Transport in Kazakhstan

I have a question for you. Is Kazakhstan part of Europe?

If you say no, you lose, like I lost that bet at university some years ago. If you say yes, you win, but I am still skeptical. But since about 10% of Kazakhstan is on this side of the Ural mountains, it can be classified as Europe.

Visiting this annoying country has been on the cards ever since the incident of the Kazakhstan bet.

Kazakhstan is the largest land-locked country in the world, and ninth biggest in total. It is vast. With six people per square kilometre, it is also one of the most sparcely populated (18million total). Kazakhstan’s official languages are Russian and Kazakh, the latter being a Turkic language similar to Uzbek and Tatar. Around two thirds of Kazakhstan are ethnically Kazakh, while a fifth are Russian.

I went to Almaty, the former capital and current cultural capital of the country. It is is situated in the south east of the country, with both Kyrgyz and Chinese borders within some hundred kilometres. With this entry you can prep yourself for your future trip to Almaty, discussing one of my favourite topics: travel, vehicles and transport around the stunning, barely touched country.

Transporting yourself into and around Almaty

• Flying in: 

Almaty is included in AirBaltic’s new routes, and it’s a relatively painless five hours from Riga, especially if you are skilled at sleeping in planes. (Yours truly is skilled at sleeping everywhere and anywhere except planes.) Riga-Almaty is a night flight, Almaty-Riga a day flight, and both fly three times a week. The arrival into Almaty is 7.50am in the morning is incredible. I didn’t realise quite what a dramatic cut it was from the flat lands and then suddenly, BOOM, mountains. THIS IS WHY I TRAVEL.

• Apparently visa rules change continuously, but when I went, EU-citizens (along with quite a few other countries) were visa-free for trips under 30 days. At the airport, you do need to fill in a migration paper! And it needs to be kept, too.

I also read about scams where the officials will ask you for your visa, even though you don’t need one. In this case you just need to confidently tell them that you don’t need a visa. Otherwise they may make you pay for a visa on the spot, which you don’t actually need.

• Getting out of the airport:

There is a very conveniently situated bus number 92 which leaves from just outside the airport and takes you to the centre. For all other bus numbers, you need to leave the airport area (there is no exit area for pedestrians, so just pretend you’re a car on slow feet), walk down the leafy road and stop at the bus stop with no bus numbers on it. At least bus number 86 stops there, along with at least three others. You can also book yourself a taxi (about 1,200-1,700 Tenge (2,5€-4€)) or accept the offers of the mirriad taxi drivers keenly offering their services to you as soon as you get out of arrivals. In the case of the latter, make sure you agree on the price beforehand.

• Drivers

  are pretty law-abiding and they will always let pedestrians across zebra crossings (though this doesn’t mean they won’t use a quick acceleration to get over before you get on, so common sense is required as in all steps of life). There’s beeping and trolley buses and Ladas and hay-bearing trucks so you will be sufficiently entertained. (Or at least I was.)

  

  

  

  

• Longer Distance Transport

isn’t always the easiest, especially if you want to visit “nearby” natural wonders, like the Charyn Canyon (the “little brother” of the Grand Canyon), the Kolsai Lakes or unique little Lake Kaindy. They are all in the Almaty region, “close” to the city, but by Kazakhstan standards this means 200-300km away. For these destinations Your Options Are:

• Hire yourself a four-wheel drive and be prepared to brave “roads” described as “Very Bad”. (A normal car would last about as long as a tricycle on some of those “roads”.)

• Book yourself an all-inclusive private tour of 1-4 days (which I very nearly did), costing 100-500 dollars. This means it’s just you and your travel companions.
• Find yourself an unofficial tour through contacts, the internet, or random encounters.
• (During tourist season:) Group tours appear to be available during tourist season. (Aka not September.)

• Transport within Almaty:

  • Buses cost 150 Tenge (0,34€), regardless of your trip. Unless you have a beepable Onay-card, you need to buy a ticket from the driver. From all three of my experiences the driver ignores you for the first stop, and then sells you the ticket after you’ve waited patiently next to him. (Later I realised this is most likely due to the fact that it takes about one stop for the paper ticket-machine to wake up.)

• The new cool metro costs 80 Tenge, regardless of you trip. You need to walk through a security beeper and put your bag through an x-ray (and they may or may not look at the screen as it goes through) before you can go and buy your жетон (token) from the cashier people. I don’t know if it’s a general rule or just one made up by the first lady who sold me one, but you can only buy one at a time (!!). Don’t trouble yourself with the ticket machines before the security, they seem to sell everything possible except metro tokens.

• Trolley buses exist but I only just admired them.

 

• Taxis have had mixed reviews, but they exist and were fine.

 

• Hailing cars: The easiest way of transport around the city is standing on the side of the road, hailing down a random car and them taking you to your destination. It is good fun and when you get comfortable doing it, it brings you SUCH FREEDOM. Wherever you want to go, with a bit of patience you’ll find someone willing to take you. There are two golden rules, both of which I broke:
  • Agree on price beforehand. 
  • Don’t accept a ride from two men. (In my case, I made an exception with #mymateSultan and his tiny grandkid, aged about 6.)

• Transport to Almaty Big Lake (30km out of Almaty, one of the main attractions):

  • You can drive that hired four-wheel drive of yours up.
  • You can order yourself a taxi and be there and back for probably around 6,000 Tenge (13,79€). That is the easiest way and saves you a lot of time, effort and money. But it would also take away from the adventure, imho.
  • You can get bus number 28 from the President Park (see map) and it will take you to the bottom of the mountain. From then on you can get a car to take you up the mountain, or walk – just follow the water pipe. The scenic walk to the top will take at least a few hours.
  • Hail a car from the bus stop at the President Park, hope you find someone who wants to take you to the Lake, and hope they don’t rip you off too much. (My experience – not the most time-efficient, money-efficient or effort-efficient, but DEFINITELY one of the highlights of my trip.)

• Cable cars galore in Almaty, arguably the BEST way to travel. More about them in later entries!

• And see if you can spot the creepy aeroplane.

It was there when I arrived, it was there when I left. And it doesn’t look normal.

Next we will delve into more details about the epic transport-filled trip to Kazakhstan! Can’t wait 🙂

À toute mes munchkins !