What follows are pictures from a recent weekend trip to Astana, Kazakhstan's new capital, with friends. Billions and billions of dollars are being poured into Astana (which also conveniently means "capital" in Kazakh) in an effort to transform the city from a small outpost amidst the bleak steppe into a modern capital. The move of the capital from hip Almaty to snow-covered Astana eight years ago was a controversial one and most embassies have been dragging their feet about moving (the US embassy only moved this fall). Nazarbayev, however, has been quick to get to work and the city bears his imprint (literally, at times! See the photo of Nazarbayev's handprint below) everywhere. For instance, we visited the newly-opened President's Museum, which was, well, a museum devoted entirely to Nazarbayev.

The new city is striking: think space-age construction surrounded by lots of empty steppe. Though Astana's present population is only 600,000, the expectation is that it will rise to one million in the next few years.

Above, I'm with my fellow travel companions in the newly built Duman entertainment center outside Astana where they have constructed a mock Statue of Liberty.