This 2 days 2 nights trip to Kolsai and Kaindy Lake is brought to you by CAMPIT. No it isn’t, I don’t have sponsors lol. CAMPIT is a local tour company that organises group bus tours, and it is a great option for budget travellers. They only advertise on their Instagram account, so check them out there. I know everything is in Russian, but just click on the translation button, find Sultan’s phone number and WhatsApp him in English. A downside to the low prices is that instructions and explanations given on the bus are in Russian.
Getting to Saty Village
The meeting point was at a carpark near Almaty’s Baikonur metro station on Friday night. Then it was a 6-hour bus ride to Saty village, the nearest settlement from Kolsai Lake. We reached at an ungodly hour of 3am, and it felt colder than -10C. I was shivering through 4 layers of clothing. Our homestay accommodated 8 people, which we shared with 4 others.
This was our first homestay and outdoor toilet experience. There was electricity and Wi-Fi in the house, but no plumbing, hence your business had to be done outside in a hole. After finishing your business, you had to awkwardly walk back inside the house to wash your hands. There was an indoor sink, where the water came out from a tank pre-filled above.
It was also here where I first discovered my love for Central Asian homemade jam (refer to Pamir for more). The fruits used in the jam are literally grown in one’s backyard, which are harvested and preserved with a ton of sugar, then turned into jam. As a result, the jam has many chunks of real fruit submerged in thick, sweet liquid. For breakfast we had tea, oatmeal and lots of baursaks (Kazakh donuts). Baursaks are lumps of dough fried in oil until many air pockets form on the inside. If you have a sweet tooth like I do, I highly suggest filling the insides of each baursak with jam until they overflow, then prepare for a high.
Getting to Kolsai Lake
After breakfast, it was a 40-minute bus ride to Kolsai Lake. Same with Big Almaty Lake, the lake turns bright blue green when not frozen, attracting a lot more tourists, but I am not mainstream so here is the winter version of it.
Kolsai Lake
It was time for your usual winter activities of ice skating, snowman building and snowball fights. I swear we started off making a snowman, but it got too tall and skinny so we just changed it to something else equally popular. Forgot to mention that this was the weekend of Valentine’s day, which may have something to do with the baursak and snowman references.
Anyway, we got strange looks for our 1.8m long snowman. There were children around, so perhaps their parents disapproved because it gave off the wrong message. They were right, it was anatomically inaccurate.
In the evening, we had a special campfire with sausages (I cannot be making these up) and mulled wine. Maybe you needed to be there with a partner to enjoy it, because I was just shaking in the cold wondering when we could eat sausages and drink.
Getting to Kaindy Lake
It was time for Kaindy Lake the next day. Here is something for the car enthusiasts. We sat in a UAZ-452 Soviet off-road van, nicknamed the bukhanka, loaf (of bread) in Russian. These tough babies can navigate through any terrain- thick snow, mud, across rivers, you name it. Nothing beats the good ol’ Soviet automobile. Maybe the Land Rover from Sharyn Canyon would like to dispute this. And just for the heck of it, UAZ stands for Ulyanovsky Avtomobilny Zavod.
Whilst Kazakhstan’s tourism infrastructure is improving, it is still lacking in some places. The road to Kaindy Lake was not even a road, hence the need for the UAZ-452. It was more like a trail of tire prints left by other vehicles in the snow. Often the wheels of the van would hit against rocks jutting out from the ground, sending the 8 of us squished at the back flying and hitting the ceiling. Sometimes the track would disappear, so our driver would create a new one himself. Other times they reappeared on the other side of a stream, so we would cross the stream too. Nothing beats off-roading in Kazakhstan.
Where the vans dropped us off, still followed an hour-long trek through the mountains to Kaindy Lake. Apparently it was beginner’s level, so I must be at noob level. I almost rented a horse, but after seeing one skidding on ice downhill and neighing for help, I decided falling from my height would leave me with less chance of paralysis.
Kolsai Lake
Dead spruce tree trunks stick out of the half-frozen lake, remnants of a sunken forest preserved after life. It looked hauntingly beautiful. Vlad the Impaler would be very impressed with this playground.
On our trek back it started snowing heavily, which in the spirit of Valentine’s day I suppose looked romantic, until you realise the snow covered the slippery icy sections and horse dung, making the ground a landmine for treasures. Go ahead and call me a grinch, I already pooped on Orthodox Christmas the moment I landed in Almaty.
Getting back to Almaty
There you have it, Kolsai and Kaindy Lakes in the winter. We drove back to our homestays to have tea, then watched a bit of Captain America Civil War on the tele while waiting for our bus to bring us back to Almaty. Chris Evans can be talking in Russian and I will still sit through the movie despite not understanding a word.
On the way back to Almaty, we made a surprise visit to Black Canyon just before sunset. Black Canyon is part of the Sharyn Canyon range, but the contrast between its darker rocks and white snow gave it an edgier vibe. In the summer, green grass covers the black gorge, transforming it into the rolling hills wallpaper you see on desktops.
We returned to the city on Sunday night, and was utterly confused by what we saw outside. The trees by the roads looked like if you dipped ice cream in white chocolate; just absolutely frozen, with branches drooping unnaturally due to the weight of the snow. Several feet of fresh snow buried the bottom of tree trunks, effectively reversing any effects of an early Spring. Snow ploughs cleared the roads, but remnants of the snow piled up to my knees on the roadside. It did not even look this thicc in January. What freak weather caused Almaty to be colder than in the mountains.
Hi! I am Joey, a University student from Singapore, attempting to show my appreciation for the world’s most powerful passport by literally milking its visa-free benefits one country at a time. I describe my travel budget as shoestring and travel style as audacious.
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