Aktau is a city dedicated to resource extraction, surrounded by nothingness so vast that all of the city’s water comes from a nuclear-powered desalinization plant. I could see evidence of Shell, Texaco, and other western oil companies that had set up shop here, and sitting in the downtown Shamrock restaurant did not feel all that different from the Fisherman’s Wharf in Baku. The same expatriate oil workers eating western food, speaking in southern accents, listening to Madonna and Elton John and discussing the business of oil were all here as well. The town itself had a definite Soviet feel to it, with row after row of dormitory-style buildings, WWII memorials, and broad socialist avenues. (6-02-05)
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Socialist Dormitories, Aktau |
