Kazakh music concert in DC (Apr 15, 2010)

If you would like to listen to some Kazakh music, you have an opportunity to listen to the performance by the Presidential Folk Orchestra of Kazakhstan organized by the Embassy of Kazakhstan and the Smithsonian Institution

Date:   April 15, 2010
Time:   08.00 p.m. 
Venue: Ronald Reagan Building
           and International Trade Center
           1300 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW
           Washington DC, 20004

Event admission is FREE, however you will need to RSVP the event sending an e-mail to ehafen@policyimpact.com as seating is limited.

Source: facebook

People in Kazakhstan

Below I am offering you an article posted in blog by Rt Revd Nick Baines, Bishop of Croydon, who represents the Archbishop of Canterbury in an international interfaith initiative based in Kazakhstan (Congress of Leaders of World and Traditional Religions). 

I met Nick back in October 2003 during the Secretariat of the Congress in Turkistan, Kazakhstan, and he is a permanent member of these meetings. In this article Nick shares his opinion and observations about people in Kazakhstan.

Nick has kindly offered and gave his consent to have his articles published in my blog. 

Thank you, Nick!

July 1, 2009

A steppe up (Kazakhstan 4)

Posted by nickbaines under religion | Tags: Kazakhstan |

The Congress of Leaders of World and Traditional Religions is why I am here in Astana, but there are benefits to be had from all the hard work, too.

I have been coming here for inter-faith work since 2003 and have met some really lovely people. Kazakh young people are optimistic and proud of their young country’s achievements, looking ahead to a peaceful and prosperous future. They are not selfish or cynical, but want to see their country serve the peace of the region and the world. To tired Europeans that probably sounds very quaint, but if you meet these wonderful people, you will know what I mean.

I mentioned in an earlier post that I had walked around Astana with a good friend, Lyazzat. She has helped me enormously in the work of the Congress and its Secretariat in the past and has now become a good friend to me and my family. She stayed with us in Croydon for two months in summer 2007 while doing an English language course in London. Lyazzat is bright, has the ideal personality and skills for diplomatic work and epitomises young Kazakh commitment to more than self-realisation. She is a lovely person and a great ambassador for her country.

Each Congress delegation is assigned a ‘liaison officer’ and I have always come up trumps with young, intelligent and sociable young people. This time we have been assigned a young woman called Zhanara Abdulova. Her first name means ’sunbeam’! I asked her if I could put her photo on here and she agreed. She has been unfailingly helpful, patient and efficient and we couldn’t have wished for anyone nicer. Like Lyazzat, she is a great ambassador for her country and my colleagues and I will be sad to say goodbye to her.

This evening we went into Astana and had a cultural introduction to Kazakhstan. This involved music, dance and cultural artefacts in a series of yurts. All this was interesting enough as we sat in the sun and drank it all in, but I was also chatting at length with Jonathan Aitken who (I have just discovered) is publishing next month a biography of President Nursultan Nazarbayev. We went from there to a cultural centre for a reception put on by the President who also turned up, addressed us and then spent ages chatting to people.

Now it’s late, I’m going to bed and will just shove a few photos up to illustrate the cultural stuff.

Air and railway tickets

Information on arriving and departing flights to/from Almaty airport is available on the Almaty airport official website. Seasonal timetables of outbound and inbound flights are also available on the site.


The main air operator in Kazakhstan is the Air Astana, which operates both domestic and international flights. As many air companies, Air Astana has a frequent flyer program called Nomad club. The web-site offers a weekly view of possible outbound and inbound flights depending on your dates and shows all options of available tickets. Tickets can be booked either online, or by e-mail, or by phone +7 727 24444 77. Depending on the way the ticket was reserved, changes can be made to your booking. If you booked a ticket by sending an e-mail, another e-mail will be needed to make necessary changes.When you see the price, everything is included (taxes, food and baggage drop), you do not need to pay extra money.

Some other flights are also available by other air operators, but they operate less flights and their services and airplanes are not that good. However, they have flights that are not operated by the Air Astana, like Semey Avia, which operates flights Almaty - Semey and back.

If your destination is not listed in Air Astana's coverage, you may approach a tourist agency and they will make reservation for you offering different flights depending on your dates. The biggest tourist agencies are Transavia, CGTT Voyages, Gulnar Tour, Zhana Tour, etc. For business trips I would suggest using the services of CGTT Voyages, which is a subsidiary of the CGTT Voyages in France. Though they have small office, they provide good services. The agent's name is Dina and she's really good in organizing your trip, she is very fast (she sent me the bookings 1 hour after I made a request) and she offers different options, she would warn you of any Company's rules regarding no-shows, changes and other penalties. Many companies also use the services of Transavia, which is also good, but when I booked a ticket with them, they made a mistake and were not very quick, I had to remind them also, so I decided not to take risks.

For leisure services, Gulnar Tour is very good, everything is well organized, but they charge more than other operators. When I traveled with them, there were no flight delays (the flight was a charter one), the flight was operated by a very good well-known air company, they have guides in the destination cities who will offer you different tours and help you, if you need assistance. Of course, another option is different websites like expedia, travelocity, and etc.

