Nauryz at the Hippodrome

This is where it all goes down. All those games on horseback I have heard about but never really believed were true – happens at a place appropriately called the Hippodrome. There were horse races, a game where riders have to pick up flags off the ground, horseback wrestling, and my favorite Kyz Kulu (where a girl on horseback gets a head start and a boy pursues her and tries to catch up with her. If he succeeds he wins a kiss, if he fails they have to ride back to the start and the girl gets to whip the boy the whole way back with a riding crop. The crown jewel of the games of course is Kok Par, which is the decapitated goat carcass polo I have spoken about previously. Seeing it in person is really pretty much what you would expect – and totally just like in Rambo 3. It was really fun to hang in the stands of the Hippodrome and celebrate with all the locals. The weather was perfect, sunny and hot. Many of the volunteers who came down from the North were shocked because they had just left a blizzard in many of their sites. Nauryz is the Kazakhstani version of the Muslim New Years.