First "stan" country! After a small necessary flight teleportation. We were then in a totally different world. Everything is flat, dry and salty on this side of the Caspian Sea. Cities are huge and empty, populated only by cubical sovietic buildings and big cars. The seaside is sad, polluted, and smelly. Kazakhstan is a rich country thanks to petrol and other natural resources. I was wondering why, if you have money, you could accept to live in a place like that?

But people seemed happy there. Super relaxed and peaceful. Cars were stopping from 100m away when we wanted to cross the street, people were always nice to us, trying to communicate even if they were not speaking a word of English. Kids play in the streets without their parents' presence, riding bicycle, rollers, skateboard, scooter (yes, everyone is on wheels here. Kids on their things, and adults in their cars). 

Their faces are hard to categorise. It is a mix of Asia, Europe and Turkey. As long as we don't speak and don't have our backpacks, Manloi and I can easily look like locals.

We arrived in the middle of the night, no taxi on sight. The airport staff made a couple of calls, helped us with the few English words they knew. We had to pay the "high" price for the taxi, as it was night time: 5€ for 30km. Should be the cheapest airport taxi I ever took!

We had some fun walking in this totally new world, doing sometimes some breaks in empty cafés furnished with fancy sofas.