Practical travel information and reflections
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Entries by Tag: Customs
Georgian customs, Akhalkalaki, Akhaltsikhe and Adjara
A visit to Gyumri ended our visit to Armenia and we returned to Georgia again, but not very quickly. At the Ninotsminda checkpoint, at the entrance to Georgia, customs officers became interested in my camera and the contents of our backpacks, and specifically books in them. Having carefully studied them and checked the additionally and no less carefully passports, they missed after 15 minutes. For Georgian customs, which usually does not even scan backpacks and does not show any activity, this is strange. But this transition specifically, someone already complained from Russians on the Internet that there was a rather strict control.
Once in these outskirts of Georgia, I was again convinced that the hinterland still lives very simply, there is no such radiance as in Tbilisi and Batumi, though there are no tourists for whom this radiance is mainly created.
But still, in comparison with Armenia, progress goes here faster, for example, the route is overhaled by the track, and not just rolling new asphalt.
- Current Location: Sofia (Bulgaria)
Delay on the border. /Part-3 of the story of Juvasia/
The path from Togliatti to Petropavlovsk took us for two days. During these days, we made an excursion in the winter (on the passes of the Ural mountains there really was already winter, with snowfall and negative temperature), visited one of the drivers in Ufa and, as usual, learned a lot of new people from those who brought us up.
We crossed the border of Russia and Kazakhstan through the Petukhovo MAPP with an Armenian, who was driving this road (so shorter) to Irkutsk. A certain incident with my passport arose on the border, I remind you that I have a new one, just in August I received it and I have not yet gone anywhere. So when an employee of the Russian border service began to drive his data into the computer, for some reason he (passport) did not pass and the passport number was highlighted in red. I was already scared that when issuing, the passport was not properly brought to the base and it was invalid, imagining the prospect of returning to Ryazan and the proceedings with the FMS. But the boss who came to the help of the border guard, waved his hand at it and said that this happens, everything is okay. Well, after that, we safely left our homeland again and went on.
It’s interesting what was really the matter, maybe one of the readers is more competent in these matters than me? I will cover the secret, I really have something wrong with the passport, but the border guards waved their hand due to laziness or illiteracy, or this is a problem in their computer and program.
- Current Location: Kazakhstani Russian Road • Petropavlovsk Kazakhstan
Wintering in Asia.Part-55 Horgos
The main automobile border crossing between Kazakhstan and China is the Horgos Mapp. All travelers passing the course from the western part of Russia in Southern Rights are passing through it in the shortest way. About his essence and how to drive him for free from Kazakhstan to China, and not by bus/minibus (which are imposed there without fail) for huge money, I wrote in Part 7 of this story. And now I will talk about how to go in the opposite direction for free. It turned out to be a little more complicated, because Chinese border guards almost do not speak Russian, but still easily feasible.
So we returned to the post-Soviet space, before the meeting, even Chinese autobahns, hello, a gouged Kazakh road, which, according to the driver, “according to documents- is already an autobahn”, but in reality the remnants of Soviet asphalt are mixed with pits, here is the entire Horgos Almaty Autoban …
Wintering in Asia. Part-25 Lao-Tai border
We decided to get out of the city towards the border with Cityistop, since the city did not essentially end to the border, but simply smoothly changed by the suburbs, we began to catch the car, we began to move away from the center of the kilometer, at first, of course, we spent a lot of time talking with all sorts of taxi drivers And the tuk-tuker who stopped to us despite the fact that we did not stop them, but did not want to carry them for free, and after about twenty minutes we stopped another simple car, the driver of which, although he did not go to the border, realized what we needed and agreed Bring up 12 km. (There were 20 km to the border), but while we were driving, he said that he would stag the bus to the border when we reaches his village and tell the driver that he would bring us free of charge. The bus arrived almost immediately for us and we were successfully put us in it. It was a bus number 14, which I wrote about in the previous post, you can get out of the city to the border on it. If we knew about this earlier, then in the event of an adequate fare, probably on it would be on the border and went without wasting time on Cityistop, but we did not possess this knowledge and eventually arrived for free.
