Astounding Astana: Kazakhstan, Georgia & more

[Mattg]

 

[Mattg]

From the moment I arrived in Kazakhstan, everyone was asking if I was there for the Expo. Originally I had no idea that there was an Expo on, but after arriving it was pretty hard to miss the advertising for it, such as this one in Almaty:



Some of you may remember the 2010 Shanghai Expo. Well, this year Astana is hosting the 2017 Expo on Future Energy. The city spent a lot of money preparing for the Expo and there are thousands of staff working there. 101 countries are represented. But the trouble is, it seems they forgot to advertise the Expo outside of Kazakhstan! I certainly hadn't heard about it, and I don't know anyone outside of Kazakhstan that has.

Since I was already in Astana, I thought I might as well go and check out the Expo. I went on a Saturday afternoon, but there was no need to worry about the crowds - there weren't any! I paid my 4,000 tenge entry fee (about $15) and got through within 5 minutes of arriving.





Astana had intended to use the Expo as a tourism drawcard and a chance to show off the city to the world. But I would say that 99% of the visitors there were locals. In fact, there were so few international visitors that most of the announcements were made in Kazakh only. Most of the staff I encountered there could speak English well, but seemed surprised that I couldn't speak Kazakh!

The centrepiece of the Expo was a giant ball in the middle. Inside was the Kazakh exhibition.

 

[RooFlyer]

Good grief. Moscow-meets-Baku-meets-Tbilisi-meets-Vegas!

 

[Mattg]

As I said, over 100 countries were represented. Australia wasn't one of them, even though Papua New Guinea and even Tuvalu had participated!

There were some very interesting and well-designed exhibits, but I must say, a lot of them were just along the lines of "look how great we are at conserving energy"...

Apart from the Kazakh exhibit, the most popular countries seemed to be the United States and South Korea, for some reason.







The Expo's mascots



Iranian exhibit

 

[Mattg]

Turkmenistan



Germany



I couldn't resist a cold glass of German tap beer at the end of the German exhibit for $4! I got chatting with the guy, who spoke German but was Kazakh and had lived in Sydney for two years. He said to me, "why on earth did you come to Kazakhstan for a holiday? That's an interesting choice of destination!" My response was that yes, it's very interesting - that's why I'm here.

 

[Mattg]

I visited a supermarket while in Astana. There was an incredible variety of food including self-serve pasta which you could scoop for yourself by the kilogram.



The deli was stocked with everything from those meat-filled pastries, to fresh fish, to a dozen different types of noodle salads. There were also 30 different varieties of fresh bread. And as with the rest of Kazakhstan, the prices were very cheap!

 

[Mattg]

Some final thoughts on Astana and Kazakhstan.

If you ever have the chance to visit this country, do it! It's safe, beautiful, the people are friendly, the food's good, and it's not at all expensive! The language barrier can be a little difficult, but I got by without too many problems.

Having said that, I wouldn't bother with more than a few days in Astana. It's architecturally stunning, and there's nothing wrong with the city per-se. But just like Brasilia and my home town of Canberra, it was a little... sterile. Being just 20 years old, Astana lacks the culture and history of Almaty. Everything is modern and clean, and you can easily get around, but you won't have the same experience that you would elsewhere in the country. In Astana, locals go to shopping malls for entertainment. So, going to Kazakhstan and only visiting Astana would be a bit like going to Australia and only seeing Canberra!

I'm not saying you shouldn't go to Astana - you absolutely should! But do it as a stopover on the way to somewhere else in Kazakhstan.

On a side note, what is it with planned cities? They look nice, and everything usually works pretty well. But architects cannot plan a city's soul. It's often a city's history that makes it interesting, and Astana doesn't really have one. How different would Berlin be if it hadn't been partially destroyed in the 1940s and subsequently divided for nearly 30 years?

I definitely hope to return sometime. Next time I would like to visit a few more cities, such as Aktau and Shymkent, as well as a few of the neighbouring countries. Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan are both on my list.

 

[Mattg]

Next up was Georgia!

KC119 Astana - Tbilisi
Departure time: 09:55
Arrival time: 11:30
Embraer E190
Economy class



This time I had no trouble getting to the airport in time. Astana's airport is fairly basic but it did have a new international terminal built recently and was definitely bigger than Almaty Airport.

We were on an Embraer E190 for the 3.5 hour flight to Tbilisi. The aircraft had 9 Business class seats in a 1-2 configuration, and Economy was a standard 2-2 setup. Economy was completely full; Business was almost empty.

Before this flight I did receive an email (in Kazakh) with an offer to bid for an upgrade. I didn't bid but I think the minimum amount was around USD200.

This was another very nice flight with Air Astana. As I boarded there was a bottle of water, pillow and even a small amenity kit on every seat! The amenity kit included a pen, toothbrush, socks, earplugs and an eye mask. I found the design of the mask interesting.



There was no IFE but the crew were really friendly and a hot meal was served. The choices were chicken or beef.



Flying over Kazakhstan reminded me of flying over Australia. After 2.5 hours we were still flying over Kazakhstan, and most of the scenery was desert.



Eventually we crossed over the Caspian Sea and reached Georgia.



We arrived on time and the passengers all clapped when the plane landed. On the ground in TBS, I did not recognise a single aircraft livery! Most of the flights from Europe arrive around 3am, and depart around 5am, so during the day the majority of flights were arriving from the Middle East, Russia and Ukraine.

I had heard some stories about Georgian immigration giving out free red wine to arriving tourists. (After all, Georgia did invent wine!) Unfortunately I missed out, but I did receive something else from passport control - a brochure advertising the Georgian Electronic Music Festival!

 

[kamchatsky]

Excellent TR on a country I really want to visit .....

