India, Oct. 31 -- For Kazakhstan, don't listen to the influencers. The ones who've travelled there from India tend to be young, penniless students, making the most of the rupee's advantage over the tenge and India's visa-free status. (And the fact that a direct flight to Almaty, the biggest city, is barely three hours from Delhi)

So, they mostly tend to be deal hunters. The videos are about discount bins at clothing markets, dorms, and which food stalls offer free samples inside the historic Green Bazaar. And, they pronounce it Kazz-aak-iss-tan, when it's really Kuzz-ukh-Stan (no i).

They miss the big picture. The Central Asian country and former Soviet republic shares a border with Russia and China, with the six other stans huddled sou...