Kazakhstan

Astana, Kazakhstan. The very modern capital city of Astana. This is Bayterek Tower, the centerpiece for this new part of the city.

Astana, Kazakhstan. Not so much of the ol' boring Soviet-style architecture here, as in the other 'stans. This is an artsy pedestrian bridge over the river in the center of town.

Khan Shatyr Center, Astana, Kazakhstan. Designed by famed British architect Norman Foster, this is a heated pool/ beach complex on the roof of a large upscale shopping mall, all of which is enclosed in a giant teepee-like structure. The top of the teepee is seen through the curved roof of the pool area. It's huge. There are sandy beaches around the pools, wave machines and tropical vegetation and foo-foo rum drinks too. All this warm tropical paradise inside - and it's snowing outside!

Most of the 'stans are heavily Muslim, but Kazakhstan has a large Christian population as well. This is mostly due to the strong connection to Russia that continues to this day, and the resulting heavy presence of the Russian Orthodox church. Everybody seems to get along though, probably a result of a sometimes heavy-handed government that doesn't like to put up with much "trouble". Left: A boy and his grandmother in an Orthodox church. Right: Inside one of the mosques.

Semipalatinsk Polygon, Kazakhstan. This is Chagan Air Force Base, a former top-secret Soviet long-range bomber facility that was constructed to guard this part of the USSR from nearby China. And probably from us too. Now it's totally abandoned and in the process of being picked apart by scavengers of all types.

Semipalatinsk Nuclear Polygon, Kazakhstan. This is where the cold war heated up in a hurry. Here we stand about 1/4 mile from ground zero of the USSR's first atomic bomb blast, conducted 70 years ago. The partially destroyed steel-reinforced wall is a test structure built by the Soviets to gage the strength of the blast. The protective gear we wore was completely useless against radiation; its purpose was to keep the radioactive dust from getting into our clothes. We had several geiger counters in our group and our exposure time was limited to safe "Soviet" levels. How reassuring! For the most part the geiger counts were pretty low, but every once in a while we'd come across some highly radioactive object - usually a big chunk of steel - and the geiger would just start buzzing! This was an amazing place, if somewhat scary.

Atomic Lake, Semipalatinsk Region, Kazakhstan. Still more nukey. This is Atomic Lake, one of the world's few (hopefully last) attempts to use a nuclear weapon for construction purposes. This whole area was just a big flat piece of the Central Asian Steppe until the Soviets came along and decided to build a lake here by exploding a 144-kiloton weapon buried deep underground. Now they have a lake 300-400 feet deep and 1/3 mile across. Like the test site in the first photo, this area is still radioactive nearly 70 years later. We didn't detect any "hot spots" with the geigers like we did at the ground zero site, but there were low radiation levels all around the lake and I wouldn't want to stay here too long. Ironically, as we were getting ready to leave some locals pulled up to the waters edge, got out, and started fishing! There was plenty of evidence of heavy drinking & partying around the lake too. Russian / Kazakh ideas of risk management are much different than our own!

Karaganda, Kazakhstan. Rocketman. This is a statue of Yuri Gagarin, the first man in space. He's a big hero locally, since the USSR's space launch facility is nearby at Baikonur. Out of all the monuments we saw this is my favorite, both for it's retro-1960's look, and because I'm a total space geek.

Overnight train to Almaty, Kazakhstan. I met this friendly-looking Kazakh chap in the bar-car on the overnight train to Almaty. He's about my age and used to be an officer in the Soviet army. When I told him I used to work as an engineer for the US Army we became good friends, laughing about how, if we had met on this train 30 or so years ago, he might have been obliged to shoot me instead of have a beer with me! I guess that counts as progress of some sort in foreign relations. The picture he's holding up on his phone is himself as a 20-year old in the Soviet army; the ring is from one of his later military units. I love running into former "enemies" like this when I travel.

Almaty, Kazakhstan. This photo really makes it look like there's trouble brewing, but it's exactly the opposite. This is Victory Day, a very peaceful celebration of the end of WW2. Families all over Russia and in all the republics of the former USSR come out and celebrate the end of the war and pay tribute to their war dead. There were many touching displays of remembrance and patriotism, and I could have filled up a photo album just on this one day alone. On a lighter note I got the inset photo during the parade march, positioning the camera so that it looked like this lady was leading an angry Soviet mob against the Imperialist enemy, McDonalds. Down with lousy American food!

Just a very few of the many touching sights during this day-long event. Veterans and active military get back into their uniforms, women dress in their finest, flags are waved and songs are sung, and families with relatives killed in the war carry photos of the deceased in tribute.