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“No other modern-day leader has used the myth-making power of architecture to construct a sense of national identity like Nazarbayev,” says Frank Albo, author of a new book on the Kazakh capital, Astana: Architecture, Myth and Destiny. “What you see here is a blend of postmodernism, Central Asian art, Islamic decor, Russian baroque, neoclassicism, orientalism, all melded into something that looks like Las Vegas meets Disneyland on nationalist steroids.” In a bid to cast off the shackles of the Soviet era, the president has embraced practically everything else.

Nazarbayev has spent the last 20 years building a city-sized monument to himself in the middle of nowhere

Architects tend to have a thing for strong men, and with the arrival of a dictator with a gushing pump of oil money and a keen interest in architecture, few big practices have managed to resist beating a path to Nazarbayev’s door.

...

“The whole place is a combination of Kafka and Orwell,” says Yevgeniy Zhovtis, director of the Kazakhstan International Bureau for Human Rights and Rule of Law, an NGO based in Almaty. “It has cost dozens of billions of dollars to build this vanity project, yet there are towns and villages a few kilometres away which don’t have proper roads, electricity or basic civic services. All the money that is spent on heating these huge buildings in winter and cooling them in summer could be used to fund decent services and infrastructure for the rest of the country.”

It is a common sentiment for which the $3bn Expo has become a potent focus, as a painful symbol of profligacy when almost half the population still lives on $70 a month. The project was mired in scandal from the beginning, accused of diverting money from the national pension fund and subject to claims of public sector employees being forced to buy tickets to bolster visitor numbers. Three top Expo officials were arrested for embezzlement.

“The Kazakh people are now very angry,” says one primary school teacher, visiting the Expo with her class of children from the town of Esil, six hours’ drive away. “We are proud that the Expo is here, but the leaders of our country have spent far too much money on it, trying to show off to the world.”

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Time to look for a camping spot.

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Found. What followed were 2 days in rain, and I took no pictures. I also had to drink all kinds of bad water, since there were water holes for cattle.

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I was happy to head towards a village I've spotted on the map. I was so disappointed, that it turned out to be a complete ghost town. Apperently an earthquake had destroyed it.

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Hurray! After some kilometers, the whole village was rebuilt by the government. Every house looked the same. It was difficult to find the shop. I asked people and they told me in russian, how many houses I had to pass. Kind of ackward to walk to open the unlocked door, and walk into a random home in Kazhstan. After looking into some empty rooms, I finally found the room with the store. I stocked up pretty good, because the next section would not be populated.

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The straighted road I've ever been on. Thank good I had a good audiobook.

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Kazakhstan's President Nursultan Nazarbayev has abruptly announced his resignation 29 years after taking office.

In a televised address on Tuesday, the 78-year-old said he has made the "difficult" decision to terminate his authority as president, but did not give a specific reason for the shocking decision.

"I have decided to end my duties as president," Nazarbayev said before signing a decree terminating his powers effective March 30.

...

Giant_Pupils posted:

I was in Bucharest last week and it loving owned. Not exactly central Asia but it's nearby.

Giant_Pupils posted:

I was in Bucharest last week and it loving owned. Not exactly central Asia but it's nearby.

Grape posted:

No it isn't wtf lol.

Go post in the China thread about visiting Kabul or something next.

Giant_Pupils posted:

It borders Ukraine and I liked the picture. C'mon dude.
Sorry, I know I'm taking liberties here but it's the closest I have ever gotten and the culture was absolutely unique. Apologies if it doesn't belong here.

Giant_Pupils posted:

It borders Ukraine and I liked the picture. C'mon dude.
Sorry, I know I'm taking liberties here but it's the closest I have ever gotten and the culture was absolutely unique. Apologies if it doesn't belong here.

Giant_Pupils posted:

It borders Ukraine and I liked the picture. C'mon dude.
Sorry, I know I'm taking liberties here but it's the closest I have ever gotten and the culture was absolutely unique. Apologies if it doesn't belong here.

Ratjaculation posted:

cotton.jpg

GolfHole posted:

im glad u had fun

Ratjaculation posted:

cotton.jpg

Accretionist posted:

During temperature inversion, trapped smog:

quote:

The disappearance of the lake was no surprise to the Soviets; they expected it to happen long before. As early as 1964, Aleksandr Asarin at the Hydroproject Institute pointed out that the lake was doomed, explaining, "It was part of the five-year plans, approved by the council of ministers and the Politburo. Nobody on a lower level would dare to say a word contradicting those plans, even if it was the fate of the Aral Sea."

The reaction to the predictions varied. Some Soviet experts apparently considered the Aral to be "nature's error", and a Soviet engineer said in 1968, "it is obvious to everyone that the evaporation of the Aral Sea is inevitable.

Ez8 posted:

I can get down with this funky poo poo you're throwing down, OP. Give me some more. Let's get wrecked on Central Asia.

sweet thursday posted:

Giant_Pupils posted:

I was in Bucharest last week and it loving owned. Not exactly central Asia but it's nearby.

Randarkman posted:

Since Borat has come up multiple times and there was that Bucharest post (I've also been to Romania, though I was in the north, which had good nature and depressing towns, including one where all the Romani had been forced into a walled compound), it's kind of worth noting that that actually establishes a connection between Central Asia and Romania since the Kazakhstan scenes in the Borat movie were actually filmed in a Romanian village.

zaepg posted:

"If you we're in Tajikistan you'd be home by now!"