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Comment by kjellsbells | Hacker News Reader

Central Asia still remains largely untouristed. I loved this article from the New York Times concerning a boy who taught himself Russian and then went to Kazakhstan with his father to immerse himself.

The Foreign Language That Changed My Teenage Son’s Life https://www.nytimes.com/2024/03/17/magazine/russian-language...

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Central Asia (where I actually live) does not have much to see, esp. Kazakhstan. The main tourist destinations are historical monuments in Uzbekistan which has huge tourist influx lately (every time I am in Uzbekistan I see a good deal of tourists around hotels). Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan have beautiful mountains, nature. Kazakhstan is bit dull post-Soviet place, Almaty resembles more some city in Eastern Europe than Asia.

> Central Asia (where I actually live) does not have much to see, esp. Kazakhstan

I think this is the "I live here" bias. I've hit most stans, each is unique and worth a visit in their own ways, but I give you that a random snapshot from Almaty could have been taken anywhere in the USSR.

Almaty has nice mountains to see actually, but some seriously problematic neighborhoods and high crime.

We had a Turkmen exchange student a few years ago and her family has asked to Turkmenistan several times but we haven't taken them up on the offer. It does seem like an extremely unique place.

This was an incredible article. Thanks for sharing!

Beautiful story, thanks for the link.

Wonderful read, thanks for posting!

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