Space Tourists airs tonight on the Documentary Channel at 8pm & 11pm
When Anousheh Ansari boarded the International Space Station on September 20th, 2006, she became the first self-funded female, the first Iranian citizen, and the fourth human overall to ...Click on a label to read posts from that part of the world.
Kazakhstan
Space Tourists: a cinematic journey to the ISS (w/ Audio Interview)
Space Tourists airs tonight on the Documentary Channel at 8pm & 11pm
When Anousheh Ansari boarded the International Space Station on September 20th, 2006, she became the first self-funded female, the first Iranian citizen, and the fourth human overall to ...Introducing Far Europe and Beyond
Far Europe and Beyond, a Gadling series in partnership with bmi (British Midland International) launches today.
Europe's eastern borders cannot be defined simply. The western, northern, and southern perimeters are easy: The Atlantic, the Arctic, and the Mediterranean ...Travel then and now: Travel to the USSR and GDR
This year is the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Soviet Union and 21 years since the reunification of Germany. While citizens of the USSR and GDR were unable to travel abroad and restricted in domestic travel, foreign travelers were permitted under a controlled ...World's tallest tent opens in Kazakhstan
When you think of Kazakhstan you probably think of nomads living in tents, but today's Kazakhstan is rapidly modernizing thanks to an oil boom, so it's appropriate that the Central Asian nation is now home to the world's tallest tent.
Technically, it's the world's ...AirBaltic expands, spruces up
Yesterday, Latvian airline AirBaltic launched two new routes: Riga-Madrid and Riga-Beirut.
Riga-based AirBaltic is an airline to watch. Little known in North America, the airline is notable for its low starting fares and the inclusion of most of Europe's most popular ...Russia pushes visa-free Russia-EU travel
At the 25th European Union-Russia summit in Rostov-on-Don, Russia yesterday proposed that both parties mutually abolish visa requirements. Currently, the two entities impose reciprocal visa requirements upon each other's citizens.
In the name of improving business and ...Kazakhstan tries to sell its freezing capital
As I write you from my parents' home in the sub freezing winter wonderland of Minneapolis, I am pleased to report that this weather now apparently qualifies for envy.
Kazakhstan's President Nursultan Nazarbayev made his annual speech yesterday, and attempted to lure ...North Korean departure leaves five detained in Thailand
A cargo plane loaded with heavy weapons left Pyongyang, North Korea and had not a care in the world ... until the crew needed to land for more fuel at Don Mueang airport in Thailand. This emergency stop, according to Thailand's deputy prime minister, Suthep Thaungsuban, led ...Ship graveyards from around the world
Eco-friendly website Environmental Graffiti has an interesting story on their site today that details some of the top cargo ship graveyards from around the world. The article also includes some amazing photos of the rusted out shells of former cargo and cruise ships that ...International CouchSurfing Day: Do you have a couch lined up?
Ten years ago on June 12, CouchSurfing was born--or rather CouchSurfing.com was registered as a domain name and sleeping on the couch of people you just met became an organized system. More than just a way to hook people up with a free place to call it a night, CouchSurfing ...Keep busy with 44 travel ideas
If the entire world is too much from which to choose, take a look at The 44 Places to Go in 2009 suggested by the New York Times. Some are obvious, such as Reykjavik, which was been on everyone's mind 2008. Others are easy, including Washington D.C. Our nation's capital has ...Amazing Race 13, recap 9: Russians don't laugh at you, they laugh with you
With Terence & Sarah eliminated, and Starr & Nick coming in 1st four times in a row, it was any one of the team's game during episode 9 of the Amazing Race 13. As the teams headed off to Moscow, Russia from Almaty, Kazakhstan, I was curious what would trip up Nick ...Amazing Race 13 recap 8: Kazakhstan makes Bizarre Foods look tame
India was easy compared to Kazakhstan--sort of. This week's Amazing Race 13 was a glance into some of the more unusual aspects of Kazakh culture. As teams sped through the streets of Almaty, even though much of the city looked western and urban with architecture that ..."Let's build a city... there!" The world's 4 least impressive planned capitals
Cities tend to develop the way living organisms do-- they begin their lives as small and simple creatures, they eventually flower into maturity, and some occasionally decay and die out. Cities are located where they are-- Paris is on the Seine, Sydney is on the Pacific ...New York cigarettes to cost 9 dollars a pack. In Kazkhstan, the price increases to 32 cents.
Smokers in New York already face some of the highest prices for cigarettes in the country. But last Wednesday, the New York legislature approved a $1.25 tax hike on cigarettes, meaning that taxes alone on a pack in New York are a whopping $4.25, not including a roughly 8% ...Keeping the 'Stans Straight, part 2: Kazakhstan
Kazakhstan
Capital: Astana, moved from Almaty in 1997
Location: Central Asia, northwest of China and south of Russia; the ninth-largest country in the world
In a nutshell: This oil-rich ex-Soviet republic has been experiencing an economic boom recently, thanks to its ...Borat make new book
We all laughed at Borat in the theaters, but does his humor translate onto the written page? The answer is a definitive, sort of. Our favorite Kazakh journalist has left the big screen behind and has recently released his first foray into the world of literature: Borat: ...One for the Road: Realities of Foreign Service Life
Jessica Hayden had been married less than 3 months when she moved half way around the world with her new husband, and soon found herself in a tent in the middle of Kyrgyzstan, heavily sedated on pain killers and hooked up to a WWII style medical contraption. It sounds like ...New Borat book
You've seen the movie; now it's time to read the book.
Just in time for Christmas, our favorite Borat has gone and penned a travel guide to his home country of Kazakhstan as well as an accompanying guide to the USA.
As you might expect, Borat: Touristic Guidings to ...Kazakhstan Replacing Cyrillic Alphabet with Latin One
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One of the biggest challenges of traveling through the former Soviet Union is tying to decipher the Cyrillic alphabet. The unnerving thing is that it shares many letters with the Latin alphabet, yet they are pronounced very differently. Like a "B" having a "V" sound, for ...