Almaty has narrowly lost to Beijing for Winter Olympics in 2022. Hope they will win one at 2026. It is time for people worldwide to see Kazakhstan and Central Asia.

 

[Mattg]

Excellent TR on a country I really want to visit .....

Almaty has narrowly lost to Beijing for Winter Olympics in 2022. Hope they will win one at 2026.

I hope it gets picked for 2026!

It is time for people worldwide to see Kazakhstan and Central Asia.

I agree - Central Asia is so often overlooked. For whatever reason, people just don't seem to consider it as a holiday destination. As I said in my introductory post, Kazakhstan would have to be one of the most underrated tourist destinations out there!

 

[kevrosmith]

Some of you may remember the 2010 Shanghai Expo. Well, this year Astana is hosting the 2017 Expo on Future Energy.

Not sure about 2010 Shanghai, but some of us remember World Expo '88 in Brisbane! Possibly before your time, hey Mattg!

 

[RooFlyer]

I agree - Central Asia is so often overlooked. For whatever reason, people just don't seem to consider it as a holiday destination. As I said in my introductory post, Kazakhstan would have to be one of the most underrated tourist destinations out there!

One of the problems, for me anyway, is that I'd want to do a number of the 'Stans on the same trip. There are 4-5 Stan tours (I don't think it could be done independently), but they seem to be horribly expensive and priced in US$.

 

[tgh]

I tend to look for adventures.. this is one under consideration atm.

Kyrgyzstan Explorer

A very good company ; I had a ball riding from Chile to Peru last year.. but it's harder as a geriatric….

Horses can get right into the wilderness

http://www.unicorntrails.com/andbeyond/kazakhstan/kazakhstanexplorer/

sorry matt .. don't mean to hijack your xclnt ta…. carry on...

 

[RooFlyer]

Thanks. And while we are still on the topic of Kazakhstan ... :shock:

 

[JohnM]

Delighted to see you get back to Berlin. My one and only AFF meet-up location!

Mattg acing it again - and I can remember that meet-up .

 

[moa999]

Equally Australia had no representation at Expo 2015 in Milan, that I happened across

Although did at Yeosu, Korea 2012 and Shanghai 2010

 

[kamchatsky]

Thanks. And while we are still on the topic of Kazakhstan ... :shock:

I know it is off topic (unless mod wants to spin this off to another thread). Well given the western society does bikinis/semi naked photos everywhere, I am surprised they find this offensive. To me it is double standards ....

 

[JohnK]

Lovely trip report. Pleasant writing style and very good photos.

Interesting adventure that I'm sure many will not attempt. Central Asia ia not an easy place to visit. Airfares not cheap. Language an obvious barrier.

 

[Mattg]

Tbilisi, Georgia

Georgia was another country that I really enjoyed visiting! Located in the Caucasus region, it's another former-Soviet country - but it didn't really feel like it. You could almost have mistaken the capital, Tbilisi, for somewhere in Europe.

Georgia has a small population - just 3.7 million - and a unique language that doesn't seem to be linked to any other language. I was surprised to learn that it's also one of the world's most religious countries, although after seeing so many Orthodox churches around the country this statistic became less of a surprise.

The country's main claim to fame is that it is the birthplace of wine. Wine was apparently invented in Georgia, and today there are so many different varieties of Georgian wine that nobody knows the exact number. There are wineries all over the countryside, and every fourth store in Tbilisi seemed to be offering free wine tasting. I'll talk more about Georgian wine a little later.

I arrived in Tbilisi during the middle of the day. There are three ways to get from TBS Airport to the city - by train, bus or taxi. The number 37 bus runs frequently and goes directly from the airport into the city. A ticket costs 0.5 lari, or around 28 cents. This is what I used. The bus was pretty crowded and you wouldn't want to do the trip with bulky luggage.

The train would have been my preferred option, but the airport train only runs twice per DAY (yes, seriously) at 8.45am and 6.05pm! The schedule is so useless that the local tour guides didn't even seem to know it existed.

If you arrive in the middle of the night (as many flights to Tbilisi do), you'll have little choice but to take a taxi as the buses don't run during the night. You won't have any trouble locating a taxi driver - they will start harassing you from the moment you set foot in the arrivals hall, if not sooner.

The drive into the city took us along the George W. Bush Highway. Yes, apparently Georgia's former president was friendly with Mr Bush.

After dropping off my bag I went for a walk around Tbilisi. It was a hot, sunny afternoon and the city's many parks, cafes and bars were bustling with people smoking, drinking and generally just having a relaxing time. I figured that this was probably normal for a Sunday afternoon, but many of the locals seemed to be doing exactly the same thing the next day as well...

One thing that struck me was how flawlessly clean Tbilisi is. There is virtually no rubbish anywhere! No doubt this is a result of the hard work done by the many street cleaners dressed in orange.

Apart from a few basic words, I did not attempt to learn much Georgian. I would have had no hope of pronouncing the words correctly, let alone understanding the written language. The Georgian language is interesting to look at, but not so much fun to try to comprehend. Many of the younger people, and those working in restaurants etc. could speak a little English, which was nice. Not that it helped me, but most people could speak Russian well.

A few photos from around Tbilisi...

 

[RooFlyer]

Tbilisi, Georgia
<snip>

One thing that struck me was how flawlessly clean Tbilisi is. There is virtually no rubbish anywhere! No doubt this is a result of the hard work done by the many street cleaners dressed in orange.<snip>...

Ha ha. The first point I made in my own TR for here was:

Its probably the cleanest city I've ever been in - as in b-all litter. The number of discarded plastic/take-away items, or wrappers or the like I've seen must be less than ten and that's counting going up many back streets, outside KFC etc. Even cigarette butts - and they smoke a LOT here - are few and far between.