The bus drives straight to the border crossing, and then the Lao part of the border crosses on foot. In the border control booth, we were asked for the exit part of the migration card that was given at the entrance, it is necessary to fill out the standard data of the name, the date of birth, the number of the passport, citizenship, the date of entry, the address of residence and something else but the correctness and completeness of the data entered is not verified by anyone Therefore, we limited ourselves only to the name, DR and the number of the passport. Brilling is held quickly and without question, but after it there are some turnstiles in which you need to lower the ticket, this ticket, as it turned out, can be obtained for free on a passport in some window. The whole procedure is needed probably to take money from those who pass the border after 16:00 hours, then they will not give a ticket for free and they will ask for some official bribe (this is my opinion, it is not verified and I am not for it not I vouch.We went through the border at 11:30). After these turnstiles, you will find a turnstile again, but already alive in the form of a man who collects tickets for a bus transporting people across the bridge, the movement of pedestrians on which is forbidden, we were warned by friends who were there and therefore we retained 10,000 kips for this, but There were even a lot of one ticket cost only 4000 kip (16 rubles), tickets are purchased in a booth from aunts between turnstiles. After the passage of all these stages, we finally got to the site of the bus departure. The buses run every 10 minutes, the Thai side is carried out by the Thai side, typical Thai without windows and right -wing steering, and now, having drove to the bridge where the direction of movement from the right -hand to the left -handed we got to the kingdom of Thailand!
On the Thai border, you also need to fill out the similar Laos migration card and indicate the same standard data in it, but there is still a survey profile in which you need to indicate the purpose of the visit and some other data, but we also decided not to fill it out and correctly did it , not even looking at her border guard. Putting the entrance stamp for 30 days on the second part of the migration, (which is still with us and surrenders when leaving) and the border guard, without asking us any questions, let us go, customs control is a luggage rental through the scanner, it is done quickly and without problems. That's the whole border passed.
- Current Location: Khonken Thailand
- Current Mood: Good
Wintering in Asia. Part-20 Hello Laos, See you China
The border on the Sino-Lao GPP Mohan can be walked, but we went through it with the driver. The building of the Chinese customs is new and large. We went into it and an employee of customs immediately approached us, looking at our passports, he led us to the terminal. It was necessary to insert a passport into this terminal and he himself would fill out the exit card by writing your name, the date of birth and passport number, you just have to sign, and the flight number/car number remains unfilled. After that, we went to the border control rack, where quickly and without questions from the border guard, we gave this exit card and received exit stamps to the passports. That's the whole first stage of traveling in China for us ended on this, we spent 29 days in this country … Well, Laos was waiting ahead of us.
Our backpacks crossed the border in the trunk of a car, which once opened for a look. In general, the Chinese part of the border is easy, fast and convenient for queues and problems. The Laoskskoye checkpoint also turned out to be very civil, although I could not imagine it like that because of the video of some travelers from the Vietnamese Laosan border, where the Laoski customs is a hut from straw. Approaching the border control rack, the border guard opened his passports and finding the Country of the country “Rus” in them, made sure that we were from the Russian Federation and we did not need a visa, after which he set them aside and asked to wait until they brought any cards.After some time, we were brought something like migration cards or entrance profiles, on the back of which there was a Beeline advertisement (I immediately remembered Tajikistan, where on migration cards advertising Megafon), and on the front side it was necessary to fill out the name, the date of birth, the number of the passport, the target Visit, the entrance point and the country from which I entered, I did not fill out the point number of the passport because At this moment, the passport was at the border guard and did not sign in it, but they didn’t even pay attention to this leaf into some kind of box. After that, the border guard drove into the computer our data said that we have 15 days and set the stamp about the entrance to which the stamps about the date of entry and about the date to which we must leave, i.e. 12.12.2013 and 12/19/2013. Then, having said in English, welcome to Laos, he gave us our passports. Our backpacks also overcame the Laos border in the trunk and did not ask about anything about them.
