'I think you have a saying in your country: "Any publicity is good publicity"’ November 28th 2019 The blog title was the response of the Kazakh Tourism Minister when asked what he thought about Borat. I’m not sure if Borat actually did much for tourism in Kazakhstan but he doesn’t need to as the country is great.
I thought I would like Almaty, and I did. I think I once considered it as a place to move to back in my English teaching days. Any city so close to massive mountains is always ... read more
Asia » Kazakhstan » East Kazakhstan » Almaty 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. D... ... read more
When I started this blog in 2007, it was more of a highlights package of trips generally focusing on one place or aspect. My rule had been one blog per country unless I lived there, but I eventually realised that fewer blogs were appearing. Having got around quite a bit, I'm now revisiting many countries. It's getting trickier to get to completely new countries so I might break that rule on occasion. The PhD fortunately didn't curtail travelling with research in sub-Saharan Africa and India as well as the chance to attend conferences with a sneaky bit of travelling tacked on before or after th... full info