What to Expect
One Peace Corps Volunteer put up a series of posts on what to bring to Kazakhstan, what you need to know, and other advice. Now these are targeted for PC volunteers so they may not apply to tourists or diplomats planning to come live in Kazakhstan, but they are an interesting point of view so I thought I’d link to them here.
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Culture
- Yurts Are High Fashion and Slum Fashion Too
2011-12-05 - Apples, Sure. But THC is from Kazakhstan too?
2011-10-05 - Naked Man Pot
2011-09-23
- Yurts Are High Fashion and Slum Fashion Too
Resources
- Oh, CNN
2012-07-21 - What Do You Know About Kazakhstan?
2012-07-19 - Books for Kazakh Students
2011-11-06
- Oh, CNN
Politics
- Image
2011-07-28 - Sub Rosa Endorsement
2011-07-26 - The Naked Truth
2011-06-12
- Image
News
- KZBlog is going down
2013-09-10 - Oh, CNN
2012-07-21 - Repentence
2012-07-15
- KZBlog is going down
Fun
- What Do You Know About Kazakhstan?
2012-07-19 - Yurts Are High Fashion and Slum Fashion Too
2011-12-05 - House Hunters Bishkek
2011-12-02
- What Do You Know About Kazakhstan?
Tourism
- Asian Games Torch
2011-01-12 - Wikitravel
2010-08-07 - ALZHIR, the Soviets and Democracy
2010-07-30
- Asian Games Torch
Life in KZ
- Photo Gallery: Almaty Subway
2011-12-07 - Healthcare and the Private Sector
2011-11-30 - Naked Man Pot
2011-09-23
- Photo Gallery: Almaty Subway
I’d agree with that list for the most part.
I packed too many clothes, not realizing that where I would be at taking showers everyday is considered a waste of water. So it was also common to wear the same thing 2 or 3 days in a row.
Apples are from Kazakhstan is a great book to read. I read it before hand and found myself in the authors shoes in a good handfull of places/situations.
I’m also not a boot wearer in the states. Here in the big city I can get by wearing sneakers or business casual shoes year round (even in winter). In the big city of Almaty and most certainly in Aktau roads/sidewalks/dirth paths are not generally designed with water runoff in mind. I found a good pair of “business casual” boots in the green Bazar for around $50 USD (8,000 kzt) and they handled the abuse of the Kazkak winter very well.
What kept me sane the most with limited internet access (1 hour a week) was my laptop and external hard drive filled with eavery season of Top Gear.