Back to Kazakhstan for this article and the current capital of Astana. There’s a tendency amongst those who have visited this new city to be a little ‘sniffy’ about Astana; in fact, when telling some Almaty residents that I had spent four days there, they wondered what on earth I could have done to amuse myself. The truth is that I had to wait a couple of extra days a for spare seat on a train heading south so it wasn’t my choice that I stayed.
Saying that, there is enough to do in this slightly bizarre city to keep you amused for a few days. Astana hasn’t been the capital for long – in fact only since 1997 when the city of Aqmola was renamed Astana and Almaty became the former capital. Almaty suffers from seismic activity and is close to the Chinese and Krygyz borders and for these reasons, kazakhstan decided it needed a new capital. Anecdotally, foreign diplomatic staff were said to have been appalled to be leaving the charismatic, European-influenced Almaty for the new city in the middle of nowhere.
Bayterek Tower
So what to do? Well architectural students will love the large number of fantastic and bizarre glass and steel buildings which are being developed to the south of the river. They are sprouting up around the Bayterek Tower area and it is the tower which is the focal point for locals and visitors. It’s a 105 metre tall structure which can be ascended and when you get to the top, you can place your hand in the imprint of the first President of independent Kazahkstan. The views are good too.
Khan Shatyr
The Khan Shatyr is a newer addition. This is a Sir Norman Foster designed gigantic tent not far from the Bayterek Tower which hosts an array of entertainment and retail facilities inside. ‘Tent’ is a little misleading – it’s a very impressive structure which has been designed to cope with the low winter temperatures (- 35C) and high summer ones (+ 35C). It’s easy to get to this area by bus from the city centre but it’s also walkable if you’re feeling fit and it’s not too hot or cold.
Back towards the city centre is the riverside area and this tends to be overlooked by tourists who don’t stick around too long in Astana. There’s a small artificial ‘beach’ area which leads down to the Ishim River and a roped off area in the water in which you can swim, although the water looks a strange colour. To the south of the beach is a medium-sized park which contains a few small fairground rides for kids but it’s a great place for a pleasant stroll among the trees and along the small paths.
Astana Beach
For fans of culture, there are several museums but when we visited in 2008, if you didn’t speak Russian you could only look at the pictures and artifacts. Really, the attraction of Astana is the architecture and a wander around the streets will turn up a number of religious monuments and other memorials to various political and military heroes. The Ak Orda Presidential Palace and the Islamic Centre (the Nur-Astana mosque) are also worth a visit.