ALMATY -- The curved open-air swimming pool at the Eight Lakes resort outside Kazakhstan's commercial capital Almaty is billed as the largest of its kind in the former Soviet Union, testifying to a penchant for grandeur in Central Asia's richest country.
On a searing summer day, its chilly waters host three generations of middle-class Kazakhs, whose four-wheel drive vehicles pack the parking lot while they frolic with inflatable alligators and beach balls.
