The Real Kazakhstan: Where Borat Never Was

Article by: John Noble, November 2006

Post-Soviet Kazakhstan is reinventing itself as a uniquely prosperous and modern Eurasian nation.

Born of the breakup of the Soviet Union in 1991, Kazakhstan is the ninth- biggest country in the world and, thanks to huge reserves of oil and gas, is one of Asia's most important emerging economies. It sits at the heart of the Eurasian landmass, in a highly strategic position between Russia, China and the Islamic world, and astride the great steppes that stretch from Mongolia to Ukraine. These undulating grasslands are the ancestral home of the Kazakhs, a formerly nomadic people who trace their origins to the marauding Mongol hordes of Ghenghis Khan (that Borat doesn't even look like a Kazakh becomes obvious the moment you set foot in the country). Today the Kazakhs live in cities, towns and villages, along with Russians, Ukrainians and many other nationalities who mostly arrived here during the Soviet decades, often as political deportees or labour camp inmates.

The Kazakhs still look to tradition as a focus of their identity. Families trace their lineages back to the scions of Ghenghis Khan, and Kazakhs play the wild sport kokpar, a kind of free-for-all football on horseback with an animal carcass instead of a ball. Travelling any road outside the cities you'll see fur-hooded horsemen with long sticks driving large herds of horses, cattle or sheep. Horsemeat and kumys (fermented mare's milk - not, as Borat has it, the animal's urine) are still staples, especially in rural areas.

But post-Soviet Kazakhstan is also reinventing itself as a uniquely prosperous and modern Eurasian nation. While the cities maintain a Soviet imprint, with their monotonous apartment blocks and smokestack industries, they have also moved right into the 21st century, with well-stocked 24-hour supermarkets, slick international-chain boutiques, Western-style coffee lounges, plenty of good restaurants and hotels, chic bars and nightclubs, and mobile phones in everyone's pocket. Expensive modern housing is going up in the suburbs, while the cars negotiating the busy streets are more likely to be Toyotas, Volkswagens or Mercedes than Ladas or Volgas. Whatever the make, they stop for pedestrians at zebra crossings.

That Borat doesn't even look like a Kazakh becomes obvious the moment you set foot in the country.

Almaty, a leafy city of 1.3 million people in the Tian Shan foothills in southeast Kazakhstan, remains the commercial and social hub; however, since 1997 the national capital has been Astana, a former medium-sized provincial city in the northern steppe (nearer to Russia) that is being transformed at lightning speed with monumental 21st-century architecture.

Political opposition is barely tolerated under President Nursultan Nazarbaev, who has ruled the country since 1989. The president's family is enormously powerful and Nazarbaev himself is reckoned one of the richest people in the world. His rule has, however, given Kazakhstan stability in the turbulent post-Soviet era. While Kazakhs are predominantly Muslim and the Russians Christian, religious extremism is notable by its absence.

For travellers Kazakhstan is one of the world's last great unknowns. Almaty itself, along with hiking and climbing in the nearby mountains (including the magnificent 7010-metre peak Khan Tengri) and visits to Islamic monuments in the south have traditionally been the chief attractions. But Kazakhstan's barely known countryside harbours untapped riches, from the lakes, canyons, forests and snow-capped mountains along its southern and eastern fringes to the stark drama of the desert-like Ustyurt Plateau in the far west. A vast array of archaeological treasures is scattered over the country, and as you travel round Kazakhstan you'll find the locals will often go out of their way to help rare foreign visitors. (But avoid the police wherever possible: after an extremely thorough search and questioning on an overnight train from Pavlodar to Astana I found myself 10,000 tenge or US$80 lighter, for no apparent reason except that I was a foreigner.)

Excellent community ecotourism programmes have been established in some of the most beautiful areas, enabling travellers to stay with village families at an affordable cost. These include Korgalzhyn, the world's most northerly flamingo habitat, and the southern mountain villages of Aksu-Zhabagly, Ugam and Lepsinsk, jumping-off points for some of the most pristine wilderness you'll find anywhere.

The Kazakhs still look to tradition as a focus of their identity.

And Borat? Those few Kazakhs who are aware of him are mainly from better-off families who can watch MTV (where Borat infamously hosted the 2005 Europe Music Awards). Many people here realise that Sacha Baron Cohen's target, through Borat, is not really Kazakhstan but prejudice wherever it occurs, and may feel that their government's steps to counter Borat (such as revoking Cohen's right to use the .kz website domain) have been unnecessary. But few feel that his insults to their country can be ignored indefinitely.

In the end, the guy maybe doing the country a favour. After all, millions who had never heard of Kazakhstan now have a notion of it that can only get better.