Trains, trains and more trains

We arrived in Almaty Saturday. It felt like a very long journey to get here. We had a 3 hour train journey from Burabay to Astana. Stayed overnight in Astana and then caught a 20 hour sleeper train to Almaty.

The train journey to Astana gave us our first glimpse of a sleeper train. We didn’t realise that when we booked it. We assumed it would be a regular train like the one we got to Burabay. We were in a 6 person cabin & it helped us understand how it all works for those 3 hours.

For our journey to Almaty we were pleasently surprised, we were in a comfy cabin with 4 beds and a lockable door. For the first 5 hours it was just us (and the kid from the next door cabin who seemed to adopt us).

With the bed you get a padded roll mat, a pillow and sheets and a nice big blanket. The two bottom beds in the cabin are for sitting when you’re not sleeping.

From Karagandy 2 others joined our cabin.

We absoutely recommend this form of travel in Kazakhstan if you have the time. It cost about £30 for the two of us (no London prices here!!). The big joy for me was having a Kazakh tea party in our cabin with two strangers who spoke hardly any English (apart from the obivous naming of English football teams!!) sharing our food together and having a great time.

Our recommendations for long distance Kazakh train travel:

Take food, and enough to share with others…it’s very socialable.

Have a good book ready to read and download some tv programmes/films onto your device.

Don’t sit the whole time. Stops at stations are usually longer than you would expect in the UK, the longest we stopped for was 35 minutes. Use this opportunity to stretch your legs!

Wear something comfortable

Be warned it gets very warm. Even though we were traveling from -19c Astana, the train thermometer showed 30c. We only needed to wear a t shirt and trousers/shorts for most of the journey. I can’t imagine what it’s like when it’s also 30c outside in the Summer!!

Watch the Kazakh steppe go by out of the window.

The toilet can get unpleasent so take some toilet tissues & alcohol gel with you!

Take a small mug if you can…they have hot water on tap (we drank sooo much tea!!) But if you can’t take a mug the train conductor will have some you can borrow.

Whilst our tickets were for a 4 person cabin; having seen the 6 person cabin we wouldn’t have any issues using that one either. And it’s cheaper. You don’t get doors on the cabin but it’s more sociable.

Our next time on a train will be when we head from Delhi to Agra in March. I expect the Indian train experience will be just as exciting.