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For the last two years, the ´óÏó´«Ã½ Central Asia correspondent, Rayhan Demytrie, has been based in Kazakhstan in the former capital Almaty.

The city is surrounded by mountains.

Rayhan lives in a typical Soviet built apartment block, and her neighbours include several babushkas - old ladies who have been there since Soviet times.

When she was growing up in neighbouring Uzbekistan, she says she used to look down on Kazakhstan as a less developed country.

But all that has changed over the last 10 to 15 years.

Kazakhstan is one of the largest countries in the world - the size of Western Europe - and is now the most developed economy in the region.

Today, with its modern shops and restaurants, Almaty is the most cosmopolitan city in Central Asia, and perhaps the most expensive.

However modern day Almaty is a far cry from the past, when traditionally Kazakhs lived as nomadic herders on the steppe - a way of life that is still embedded in the national psyche.

Varied Kazakh lives

For Outlook, Rayhan Demytrie has spoken to three people whose stories reflect the varied lives in Kazakhstan today - to Zhanna Issabaeva, Anna Grigorievna, and Kazbek Valiev.

Zhanna Issabaeva

Zhanna spent much of her childhood in the countryside, and says the experience has influenced her entire life.

But she feels that young urban Kazakhs are losing all connection with rural life, and see people from the countryside as inferior.

Zhanna is the director of a film called Karoy, which looks at the harsh realities of village life.

Anna Grigorievna

Anna Grigorievna is 94 years old, and lives in Kazakhstan's new capital, Astana.

Anna first came to the region in a cattle truck in 1938, when the site of today's sparkling modern city was just windswept steppe.

Her husband worked for the secret service and was arrested in Stalin's purges.

Soon after, Anna too was arrested and spent the next eight years in a labour camp near Astana. Her two young children died in an orphanage.

Kazbek Valiev

Kazbek fell in love with the mountains as a teenager in Almaty.

He spent 24 years climbing the highest peaks of the former Soviet Union, and then the Himalayas, becoming the first Kazakh to climb Mount Everest.

He also risked his life in several rescue expeditions for fellow climbers.

In 1990 he retired from top level climbing and started his own mountaineering company.