Kok Tobe

Weekend has always be the special activity day for us as hubby is not working. Yesterday we went to Kok Tobe mountain. The weather was very nice – not too cold n bright sunny day. We took a slow walked from home which about 10min to reach the station. The mountain is connected to downtown Almaty by an aerial tramway (cable car). It took us 10 minutes to takes us to the top of the mountain.

This reminds me when u take a cable car at Genting Highland. We had to wait for 10min for the car to come. This was the first experience for Nabila n Hakeem n they were so excited but the worst part was we were cramped with many people as possible in the car. I was at first like suffocated but after the car moved with the fresh air, it felt better.

Thru out the journey to the mountain u can see lines of local houses. It was not really the good sight of the town as some of the houses were so old n dirty. When we almost reached up the mountain we could see the rollercoaster track n the beautiful mountain.

The Kok Tobe mountain is a typical tourist place with number of restaurants serving all from national dishes to pizza and burgers. There are also art galleries, a mini-zoo, amusement activities and souvenir shops. From the top of the mountain u can see the Almaty city.

We spent up there for about 3 hours. I got to buy some souvenirs up there. I managed to get some discounts thru the hard way of talking to them. They don’t understand English n insisted speaking Russian so we used the hands communication n calculator for the price. Macam ayam dan itik!

Kids were happy as got to play at the amusement park. We got to pay 400Tengge for the entrance but the weird n awful part was if I were to go in to accompany the children, I got to pay too! I really couldn’t understand why adults should pay as we definitely can’t play the swings or slides that were meant for kids. Nak buat duit lebih lah tu..

The weather was getting breezy n cold after awhile. We walked around the mountain. We stopped at the mini zoo n saw animals like chicken, goats n birds. Ok lah.. untuk menjamu mata.

We also found ... a bronze statue of the Beatles. There were some Beatles wannabe playing guitar singing with friends’ n fans watching them. Hmm... curiously n weirdly, I just don't see any connection between the mountain, Almaty and the Beatles.

We ended our day by having lunch at the Halal local Restaurant. When browsed thru the menu I saw they served horse meat which actually the local favourite dish. I love the local bread which exactly tastes our cakoi.

We enjoyed out trip there n I told hubby if we got no plans for the next weekend, we can always come here again.