KAZAKHSTAN WINTER NEW YEAR.

The day belongs to Almaty. We start at the Green Bazaar, a Soviet-era trading hall stacked with dried fruits, horse meat sausages and barrels of fermented kymyz. From there into Panfilov Park, snow on the war memorial and the eternal flame still burning. The afternoon highlight is the Zenkov Cathedral, one of the tallest wooden buildings on the planet, built in 1907 without a single nail. We close the day with a Russian dinner, pelmeni and borscht, the way the city has eaten for a century.

Morning, we point the coach east and drive five hours into the Tian Shan foothills toward Saty, a wooden Kazakh village above the snowline. After lunch with the homestay family, we trek to Kolsai Lake 1, sitting at 1,818 metres, its surface frozen pale under the winter sky. Back to the homestay for the headline of the night, a wood-fired banya, the Russian sauna ritual, sweat in the steam, plunge into the snow, repeat. Dinner at the family table, then dombra music by the fireplace.

Today, the two most photographed places in Kazakhstan. Morning at Kaindy Lake, where a 1911 earthquake drowned a forest of spruce trees, and the trunks still spear up out of the now-frozen turquoise surface. In summer divers swim between them. In winter you walk on the ice and look down. Afternoon at Charyn Canyon, the quieter cousin of the Grand Canyon, red sandstone walls dusted with snow, surreal at golden hour. Long drive back to Almaty, where we close the day at a stolovaya, a Soviet-style canteen, hot pelmeni and kompot on metal trays.

The headline day. Cable car up to Shymbulak, the biggest ski resort in Central Asia, sitting at 2,260 metres. The morning is a two-hour ski or snowboard lesson with English-speaking instructors, gear and lift pass included. If you already ski, the same pass opens the blue and red runs all day. Lunch is on the mountain, soup, plov and a hot drink with the white peaks in front of you. Optional banya in the evening, then dinner is Georgian, khachapuri the cheese-bread boat with a runny yolk in the middle, khinkali the soup dumpling, kebab and a glass of saperavi wine.

A slow Almaty morning, coffee, brunch, then a couple of hours for local shopping. Pick up Kazakh felt souvenirs, leather, dried fruits, vodka if that is your thing. Afternoon, cable car up to Kok-Tobe, the hill that gives Almaty its skyline view. The Christmas market is in full swing, a Beatles statue is somehow there, and the sun sets over the white Tian Shan range. Back down for the moment everyone came for, New Year's Eve at Republic Square, fireworks at the stroke of midnight, the crowd in big coats and big smiles. After the countdown, into an Almaty club to dance into 2027.

A slow start, brunch at the hotel, last walk around the city centre. Pack up and the coach takes us to the airport for the afternoon flight home. You leave with snow in your phone roll, a new appreciation for steam and ice, and probably a slight ski-day soreness. Sau bolyngyz, Kazakhstan.