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 ...Click on a label to read posts from that part of the world.
Kazakhstan
"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 ...Kazakhstan: A Lot of Land, Few Beaches
When I read about the number of visitors to France equaling the number of people who live there, I also read that Kazakhstan is the largest landlocked country in the world. Russia and China take up a good portion of its borders. This map gives details of the geography and ...Kazakhstan's New Glass Pyramid Opera House: Let's Hope They Don't Hit the High Notes
Sir Norman Foster, the acclaimed British architect, recently completed an amazing giant glass pyramid opera house in Astana, Kazakhstan. Beautiful, large, and magnificent, the opera house actually lives up to its name: the Palace of Peace and Reconciliation. Foster's latest ...Borat Review: Finally!
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After posting so many times about Borat, I thought I'd get around to writing a short review having finally seen the film.
In a nutshell: it's funny, go see it.
I don't want to focus on the cinematic aspects of the film--that's not the aim of this website. I do, however, ...Eating Horse
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I've had my share of suspect meat throughout my travels and have learned to live by the Mystery Meat Rule of Ignorance: Don't ask and assume it is cow.
I ate a lot of meat in Kazakhstan a few years ago and for the most part, enjoyed whatever I found on my plate. Sure, the ...The True Kazakhstan (Despite what Borat Says)
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With all the press that Borat has been receiving about his new movie, not a single article I've come across has spent the time to accurately counter the misconceptions that Borat conveys about his "home" country of Kazakhstan.
My guess is that few film critics have ever ...Don't Go, Borat!
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Borat is our favorite culturally insensitive, pseudo-spokesman for a little-known country who doesn't want a culturally insensitive pseudo-spokesman yapping his mouth off and otherwise belittling them.
The country of Kazakhstan, which Borat lampoons, has made their dislike ...Red Corner: Bizarre Kazakh Pyramid Completed
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Megalomania has brought us some very bizarre architecture throughout history. It's nice to know that the dictator of Kazakhstan is keeping up the tradition.
Visitors to the capital of Astana, can now revel in a freaky new pyramid commissioned by President Nursultan ...Red Corner: Balancing Out Borat
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Having posted a fair amount about Kazakhstan's most despised and erroneous ambassador, Borat, we here at Gadling realize it is important to maintain some editorial balance, and therefore feel obligated to direct you towards a more responsible representative which better ...Red Corner: Borat's New Movie
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We're all big fans of Borat here at Gadling.
The bumbling Kazakh reporter, played by comedian Sasha Baron Cohen, mercilessly ridicules the people of Kazakhstan with an over-the-top impersonation frothing with bad English, anti-Semitism, misogyny, sexism, and ...Word for the Travel Wise (09/05/06)
If they say places like Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan are some of the last least explored tourist destinations in the world, which they often do - then Kazakhstan must be the last unexplored destination for the Foodies. How is it that I can make such a remark? Why, ...Borat's: Face of Kazakhstan?
Strangely this isn't the first time Sacha Baron Cohen has received mention here on Gadling. Erik wrote a short blurb on the star back in November of last year when word on the streets was Kazakh government was going to sue Mister Borat / Ali G. / Cohen. According to Erik's ...Central Asia Refresher
Every once in a while it's nice to remind ourselves about places that may not be on the top of our travel lists, but we forget exist or never knew existed. As I've been sharing some upcoming travel plans with people it's suddenly starting to strike a nerve how much of the ...Red Corner: The Aral Sea(less)
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Spare a moment for the fisherman of the Aral Sea.
50 years ago they pulled 50,000 tons of fish out of this body of water annually. Today, the water is all but gone and the fish replaced with camels.
Located mostly in Uzbekistan, the Aral Sea was once one of our planet's ...
