Neither did I know about. Some random thoughts and facts about Kazakhstan.
- Apples are endemic to Kazakhstan. Apparently there are some wild apple forests around. Apples are really delicious here.
- Tulips are from Kazakhstan. To see the tulips blossom everywhere around I should come here another time.
- Noah’s ark is parked somewhere south of Shymkent towards Tashkent. You can see it from the road.
- In some countries you might call it street art or art installation, but in Kazakhstan there are just water and gas pipes above the ground.
- You can drive for hours without seeing a single tree. Steppe is it!
- Everyone with car is a taxi driver here.
- There is 130 nationalities living in Kazakhstan. There is even a big Korean and German community. Ask history what happened that they ended up here.
- The president decided that he wants trilingual country by year xy. Kazakh and Russian are not an issue here, but English is.
- When Kazakhstan decide for something, there is no middle way. It’s all in or nothing. They are also taking the Aral sea issue seriously. While they weren’t able to made agreement with Uzbekistan, they decided to build the dam and protect their part of the Aral sea and force Uzbek’s to drain water from their part only. Water level is now rising in Kazakh side and even fish had returned.
- Kazakh language used to be written in arabic script before Soviets forced Cyrillic alphabeth
- No, Kazakh is completely different from Russian.
- Jokes about Borat .. I will have to see this movie again, although it has nothing to do with Kazakhstan. Kazakh president said “Any publicity is good publicity.” Film was neither filmed in Kazakhstan.
- There are some statues only Kazakhs will understand
Photos are from Turkistan mausoleum, Turbat village and around.
Cheers!
