A photo from my recent visit to the green bazaar (kok bazaar). Here, you can find all sorts of exotica (or at least in Kazakhstan's world), such as lettuce leaves, limes, avocados and pineapples. One of my favorite parts of the bazaar are all the nut and dried fruit vendors, pictured above. Almost all of them come from either Uzbekistan or Tajikistan. This is not the dried fruit you buy at home! Most of the fruits simply melt in your mouth and don't compare to the tired old dried fruits you get at the supermarket. Furthermore, the dried fruit and nut market is an excellent place to come when hungry or in need of some spirited conversation.

The sellers are experts at spotting and persuading gulible young Americans such as yours truly. When I walk into their section of the market, they fall over themselves trying to offer me tastes of Azeri dried cherries and figs, Iranian dates or Uzbek dried apricots and raisins. When they find out I am an American, the competion, conversation (and the free food!) gets even more intense. As I much as I try and persuade myself to get just a "little bit," I most often walk out, arms full, several thousand tenge the poorer and with more dried fruit and nuts than I could eat in a month.