Although there are three online sites to book train tickets we still had problems doing it. For some reason the site was unable to identify our passport numbers so we had to book tickets with an agency and have them couriered to the hostel. There were not many sleepers left on the train and I did not want to sit for twenty hours in an upright seat. We later heard that scalpers buy up tickets and then sell them to travellers who arrive at the station to buy tickets. Expo 2017 is on in Astana so travel agents may also have bought up blocks of tickets but there were no return tickets available so we managed to find a reasonably priced air ticket with Air Astana and decided to head for Shymkent in the south of the country after our visit to Astana .
Almaty station of which there are two.
John gave the coach attendant some sweets when she took our tickets and she later brought us some sweet tea in a railway teapot with fancy tea glasses in holders.
We rolled into Astana on time to be greeted by hordes of unofficial taxi drivers and lines of official ones.
Almaty station of which there are two.
We had to go through metal detectors at the station before entering the platform so luckily we had left in plenty of time as there were also police attending an incident on our way but the taxi driver managed to notice it in time and chose another route.
Staff meeting before the train left.
Fruit sellers on the platform had dishes of strawberries,apples and cherries. We expected a lot more sellers than there were as stations are great places for rushed travellers to buy food.
John gave the coach attendant some sweets when she took our tickets and she later brought us some sweet tea in a railway teapot with fancy tea glasses in holders.
On her next visit she dropped off freshly starched, monogrammed bed linen and towels.. They even matched the curtains. Thick duvets and pillows were already waiting for us in the bunks.
No one joined us on the trip so we enjoyed having the four bunk compartment to ourselves. We did have a visit from a 42 year old father and his 13 year old daughter who could speak a few words of English. We mostly conversed using Google translator and they had already been told that the only westerners on the train were from NZ.
The journey took us through the steppes where there were not many villages and lots of sky and grass. We saw very few animals and people. Some of the plantations of what looked like birch and beech trees were thick with black crows.The small settlements we passed looked quite basic and the residents would have a lonely hard life especially in the winter trying to make an income.
Outside the small towns were cemeteries where the Muslim graves were separated from non-Muslim ones.
In the morning we passed a few towns that had trucks loaded up with earth or minerals. Kazakhstan has 99 of all the elements on the periodic table. Lots of trains carrying cement products thundered past us in the night.
The snow drift fences were a reminder of the harsh winters they get here.
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