The Wild Deserts, Deep Canyons, and Teal Waters of Mangystau, Kazakhstan

26.06.2024 - 01:03 / cntraveler.com

Nothing is more instructive than being wrong, and there’s no quicker way to be wrong than to have expectations. My arrival to Aktau, in Kazakhstan's Mangystau region, was by cargo ship, and over that 24-hour voyage, spent with long-haul truckers drinking duty-free whisky, I had plenty of time to imagine what awaited me on shore: a port city that was rough, brutalist, suspicious. At first sight, Aktau was brutalist, if only architecturally, but it was far from rough or suspicious. And while not beautiful, or even very pretty, there was something alluring about the place from the get-go.

“We won’t stay long,” said a Dutch couple I met in town. They were traveling overland to China, and had many places to be; they’d spent a day in Aktau. “It’s a small town. I think we’ve done it all.”

Done it all—what did that even mean? I was from a town of 1,000 people, and even there, I knew it was possible to find something new. Aktau has nearly 200,000 inhabitants, and was growing every day; the outskirts of the city were a construction zone edging the desert, with camels grazing in the unfinished alleys. Finding something interesting is only ever a matter of being invested, and spending the time. And the longer I stayed, the more interesting things I found.

Aktau is as near Istanbul or Moscow as it is Kazakhstan’s capital Astana. London is only a direct 6-hour flight away, and although I was there as part of a longer visit to Kazakhstan, one could feasibly come for a weekend adventure. But despite its remoteness, between the Caspian and the Ustyurt desert, where nothing comes easily, there's a sense of enterprising self-rule.

The Skalnaya Tropa, or rocky pathway, that stretches along the Caspian Sea is a big draw for locals.

On my visit, I found bakeries selling sourdough bread and croissants, excellent coffee (not long into my two-week stay, the staff at Mr. Ponchik had my americano down pat each morning) and a shopping mall with a year-round ice-skating rink. There was a taste for Japanese and Korean food, and Burger King (there are four of them), but I also found excellent local food—I ate roasted camel at Bozjyra restaurant, and grilled sturgeon at Aidyn, on the Caspian seafront, and can vouch for both.

In the evening, families and lovers descend to the Caspian Sea promenade to eat icecream and hotdogs, and enjoy the rides of the mid-city fun fair. There are karaoke bars, and a local rock music scene fed by a love of the Beatles and Creedence Clearwater Revival.

The owner of Mang’o Hostel, where I was staying, was one of those musicians. One night he showed me into the basement, where he had built a stage, and filled it with all manner of instruments: a Kazakh dombra, electric guitars, a piano, an upright bass.