Family Time in Central Asia

Baku

• Take a stroll on the beautiful promenade overlooking the Caspian Sea, walk around the nearby Old Town (just a stones throw away from the Four Seasons), do some local shopping, and enjoy culinary delights. Trust me, it’s no wonder it’s called “Paris of the East,”—the resemblance is striking.

• Plan a day trip to Gobustan to see the mud volcanoes, where the geological and chemical formations result in gas and mud erupting from underground.

• Plan a trip to Yanardag, a natural gas fire that blazes continuously on a hillside on the Absheron Peninsula, which doesn’t even go out in the rains.

Sheki

• Around 4 to 5 hours from Baku, it’s a small town hosting the palace of Sheki Khan, and is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Take a look at Caravanserai, a fortress-like complex where the caravans/traders halted overnight during their journey in the trade route.

Almaty, Kazakhstan

• The biggest city in the country, I had planned to visit this essentially to do the day trip, to cover the canyon and the couple of lakes.

• Charyn Canyon: One of the oldest canyons in the world, though considerably smaller than the Grand Canyon. The tour started with a pick up from Almaty, a 3 hr drive to the Canyon, then walk down the canyon along with the local guide/tour operator. Beautiful views of the canyon on both sides. The walk was memorable, which culminated in a magnificent viewing point atop a small summit.

• Kaindy lake: A lake formed by a landslide which resulted from a major earthquake, offers magnificent views of an underwater forest. It’s actually “to be seen is to be believed.” It’s recommended to take the horse ride from the car drop point to the lake. You may even do the van ride as well. Don’t try to do the walking trail as it may tire you out completely.

• Kolsai Lake: The final leg of the journey was a visit to another lake, Kolsai Lake, another beautiful glacier view offering magnificent views, and this lake offers a boating facility as well. If you go during the winter, you can walk around, play, and run around on the frozen lake also.

• Shimbulak: It is a ski resort and the largest ski resort in central Asia. We went during October but were lucky enough to experience a good amount of snowfall.

Baku is a lot like Paris, having lots of street-side cafes as well as specialty restaurants, mostly in and around the old town and Nizami street area.

Top of the list is Dolma Restaurant—an underground restaurant with huge portions of Azerbaijani cuisine. Mostly non-vegetarian food, veg-eating people will have problems here.

Then comes Shakespeare Coffee and Bistro—we stopped over here to take a hot chocolate break, but they serve all kinds of cuisine. And it has a nice ambiance, too, with some exotic Persian cats walking around and longing to be pet by the guests.

The third, and our last stop in Baku for dinner, was at Paris Bistro—another upmarket and a very popular restaurant (it was chock-a-block full even on a weekday). You can enjoy the evening with some fine wine as well here.

In Almaty, there is a very beautiful café within the Panfilov Park—called Agosto Coffee. It’s an ideal place to just enjoy a cup of coffee and relax and enjoy the views of the park all around you. Food and drinks are available too, but we went in the winter and coffee was the one we preferred there.

And during our day trip to Shimbulak—up at the ski resort when it was shivering cold outside, we had a great experience in Café Gusto, with beautiful views outside.