The main reason that Oma wanted to come and visit Kazakhstan was to visit the Expo. She had never been to a world's fair before, and since this one was located right across the street from us, she really wanted to see it. We had arrived back in Kazakhstan late Saturday evening, gone to church on Sunday, and had bought tickets to attend the Expo on Tuesday- August 8.
The Expo had been completely built in the three years that we were living in Astana. It had been one of our favorite activities to watch the construction across the street and to see the way things had changed. Everything in Kazakhstan is done at the last minute, and the Expo was not an exception. They were finishing construction the day before it opened for the public on June 10.
We walked to the Expo (about a mile from our house, past the new mall, and into the Expo site. We had a bit of trouble getting in - our tickets weren't read by the machine, so we had to go to an office to get things straightened out. We first went to the Russian pavilion - which had gotten good reviews in the articles we'd read. The pavilion was quite interesting - focusing on Russian Arctic exploration and with a big chunk of ice.
We then visited the giant sphere - the Nur Alem - which was the Kazakhstan pavilion. It was seven stories tall and was very impressive. Each level of the sphere was dedicated to a different type of energy - wind, solar, water, bio, etc. and the bottom floor was about Kazakhstan's history. The sphere was our favorite pavilion. [After the Expo they turned the sphere into a museum. The rest of the buildings they are working to convert into different business buildings.]
The pavilions were a mix of information about future and clean energy and information about the countries themselves. Many countries mostly had information about tourism to their countries.
The rest of the day we visited other pavilions in the Asian pavilion building. We ate a nice lunch at a little Thai restaurant that was near the Thai pavilion, and spent the day until about 6:00 p.m. It was a long day of walking and looking at things, but we really enjoyed the sites.
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| Right inside the Expo site with the Nur Alem in the background. |
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| Inside the Russian pavilion - Russian icebreaker model. |
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| Arctic ice. |
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| Top floor of the pavilion looking out across the city. The glass floor was very interesting... and a bit scary! |
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| Looking up at the glass pathway from the second floor from the top. |
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| Art and other installations. |
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| Yulia photographing the mirrored ceiling. |
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| The elevator bank with futuristic elevator cars. |
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| Space! One of the exhibits in Nur Alem. |
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| Oma in space! |
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| Yulia, Babushka, and Nina taking a break. |
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| The twins holding up the sun (solar energy floor). |
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| Oma and Babushka holding up the sun! |
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| Wind energy - wind patterns. |
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| In the wind tunnel! |
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| Looking at biomass fuels under the glass floor. |
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| More information about biofuels. |
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| Kids playing an interactive game. |
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| Energy created by two teams on cycles! |
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| Oma and Babushka relaxing and waiting for the show. |
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| We were able to catch the show - it was very interesting and we saw another version at Cirque du soleil a few days later. |
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| On the first floor of the sphere. |
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| Action shot - walking at the Expo. |
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| More of the buildings. |
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| Taking a break for some water. |
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| Inside the Algerian pavilion. |
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| Chinese pavilion - a 3-d movie experience. |
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| Pavilions - Jordan, Thailand, Turkey, and more! |
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Azerbaijan pavilion - cotton bols.
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| Exhibit showing different heat waste from lamps. Hot to cold. In the Turkish Pavilion |
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| Inside the Thai pavilion |
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| More Thailand pavilion. |
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| A concert outside the Thai pavilion! |
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| A history of the Expos through the ages. |
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| Inside the history of the expo - This was a ride from six years ago in Shanghai |
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| The Pacific Islands Pavilion |
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| Sisters supporting each other after a long day at the Expo. |
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