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Thursday, May 01, 2008

Non-controversial beauty of nature in Kazakhstan

I have been for 10 months in Kazakhstan!

It is a controversial country for me - it has many positive as well as negative sides. Its cities are controversial for me - I have not seen any which would pretend to be anyhow charming (although for example Almaty has its positive sides as well).

As all Europeans who come to Kazakhstan say - things made by man here are not that interesting...

Model of Kazakhstan's society is controversial as well - many things are hard to get used to for European.

And behaviour of people and their relations towards each other, towards state and towards environment is controversial as well.

However, one thing cannot be controversial for anyone - Kazakhstan is very beautiful country in terms of its nature. Its vast territory (9th largest country in the world) contains such a great variety of natural beauty!



Luckily, me and my friend Jaan had chance to prove it once again for ourselves - both of us took a vacation (Jaan came here from Estonia, I love you, Air Baltic!) and went for a week to Southern Kazakhstan. We spent 6 wonderful days in Sairam, Lenger, Kaskasu, Aksu-Zhabagly, having visited two National parks.

We had chance to experience network of CBT (community-based tourism) when rural communities of people organize network and facilities t provide tourism services - accommodation, food, excursions, guides. Its value lies in the fact that one has chance to spend time with people living there. One feels more like a guest, rather than a client. It was great opportunity to experience hospitality and traditions of Kazakh and Russian-Kazakh families we stayed with.

Photo album with photos of amazing nature from this trip can be found here:
picasaweb.google.com/deniss.rutsheikov







3 comments:

Carry said...

Väga kaunid fotod. Sul on pildistamise kunsti peale silma.

Deniss Rutseikov Ojastu said...

Aitäh! Mulle tõesti meeldib pildistamine. :)

Carry said...

See oli su vanematelt väga õige kink järelikult =)