Finally it’s getting a bit warmer out here on the frozen steppes. Astana is not as exciting a place to live as Almaty for outdoor fun, but over the years we’ve discovered a few places to go. I’ve posted on some of them before like the yurt camp near Astana and Eco-Village where you can actually ride horses. Never been out to the reservoir, but I always see my neighbors packing up on the weekends with their Big Agnes tents, shashlik grills, and camping supplies to go out there. One of these days I’ll have to try some camping here, but haven’t been able to find the time to do much more than go up to Boraboe a few times a year and stay in a guest house.

Any suggestions for good outdoors activities and places to go outside of Astana?

A little like Yelp for Kazakhstan, Pomidor (which means “tomato” in Russian) lets people put up reviews and stories of their experiences at different businesses in Kazakhstan. It needs a little more work–be nice to have a rating system and a more advanced navigation system to find businesses more accurately. It would also be good to have author profiles. At some point, the businesses themselves will notice this site (if they haven’t already) and start putting up fake positive reviews.But since Kazakhstan doesn’t really have a Yellow Pages and most businesses don’t have a strong web presence or freely available information, this site is very much needed here.

There’s already a lot of content, and it covers everything from restaurants and cafes, to furniture stores, to banks and telephone companies, to companies that offer Santa Claus actors for parties!

I certainly will try to find some time to put up a few good and bad reviews. I should note that the site is in Russian, and I assume they would expect reviews to be in Russian as well. Maybe the expat community should organize an English-language review site from the perspective of foreigners.

Korgalzhyn is the northernmost point of migration for flamingos and you should definitely ask your guide to try to find some for you. But as you drive around, you’ll see hawks and eagles sitting on the ground or perched on electric wires. Swan and ducks swim in beautiful and picturesque lakes. Last time we were there we saw a dust cloud behind us that slowly but surely overtook our car, then suddenly swerved and passed us going the other way. The driver told us it was saigak, a native species of elk that can run over 80 km/h. The reserve really feels like being on safari, since you are in among the animals.

You can also see Kunayev’s guesthouse from when he was head of the Kazakh SSR and there’s some guesthouses and a small cafe as well. It’s definitely worth staying overnight to try to see as much of the reserve as you can.

GPS of Main Gate: 50.5259N, 69.6965E
GPS of Flamingo Lake: 50.6047N, 69.5388E
GPS of Hotel: 50.477N, 69.5429E
GPS of turn off the main road to get there: 50.6381N, 70.0475E

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in the halls, they have the same tables, but without the revolutionary menu. However, they do have ashtrays. Somehow, they claim, that they smoking rooms.The walls are defiantly naked all the old stuff (rare phones and cameras, typewriters, portraits of leaders and the socialist advertising posters) have been removed.

RVS was a great place to meet, with old pictures of the Soviet Union, propaganda posters, and banners featuring clever satire on old Soviet slogans. My favorite was the banner outside that read: “Factories for the workers, Land for the farmers and Vodka for me!” It also featured old Soviet products and actually gave a good sense of what life used to be like. The menu was ironically English/American pub and bar food–some of the best chicken wings and potato skins in the country although over the years I noticed them adding more and more high class items. And the menu itself used to be in the form of a revolutionary handbill with nods to Cheburashka, Yuri Gagarin and other Soviet icons.

It’s one place I would have highly recommended to tourists, but now I guess it’s better to go to a pizza bar or something.

I don’t know what happened to cause them to change their style, but I present below a small tribute to RVS in the form of photos taken last summer.

Taking this time to look at my most popular posts, I am amazed to see that Fut-Fut-Fut-freestailo is the most popular post of all time on kzblog.net. Perhaps Freestailo will eventually replace Borat as the person everyone thinks of when they think of Kazakhstan.

Contador Stays, Name Goes is the next most popular post, so I guess Team Astana and cycling are also becoming pretty well entwined with Kazakhstan’s brand image which is good news.

I suppose I shouldn’t be surprised that Kazakhstan Imports Hottie is the fifth most popular post, but I was interested that apparently people want to know who I am. The tenth most popular post of all time is my About Me page.

And I’m glad people are looking at the Tourism page but I wish more people would leave comments and information there. Especially, now that the weather is warm, where is a good place to go out of Astana and grill shashlik for the day? I really want to do that but I don’t know where to go.

These photos were taken a few years ago but they give you some idea of the scale and variety of Ice Town. Every year has a theme and in these photos the theme was Kazakhstan, so you can see a sculpture of a brave Saka warrior; I think it’s actually the Golden Man (Altyn Adam) and a fortress wall, like there used to be in Taraz or Otrar. Other years the theme has been children’s cartoon characters and once they did the wonders of the world with an ice Eiffel Tower and Pyramids and the Taj Mahal!

I highly recommend going at least once at night. But since it can be quite cold out, it’s worth coming on a sunny day so you can spend a little more time enjoying yourself! Usually it goes up around Duman, the aquarium and sometimes they make a smaller one near Eurasian University and/or Bayterek. One word to the wise: look out when you are near the ice slides. Kids (and sometimes adults or the occasional expat blogger!) come shooting down on pieces of cardboard without any warning. And on the ice, sliders can sail pretty far. So if you aren’t careful you might get your feet knocked out from under you. And with all that ice around, that might mean losing a tooth!

Bozaigyr: A small beach next to a lake north of Astana. There’s a cafe that serves food–shashlik and so on. There is also a grill so you can bring your own food and cook it up right there. There’s even a nice little yurt you can use for parties or just to relax. Other than that, it’s just a beach and a lake on the steppes. You can also see cows grazing near by and it might be a chance to talk to a real Kazakh cowboy! Nice people run the beach area and they hope to expand it a bit more and add more services. As of last year it was free to enter.

To get there from Astana, go east along Bogen-bai Batyr Avenue until you get out near Shanghai market. From there, take the road to Akkol and Buraboe. About 30 minutes out of town, you should see the lake and the yurt on your left, near a small village, Bozaigyr. There is an exit there.

Obviously, probably only good for the summer. But there is a hunting zone there so you might be able to do some winter hunting in the area.

Ecovillage: A nice little tourist village about 30 minutes outside Astana. The main attraction is probably horseriding, which as of the last time I was there, cost 1000 tenge an hour. You can ride alone or have a guide lead the horse depending on your comfort range. They also rent ATV’s (off-road quads). The property also has a sauna, a nice cafe, a shooting range nearby, a playground for kids and a sort of zoo with camels (yes, camels in Akmola!), goats and sheep. It’s run by the guy who used to arrange and train Kazakh trick rider shows (dzhigitovka and kyz kuu and so on). He’s a real professional, who is happy to show you around the place, show you how they care for the animals, and he loves setting up photo opps with the different animals.

If you want to spend the weekend there or arrange a party, they have several cabins that can be rented. Each cabin has several rooms, TV, and a private sauna. Food service is available. It was really one of the best places I have been to in Kazakhstan so far as a tourist.

To get there, go east on Bogen-bai Batyr. Keep going, past Shanghai Market, until you see a shooting range on your right and a sign for Ecovillage. Drive down, and ask for Ivan, the manager of the stables and also the guy who choreographs and trains the Kazakh horse sports demonstrations on holidays. Ivan’s cell is +7 701 20 41 813. You can also call (7172) 73 80 35 or (7172) 73 80 36 to get in touch with the sauna/hotel there.

GPS: 51.2467N, 71.5879E

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