What a fabulous trip it sounds as though you’re having! Yes, we went lots more places, but I just didn’t get around to writing it up yet, we’re still on the road. What I recommend: 1) Free walking tour Almaty (with Aiguerim, she’s fabulous – https://www.guruwalk.com/walks/59318-almaty-all-the-highlights-of-the-city-centre-4-and-3-h-options ) 2) don’t miss the metro stations, just buy a ticket and see them all for dirt cheap . 3) Charyn Canyon, Kolsay and Kaindy Lakes – you can fit it all into one (brutally) long day, but it helps with a time crunch and but we had great fun on it https://www.getyourguide.com/almaty-city-l1414/almaty-charyn-canyon-kolsay-and-kaindy-lakes-day-trip-t565634/?partner_id=7KYIG0N&utm_medium=online_publisher 4) Big Almaty Lake and the “Original Apple” orchard, beautiful lake and while the apple orchard isn’t much to see, its still nice to go to.
I wrote most of our Kazakhstan travels on Facebook – this should find all the details. https://www.facebook.com/profile/751866949/search/?q=kazak We also went up to Astana, Shymkent and Turkestan

Glad it was useful Jake, what a nightmare with the bus leaving – that was the whole reason I wrote it it, we were worried that we’d never find the bus!

You CANNOT take a Yandex all the way, you get a Yandex from Bishkek to the Border, then cross the border and then you can take another Yandex from the border to Almaty. Or, take the bus like we did. (i.e. Yandex to the Bishkek bus station), then bus from Bishkek bus station cross the border, get the second bus (included in the price) and then from the Almaty bus station get another Yandex to wherever you are staying.