- Current Location: Laoskita • Luang-Prabang Laos
- Current Mood: Good
Wintering in Asia. Part-7 Road to China through Horgos
In the morning, we thanked the investors, we got out of the city center for Kuljinsky tract, with the help of bus No. 65, for 80 tenge per person. Payment at the exit, the conductor did not ask for the backpacks of the money, we reached the final shopping center Magnum, which is located on the next highway and walked a little more than a kilometer to our highway.
The hitchhiking on this day, as before, continued to delight us. Almost immediately, some private minibus stopped, which brings everyone up for money and brought us 130 km, but without money (the driver understood the essence of the hitchhiking), and we didn’t even have to stop the next car, it stopped while we were turning a turn and an elderly marital The couple went to the mountains brought us back 120 km, after which we stopped a cheerful Uyghur on a dump truck, which already brought us to Zharkent, and we had to wait for no more than a minute. At first, the taxi drivers at first defeated us in the feast, but we quickly cooled their ardor with their lack of money, having stood for about ten minutes, one of the taxi drivers again drove up to us and offered to give up a departure from the city for free, we agreed and decided to thank it out, the remaining 100 tenge (but he did not take the money, it was more important for him to do a good deed, he was a believer Muslim) on the road we, too, without standing for a long time, caught the driver going to the village near the border, at first he also wanted money, but after our irrevocable refusal, with With pleasure, we brought us free of charge, having received a story about our traverse life as a reward and, as a result, decided to give us up directly to the border itself. It was the last car we had in Kazakhstan, while we were traveling in this car between conversations, I thought what good people we came across on this trip in Kazakhstan, in the country that many hitchhikers consider the least suitable for the BSSUSR.But we refuted this opinion on this trip, hitchhiking this time was just perfect, we put a solid five on friendly and hospitable Kazakhstan, approaching customs, we thought how can we get through it for free without spending money on all sorts of buses that are usually imposed on such border crossings and we did not expect what happened when we left the car and went to the border guard and showed our passports. He looked at them and the presence of Chinese Chinese visas in them, after which, without asking or saying anything, he called the assistant bus driver (slipbus) Almaty-Urumqi to him and told him that hitchhikers are traveling for free, take them to China. We didn’t expect such a turn of events, the border guard understood everything himself, he didn’t even have the thought that a taxi driver might have brought us and we were going for money …
Having loaded our backpacks, we climbed into a crowded bus and drove along the neutral zone of Kazakhstan, which is a one-lane broken road, having arrived at the checkpoint, we quickly went through customs, the border guards asked about our route and wished us a happy journey! Everything was just fine, thanks again to hospitable Kazakhstan, but then the bus driver's assistant almost broke down, turned out to be not such a good person as the border guards, and realizing that we are in a hopeless situation (between two customs, through which you can’t walk through), I decided despite the request of the border guard to take us to China to cut down 2000 tenge from us, starting to pretend that he did not know the Russian language (Although before that he calmly spoke it) and pretended that he did not understand what we were saying to him in Turkish (the driver’s assistant was Uyghur, and the Uyghur language is similar in Turkish they are of the same language group). But he attacked the wrong ones, we took our backpacks and got off the bus, deciding to overcome Chinese customs on another bus or car, but the border guards saw this and stopped the bus and told the assistant driver to take us to China, he obediently opened the luggage compartment and we loaded it back backpacks, and at the same time spoke in Russian: “Without money, you have to sleep at home.” After that, we overcame the neutral zone of China and arrived at the Chinese checkpoint. According to the stories of many travelers, when entering China, a very strict inspection, backpacks are carefully looked for in them for items prohibited for import, products, various printed publications directed against the Chinese authorities and other things objectionable to them, we expected about the same inspection, but our expectations were not justified. At the entrance to the checkpoint, we were given some kind of leaflet in which we had to indicate our full name, date of birth, passport and visa number, purpose of arrival, address of stay in China and something else, at first this did not please us, but to help us the border guard came again, now Chinese, seeing that after filling in the name, date of birth and numbers, we linger, took the sheets from us, noting in them only a tick for the purpose of the arrival of a private visit,said that the rest of the items can not be filled out and let