Unlikely tourist destinations: Kazakhstan

Ever since Borat, that quite famous comedy movie about a Kazakh exploring America, hit the theaters, I think many people started to associated Kazakhstan with a backwards, underdeveloped country with not much in the way of culture, and where the western ‘morals’ are defied in every possible way. Obviously, this depiction is far from the truth.

Kazakhstan has never been a booming tourist destination, but for completely different reasons. Kazakhstan is a rich country with some amazing natural sites, although it doesn’t have yet a clearly defined national identity, nor any very exciting historical monuments. Still, it is one of the most fascinating countries in Central Asia, and a good starting place for any comprehensive exploration of these parts of the continent.

Kazakhstan is the ninth largest country in the world, and one of the least known ones at the same time. It’s almost incredible how little people in general know about the vast expanses of the Kazakh steppes, or their history. But on the positive side, the lack of tourists visiting Kazakhstan only served to make the Kazakh people all the more welcoming and hospitable.

More than a tourist, in Kazakhstan foreigners are treated as guests.The people of Kazakhstan are very diverse, seeing as during Stalin’s regime many ethnic groups were deported there. There are 131 different nationalities in Kazakhstan, an incredible feat (and only about 63% of the population are Kazakhs).

Kazakhstan’s cities might not exactly be monuments of modern technology, and neither are they nice medieval cities with paved streets. Kazakhstan is on the brink of heavy industrialisation, and many cities, including the capital city of Astana, are being built and rebuilt to resemble urban giants.

Of course, that doesn’t bode very well for the historic parts, which are rapidly dwindling (so if you want to see what’s left of old Astana, you’d better hurry up). Still, urban tourism is quite rewarding, especially when you think of Almaty, Pavlodar or Turkestan.

But seeing as 9/10 of the country is covered in steppes and there are lots of uninhabited areas, doing a bit of trekking and mountain climbing is almost inevitable if you want to see more of Kazakhstan than its cities. There are many resorts in the mountains, as well as mountaineering camps where you can find professional climbers who take tours up to even the highest peaks.

Foodies will have a field trip in Kazakhstan, because there’s an incredible number of national and regional dishes. Granted, vegetarians won’t have too many options seeing as most of the Kazakh dishes contain either meat or meat stock. Beshbarmak is one of the festive dishes in Kazakhstan, served up for special occasions.

It is a dish of pasta and horse meat (horses played an important part in the culture of the nomadic Kazakhs). Manty are large steamed dumplings with a variety of fillings, especially meat and onions, but there’s also the vegetarian variant with pumpkin. You absolutely have to try the plov, a mixture of fried rice, meat, carrots, raisins and tomatoes.

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