Reporter’s Notebook: A manti restaurant brings The Silk Road ancient taste to visitors in Kazakhstan

The Silk Road was a trade route from Europe to Asia from 300 B.C. to the 16th century.  A part of The Silk Road went through Kazakhstan where my home was. During a summer 2021 trip to central Kazakhstan, my fellow travelers and I stopped at a manti restaurant situated in the corner of a…

Reporter’s Notebook: Russian Non-Alcoholic drinks will keep you cool in summer

In Kazakhstan and other republic of the former Soviet Union, there are popular non-alcoholic drinks, which can greatly satisfy someone’s thirst in the hot summer. These are kvas, lemonade, and kompot. A variety of kvases and lemonades are sold at every supermarket or small shop in the former USSR. They have sweet and sour tastes….

REPORTER’S NOTEBOOK: Traveling during the pandemic is complicated, or how to book a flight

(Editor’s Note: This is the second article in a series.) To find the best deal on a flight, someone should search multiple booking websites and compare the prices. For example, I was searching a round-trip flight from Tulsa, Okla., to Kazakhstan (the republic of the former Soviet Union) in July 2021. The cheapest price was…

Reporter’s notebook: International traveling during COVID-19 pandemic is complicated

(Editor’s Note: This is the first article in a series.) During the COVID-19 pandemic, some countries began to request visas from American citizens. Visas had to be obtained at the embassies of foreign countries in Washington, D.C. and other cities. For example, Kazakhstan (a republic of the former Soviet Union) had a visa-free policy for…