KZBlog

Finally made it to Khan Shatyr, which opened two weeks during the Astana Day festivities. Overall, I was disappointed that it is mainly another shopping mall. We have so many shopping malls now in Astana, and all of them are right next to each other. I really don’t see the point of having Norman Foster design another one, or what the big deal is with the temperature inside being +30C even in the winter. Our other shopping centers are plenty warm in the winter and I don’t want to go shopping in such an environment. I will say that it is a huge and very pretty shopping center. And it is jam packed with stores and fast food stands and cafes and video arcades. But the only part I really liked was the beach on the top floor. While painfully small, it did look pretty cool and the idea of swimming on the 4th or 5th floor of a giant tent is pretty cool. If I remember correctly, it will cost 10 000 tenge for adults and 8 000 tenge for children to use the beach, pool, sauna, water slide and wading pool. Which if you spend all day, isn’t too bad. It does look pretty nice. However, I had been under the impression that the beach was the whole point of this thing. For shopping, I’ll stick to Mega or Republic Street, thanks very much.

Anyway, I took some photos of the inside and outside for your viewing pleasure: