I realize that most of you are probably not too familiar with the geography of Kazakhstan, so here's a map of where I will be:

I'll be in Aktau for the majority of the trip, though I will spend a day in Almaty hiking in the Himalaya.

As you can see, there are some rather newsworthy countries nearby. Luckily, the scale of this map is enormous (e.g. I'll still be over 500 miles from Iran).