Face of Kazakhstani vol.2

Comparing the diverse Central Asian face to the software of Kazakhstan , the hardware is still conservative Russian style. Cities, markets, buildings, signboards in Cyrillic characters, marshrutkas (mini-bus), subways and trains ... for example. The gap between central Asian and Russian infrastructure is interesting to me.
Yeah, there must be places which has combination of Asian resident and Russian infrastructure in the world. But in the ex-Soviet countries where I have been, Ukraine or Baltic states, Westerner was on Russian style infrastructure.

So in short, as long as you stay in a city of Kazakhstan, you may not feel the ethnic taste of Central Asia. It looks like some city in Russia. The attraction of Kazakhstan may be in the big nature. Almaty's backdrop is 4000 meter peaks. The mountains attract trekkers. Once you get out a town by long train, you see the grass hills and shepherd on the horse back. Whereas Astana in the North is the capital city where super modern architectures stand in a row.

As preparing for the trip, I got a lot of tips about the country such as "A despotism, Rich by abundant natural resources like oil or gas..." It made me excessively nervous. However real Kazakhstan is not such a dubious country at all.
The local currency rate is relatively stable. Living standard is high enough while the consumer price is not so high. Although communicating in Russian is little bit tough to me, infrastructure is on Western standard as easy enough to travel. (Although the easiness makes me boring sometime) Fortunately I've never met a vice cop.

Or it must be nomadic culture. Nevertheless the south part of the country used to be on the ancient Silk Road, I don't feel historical atmosphere in Kazakhstan. It has absolutely different impression from Uzbekistan which appeals historical heritage and strong ethnic culture. The neighboring two countries have similar name but live in the different stream each other. That's a my conclusion.