Our Life in ALMATY, KAZAKHSTAN (Apartment Tour & heading to the Mountains)

Good morning! We've actually been here for a couple of days now and let me show you what we did. We moved stuff around like table was over there and we moved it there. Big job! And we get it out when we need and we put all our camera stuff there and books and for the first time I think in a year we've actually unpacked. This is huge! This is big! This is actually a big deal for us. So this is our cupboard. We've got all our clothes there. Our small bags are underneath there and the bigger ones under the bed. Let me show you the bathroom. So we moved all our toiletries. Oh I scratched myself really bad. Right let's go and make breakfast. They don't really supposed to look like that but I don't have a shallow pan, any frying pan and a tool to flip them properly. And if you think this is a toast with butter and marmite you're right. I brought it with me. So excited! This is literally like fusion food. You've got Russian sylniki and British marmite and toast. Looks amazing! I think it's a great combo. The best! I actually really really missed cooking. So we're gonna be doing a lot of that with you from now on. And these couple days we just try to get our heads straight and catch up with family because we haven't spoken to anyone really this last month. So we've been speaking to Matt's mom, my mom, my brother, sister, gran, neutering, still your grandparents as well. Also I went to the and just doing a couple checks because I haven't done that for quite a few years. Everything's fine. I just have anemia and I just fancy checking how it's doing, checking up on it. And that's it. So tomorrow and Tuesday I think I have some tests. And for now I think we're gonna start planning our future videos. Actually cracking down on that. And I'm gonna go and do some editing. I will catch you in a bit. Looking at those last few clips you may be wondering where on earth we've just been. We've actually just been to a local migration center and this was our second time. We've been there three days ago I think to do an application form to get an to get a identification number. And we just got it! We got this identification number here in Kazakhstan to open the bank account. We're gonna explain a little bit why we're doing this but first let's head to a supermarket to grab some supplies for our flat. Okay slight change of plans because time is getting on. Matt needs to sort a few things out. I dropped him home and I'm gonna sort the card out first I think and then hop to the supermarket. So you're coming just with me. Okay I got the card. That was really long. I'm not really sure if I sorted anything out by doing it but I just need time to sit down and think about it. And I'll just tell you everything in a bit. But first let's go to the shop. Just made some dinner. It's probably gonna be some pure cack. Well I had all my checkups and all's good. Nothing I didn't google before basically. I just low on iron and completely destroyed my stomach like digestive system this year especially. Just a regular eating and too much spicy food and too much processed food. You name it. I did it all. But basically now I need to be on a very strict diet and like heal all that so it doesn't progress into something worse. And I'm struggling a little bit. I got told all that yesterday and it's like easier to say what I can have than I can't. And everything needs to be like boiled and steamed. I'm just trying to figure it out. Yeah that's that. Very very exciting news. And about the card. Well I'm sure that you are aware that Russia is heavily sanctioned. If you're not aware please tell me where you live. I think we're moving there. But I'm Russian obviously and I have family in Russia. So and the sanctions themselves they basically affect normal people. Not like the people that they should be affecting as such. Just people like you and I. I mean I assume you're not disgustingly rich. But basically if you're an oligarch you'll have no problem with life with anything really. But there's still certain banks from Russia aren't there that you can send transactions through SWIFT through whatever. But only if you send over a certain amount. And that certain amount in one of the banks for example is twenty thousand dollars. And if you send under twenty thousand dollars you get charged two hundred dollars Imagine I want to send less than two hundred dollars let's say to my gran right. So basically I wasn't able to send any money to my gran lately. And as I said we can't send that much really. But we'd like to help as and when we can. But there was no such option. So that's why I opened basically an account and hopefully I can put some cash in it now and then do a transfer. But I'm still not sure. I asked so many questions in the bank I kind of got confused afterwards. But yeah that's about it basically. It's easier here in Kazakhstan isn't it because they're on the same payment system as a lot of Russian banks are which is called the MIR system which is like Russia's equivalent of Visa or MasterCard in many ways. And they have that here so we're hoping it's going to be easier from