Kazakhstan - Part I

I arrived in Kazakhstan yesterday morning following a red-eye from Istanbul. For the last half hour of the flight the sun was rising and it made for a beautiful sight, with bright reds, oranges and yellows blanketing the landscape. To the left of the plane seemed to be a never ending plateau or steppe, while to the right were the mountains at the border with Kyrgyzstan.

I have to be honest…prior to learning that I’d be traveling to Kazakhstan, I knew almost nothing about the country other than the fact that it is a former Soviet Republic and that it is home to the character Borat. With the help of the knowledge crutch known as Wikipedia, I was able to learn a little more before my visit, but my familiarity with the country was still superficial at best.

The following are a couple of the facts about Kazakhstan that I learned:

- World’s largest landlocked country
- Larger geographically than Western Europe
- Home to the Semipalatinsk Test Site, where the Soviet Union tested its nuclear weapons

Here are some pictures as well, which I took after checking in at the hotel. On the other side of the mountain range is the border with Kyrgyzstan, where there happens to be some political turmoil at the moment given the ousting of the former president this past week following deadly protests throughout the country.