him go to the border control window, where they quickly and without questions put stamps in our passports and took this leaflet (I didn’t understand why it was needed at all), after which we went to the customs control zone, where the woman the one walking in front of us showed the contents of her suitcase, we put things on the x-ray and prepared to answer the questions of the border guards, but after they passed through the conveyor, we were told that we were free. Wow, once again we thought, either it’s not necessary once at a time, or it depends on the person or on the change of customs officers, but someone at the Chinese borders was heavily inspected and they paid a lot of money for a bus to cross the border, and here we are passed quickly, free of charge and without inspection. Leaving the territory of the border crossing, we were surrounded by a large and arrogant crowd of money changers who grabbed our clothes trying to stick their yuan, dollars, euros, tenge and anything else, but we passed them quickly, with a stone expression on our faces and after a while they fell behind. We have never exchanged money with such people and do not advise anyone, I am 98% sure that their exchange rate is extremely bad, and depending on the person, they will probably cheat him somehow according to the situation, so we don’t even talk to people like that bailiffs at the borders. As for money, we always try to change it at banks or exchange offices if the exchange rate does not differ much, and we decided to take the Chinese yuan in advance in Moscow at the Bank of China, which is located at Prospekt Mira 72, next to the Moscow Regional Duma. They took at the rate of 5.31 rubles. for 1 yuan, the rate for Russia is good, and for the first time we took 200 yuan, so as not to change from such figures at the border. Having got rid of the changers, we went towards the autobahn and tried to find Wi-Fi along the way, but all networks required a password, and we no longer hoped to find a working network without a password, but at the exit from the city, after a police box near some pink building, we nevertheless, we found a normal network and decided to do the things we needed on the Internet, during this time it got dark (It was 17 o'clock Astana time and 19 o'clock Beijing time) and we decided to go to spend the night, after walking literally 400 meters, we crossed the road and put up a tent in trees between some plantations.
In general, the result for crossing the Kazakh-Chinese border through the checkpoint Khorgos is as follows:
1) 1) The flow of cars is very large both before the border, and at the border and after it, although most Kazakh cars go only to the border market
2) 2) The border guards and customs officers are polite and friendly, the Chinese officer who helped fill out the questionnaire sheet knows English and a little Russian.
3) 3) If you want to cross the border for free or in the absence of money, it crosses for free. Be confident in achieving your goal and do not fall for all sorts of tricks and deceptions on the part of those who make money on this.
4) 4) Our backpacks only led through an X -ray, there was nothing forbidden in them and perhaps this is why they were not asked to open, although other people were asked to open, maybe this is due to the appearance, you won’t say that we, for example, shutters. Therefore, I cannot give conclusions on customs control on this border. The main thing is not to transport forbidden objects and everything will be fine.
5) 5) Channel and other offers who hang out on the Chinese side are very arrogant and intrusive, try to pass them as soon as possible and do not come into contact with them. If you need to change the money, it is better to find an exchanger in the town, it is probably there.
6) 6) According to local residents from the Kazakh side, the border crossing works around the clock and seven days a week. This information is not verified by us, we crossed it in mid -weekdays.
- Current Location: China Kazakhstan • Turfan China
Hitchhiking in Central Asia. Part-3 acquaintance with Kyrgyzstan
Previous Entry. Part-2 deeper in Kazakhstan
The neutral zone between customs is a couple of hundred meters on which there is a bridge across the river along which the Kazakhstan-Kyrgyz border and the stele of Kyrgyzstan passes
The Kyrgyz customs was less Kazakh, only two windows worked, but there were no queues. We gave passports the border guard entered the data to the computer and asking a tourist yes? He immediately returned his passport, without putting any stamp. In fact, we expected this by reading A. Krotov’s guidebooks “Central Asia” that the Kyrgyz, as a rule, would not put a stamp, but it would not be better to demand that later the problems would not be demanded. What we did, to which the border guard answered “Ahh you need a stamp, but I didn’t need you, you don’t need the Americans, you’ll go into this room there” we went on the door next to us, where we took passports and quickly slapped barely distinguishable stamps. As this trip of the Kyrgyz showed, they like to regret paint and if the entrance stamp was even somehow distinguished, then on the outbound that we received in two weeks at the exit from the country, except for the number and year, there was nothing to make out at all.
