First Impressions of Astana, Kazakhstan (Weird!)

Hello everybody and welcome to Astana, Kazakhstan. Astana, the capital city. I've got to say, it is one of the most unique, strangest, and kind of just bizarre architectural cities I've ever been to. It is so full of unique, cool-looking, just strange buildings. I want to show them to you guys in this video, and just explore a little bit, and check it out. I'm very excited to be here, and hopefully from this video you guys can get an impression of what this city is like. Immediately right in front of me here, you've got Khan Shatyr, this cool-looking, kind of cone-shaped building. It's actually got a little bit of a slant to it, and I'll try to show you guys a drone shot so you can see the whole thing. Most of these kind of really unique buildings are just lined up in a central boulevard right through the center of the city. So kind of at one end here, you've got Khan Shatyr, and then if I spin around, you can see through that big building, you've got a bunch more that way. So I'm going to kind of start here and walk that way. Alright, so let's go in there and check out the inside of it, and spoiler alert, I was actually in there last night, wasn't filming yet, but what's inside may surprise you, it's pretty cool. Alright, and here we go, entering inside the giant cone. And in case you guys couldn't tell, it's a mall. So inside here is a mall, pretty standard mall actually, it's a nice one. They've got some luxury stuff, some typical stuff like Adidas over there, and if we go into the center, that's where it's pretty cool. Alright, here we are. So as you can see, this is the center of the mall, right under that giant glass cone that lets in all this natural light. But what makes this place the most unique, more than even its shape maybe, is that they have this ride right here, it's like a pre-fall, one of those Tower of Terror drop rides, right in the middle of the mall. So that's pretty cool. And you can see over there, there's another ride, can you see that? It's like a kiddie roller coaster, you see the cart going along? And it goes all along the edge of the top floor of the mall. And besides that, you've got typical brands, Emporio Armani, LC Waikiki, Turkish brand, this roadshare, something French, I don't know how to say it, Starbucks, The North Face, Under Armour. So they've got it, pretty much everything you could need. So that's it, it's a mall. So let's continue. We're leaving the mall now. And you come out, like I said, right onto this straight avenue that leads you to all these main sites, right in the city center, so you can see right there is that huge building with the pass-through underneath it, and then through there, you can see another monument, and we are on our way there, stay tuned. So Kazakhstan has two major cities, Astana, where we are now, and Almaty. They're generally considered to be really different from one another. I have a video from Almaty, from earlier in this trip, I'll put it at the top of the screen, and I recommend you go and check that video out if you want to kind of compare and contrast the two cities. Because generally, Astana is considered much more modern, it's a newer city, and it's full of all this cool architecture, whereas Almaty is considered a little more Soviet, a really really green city, there's mountains all around it, so totally different vibes. But what about this city? What about Astana? Why is it so weird? In a good way. Why does it have all this bizarre architecture, how did it kind of come about? Well, it was a planned city, and from what I understand, before they really started building it as the new planned capital of Kazakhstan, it was a much smaller city, like a much smaller settlement, not really a major city, but it was planned like this, from the ground up, to become the new capital of an independent Kazakhstan. There are some booths here selling little souvenirs and magnets and stuff, but there's also a couple spots selling Soviet pins and magnets. I love that kind of stuff, I collect it whenever I come to a post-Soviet country, and I picked up a few coins. We've got a World War II commemorative coin, we've got a Lenin coin here, and we've got 1980 Moscow Olympics. And on the back, you can see there, SSSR, USSR. Pretty cool, I love this stuff. We are heading that way, under the arch, and we'll see what else we come across. I'm going to grab one of these scooters. Sometimes these annoy me when they're in cities like New York or Paris, because the streets are so narrow, and they just end up clogging the streets wherever they're parked. But I've noticed that here in Kazakhstan, and really in any Eastern Europe or post-Soviet country, the streets are so wide, they built these huge grand avenues, so it's actually not too much of a problem here, and they're a really good way of getting around. So let's do it. Alright, and we have made it to the next monument, which is called Beiterek. One of the most iconic buildings here in Astana, and apparently it was built in the late 90s and early 2000s, completed in 2002, to symbolize Kazakh independence, and I think you can go to the top. Let's go take a look, check out the view from up there. Okay guys, we have made it up to the top, you can see the view behind me there. To get in here, you kind of just come in through the basement, and you can buy your ticket there. The price is 2,000 Kazakh tenge, which is like a little over $4, so pretty good price. And then you take an elevator ride up to the top, which is pretty cool. It lets you out up here, 360 view, I think we're in the Golden Ball at the top. And there's a staircase as well to go up one more level, so let's go check it out. Aha, okay. And here is the top of the glass dome. You can see lots of people here. I guess this is the line to go up