Almaty! - Getting There - Thursday through Friday 25 & 26 March 2010

Almaty is the former capital of Kazakhstan and the decision to go there was very last-minute. At the end of each term there is an almost 2-week break; however, teachers have to work quite a bit of it. Saturday, 20 March--the first day of break--my Kazakh friend suggested it. On Monday, 22 March (Nauriz) I called my principal, who agreed to let me have Friday off. Tuesday night we went to the train station to buy tickets.

Kazakhstan is the 9th largest country in the world, and Almaty is quite far from Astana. The fastest train can take you there in 12 hours. Our plan was to take this fast train, both ways, so that I could be back in time for work on Monday morning. However, either that train was completely booked for the days we wanted, or wasn't running. So we got tickets that would have us leave on Thursday at 5 pm, arriving in Almaty the next day at 1 pm. I would leave Almaty on Sunday morning at 11 and arrive in Astana at 8 on Monday morning. The tickets were cheap--4500 Tenge (about $31) for one adult one way, 2500 Tenge (about $18) for Sophia one way. But would it be worth it?

Last-minute I decided to purchase plane tickets for the ride home. 23000 Tenge ($156) for a fully refundable one-way ticket home. Less than half of that for Sophia. The flight would be under 2 hours. Amazing the difference in prices and times between the train and the plane. (FYI, I was only charged about 100 Tenge--$7--for returning the train ticket.)

The information about my Air Astana ticket included a line about how, while they would appreciate it if I informed them if I were unable to make my flight, however they would not charge me if I simply did not show up, and my ticket price would be refunded. Wow!

On Thursday, I worked for about 3 boring hours, as almost no one else was there, and then left to hurriedly pack. Then my brother, Sophia & I took the hour-long bus ride to the train station, where we met my friend Rebeca and her daughter, Alice. (Not their real names...) Rebeca is Kazakh and works as a free-lance translator, mostly translating instruction manuals from English into Kazakh. Her daughter is 9 years old and is learning English, and is friends with Sophia.

Rebeca, Alice, Sophia, and I shared one small cabin with 2 bunk beds, and my brother was a few rooms down, sharing a cabin with 3 hospitable Kazakh women.

The 19-hour train ride went by much more smoothly than I had anticipated. Sophia was thrilled to be on a train, and to be spending the night with Alice. Two Kazakh boys were next door to us and played with the girls for a short while. We went to eat at the cafe, which had rather cheap food, considering I'd expected it to be expensive. (Maybe expensive by Kazakh standards.)

Our room was small yet comfortable. There was enough room to sit up on our beds, which made the top bunks rather high up and difficult for the girls to get to. At midnight, I switched beds with Sophia, in part because she and Alice could not fall asleep because they kept looking at each other, and in part because I was worried that she would fall. The railing on the top bunk was small and short, not much protection for a kid who moves a lot in her sleep.

We were provided with plenty of blankets and sheets. A tap near the bathroom provided hot water (we had to bring our tea and tea cups.) The bathrooms weren't great, there were two on each car and some were squatters.

When we left Astana, it was mildly cold and outside the ground was snow-covered and flat. When we woke up in the morning, it was no longer snow-covered and there were hills. As we got closer to Almaty, we could see an amazing sight--snow-covered mountains in the background, looking very much like clouds in the distance.

Almaty, here we come!