I just got back from Kazakhstan! Ask me anything! (And please

[Flaxbee]

tell me what I missed around here...)

:hi:

[mainegreen]

1. Were the people as super nice as I've heard?

And did you like the food?

[Flaxbee]

4. incredible people -- I was only in Atyrau, which is

where Chevron, etc., are all headquartered to be close to the Tengiz oil field. The Kazakhis are beautiful - an Asian mix of Mongolian and Korean heritage, from what I was told. Lots of TALL people, and some babushkas with faces straight out of National Geographic - just a sense of an ancient culture. And really exceptionally nice people.

Unfortunately, didn't have much local fare - Atyrau caters to westerners. My husband's former company installed some of Chevron's initial communications infrastructure in the early 1990s, and we're doing some consulting. If we go back we'll go to Almaty and hopefully have authentic cuisine.

[Whoa_Nelly]

2. Did you get to see the millioniare Richard Garriot go into outer space?

along with all that digitized DNA, ranging from Stephen Hawking to Stephen Colbert? :hi:

[Flaxbee]

5. no! We got there a day after he left --

lots on the news about it, though. From what I saw at the corner of the Caspian, parts of Kazakhstan are very FLAT - great for a space launch station!

[KamaAina]

3. What's Borat up to these days?

:shrug:

[Flaxbee]

7. honestly, I don't have the foggiest clue why

whats-his-face (drawing a blank at the moment - really tired after 20+ hours of travel) portrayed Kazakhis as big white dudes. They're Asian. Some Russians still live there, but no one like Borat. Though I never saw the movie, so perhaps I'm commenting 'out of turn', so to speak.

I was only in Atyrau, near the Caspian Sea. Was really interesting, though.

[billyskank]

18. Sasha Baron Cohen

I am guessing he created the character first and only chose to make him Kazakh because he figured it was one country practically nobody in Britain would know anything about.

[Flaxbee]

19. yes!

That's him. I was so tired last night, I couldn't remember specifics....

SBC also chose wisely because Kazakhstan has serious money and is a country that is doing well - it could take the ridicule. Someplace like Kyrgystan or perhaps Uzbekistan isn't as rich or resilient right now (though Uzbekistan is up-and-coming).

[Haole Girl]

6. Will you please post pics?

:hi:

[Flaxbee]

8. unfortunately, didn't take many - just one in

front of a mosque. I am really really REALLY bad about taking pics. I'll try to upload that one at some point, though.

Atyrau is just starting to grow - a central avenue with lots of building, then a collection of very Americanized track-homes (stucco and all) for the expats working there, but once you're off the main avenue, you step into a different world. It's all changing rapidly, though, with the country's oil wealth. Nezarbayev seems to realize outside investment and participation is helpful to the country but is very wary of getting ripped off by big Western (or nowadays, Russian or Chinese) business.

[Haole Girl]

9. I just can't imagine traveling that far and not taking pics!

But I'd like to see the one of the mosque... when/if you can post it. Thanks. :hi:

[madinmaryland]

12. Isn't there KBG or whatever it is now running the countries over there?

Putin??

:scared:

[Flaxbee]

13. the FSB

is what the KGB was.

Possibly. But everyone's just interested in oil.

How're Sonia and your other furry kids? And the humans? :hi:

[madinmaryland]

15. Sonia is doing fine. She still does not understand the red dot.

Go figure. Her brothers love it!

Interestingly, Putin has lost half the wealth (fake) of his country in the last three month, with oil dropping back to $70US.

Wonder what will happen.

[Flaxbee]

20. well, Russia has a $200 billion 'rainy day' reserve ...

so they'll be fine. Putin hasn't lost it - all countries have lost money because of the dropping oil prices, but OPEC'll take care of that before too long and cut supply.

Russia, as a country, has NO DEBT. Can you freaking imagine that? And a $200 billion rainy day reserve. The only thing that's going to happen is that the big oil and gas companies are going to scale back their capital expenditures a bit, but they can't too much or else future production will suffer.

[madinmaryland]

27. I'm not so sure about that. Russia has built their wealth

over the last few years on energy. While they may have an actual budget surplus and a rainy day surplus, i think that is a bit misleading. Consider that they are still very close to a dictatorship that controls the country's economy. How is their healthcare, compared to our shitty healthcare system.

:shrug:

Also, if the gov't can write a $750billion check, then I guess a $200 billion reserve is just peanuts.

:shrug:

[Flaxbee]

30. most Russians are far, far, far happier today than 10 - 20 years

ago. The country is still putting its social/legal infrastructure in place, but Russia is in better shape than the US is. And that energy wealth is not going to go away... it's not just oil, but other natural resources like natural gas, minerals, forests (if they manage them properly).

Our gov't can't write a $750 billion check, we borrowed it. Economically, Russia is in good shape, though if they really do start to spend a lot more on defense, they could go down the same idiotic rabbit hole the US did and blow their country's wealth on bombs and bullets. None of our Russian friends feel oppressed.

I'm not saying they are better as a whole - but they are in better economic shape right now.

[fortyfeetunder]

10. What was the best thing you ate while you were there?

And, other than the financial crisis, you didn't miss much...

[Flaxbee]

11. hmm. lychee fruit was pretty interesting...

unfortunately, we were in an area that catered almost exclusively to americans/western europeans, so the food wasn't really any different at all. When/if we go back we'll go through Almaty and have much more local fare.

The hotel we were in had CNN, France24, BBC and Al Jazeera news in English 24 hours a day; we got up at 6 a.m. on Thursday to watch the debate (and interestingly, EVERY channel above carried it). So I witnessed the world affairs.

I was wondering what was going on here! I know Parche is back, looks like lizziegrace got a job... other good stuff or noteworthy events?

[cemaphonic]

24. Do they grow lychee there?

I've always associated it as a SE Asian subtropical fruit.

[Flaxbee]

25. It seemed these had been imported -

-- but I'm not really sure. Kazakhstan is an Asian country, so perhaps there is enough demand to grow it there. The country has some pretty severe temperature extremes, though, so it might not be good growing territory.

[cemaphonic]

26. Probably all imported then

wiki says they need frost-free winters, and high summer rainfall, which I'm guessing don't particularly apply to much, if any part of Kazakhstan.

[Withywindle]

14. Did you get to go horseback riding?

And did you try any of that traditional mares'-milk liquor the Mongols were infamous for?

Did you get to hear any traditional music? (I LOVELOVELOVE Central Asian string music and singing.)

[XemaSab]

16. Kumys

:9

[Flaxbee]

22. No, neither, unfortunately.

Atyrau is really very westernized, the parts we were in. We stayed at the Marriott; lots of oil guys hiring beautiful Kazakhi 'companions'. But many of the oil guys who live there have married Kazakhis (the women are gorgeous).

I have developed a pretty extreme allergy to horses - used to help my trainer transition thoroughbred race horses to companion horses. But it seems the last few years I can't really get too close to horses w/o having heavy-duty doses of Benadryl (which I didn't have with me).

[Parche]

17. FLAXEE!!!!!!!!!!!

How did you get there?? :rofl: :rofl: :rofl:

:hi: :hug:

Glad you are back!!!!
Hopefully it went well!!!

[Flaxbee]

23. hi Parche!

It is so nice to see you back! Looks like you've been very busy - lots and lots of posts this past week :D

[datasuspect]

21. did you bring back any potassium?

[spindrifter]

28. I met some Kazakh people in

Afghanistan. They were really nice--friendly, smart.

[Initech]

29. I'm tempted to make a lot of Borat references right now!

:evilgrin: