Shymkent, South Kazakhstan Province, Kazakhstan
Too tired to walk I had arranged for a taxi to pick me up from the National Museum and take me to the train station. It was a straight line down one street on the map but I had no more energy to be walking a couple more kms.
The cab driver didnt know where the train station was and had poor sight when I tried to show him on my phone but eventually he figured out where I was going. Fare was 780T ($2.25)
The station was quite strange and deserted. I didnt see any shops and was dying for a drink. I asked someone who first took me thru the security screening. Then you had to take elevators up to the 4th floor where the main departures hall was. I found a shop and got two 1 litre drinks for 280T each (.75 cents).
Compared to my train experience in Uzbekistan there was no over the top security and it was all rather relaxed. I could take photos in the station and of the train with no problems.
I had paid $75 USD for the most expensive car with two bunks and ensuite showers, vs the other cars with 4 bunks and shared showers for the car. I also chose the top bunk for more space and privacy.
I had bought my train tickets and made reservations via Advantour (https://www.advantour.com/kazakhstan/trains.htm) I tried to buy my tickets online on the Kazakstain trains website (https://tickets.kz/en/gd) but it kept rejecting when I tried to pay online with my credit card. At least it had seat maps of each carriage so I could choose which type of carriage and seat to select
This was the more expensive train option on the Spanish Talgo cars vs the cheaper local options. Even so it was a 16 hour train ride leaving at 7.57pm arriving 12.15 noon next day. Ours was the VIP cabin so had some foreign tourists.
I was first in my cabin and I had checked online and saw the other seat was sold so I would have a companion. It was a Kazakh local who worked in tourism so spoke some English.
He kept wanting me to goto his resort Kaskasu and I kept explaining my days are planned so I couldnt go. It didnt seem that appealing to me anyway. I slept for the night from 9pm to 6am, tired from my days walking and flights the previous night.
On waking up the next day the landscape was completely different. I hadnt seen anything all night with our evening departure but the land was more open and barren now we had been travelling all night to the south.
It seemed more like the Central Asia I remembered from my time in Xinjiang. There were horses and cattle grazing in the open lands.
After modern upscale Astana the south seemed less developed and less affluent. People were driving in older Russian Lada cars
An interesting stop was in Taraz where local women lined the platform selling fruits. I'd once done a train journey like this in India when I was six which was very uncomfortable trying to sleep on wooden benches in a four bed cabin with my dad and grandfather.
This was a more modern experience. I'd decided against flying due to the high cost and questionable safety of domestic airlines. It was a good way to travel and different experience mixing with the locals.
2025-05-22