The Bad News: Poverty is still widespread and Kazakhstan continues to face major economic challenges, particularly with unemployment and inflation. The people of Kazakhstan also have to live with the aftermath of Soviet-era nuclear testing and toxic waste dumping and with increasing drug addiction and a growing incidence of HIV/AIDS. (BBC News)

More Bad News! The Aral Sea Catastrophe: Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan share what was once the world's fourth largest sea. Not any more. The sea has shrunk and split into two parts mostly as a result of a Soviet-sponsored irrigation project that diverted the two rivers feeding the sea. On the upside, there are new tourist attractions -- abandoned ships. Wouldn't that be a great place for a wedding party?

"Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan"

Banned here and in Russia, this film is either outrageously funny or outrageously offensive, depending whom you ask. I guess I'm somewhere in the middle, but I'm probably not the right person to talk to. You are reading the words of the rare American who has visited Kazakhstan but never seen the movie, rather than the other way around.

There is almost nothing, in short, remotely truthful in the satiric
depiction of Kazakhstan popularized by Sacha Baron Cohen, the British comedian
who plays a bumbling, boorish, anti-Semitic, homophobic and misogynistic
Kazakh television reporter named Borat Sagdiyev -- New York Times

Some Examples of Borat's Fictional Kazakhstan:

In fact, the only fact in the entire movie is the geographic location of Kazakhstan.

Presidential Reaction: Kazakhstan's president Nursultan Nazarbayev is not known for his tolerance of public criticism, but some extremely wise staff member must have told him there was only one way to spin this potential public relations nightmare. While visiting the UK last November for talks with Prime Minister Tony Blair, he was asked for his opinion of the movie. Here are some quotes from his response...

NOTE: The Kazakh scenes were actually shot in and around the Romanian village of Glod -- the word for "mud". The villagers have sued alleging they were underpaid and deceived into believing the movie would be a documentary about their hardship, rather than a comedy mocking their poverty and isolation. They want $30 million and a reedit of the film to cast Glod/Mud in a better light. Stay tuned.

NOTE: Two South Carolina fraternity brothers sued 20th Century Fox on November 9, claiming they were plied with alcohol and tricked into making racist and sexist remarks to Borat during the filming of the movie. One month later, the case was tossed out of court.

The "Borat Bounce" in Tourism:

Kazakhstan could have the last laugh as it prepares to cash
in on its first invasion of tourists -- The Times of London

Just for the record, The "Borat" idea is not exactly an original one. I wholeheartedly agree with the following:

I wish Cohen had instead invented a country like Molvania,
the subject of the hilarious Jetlag Travel Guide published
two years ago. The basic riff is the same as Cohen's -- a visit to an
impoverished hellhole of a country that used to be part of the Soviet Union.
Molvania is 'A Land Untouched by Modern Dentistry,' blessed
with a form of folk music that is unique because of its "emphasis
on volume over melody." -- New York Times columnist John Tierney

Genuine Tourist Attractions in Kazakhstan: (More thanks to the Times of London)

My Experience in Kazakhstan: I took a minibus from Bishkek to Almaty. It was a beautiful mountainous ride that took almost six hours -- at least two of which were spent crossing from Kyrgyzstan to Kazakhstan. I walked through both immigration posts then watched my minibus get detoured to the back of the Kazakh building. Bags were searched. Then everybody had to walk a second time through Kazakh immigration. Bags were searched again; nobody had any contraband.

At the one restroom stop we made along the way, a man who was on my bus saw I didn't have small change for the toilet, so he gave me the money. The guy looked like he was rather poor but was obviously happy he helped.

So I arrive in Almaty at this depressing dive known as the Sayran Bus Station. No taxis in sight. In this part of the world anyone with a car (or something resembling a car) is a taxi driver. A ferret could be a taxi driver if she owned a car. Nobody cares. Great, huh? I walk out to the main road and within a couple minutes a hyper, young man walks up to me and says "taxi!"

I'm an adventurous guy, so I thought, "Yeah, why not?" I showed him the name of the hotel and the address. He had no idea where it was, and he wanted an obscene amount of money to take me there. I got the price down by one-third. His car wouldn't start. He popped the hood, got out, and started puttering around. I had to turn the key to start the taxi for my overpriced ride from a driver with absolutely no sense of direction.

When we got to one of the main streets in town (Abalay Khan), I noticed some old women standing at various points in the road with signs. They were advertising apartments for rent. I paid Mr. Shitbox his money and went to work. The first thing I learned is that Almaty is colossally overpriced. I am a budget traveler/backpacker, so when I see a room that costs US$50, and it should be US$20, I get really annoyed.

I eventually settled on some dark, creepy, tenement-style apartment for US$30. In any other Central Asian city this place would have been maybe US$12. As dark and filthy as this place was, it did have one amazing feature -- a working television set with a couple dozen channels, including one American cable channel. So to sit in the midst of a dump that resembled a drug den while watching Fox News Channel have a discussion about the verbal brawl between Rosie O'Donnell and Donald Trump was quite surreal.

Almaty is a terrible town to walk in. Distances are loooong. It got to the point where I just couldn't do it anymore. I took a city bus to Ramstor shopping mall, the nicest in the city, found a legitimate taxi driver, and hired him for two hours to run all my errands and take me everywhere I wanted to go. Anytime he didn't understand me (which was most of the time) he would scream out the window to find someone to translate. He was a nice guy and was well paid for his efforts. His name -- I kid you not -- was Morat.

Barakholka is a market/bazaar several miles west of Almaty. The taxi driver who took me there did something I'd never seen before. He got to a very busy "T" intersection and wanted to make a left turn, but a sign clearly indicated it was not allowed. So, he improvised by making a right turn, driving about 25 feet then making an abrupt U-turn thereby completing his prohibited left turn. I wonder if that's on the Kazakh driving test.

How do you explain this? There is no McDonalds or Burger King in Almaty (see the substitutes in the pictures below), but you can get a delicious scoop of Baskin Robbins ice cream at their stand in the Ramstor food court. Also in the same food court is "Domino Donuts" with the same color scheme and font as Dunkin' Donuts. I dare say they were almost as good.

Safe food to eat: Everything in Almaty is a rip-off. Familiar food is available, but believe me, it'll cost you. Here are a few places I tried, and they were all very good...