Kazakhstan. And we could do it like a three pronged attack can't we. I honestly will not be surprised if it won't be possible because we were breaking our head and trying to find ways but there are literally none. So and good news as well Matthew finished an Azerbaijan guide. At first I was wondering what you were going to say about me. Good news as well Matthew I was thinking what have I done? What's happened? I have yes. So if you're thinking of traveling to Azerbaijan hit up our website. There's a great travel guide on there 75 pages worth. It's been a lot of blood sweat and tears but yeah I'm really happy with it. That was an intense breath. What are you thinking? Something really deep. I'm thinking that you know when you get this feeling. I don't know if you ever have this. When you get into a country and you know I'm gonna like it here. That's how it felt when we got to Almaty. Well in Kazakhstan in general but then I guess because Almaty for us was like a final kind of destination and that's where when we got here. I don't know you just you just walk out out walk out of the airport and I don't know the air just smells. You get a feeling straight away sometimes with places don't you? On that note should I show the view out the window? That's what I was staring at like. I'm gonna show you from across the camera I think. And you can see that from pretty much anywhere in Almaty. And the mountains honestly. Everything. And if you're wondering if I get this feeling that I'm not going to like the country. Yes I do. It's the truth. It's only I can't like everywhere you know. I'm not a fake douche. I could be lying but I don't want to. I'm gonna stir my shitty ragu. As we may have mentioned quite a few times already probably just in this video itself. The best thing about Almaty is that it's so close to the Tian Shan mountains which are just absolutely beautiful even mid-summer they're snow-capped. And the ski resort of Chimbulak. I think I said that right. It's only 20 minutes from the city center and we're actually going to get a cab there now. You can order a Yandex like a local Uber straight to the bottom ski run and then go up in the cable car even in the summer. So let's go have a look. I think it's going to be absolutely gorgeous. So we were actually going to come here a couple of days ago but we thought no we're going to avoid a weekend so it's a bit quieter. But we've managed to time it. We've managed to time it on constitution day. So every man and his dogs here at the moment. Hashtag losers. Can we see something in Chimbalak? Thanks. This is amazing. So actually on the way up we started in a place called Mediu I think it's At the moment it's not an ice rink it's a rollerblading rink because it's not winter. But yeah made it to station one but we're going up. Was it two more? Maybe one more. I wonder what degrees there is. My ears are deaf. Absolutely beautiful. 20 minutes in the car outside of the city center. Like what on earth. What a place. We're at 3200 meters above sea level right now and some of these mountains are above 5000 meters. I just wanted to say that you know like I definitely love this sea. Love looking at it and walking along the shore and smelling it and just staring at it but mountains are just different. I don't know you just for me this is where I feel calm at peace completely. It feels like everything's gonna be okay and where you properly recharge and still I just can't get it over my head that places like this just 20 minutes outside the city it's crazy but we're gonna come here every day now. And we're coming back in the winter. Can you imagine skiing here? Can you imagine being 20 minutes away? Well you probably can. You probably live in Switzerland. This is actually the biggest ski resort in Central Asia and the most modern, the most built up and yeah it's incredible. Absolutely incredible. The views are amazing. Also what was really interesting is as we were going up on the cable car we could see where the mountains start and then looking right up you could see where the mountains start and beyond that back towards Almaty is just steppe and the steppe continues northwards from here for it's got to be two three four thousand kilometers. It's just crazy that yeah such massive mountains and then just completely flat and these are just yeah Tian Shan mountains and then this part of the Tian Shan is the Ala-Tu range. They're just some of the most beautiful mountains in the world. Incredible. On the other side of here by the way somewhere just over the other side of that mountain is Kyrgyzstan and Lake Issyk-Kul where we were before this time last year actually. Yeah literally. It's so cold though isn't it? I wonder how many degrees are here right now. It's so windy. Yeah with the wind it's got to be 10 maybe. It was 16 down in the village down in the resort and we're another 1500 meters higher. I just love cold so much. So cozy. To be honest we'd like to stay here a lot longer but the last cable car leaves in 15 minutes and if we don't make that it's a long way down. No I was thinking we could stay. I can but I'm not sure in our light jumpers we're really equipped for it.