there, maybe? And we are headed in that direction very shortly. No time to wait in this line. Let's head down. And now we have come from all the way down there, to right here, another big fountain next to me. But behind me, you got those two gold towers, no idea what they are, but they look very cool. And we've also got, a little bit further, the Presidential Palace, which has a nice big blue dome on the top and looks very regal. I guess it's blue and gold, so it's like, Kazakh colors. I wonder how close we can get to the palace, let's check it out. Alright, we're getting closer, I'm up on this, uh, walking bridge that crosses the highway here. If you can see, on the other side there, there are actually soldiers guarding the entrance to this walking bridge, because we're getting close to the Presidential Palace, so I wasn't sure if it was just for people working there, but I just walked up to him and said, tourist, can I go? And he was like, yeah, go ahead. So, I'm on, and we're getting closer. And I'm now at the edge of this platform, and a soldier just came to me and said, this is the limit, in Russian, I think that's what he said. That's what I got from it. But anyway, this is how close you can get to the Presidential Palace right there. Very cool. And I guess a lot of these buildings around here are probably other government offices or ministries? I don't know, but this area feels very official. So, it's very cool, I'm glad they let me in here, that was very nice of them. Alrighty, we have reached the end of that big, sprawling boulevard, we're at the other end now, and right at the end there is this big white column, apparently it's over 90 meters tall, and on top there is this huge eagle, big golden eagle, a Kazakh eagle, kind of looking over the whole city. And then behind me on this side, we've got a pyramid. See, they're not only in Egypt, Kazakhstan has one too. And it's called the Palace of Peace and Reconciliation. Very cool looking building. Like I said, this city is just filled with quirky architecture. Let's see if I can just go in and take a couple shots. Okay, we're in. I'm like the only person here, aside from people working, I think they're refurbishing it or doing some construction or something, but it's kind of eerie and empty. Let's go up into the pyramid part. Okay, very big and white. Up there is the top, and there is like nobody here. Okay, that was one of the weirder places I've been. So like I was saying, it's totally empty in there, there's just like one attendant woman standing there. And then while I was just standing up there alone filming, all of a sudden this other woman comes running up the stairs and starts talking to me in Russian, and I'm like, what? And luckily the other lady spoke a bit of English and she was like, you have to be on a scheduled tour, your tour will start in 10 minutes. And I was like, what? How long is the tour? And she's like, about 40 minutes. I was like, oh, I don't know about that. I just want to take some pictures and I'll go. And she was like, you have to be on a tour. I said, alright, well, I'll just go then. And she was like, okay, okay, you can take some pictures because I'm here with you. I was like, okay. I don't know what the tour would be of, because it seems like they have some very small exhibitions, but it's mostly like a huge open space for maybe events and things. So anyway, very strange, strange place. Very big and very empty. In one of the little exhibits in there, there were a bunch of pictures of presidents from other countries, but also the current president of Kazakhstan, and the former president of Kazakhstan, Nursultan Nazarbayev. And a little fun fact, you may have heard this city, Astana, was named after him very recently. They changed the name from Astana to Nursultan, like, just a few years ago. And then two years after that, they switched it back to Astana. There was some kind of coup or revolution here a few years ago, kind of against that president, who was the first president, Nazarbayev, from the fall of the Soviet Union until like 2019 or so. So he got kind of pushed out. They changed the name of this city to Nursultan, and then two years later they were like, nah, just kidding. Back to Astana. Kind of confusing, but it is Astana again. Apparently this city has had some of the most name changes of any city in the world. But it's Astana. And right over there you can see another cool, weird-looking building that they're building. There's another one. And then right over here is a mosque. This mosque is called the Hazrat Sultan Mosque. Fairly new. It was built in 2012. Very white. Very opulent. Let's see if we can go in and take a quick look inside. Alrighty, I just came out of the mosque. It was very, very nice inside. Very clean. Very quiet. I love going and sitting in mosques for a little while and just kind of chilling, taking a break. It's very peaceful. Hey, hey, and look who it is just across the street from the mosque. It's the American Embassy. Of course, you're not allowed to take pictures or videos, even outside for some reason. So I'll do it from across the street. But there it is. My home country. Right across from the mosque. Alrighty guys, and that is going to be about it. I just had my last meal of the trip, and of course, had to do it Central Asia style and have some more horse meat. I had horse meat stroganoff, and it was delicious. Don't knock it until you try it. It's really good, and it's just meat, you know? Very delicious. I'm out of here tomorrow morning, back to Istanbul. Hope you guys enjoyed this video, just a quick little look at Astana. Definitely one of the most unique cities I've ever been to. I've got more coming up for you very soon, but other than that, thank you so much for watching, and I'll see you in the next one. Bye bye.