trip I stayed in 2nd class Kupe. My cohabitants were a Kazakh family with 2 young toddlers. The youngest screamed for most of the night, which really highlighted the necessity of having earplugs.