Astana, Kazakhstan

Another beautiful day in Astana. First item on the list... an interview with President Nazerbaev on architecture. He has a busy schedule inaugurating new buildings and we caught up with him at the Moscow Business Center. Even the mayor of Moscow was there, Mr. Luzhkov. Mr. Luzhkov is a small, stocky man who has lived through a lot to be mayor of Moscow for at least the past 15 years.

The presidential car arrives with security men jumping out of accompanying jeeps. He greets Mr. Luzhkov and then his aide says Euronews wants to talk with him. He comes right over to us and I am able to film him in the sun with a background of the city, one can say, he built. He was very nice and seemed to be in a good mood. Tuesday is his birthday and Monday is also a holiday, called the City Day. The cameramen from different Kazak televisions were very friendly and calm. Usually such events are a scram for position, but here things seem to go very smooth, but I think I also have a privileged position because Euronews has a very good reputation here and is very respected.

Next up, an interview with the "Head Designer of the City" Mr. Djambulatov. We have a point in common in that he is also a pilot. I mentioned that I had a helicopter's license from the military aeroclub of the former Soviet Union, DOSAAF. He learned to fly there as well. He smiled and held out his hand to shake and said "you are my real comrade"! He said the buillding in which we were standing is the site of the old DOSAAF airfield! We talked airplanes for a brief moment which was a lot of fun.

For a small break we went to have a coffee with a journalist friend, Ainash and some of her friends. They were very interested in talking with us and were filled with questions and ideas. One was a young lawyer and prosecutor, others working for an organisation to promote the city of Astana. All seem very motivated, polite and anxious to learn what they could from encounters with foreign visitors.

Next we went for a walk in the city park. Kids were pedalling small go carts around and you had to dodge them sometimes. Even smaller kids were in even smaller plastic cars remotely controlled by their parent, giving them the sensation that they were driving without being a danger!

Last assignment; take night pictures of the city from the 40th floor of the railway company's building. I will post those pictures when I can get into the blog without using a proxy. By the way, I still haven't got to the bottom of that story, whether the blog sites are blocked by the government as some people say or caused by a technical glitch as others think. It seems a bit fishy in that I can still connect using a proxy. Anyway, in the last floor of this building a few different TV crews have been invited to take pictures also of the fireworks from above. Presse TV from Iran is here too. They introduce themselves and we shake hands. When it comes to our interpreter, Ms. Medina Mahomedova, the Iranian journalist refuses to shake her hand, explaining that islamic law forbids him to do so. Just before entering the building Medina was proudly explaining the arabo-islamic origens of her name. She was a bit shocked at the rudeness of the Iranian. One rule of travel is you should respect the customs of the places you visit. The Iranians were accompanied by two women dressed in black hijabs. Kazakhstan strictly separates religion and state and their form of islam is very moderate.