Kazakhstan

Kazakhstan. Every time I told someone I was going to Kazakhstan, I couldn't help feeling a sense of disappointment on the receiving end. Here was someone who had the chance to go abroad for the summer, and rather than parading around Paris, lounging around Lazio, or even taking in the sights in Tokyo, I was going to a place that no one had ever heard of, much less could spell.

Friends would sometimes ask me if I was ready for my trip to Kyrgyzstan. Kazakhstan, I had to correct them. I myself had barely a clearer picture of what to expect upon arrival.

[...]

Being one of the few places in the world left without a single McDonald's, Starbucks or Pizza Hut, Uralsk still has some of that wild, untouched feeling that is so distinctly lacking in most of Europe. I left Uralsk and Kazakhstan somewhat wistfully, knowing that I was leaving a place that I would probably never return to, merely by virtue of how hard (and expensive) it is to get to.

It was a place that was transformed for me in my mind: from a big blank space on the map to a colorful, friendly place that was both exotic and familiar at the same time. And perhaps the most interesting moments were with the people of Kazakhstan, who couldn't really wrap their minds around the idea that I wouldn't want to stay in Kazakhstan permanently, since, to them, it really was the best place on Earth to live.

-- "Kazakhstan: Isolation and Fascination" by Ula Lukszo, The Frederick News-Post