KAZAKHSTAN: Ask Lonely Planet, Not Borat

If you’ve seen Sacha Baron Cohen’s hit comedy "Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan," you may be wondering what the real Kazakhstan is like.

Cohen’s documentary spoof depicts the country as a place where rape and incest are accepted, people drink horse urine and the "Running of the Jew" festival is a highlight of the annual calendar.

Never mind that the scenes purporting to show Kazakhstan as a country of hardscrabble huts were actually filmed in a rural Romanian village (one that isn’t too pleased itself at the depiction).

The real Kazakhstan, a rising economic power blessed with immense oil reserves, has 16 million people in a country the size of Western Europe. Covered with steppes and deserts, it has one of the fastest-growing economies in the former Soviet Union. The streets of its commercial hub, Almaty, are jammed with expensive SUVs; restaurants are packed, and boutiques offer fine Italian shoes.

Lonely Planet has just published an online article about Kazakhstan by one of its guidebook authors, John Noble, who says Cohen may have done the country a favor by misrepresenting it. "After all, millions who had never heard of Kazakhstan now have a notion of it that can only get better," he writes in the article, which is accessible at http://www.lonelyplanet.com/journeys/feature/kazakhs-tan1106.cfm.

Noble says that for most travelers, Kazakhstan "is one of the world’s last great unknowns. Almaty itself, along with hiking and climbing in the nearby mountains and visits to Islamic monuments in the south have traditionally been the chief attractions." Its capital, Astana, offers "monumental 21st-century architecture," in contrast to the monotonous Soviet-era block buildings elsewhere in the country.

He says there are "excellent community ecotourism programs" in which travelers can stay with village families at affordable prices in places like Korgalzhyn, the world’s most northerly flamingo habitat, and the southern mountain villages of Aksu-Zhabagly, Ugam and Lepsinsk, jumping-off points for pristine wilderness areas. The countryside offers canyons, forests, and mountains in the South and East and the desert-like Ustyurt Plateau in the far west.

In rural areas, Noble says, you’ll still see "fur-hooded horsemen with long sticks driving large herds of horses, cattle or sheep."

He adds that they do drink fermented mare’s milk, called kumys, in the countryside, but not, as Borat had it, horse urine. –AP