We visited Kazakhstan as part of our first trip to Central Asia. The other country was Uzbekistan. You can read about our experiences in Uzbekistan here. (Disclaimer – this is not a travelogue)

Kazakhstan is a huge country geographically. On a flat map, it appears as big as India, perhaps even bigger if the map does not show Kashmir as a part of India. It dwarfs the other 4 ‘-stans’. Kazakhstan is also the wealthiest country in Central Asia, and has 3 times the per capita income of Uzbekistan, thanks to oil & gas in the Caspian Sea which it borders. Kazakhstan also houses the Baikonur space facility, a name I heard as a child whenever the USSR launched a satellite. Its capital is Astana, although very few tourists visit it. Tourism is concentrated in the Almaty region. We wanted to visit East Kazakshtan too – the Katon Karagay region, but did not have time and at this point it is quite expensive to explore the area as the infrastructure is not very well developed. No such problems in the Almaty region.

Almaty is the erstwhile capital of Kazakhstan, a beautiful city situated at the foothills of the Tien Shan mountains. From almost everywhere in the city you can see the snow capped mountains, making Almaty one of the most spectacular capitals I have visited. Like Tashkent, it is very green and well planned, but to an even higher degree. It has pedestrian walkways as wide as many roads in India and the city has many parks, making walking very easy and rewarding. One thing that strikes you is how ‘Asian’ the people look. They certainly look more ‘Asian’ than Uzbeks. Kazakhstan also has a significant Russian minority, who look European. Then there are ethnic minorities from neighbouring countries, and also locals mixed with Russians who look part European and part Asian. Although Almaty has a large mosque at the city centre, the city feels very western. I have mentioned in my Uzbekistan post that Kazakhs appear less religious than Uzbeks. This is mainly from experiences in Almaty, although the interiors could be different.

My first impression of Kazakhs was that they are not as chatty as Uzbeks. In the foreign exchange counters we encountered mostly people of Russian origin (or at least we thought so) and we found them to be a little serious. We thought that Kazakhstan has more Russian influence and that’s why they keep to themselves. Over the next 8 days that feeling somewhat went away as we met friendly Kazakhs.

Before visiting Almaty I was aware that Kazakhstan has a Korean minority. I had thought that this was due to South Koreans working as expats in its growing economy. I was mistaken. Our guide during one of the group tours told us that the Koreans in Kazakhstan are North Koreans displaced by Stalin. USSR bordered North Korea to the east, and Stalin felt that the Koreans residing in USSR at the border of North Korea would betray them to the Japanese in case of a conflict. Hence he moved them far from the border into Kazakhstan. Since many Kazakhs also resemble Asians, it is difficult to say who is of Korean origin and who is of Kazakh origin simply by looking.

There is a wide variety of cuisine available in Almaty – Japanese, Korean, Thai, Georgian, Middle Eastern, Mexican and Indian. Georgian cuisine seems to be increasing in popularity. Burger is a very popular food, as is Pizza. Although you won’t find the gigantic Uzbek type bread, the quality of bread is generally very high all across the region. For us Indians who have to settle with boring, crumbly, sliced bread back home, it is an absolute delight to eat bread in Central Asia. Although alcoholic drinks are easily available, you don’t see people drinking them in open. Iced teas are quite common and some very good flavours can be found. Bobba tea has become hugely popular, especially among the young.

The highlight of our Kazakhstan trip were the mountains and lakes. Coming from arid and flat Uzbekistan, it was certainly a contrast and added variety to our trip. The mountains and valleys are very similar to what you will find in the Kashmir region of India. The difference is that in the case of Kazakhstan they are very easy accessible from a major city (Almaty). At many times during our trip we were left wondering how it would be to ‘work from home’ from Almaty if we had an opportunity. I’m sure it would be lovely. Unlike Tashkent, the city has many high rise apartment complexes housing Airbnbs. These places have shops in the same complex, making it very convenient to spend extended durations of time here. Public transport is very good and cheap.

We had decided to break up our Almaty stay into two accommodations in different parts of the city. We like to hang around in non-touristy places also, to get an idea of how locals live. The second stay we had booked was in an old Soviet style block of housing. When we arrived there, I was transported back in time. It was a low rise building, with a tiny park in the middle of the blocks where you could sit and read newspapers or smoke or generally chill out. It reminded me of government housing in New Delhi were we stayed as kids. The interior of the apartment was immaculately renovated and very modern. Unfortunately the block was experiencing water supply disconnection that day and with no resolution in sight, we had to move to another, a less optimal apartment in a nondescript part of the city.

As our two-week trip progressed, it was getting hotter and hotter. One day to escape the heat we decided to have lunch at a food court in the air conditioned environs of a mall. While having our meal, we were joined by a Kazakh man, 53 years of age. He was accompanied by another man, slightly older, who spoke very less but was equally friendly. They both were Martial Art exponents, a sport at which Kazakhs are apparently quite good. He mentioned that he had been to Hyderabad in India for a Taekwondo championship. He recalled having very spicy food and meeting very friendly locals in Hyderabad. When I asked him how he could speak English unlike other Central Asians for whom the second language tends to be Russian, he explained that it was because he had stayed in Canada for a few years. This time our long chat did not require any help from Google Translate.

It was during our chat with the friendly Kazakhs that we got another example of how world events are perceived differently by people in different parts of the world. He was under the impression that it was Pakistan who had attacked India because we had cut off water supply to Pakistan. This was wrong at multiple levels and I proceeded to give him a lengthy explanation of the sequence of events. He was also curious about the exact nature of the Kashmir dispute and was extremely surprised to know that both Pakistan and China also control parts of Kashmir.

Like in many other countries, India is synonymous with Bollywood in Central Asia. There is no escaping it as an Indian tourist. If you are recognised as an Indian tourist you will definitely be greeted by names like Shahrukh Khan, Amitabh Bachchan and wait for it – Mithun Chakraborty. One can understand the first two, but I was intrigued by the popularity of Mithun Da. My later investigations revealed that the movie Disco Dancer was a huge hit in Central Asia. Amir Khan’s movies are quite well known and well regarded too.

In Almaty I saw quite a few ‘English Schools’. I guess they are realizing that knowledge of English is more valuable than knowledge of Russian as a second language. There are some people who speak only Russian. These are probably recent migrants from Russia. In an Almaty related subreddit that I visited to get some information about the city, I found that Kazakhs do not have a very positive view of the recently migrated Russians. They believe these Russians (unlike the ones who settled much earlier), do not integrate into Kazakh culture and have not bothered to learn the local language. Replace Russian with Hindi and Kazakh with some regional Indian language and you could be talking about any place in India outside the Hindi speaking regions!

In both countries we found people to be very well behaved. Tourists are seen very positively and not as a menace unlike in some European countries that are swarmed with them. At passport control in Almaty I was greeted by a hearty ‘Welcome to Kazakhstan’ by the immigration officer. Random locals while interacting with you will say the same words. It is good to see that you are valued as a tourist. I don’t know for how long though. Every country seems to be getting overrun with tourists right now. Uzbekistan seemed to have a lot more tourists than Kazakhstan, perhaps because of its spectacular monuments. Kazakhstan tourism is more oriented towards nature trails, and perhaps this does not attract many western tourists who gravitate more towards history. For Indians like us it was great to escape from our dustbowl cities that have become giant construction sites.

I would like to visit Kazakhstan again for the eastern region, probably combining it with a trip to Kyrgyzstan’s remote areas. Uzbekistan is lovely too. It’s monuments are breathtaking, but a 2nd trip will have to wait. There is so much to see in this world. Including in my own beautiful country.