Almaty

After a somewhat underwhelming month in Baku, I prioritised Almaty as the first destination for a summer spent travelling through Central Asia. Most research pointed to it as one of the most liveable cities in the region, and a more lively alternative to Astana, the nation's administrative and political capital since 1997.

My prevailing knowledge of Kazakhstan did not stretch much further than the first 15 minutes of Sacha Baron Cohen's 2006 comedy 'Borat'. Even after spending just two hours in the city, this rather shallow depth of knowledge felt remarkably inaccurate.

My four weeks were spread across late May and June, with peak daytime temperatures hovering between a comfortable 24 degrees to more sauna-esque temperatures in the early 30s. A mix of haze from the mountains and pollution means truly clear, bright blue skies were a rarity, but most days were mainly sunny with occasional showers.

The further up you climb out of the city into the mountains, there's a perceptible drop in temperatures, even on the hottest days. At night the temperature drops equally significantly.

Unless you are visiting specifically for winter sports, you probably are best swerving the core winter months from November to March, where the snowfall and temperatures hovering around zero will hamper your ability to explore the outdoors in the same manner.

A month is an ideal amount of time to plan to be in the city if you plan on making the most of the hiking and other outdoor activities at weekends during the summer months. Given how far it is likely to be from where you are starting off, it would be difficult to justify any shorter trip.

Almaty has a peculiar layout. There is no epicentre or conventional city centre, at least by European standards. There's no core hub where you can expect to see thousands of commuters piling in every morning, or immediately noticeable hubs of concentrated nightlife.

As a first-time visitor, this can make it somewhat difficult to work out where to base yourself, but once on the ground, this dispersed nature of activity makes for a calm stay.

To provide a rough estimate, if you are south of Rayimbek metro, north of Abay metro, and within a 45-minute walk of Arbat G. Almaty, you can't go too far wrong.

Once in Almaty, some people warned me that the more northerly districts towards Rayimbek metro are 'rougher' than the more southerly areas heading up towards the hills. Perhaps they are a little more unpolished, with some ageing Soviet-era housing, but I couldn't detect any real cause for concern, having explored the area exhaustively around the clock.

Considering how dispersed Almaty feels, there's generally good coverage across the city for coworking spaces. There didn't feel like any particular stand-out places from my research prior to arrival, but I was very happy with my decision to spend the month at Fifty Four, which I've written about in greater depth further below.

SmArPoint looked like one of the biggest and most popular facilities in the city, but its location closer to the Auezov Theatre metro station felt like too big of a walkable commute from Arbat. Coworking Square, Level 8 and Sail also looked like decent options, but again felt too far from the core areas where you'd want to stay.

Coffee shops are open later into the evening, often closing past 22:00, and can make for practical options for some short periods of work. Voronka and Six Coffee+Wine both had acceptable Wi-Fi speeds and could prove to be good short-term solutions.

Despite its seemingly isolated geographic location, Almaty is surprisingly diverse on the ground.

Kazakhstan as a whole is home to over 100 nationalities, and Almaty has the most cosmopolitan population within the country. Ethnic Kazakhs make up the majority of the population, followed by a significant population of Russians who relocated there during the Soviet years.

Prior to visiting, I was intrigued by the dynamics between these two communities. There is some visible segregation in professional and social spheres, stemming from cultural differences between the two communities. Even second or third generation Russians will still refer to themselves as 'Russian' rather than Kazakhstani. But from what I could witness, both groups appear to coexist harmoniously, at least within Almaty.

Russian is by far the dominant language in Almaty, serving as the de facto default even for many ethnic Kazakhs, despite the government's attempts to reinvigorate its use.

Somewhat surprisingly, there is a significant, fully assimilated Korean community, a result of forced migration during the Stalin era in the 1930s. You'll also encounter smaller numbers of Uzbeks and other Central Asian neighbours. To cap it off, there is a large population of Indian students based at the city's universities.

In terms of conventional tourism, the main groups appeared to be Indians and visitors from Arab countries, whilst I occasionally picked up on a stray North American accent. As a place to mix with fellow remote workers or a wider expat community, unless you are a Russian speaker, you're almost certainly better off looking elsewhere.

Whilst the majority of the population is nominally Muslim, similar to Azerbaijan, the presence of Islam on the ground feels incredibly discreet. Kazakhstan is constitutionally secular, and Almaty especially is known for being particularly liberal, so if you did not know beforehand, it would be difficult to make any association with the religion. Alcohol is served and enjoyed freely, and whilst you may see some more conservative dress from women, there's little to identify with the religion.