So after almost 4 hours of driving through the rural landscape of Kaza, we finally arrived at Almaty, the financial capital of the country. The first thing we encountered was a big traffic jam. And the cars were not the run-down soviet era metal boxes. I'm talking about Toyota, Audi, Mercedes, etc. Pretty fancy stuff. I mean, after seeing Borat where he gets in a broken car pulled by donkeys to go to the airport, this is a major contrast. Many expensive stores too: DKNY, Fendi, Channel, Armani, you name it, they have it. There were still many ugly buildings, reminiscent of the soviet era, but there certainly was an air of international cosmopolitanism. It felt big like São Paulo (where I grew up) because of the contrast between the rich and the poor and miles and miles of traffic jam. By the way, in Kaza and Kyrg, the driver's seat can be on both left and right side. So strange...
1 comment:
I am glad to see, Ji, that you can see Kazakhstan differently that Borat! Here is to you!
Post a Comment