This is crazy... I never thought I would ever go to Kazakhstan and despite the fact Im here already for more than 10 days, I still cant believe it!
Central Asia, was always a big black hole for me in the map, a region of which I know very little and couldnt even name the countries which exist in the region (now I can :) I even know the countries bordering with Kazakhstan and that it is the 9th largest country in the world!
Soon my way to Singapore, I decided to come here for 17 days, to spend sometime with Anya. So far it couldnt have been better, feel like Im on heaven.
But lets talk about Almaty.
Almaty is the largest city in Kazakhstan, and till around 5, 6 years ago used to be the capital city. Now the capital moved 2.000 Klms north to the city of Astana.
Almaty has about 1.5 million people and is a very stretched out city since the buildings are not that high. The city is crossed by huge avenues, some of them quite large, some others not that much, but the interesting part is that in every single street or avenue is "escorted" by trees. I dare to say that there are more trees than people in the city. And that gives an amazing view while walking or driving.
At the gates of the city we are awarded with beautiful mountains, which reach nearly 3.000 mt high. They are full of snow and are an amazing view from the city. I can see it from Anya's balcony and its such a nice feeling to look at them in the morning....
One thing I had never seen before is their taxi system :) Here any car can be a taxi! You just need to wave and immediatelly someone will stop. You say the direction, he thinks for some seconds, trying to decide if the change in route is worth the money and usually agrees. I never paid more than 200 tenge (1 eur is 170 tenge). This is the perfect win win situation. On one side the drivers get money for their gas and everybody else gets to go around the city fast, comfortable and cheap!
The weather is absolutely crazy. And I really mean the word CRAZY! I arrived here and it was 31 degrees. For the next 4 days was snowing like crazy and temperatures went lower than zero...and then the spring returned again and now its around 15 - 20. Absolutely insane :)
Finally, let me just say that Kazakhstan itself is about to enter the big gamble of world economics and will become an increasingly important player. They have found out huge reserves of oil. However since they were a very poor country, didnt have the money to invest in machinery and technology. Right now all the big oil players are here and they get 90% of the oil against 10% that goes to Kazakh people. In 5 years Kazakhstan will have enough capital and they will be getting 100% of what they extract...interesing hummm?
Hope you enjoyed the Almaty report :)
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