When you hear "Kazakhstan" what comes to mind?

I have to admit I knew where Kazakhstan was, and knew it used to be part of the Soviet Union, and it is supposed to be where Borat is from, but other than that what really comes to mind when you think about this country. Hopefully you'll find the following images and info as interesting as I did today.

Almaty (literally means "apples") is the largest city in Kazakhstan with over 1 million people and had been the capital of the Kazakh Soviet Socialist Republic and then the independent Kazakhstan until 1997. It was previously called Alama-Ata, the Soviet title for the city, but more on that later. This is an interesting place because it feels like China and Russia at the same time. The Kazakhi people are more Asian/Chinese/Mongol in appearance, but there are a lot of Russians who still reside here, so it is an interesting mix of types of people (not something I was expecting or what you think of when you picture the Soviet Union). Most street signs are in Russian but the Kazakh is being used more and more, so both languages are prevalent. The streets and avenues are wide and feel like China, but the architecture, especially residential, includes a lot of characteristics of Russian cottages/houses. All very interesting and surprising.

Kok Tobe
Today is Sunday so after breakfast at the hotel I started out on a tour of the city with two other colleagues on the Eurasia tour. We had three stops in mind - a hill to give a view of the city, go up into the mountains, and stop at a Stalinistic square in the city. The first stop was Kok Tobe, which provided amazing views of Almaty:



Tian Shan Mountains
The southern part of Kazakhstan, which is where Almaty is located, is extremely mountainous and the mountains are part of the Tian Shan range (means "celestial mountains" in Chinese). You may wonder why the mountains in Kazakhstan would have a Chinese name and the answer is (1) I am actually close to the far, far western frontier of China, and (2) these mountains stretch from the Gobi Desert to Iran, covering most of Central Asia. The highest point is southeast of Almaty, in Kyrgyzstan, and reaches over 24,000 feet into the sky.

After we saw some views of Almaty from Kok Tobe our driver took us up past the snow line into the foothills of the Tian Shan. At over 5,500 ft high we passed some ski resorts and the Medeo stadium built for the 2011 Asia Winter Games. Here are some views of the mountains:


Oh that's right, this used to be the Soviet Union
After being in a park and then the mountains we headed back down into Almaty to what is now called Republic Square (the size of two football fields). The city overall is very Stalinistic in design: wide avenues, apartment towers, and a central square fronting the former government building and current president's residence:

The Independence Monument is the newest addition:

Surrounding the monument were very moving images of Kazakhstan's history, including some less-than-flattering images of Russian and Soviet occupation and forced integration.

We had to be back at the hotel for an afternoon tour orientation meeting and then followed that with a opening dinner at a restaurant a few blocks from our hotel. Day one is coming to a close...work starts tomorrow.