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Kazakhstan Travel Blogs

Native Kazakhs, a mix of Turkic and Mongol nomadic tribes who migrated into the region in the 13th century, were rarely united as a single nation. The area was conquered by Russia in the 18th century and Kazakhstan became a Soviet Republic in 1936. During the 1950s and 1960s agricultural "Virgin Lands" program, Soviet citizens were encouraged to help cultivate Kazakhstan's northern pastures. This influx of immigrants (mostly Russians, but also some other deported nationalities) skewed the ethnic mixture and enabled non-Kazakhs to outnumber natives. Independence in 1991 caused many of these newcomers to emigrate. Current issues include: developing a cohesive national identity; expanding the development of the country's vast energy resources and exporting them to world markets; achieving a sustainable economic growth outside the oil, gas, and mining sectors; and strengthening relations with neighboring states and other foreign powers. To be updated

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By kazakhanne
March 13th 2007

Dato ændret - igen igen Asia » Kazakhstan » Taraz

Først skulle vi rejse d. 15/3 - så skulle vi rejse d. 25. Så blev det igen ændret til d. 20 - hvis vi var heldige. Men for en sikkerhedsskyld blev det igen ændret til d. 26., så de var sikre på, vi kunne nå det. Men nu er det vist langt om længe lykkedes. Vi skal rejse d. 2/4, og nu håber jeg virkelig det kommer til at passe. Problemet var, at vi ikke kunne få visum til Kazakhstan, sådan lige umiddelbart, og det trak lidt ud. Jeg nyder at fortælle historien om, at man bliver nødt til at bestikke [View Full Entry]

By IanDoesAsia
September 10th 2006

Russia or bust! Asia » Kazakhstan

Alpine Valley in Kyrgyzstan #1

We are in Kazakhstan - the land of Borat. We’ve been here for two days, chilling out, seeing the sights of Central Asia’s wealthiest city - Almaty. We’ve also been preparing for our travels through Russia. Later today we catch a train to Novosibirsk. Getting to Siberia is something that greatly inspires us. In the meantime, here’s what we’ve been up to recently… Our final days in Kyrgyzstan After leaving the capital, Bishkek, we spent three excellent days in and around Karakol, near the shores of the famous Lake Issyk-Kul. It was a ve [View Full Entry]

By Bikepacker
August 25th 2006

Escape from Kazakstan! - "We want your Sperm"! Asia » Kazakhstan

"Cafe Babushka"

Day 84, 23rd August Petropavlovsk We like this place so much so that we decided to stay another night, which means a rush to the border tomorrow before our transit visas expire. Today, we ate at a great restaurant, enough food to fill us up for hours. Then I went off with Tobes to find the post office and the internet café to do some emailing. There was a huge police presence in town due to a diplomatic visit by some Turkish delegates. The town is quite pleasant with a huge pedestrian street cutting through it. There seems to be a [View Full Entry]

By Bikepacker
August 24th 2006

Kazakhstan Welcomes the Bikepackers Asia » Kazakhstan

Kazakh Border

Day 82, 21st August Nalymovo - Makuchino - Zotino We’ve been sleeping twelve-hour nights because the days are getting shorter. The day was spent going along quieter, straight roads. Good weather, the wind behind us. We drank lots of coffee, ate at cafes, and near the last police checkpoint (where they wanted to see our Kazakh transit visas) a few miles before the border, we drank lots of beer before cycling off to find a place to camp. On the way, I had another problem with my front rack which I managed to repair while Toby cooked *gretchka. It had been [View Full Entry]

By rickmoore
July 27th 2006

Kurchatov - A hidden city. Asia » Kazakhstan

Army Monument

I arrived in Almaty (formerly Alma-Ata, formerly the capital of Kazakhstan) which is in the foothills of the Tian Shan Mountains, to transit through both Astana and Semey (Semipalatinsk) on the way to Kurchatov. Bright new airports in Almaty and Astana contrast with the old soviet style airport in Semey. On the Antonov turboprop into Semey, I was seated beside a young Kazakh boy who proudly showed me how to lower the chairback tray (I must be younger than I look) At Semey, the ground crew wore no ear muffs, and at times there were white caps on the waves in [View Full Entry]

By JoelStern
June 23rd 2006

Semey Asia » Kazakhstan

Nuclear memorial, Semey

The train ride to Semey provided us with yet another incidence of suberb Kazakh hospitality. We ended up in a compartment with 3 very dizzy and probably slightly drunk Kazakh ladies who were making the same journey as we were. Tired from staying up late the previous night and getting up early to finish tidying up in the flat, we tried our best not to get involved in conversation with them but alas, it was inevitable. They spoke no english although one of them could count to 4 in german and kept insisting on us drinking tea. They told Adam not [View Full Entry]

By JoelStern
June 21st 2006

Almaty Asia » Kazakhstan

Charyn Canyon

Saturday 10th June and we arrive into Almaty at 5am; tired and filthy after not being able to shower for 6 days! One of the ladies on our bus who spoke english was coming to Almaty for work and kindly offered us a lift to a hotel we had earmarked in the guidebook. Apparently rooms were 10 pounds a night. On arrival though, we found that once again Lonely Planet was out of date and that Hotel Almaty had gone through a refurbishment and rooms now cost 100 pounds a night - way off our budget. In the end, the porter [View Full Entry]

By JoelStern
June 10th 2006

Aralsk Asia » Kazakhstan

In Aralsk harbour

We pulled into Aralsk under the cloak of darkness, disembarked the train, took a taxi to the only hotel in town and fell asleep immediately. We woke up about 14:00 and were slightly confused as to our whereabouts. I could remember falling asleep on the train but our disembarkation and getting to the hotel all seemed like a distant memory. I got up and went down to the reception to ask where the showers were. Having spent 2 days sweating on a train we were both ready for a good wash. "Douscha Niet" came the reply from the receptionist. Hmmm. Oh [View Full Entry]

By JoelStern
June 8th 2006

Aktau Asia » Kazakhstan

MIG Statue, Aktau

Chenkui! We finally arrived into Aktau on the Caspian shore of Kazakhstan at 15:00 and after a 3 hour wait to get through passport control, we headed into Aktau. We hoped to get away immediately but soon found that we had missed the one train a day. we ended up in the Atai Hotel, a series of refurbished apartments which overlook a huge scale model of a MIG warplane in the central square. We spent the evening in our air-conditioned rooms, trying to escape the heat and preparing ourselves for the forthcoming journey to Aralsk. In the morning we took a [View Full Entry]

By JFrame
May 22nd 2005

Leaving Kazakhstan Asia » Kazakhstan

My Yurt

So after almost 2 years of volunteer work in Kazakhstan I am hitting the road. The road consists of no roads to begin with as a friend and I will ride horses across the mountians of Kyrgyzstan to the Chinese border at the Torugart Pass. Hopefully this venture will be successful since there is now turbulence in the region and it might just be too dangerous. In China I plan on going throughout the Western part checking out a Tajik city as well as some of the caves, possibly going to Tibet. Then up to Mongolia for two to three months [View Full Entry]

Travel Blog » Asia » Kazakhstan

Kazakhstan Travel Blogs, page 7

Kazakhstan Travel Blogs

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