Then we went to Kyrgyzstan! In which the next 12 days were, here is our route for these days.
All kinds of taxi drivers who wanted us to take us somewhere for our money immediately ran up to us, from all sides were the questions were heard where? Where are you? And the shouts of Bishkek, Issyk-Kul, Takmak, Cholpon-Ata, Balykchi, etc., someone even shouted Osh, to which more than 600 km. But they were not going to use their services and having beat off this crowd a little further and in a couple of minutes we stopped a free car on which we left. The driver was heading to Bishkek, and he brought us to the turn to the track towards Takomak and Issyk-Kul, where we also caught the car in Takmak in 2-3 minutes. This route has recently been repaired and expanded by the Chinese and warm this is the best road in Kyrgyzstan
So far, only 80 km has been made, but the Chinese stubbornly work further towards Naryn and Issyk-Kul. The track to Takmak goes almost everywhere in parallel to the Kazakhstan border, a fence with prickly prolonging the dividing countries is visible in many places, to it 200-300 meters from the side of the road. The border passes along the Chu River. Here is a photo of this river in the Takmak area, where it merges with another river, a different color. The waters of Chu in this place are a milk fence of the state border is visible behind the river.
There are two turns to Kazakhstan, with interstate (two -built) transitions only for the Kyrgyz and Kazakhs, through one of which our drivers actually traveled.
Arriving in Tommak, we began to call the driver with whom Alena was traveling, as he said that he would meet us and bring us to himself, having dialing the phone number as it should be in the international format, I heard in response the typed number does not exist, although we have for it a couple of hours ago They called from Kazakhstan, I tried again to check the same result, we thought that it was because we had a Russian SIM card, although it was supposed to work perfectly in roaming and actually worked. I could call any number, but not to Kyrgyz. As a result, I decided to approach the taxi driver standing nearby and explaining the situation to him from his phone, and immediately phoned Marat. Later, I learned that while in Kyrgyzstan with its foreign SIM card the number in the international format cannot be typed like everywhere, but it is necessary to replace the country's code +996 by 0. I also recognized and convinced by my own experience that the definition of the number is almost always wrong when you They call, say, from Moscow on the phone, it can be drawn up by +79260000000, that is, the country's code, prefix and then all zeros. As for the number of our driver, for a call from Kazakhstan, I dialed +996558822836 and when calling in Kyrgyzstan you need to dial 0558288236 completely different number, not only the code, but also the number itself !! (The numbers in the room were certainly replaced by me when writing here, this is not his phone, but someone’s fictional, but without loss of meaning) This is how the Kyrgyz cell communications and such incidents waited for us all the way.
Marat came for us in a couple of minutes to make with his little son. And we went to visit them.
Marat lives in a private house with his wife and son. They took us wonderful, feeding us with Kyrgyz cuisine dishes. All the remaining time of this day we spent cheerfully and knowingly recognizing the most Kyrgyz people and telling about our travels, in the evening the hosts flooded the bathhouse for us and allocated a separate room for the night.
The next day, they showed us their city and brought us to the Buran. Buran is a tower, it is located 7 kilometers from Takmak. This is a minaret of the 11th century, one of the first constructions of this type in Central Asia. The initial height of the minaret was 45 meters. Today, the height of the tower is only 24.6 meters, as it was partially destroyed in the 15th century by an earthquake.
The rise to the tower and her visit are free.It is easy to rise and relatively interesting. There is also a souvenir shop and a museum on the territory. The cost of the museum is 40 soms, which he, in my opinion, does not justify, representing a tiny room with two halls, in which there are very few exhibits and at the same time many vessels and jugs for donating money. The souvenir shop is located in the yurt, next to the museum and has very cheap prices for souvenirs for Kyrgyzstan.
Here is the view from the tower to the souvenir yurt and the museum building
After visiting the Buran, we went home, along the way we were treated to drink a local, almost only and most popular company for the production of these same drinks in Kyrgyzstan, called Shoro, they are located on the street in all major cities of Kyrgyzstan, and the assortment is represented by Maxym – Kyrgyz – a Kazakh national drink that has previously been among the people and other names: acchma, Achigan Kozo and others. This drink is Shoro’s business card, this is what is written about it on the official website of the company . The Maxym-Shoro drink is prepared from natural products: pure spring water, cereals of fried barley grains, corn and wheat flour. It has an exquisite taste and aroma, quenches thirst and hunger, has tonic and healing properties. The vitaminized drink Maxy-Shoro, whose technology is designed on the basis of recipes of ancient masters, and in its useful properties has no equal. In Kyrgyzstan, Maxym-Shoro has become the most popular national soft drink, and white branded barrels with a drink are the hallmark of Shoro ..The drink is certainly healthy and even tasty, but the taste for an amateur, we liked it, but not so much. I advise you to drink only in cold form, it is a warm maxym that is already far from something. In addition, it is far from delicious. In addition There are other Challan-Hoero, Zharma-Shoro and just Mineral water of Shoro on these stoops. The prices are very acceptable for drinks, as well as everything else in Kyrgyzstan, that local production, but time and inflation made their own and compared to 2007 The year when in the Kyrgyz city of Osh, the AVP house passed, prices for everything raised twice, so if you use A. Krotov’s guide “Central Asia”, then multiply the prices indicated there by two.
We spent the evening of this day as not strange at the TV, although I am not a lover of this zombie-man, but in another country to see local channels is interesting.
During these two days we spent at Marat, we wanted to contact the second driver Murat, because he also was waiting for us to visit us, but it turned out that Marat did not have his Kyrgyz number, because they communicate on the way on the local Simal The cards, but somehow I did not have to call up at home, and we forgot to take the number from Murat, although we gave him our own.
On the morning of the next day, we sincerely thanked the hosts for everything that they did for us and went on on the road. Issyk-Kul was waiting ahead of us!
Next Entry. Part-4 Issyk-Kul.
- Current Location: Kyrgyzstan
Hitchhiking in Central Asia. Part-1 Welcome to Kazakhstan
. And so I start writing my first report on a trip to LiveJournal. I’ll start not from the beginning of my travels, but on the contrary, with my extreme trip, or rather only its parts.
Preface.
On July 12, I and my wife Alyona again hit the road, on a new journey, for this time the course was chosen to central Siberia and the countries of Central Asia. In the period from July 12 to August 16, we traveled around Russia, visited Novosibirsk, Tomsk, Abakan, Kyzyl, Krasnoyarsk, Bratsk, Gorno -Altaysk and many other cities of the center and south of Siberia, visited the remarkable project of the AVP – “House for everyone in Krasnoyarsk , where we met with old acquaintances and gained new ones, shared information with other travelers and advised a lot of necessary from them, but about all this in another story, and this one starts in the morning of August 17, when we left Russia and drove into Kazakhstan.
Part 1 Welcome to Kazakhstan
We drove up to the Russian-Kazakh border in the Altai Territory (MAPP Kulunda) in the early morning, with the Pavlodar trucker Nikolai, on this Mercedes
In the early cloudy morning, the Altai outback seemed so gloomy to us that it became sad, and a broken road with cracked asphalt only added oil to the fire. There were few cars at the customs, our driver stood in line, and we got out of the car and went to pass the border on foot. It is worth noting the polite attitude of customs officers of both the Russian Federation and Kazakhstan. On the windows of border control on both borders there are reports that citizens of the Russian Federation in Kazakhstan and Kazakhstani in Russia registration are now not required up to 30 days. The employee of the border service of Kazakhstan also told us about this. To enter Kazakhstan, you need to fill out a migration card,
It is very simple and is issued for free. If you eat for anyone to visit, but on your own, then in the column the receiving party write RK = Republic of Kazakhstan, in the column the purpose of the visit indicate transit or tourism. After filling out, the border guard will put a stamp on it and will return it, it remains with you before leaving the country. At the entrance to the passport, the stamp on crossing the border is put in it. There was no inspection of things, they did not even ask standard questions such as What are in backpacks? Or there are weapons, drug drugs? Although for inspection was placed in the sample of a pedestrian. The time passing the border was a piled for 20 minutes. The neutral zone is very small. The border crossing is good.
Kazakhstan met us with emptiness, when leaving customs there are no cafes, exchangers, insurers, etc., as is usually the case at larger crossings. Our driver passed the customs longer than we, since there was a queue from cars, but not more than 35-40 minutes.When he arrived, we again got into the car and drove to the nearest cafe, which is just a kilometer from the border, where we stopped for breakfast. The cafe is located on the left side of the road, there were a lot of people, you feel that you are already in Kazakhstan, tea is served in a teapot. they drink it from bowls, not from cups, there are dishes of Kazakh cuisine. Payment is accepted in tenge and Russian rubles at an unfavorable rate (1 RUB = 4 KZT, in Pavlodar the rate is 1 RUB = 4.6 KZT), there is also an exchanger in the cafe at the same rate. The road to Pavlodar is in average condition, few cars leave the border on average 2 cars per 10 minutes, a normal flow appears further with the beginning of settlements.
Pavlodar seemed to us a city with a typical standard building and strongly reminiscent of Russia, there are many people of Russian appearance, most of the inscriptions in Russian and the Kazakh culture is almost invisible. Prices in the city are very high for Kazakhstan. Railway and bus stations are located in one place at the junction of Toraigyrov and Chkalov streets, they generate flights around the region and to neighboring cities, there are left-luggage offices, not very cheap 200 tenge at the bus station (open until 20:00) and 300 tenge at the railway D. Souvenirs (Magnets with the city) are sold at both stations, there is more choice for railway stations, prices are lower for cars. Stations are clean, there are waiting rooms, there are no homeless people and policemen.
It is not difficult to find Internet clubs/cafes, the cost of an hour is 150 tenge, the average speed is about 1 Mbt/s, the computers are new. The city center is being actively built, tiles are being laid, asphalt is being changed. There is a very nice park. The fare on the municipal transport is 40 tenge (Buses are in good condition, large capacity, run regularly), on minibuses 45 tenge. Many banks and shops have a lunch break, unlike in Russia. To travel in the direction of Astana, Karaganda, it is convenient to use bus number 38, it runs from the stations and follows in the village. Leninsky, which is located 7 km. from the city along the highway to Astana, but there is no need to go to this village, just cross the bridge over the Irtysh and you can immediately get off, the stop is called Caravan, there is a good position, there are several cafes nearby. This stop is located within the city and travel to it costs 40 tenge at the city rate, but the conductor will probably assure you that the bridge is no longer the city limits and you need to pay another 25 tenge as before Leninsky, but this is not so, so stand your ground, Well, since you have already paid, you can go to the turn to Leninsky, but there you will have to go a little to a good position after leaving the denouement. To spend the night in a tent, it is very convenient to get off at the aforementioned Karavan stop, cross the road and go for a cafe parallel to the river, moving away from the highway, you can look for an inconspicuous place so as not to catch the eye of a few townspeople resting on the river and put up a tent, since there is plenty of space. Alena and I walked around the center for half a day and left the city on the above-mentioned bus 38, where we camped with a tent in a small forest near the Irtysh.So our first day of traveling in Kazakhstan has passed.
In the morning of the next day, we woke up not early, since there was nowhere to rush and found that rosehip bushes grow around us, which we did not notice in the evening because of the darkness. The rose hips had already ripened and we decided to dial it a bit to add to tea, after which we advanced on the track. The first two cars drove us quite a little by 10 km. Each, but we quickly stopped, so we left the city where the Metro truck with the driver Sergey stopped us who spent almost 350 km and gave us a convenient and detailed map of Kazakhstan roads, which freed us from the need to use the navigator on the phone. By the way, this card can be taken at any gas station that are common throughout Kazakhstan, most likely it is free. After leaving Sergey’s car, for a long time we again did not stand contrary to the opinion popular among hitchhiker that in Kazakhstan is a bad hitchhiking in Kazakhstan. In my opinion, Kazakhstan is simply bad roads and there are few of them, well, the presence of a large number of money in the South Kazakhstan region also plays a role, but in general, the hitchhiking is not bad in Kazakhstan. Our next car was Valdai from Kazgersstroy (a joint Kazakh-German company that builds roads in Astana and the environs.) We reached it almost to the intersection with the Astana bypass, where we went out to spend the night. There was a hot evening with beautiful sunsets, we moved away from the road and set a tent surprisingly to the shepherds who drove the rams, but none of them spoke with us and did not call for a visit, the proximity of a large city is affected and we spent the night in the tent perfectly. Here are a few photos from that place
In the morning of the next day, we went to the highway and the first vehicle in our direction was a regular city bus, but we did not stop it, thinking that it would be more expensive from the suburbs and decided to go to the city by hitchhiking. As a result, it turned out too on the same way, we literally immediately caught the car and overtook this bus, the driver brought us to some closest stop in the city (next to the large market to which he was driving) we went out on it and got into the same bus (No. 130, goes to the railway station! So feel free to sit on it, it is a minibus of increased spaciousness Hyundai the fare cost of 65 tenge), in which they learned from the conductor that the fare on the entire route is the same. They laughed at themselves and went to the railway station to leave backpacks there, since they did not plan to fit in Astana. Railway and Auto Stations in Astana is in one place, the bus station is called Saparia. There are storage rooms at both stations, but at the bus station the price as usual below it is 150 tenge, unlike the railway where the cost is 250 tenge. We naturally went to Saparia.Seeing our backpacks, the grandmother who received the things said that it was oversized and would cost 300 tenge per backpack, which, by the way, was not indicated in the price list on the window, I had to tell my grandmother about our travel essence and she gladly accepted them at the regular price. (Do not forget that you can negotiate with everyone, and in Asia it is also customary to bargain, and Kazakhstan is already considered Asia, although Astana bears little resemblance to it.) Both stations are clean and new premises of utility double the price of 300 tenge an hour, if you have an extra 5-7 minutes, then you should not go there, because there is a good computer club very close, where the Internet costs half as much as 150 tenge / hour. The speed is decent, computers too.
Here is the train station
And a map of the railway communication of Kazakhstan, maybe it will be useful to someone
As for food prices in the capital of Kazakhstan, compared to large hypermarkets and supermarkets in Russia, they are higher, and the choice is much smaller, plus, almost everywhere, be prepared for the fact that the price tags for most goods are not affixed or are not affixed under the product indicated on it, but under a more expensive one, and in general, the level of service and service culture, unlike Russia, Ukraine, Europe, is very low, you won’t hear any hello at the checkout, but the cashier or the security guard are quite capable of getting nasty. We got to Astana on Sunday, and not all banks worked on that day, but some were still open, so it’s better not to change money at the station, but to find some bank, the exchange rate, though not much, is different. We changed at the Caspian Bank, it works seven days a week.
Astana is very different from the rest of Kazakhstan, however, like Moscow from Russia, like Kyiv from Ukraine, etc. In terms of attractions, it is difficult to find something Asian here, with the exception of a few mosques, the main attraction of Astana is its new center with skyscrapers and beautiful buildings, parks, etc. Here are some photos from there
Our walk around Astana lasted all day, the impressions of the city are good, but it looks more like Russia than Kazakhstan, however, this can be said about all the cities of the North of Kazakhstan.
In the evening, we took our backpacks and left the station square on the city bus No. 37 in the direction of the exit to Karaganda. This bus departs from the station, it does not run very often, but it stays late, the fare is standard 60 tenge, the bus is large and new. We drove on it for more than an hour and it's not because there were traffic jams or he barely dragged himself. no, it’s just that Astana turned out to be such a big city, and the bus is very long-range, it can take you out of the bypass and take you a few more kilometers along the highway, it’s better to drive to the traffic police post, there is a normal position, and it’s better to stop, it’s located 4 kilometers after crossing with bypass. While the bus is moving around the city, it will several times drive off the main street leading to the exit, to all sorts of microdistricts, do not be afraid to return to the track.If we get off at the intersection with the bypass, as we did on the advice of the conductor, then it is difficult to find a good place for a tent there, because of the open area with tall grass, and we had to put up a tent in the visibility zone from the road, but we spent the night without incident, and ahead of us was a new day and a new road.
next entry. Part-2 Deep into Kazakhstan.
