Train & Tea

(October 14)
The old capital of Kazakhstan, Almaty, is a day away from Astana by train, so another overnighter beckoned! This time we had the top bunks in our cabin and were lucky to be sharing with two lovely Kazakh ladies; one who spoke brilliant English (and German) and another who understood English. It's their custom to offer foreigners and guests hospitality and were very embarrassed because they didn't have any treats to share. We, on the other hand, had come prepared with Tetley tea and lots of biscuits! The only thing we didn't have was a teapot - no problem! Kazakh trains provide china teapots and tea cups free of charge for passengers' comfort. Even Ben managed a cup of tea to celebrate this marvelous service!

Very civilised.

Kazakhstan has picturesque steppes that they all think are flat and boring. We found them flat and beautiful:


Unfortunately the beautiful lake on our trip passed by in the dead of night.
And the nice english-speaking lady informed us of all the things we should have seen in Astana. Like the aquarium that is the world's furthest from water, and actually going in the golden dome thing in front of the presidential palace.

(Only 2 more sleeps until we fly to New Zealand and our adventure is over - and the next one begins.)

Train

We're back in Hong Kong btw. And we're updating the map, if you want to know where Vladimir is.

(October 8 - 11)

Back in Moscow, we had some time to kill before our appointed time to collect (hopefully) our Kazakh visas. We made it to the State History Museum in Red Square which covers the country from pre-historic times until WWI - mostly in Russian. So if osmosis works we're now experts ... but we have our doubts. We also had a wander round some more sites including the Monument to Victims of Totalitarianism. The building in the background was the KGB HQ and Lubyanka Prison for victims of Stalin's many purges:

It's now the FSB's HQ - the KGB's successor.

Then it was back to the Kazakh embassy and yes! everything was ready for us and in order. Joanna was very relieved, thanking the "gate-keeper" official profusely on the way out after becoming such good friends with him during our many visits!

So we boarded the train destined for Kazakhstan and Astana ... three days in our little kupe carriage with two strangers (one who snored quite a bit) and not really many photo opportunities except this one:

Please note: Joanna is not keen on it but it's our only one on board the train so has to be included!

Now, many would think a three day train ride would necessitate a buffet car ... but not on this puppy! There's a timetable which lets passengers know how long the train is stopping at each station and you have to pop off and grab whatever is on offer on the platform. Lonely Planet talks of delicious homecooked goodies sold by babushkas ... but reality involved pot noodles, chocolate bars and beer. Because the train was running late the stops were shorter than expected which worried Joanna as the train started to depart from Samara and there was no Ben to be seen! After a mad dash to the guard's cabin shouting, "moya moozh!", "my husband!", Joanna was extremely relieved to see Ben turn up from the next carriage having jumped on the train when it began moving. We should tell you at this point that he had been out getting a second lot of snacks for Jojos who seems to need a lot of feeding these days ...

After that kerfuffle we got the knack of the stops and there were no more incidents, even at the Russian border, where Joanna was certain they were going to stop us and send us to a Siberian gulag. That was until we were woken by the woman in charge of our carriage to get ready for our Astana stop. Up until this point all stops had been on Moscow time, so we thought we had hours to get ready for the stop. Not so - we'd jumped 2 hours to Eastern Kazakh time, and the train arrival was imminent. Suddenly sheets had to be removed, bags packed and tea sculled ready for Astana!