Travel agencies usually provide a number of other services, besides ticket reservation, like assistance with visa and registration, hotels, tours, and etc.

Railway tickets can be purchased at railway stations, travel agencies, or online (this website is in Russian and Kazakh only). There is no booking! Tickets need to be purchased right away. Railway tickets are much cheaper than air tickets, but you'd better buy them in advance, because they can be sold out. It would be advised to buy tickets a week before your departure date, or even earlier. There are three different types of carriages (economy class, compartment and luxe). If the number of your seat in economy class or compartment is odd, it is a lower one, if even - upper. I would not suggest taking an economy class, because it is very inconvenient, and there are many people in one carriage. Unlike airplanes, the staff in trains is not English-speaking.

What to wear in Kazakhstan

Packing a suitcase for your trip to Kazakhstan? Don't know what to take?

No worries at all. Kazakh people are no longer wearing the traditional costumes in everyday life.

Here is Kazakh traditional costume, which is a dress with ornaments.

And Kazakh traditional man's costume, which is a chapan (a quilted dressing gown) with ornaments. The colors of the national costumes are different, they can be red, blue, black, yellow and green.

If you are keen to see what it looks like, you are welcome to any of the performances organized during national holidays on public squares (e.g. Nauryz on March 22), or Kazakh music concerts in concert halls.

These clothes are not worn any longer. For everyday life you will need smart and casual clothes. Everyone has his own style and they way he likes dressing. However, people in Kazakhstan usually do not mix different styles: if your business partner is wearing smart clothes (the trousers/skirt and the jacket are usually one color, and other accessories usually match the color of the suit), you will not spot any casual item like sporty bag or casual outerwear jacket. Don't be surprised to see the variety of outerwear clothes in winter, especially the fur coats and fur hats, which are not usually worn in Europe or America.

Before coming to Kazakhstan, it would be advised to check the weather forecast, however keep in mind that Kazakhstan has sharp continental climate.





Depending on the place and city you are going to visit, here are some tips:
(Temperatures are given here are in Celsius, please use the Temperature converter on the sidebar to covert it into Fahrenheit or Kelvin)

ALMATY 

(humid, no wind, frequent showers):

The climate in Almaty is rather mild, but it has high level of humidity. So, even if the weather forecast says it is minus 10 C in January, it might same as minus 20 C in the Northern part of Kazakhstan, because of humidity. There is much snow in winter, but all offices continue working the same schedule. However, there might be more traffic jams on the road, so it's better to reserve some time for commuting. Suede shoes in winter in Almaty will be a disaster because snow melts quickly and your feet might get drenched very quickly! Spring has very changeable weather, it might be hot during the day but rather chilly in the evening. Summer is rather hot, and autumn is extremely beautiful, with temperature dropping gradually with practically no jumps in temperatures. It never rains but it pours in Almaty! Even if it is sunny, check the weather forecast, because it might shower all of a sudden and heavily!

 ASTANA

(strong winds):

Many people do not like the idea of going to Astana because of its severe climate, especially in winter. Winter average temperature is -20-30 C, but it can drop below 40. Strong winds make it even worth. It's hard to move during the blizzard for a couple of meters! Because of the winds it feels it's colder than forecast. You will definitely need a hat in Astana. Besides winter months, it might snow in October, November, March and April. Permanent winds will make it freezing. Fall and spring are pretty chilly, and summer is not really hot, though sometimes the temperature reaches +30C. When it rains and when snow melts, it becomes dirty and muddy outside, and the mud is hard to remove because it's all clay.



If you are planning a business trip and care about adjustment to temperature, check the weather forecast to get prepared and make sure you are carrying enough clothes not to be cold.

Food in Kazakhstan (manti)

Cooking, cooking, cooking! :-)

I'd never done cooking with so much care as here. When I cooked such dishes at home, there was usually someone, mother or aunt, who was like a manager, a conductor in the orchestra, who navigated the process, and I was just a part of the "manufacturing" team.

Same people plus more volunteers got together last Sunday to cook some "manti", which are very popular in Kazakhstan! Our manti were "international", with Kazakh and Uighur elements blended together.

If you've been invited to a lunch or dinner at a Kazakhstani family, be sure, they will serve beshparmak (I wrote about it in another post), manti or plov. These are the basic traditional dishes. I'll write about plov later, let's get back to our muttons!





So, we prepared the filling with meat (usually beef, but never chicken), pumpkin, onions (everything minced or cut in small pieces), salt and pepper.







Then we did another gym exercise with the dough (which is prepared same as for beshparmak (if you need the recipe, please leave a comment, I'll put it right away), and prepared pieces of dough (they can be round or square, not very thick or thin).

You put some filling inside the piece of dough and then shape it.



















We made manti in two different shapes which are common in KZ. Here we go! Below you will see the stages of one of these types.

























It did not take us too much time to make manti, but we made quite many of them :-)


















Time just flew by while we were chatting and having fun. We put manti in a steamer and 40 minutes later here they are!

You may also wish to check how we cooked Beshparmak, national dish of Kazakhstan.