A lake so beautiful it’s been split in half and shared between two Kazakh provinces (Almaty and East Kazakhstan), Lake Alakol lends its name to the entire surrounding basin and lake system, but is clearly the star of the show. Just southeast of here are the legendary Jungarian Gates, one of the only portals through the mountains that separate Chinese Xinjiang from the rest of Central Asia. That means that for centuries, Silk Road caravans made Alakol a requisite stop, and legendary travelers such as William of Rubruck would write about its salty waters.
The Flemish explorer would call Alakol “as tempestuous as the ocean” due to the notorious whitecaps whipped up by the fierce area winds. Because of the unpredictable winds and ever-changing conditions, the lake seems to be a different shade of blue or turquoise with every glance, hence the name Alakol, or “Lake of Many Colors.” It’s this ungenerous climate that also means that Lake Alakol has a precariously short window for visiting tourists - beyond the summer months of June to August, it’s simply too cold and windy here for most guests to enjoy themselves.
Yet somehow despite these natural limitations, Alakol has managed to boom the last ten years into a veritable destination for family-oriented tourists, mostly Kazakhstanis and Siberians. This is in no small part due to the boosterism of the last president, who prefers to call the body of water “the Alakol Sea” and has urged Kazakhs to stay local rather than leave for Lake Issyk Kul across the border in Kyrgyzstan or Turkey and Thailand further afield. With generous government support, three towns on Alakol’s shores have sprawled into full-fledged resort zones: the villages of Akshi and Koktuma on the southern, Almaty Province side of the lake, and the village of Kabanbai (Zharbulak) on the northern, East Kazakhstan Province shore.
Indeed, these towns and the surrounding coastlines offer the only realistic access to the lake: there’s a 25 km stretch of beaches from Akshi to Koktuma, and about a 3 km stretch around Kabanbai, but beyond that the shore is marshy and impenetrable. Most travelers prefer to stay at resorts in these towns, as there they can avail themselves of plumbing and the perks of the all-inclusive lifestyle. Nature-lovers, however, can also brave the occasional swarm of gnats to park up on one of the many “wild beaches” (dikye plazhy) outside of the towns proper.
Akshi, Koktuma and Kabanbai are buzzing hives of beach life, with banana boats, hawkers and the rest. But tourists should keep in mind that the lake is also a precious natural resource, a priceless habitat for bird life in particular. The Alakol Nature Preserve has administrative control of the rugged Araltobe islands, which have been known to host colonies of rare avian species, but park rangers complain that pleasure cruises from Kabanbai breach the buffer zone around the islands and threaten the fragile ecosystem. Thus, Alakol should be seen not just as a beach paradise (though it is), but also as a ecotourist treasure that should be handled with care.
