KEY POINTS:
Music is inescapable in Kazakhstan. Writing this in my hotel room in Almaty I can hear music booming from the restaurant where a Kazak wedding is in full swing. Wafting in the window are the sounds of impromptu karaoke sessions in the park across the road.
The wedding
party arrived in a shower of rose petals. From my vantage point several floors above I could see the bride in a billowing white satin gown and the groom chatting on his cellphone as he climbed out of the stretch limo.
Who would ring a man on his wedding day? Was it the last desperate pleading of an old flame, a caterer in crisis, a sobbing mother?
When I poked my head around the door of the restaurant later on I wondered if perhaps it was a midwife on the phone. It looked touch and go as to whether the bride would make it through the reception before the forming an instant family.
Earlier in the day, near the park of warbling teenagers, a free May Day concert had been held.
During Soviet times May days involved parades of military hardware and goose-stepping soldiers. They were a reminder to the populace of the might of Soviet power.
Today's concert, however, was all about a celebration of national unity. And the Kazaks have plenty to be proud of in this respect.
Their massive country is home not only to ethnic Kazaks, but also Russians, Uzbeks, Tajiks, Kyrgyz, Ukrainians, Uigurus, Koreans and dozens more. All seem to be happily co-existing.
Group after group in their traditional finery took to the stage to sing and dance - from traditional numbers to gyrations to the latest in Central Asian pop!
While they performed, smoke snaked through the audience, bringing with it the aroma of cooking kebabs and fresh bread.
The audience itself was also decked out in all its finery. Kazakhstan is rich in oil and natural gas and it shows.
The streets of Almaty are congested with BMWs, Mercedes and even Humvees.
In the foothills on the edge of the city multimillion-dollar mansions are springing up - swallowing up the apple orchards that once lapped the mountain slopes.
It's a long way from the days of Soviet prefabricated concrete apartments, fume-belching Soviet cars and drab clothing.
Old communists would probably be spinning in their graves at the sight of all the bling, high heels and sports cars being driven by the Rayban-wearing nouveau riche. But as some Kazaks will tell you - the two species are not mutually exclusive.
