Kazakhstan - Central Asia - page 126

Airways go daily to/from Tashkent in Uzbekistan
(from US$145); Tajikistan's Dushanbe is served
daily by Air Astana, Tajik Air or Somon Air (from
US$150); and Turkmenistan Airlines lies twice
weekly to/from Ashgabat (US$240).
Elsewhere within Asia, Air Astana lies to/
from Bangkok (from US$550 one-way), Beijing
(also served by Hainan Airlines; US$490),
Delhi (US$340), Hong Kong (US$380), Kuala
Lumpur (US$600), Seoul (also served by Asiana;
US$660) and Ürümqi (also served by China
Southern; US$245).
Astana Airport
Astana International Airport ( % 70 29 99;
www.astanaairport.kz) has a range of interna-
tional lights, with Lufthansa and Air Astana
lying from Frankfurt; Austrian Airlines from
Vienna; and Turkish Airlines and Air Astana from
İstanbul. Air Astana also lies from Baku (from
US$240 one way), Beijing (US$675), Bishkek
(US$130), Kiev (along with Ukraine Internation-
al; US$225), moscow (with Transaero; US$245),
Novosibirsk (US$225), St Petersburg (with
Rossiya; US$270), Tashkent (with Uzbekistan
Airways; US$160), Ürümqi (with China Southern;
US$175) and Yekaterinburg (US$205).
Aktau Airport
Aktau Airport ( % 60 97 55; www.aktau-airport.
kz) in the far west is a hub for trans-Caspian
lights, with direct services to/from Baku, (from
US$165 one-way), Tbilisi (US$170), Yerevan
(US$155), İstanbul (US$280), Astrakhan
(US$170) and several other cities in southern
Russia, and Kiev (US$265). most lights are with
the Kazakhstani airline SCAT.
LAND
To/From China
Buses run daily to Ürümqi (24 hours) and twice
weekly to Yining (12 hours) from Almaty's
Sayran bus station (p70), via the border at
Khorgos. Sleeper buses leave for Ürümqi at 7am
(8900T) and 7pm (7600T) daily: you can book
three days ahead but tickets are usually avail-
able on departure day: be ready to show your
Chinese visa. Sleeper buses to Yining (4700T, 12
hours), about 100km beyond Khorgos, depart
at 7am Wednesday and Saturday. An alternative
is to take a bus (1500T, ive daily) or shared taxi
(3000T) to Zharkent, 40km before Khorgos,
then a taxi (about 800T) or minibus to the bor-
der, and a bus or taxi on from there. The crossing
is often crammed with Kazakh and Uyghur fami-
lies and traders with vast amounts of baggage.
From Ürümqi to Almaty, at least two buses
depart at 7pm daily (Beijing time) from
Nianzigan bus station international section
( % 0991-587 8637; 51 Heilongjiang Rd, Saybagh
district, Ürümqi). From Yining bus station there
are buses daily at 7am Beijing time.

The Zhibek Zholy (Silk Road) train departs
Almaty-II station (p70) for Ürümqi at 1am
on Sunday and Tuesday, taking a scheduled
31 hours and crossing the border at Dostyk
(Druzhba). Kupeyny (2nd-class couchette)
tickets cost 19,500T. Tickets are sold in the
main ticket hall at Almaty-II and are usually still
available in the last few days before departure:
press 'mezhdunarodnaya Kassa' on the machine
next to the information bureau to get a number
for the ticket queue. Be ready to show your
Chinese visa. The trains have restaurant cars
but the food is poor and overpriced. At Dostyk,
you have to wait several hours while the train
bogies are changed and customs checks take
place. The train toilets are locked during this
time except for the 20-minute dash between the
Kazakhstan and China border posts: get in line
early for this! The return train departs Ürümqi
at 00.20am (Beijing time) on the same days: the
ticket oice ( % 0991-778 0576; Yaou Jiuvdian
Hotel, Ürümqi; h 10am-1pm & 3.30-6pm mon,
Wed, Thu & Sat) is in the Yaou Jiuvdian Hotel
next to the station - best to book two or three
days ahead.
Another train option, which takes you to the
border at Khorgos, is train No 393, operated by
private train company Turan Express (www.
turanexpress.kz). This leaves Almaty-I station
at 11.20pm on odd dates, taking eight hours to
Altynkol, a few kilometres short of the border. A
15-minute bus transfer to the Khorgos border is
included in the fare of 2500T (platskartny) . From
the border you will need a bus or taxi for the
100km on to Yining, from which there are three
daily trains to Ürümqi. In Almaty tickets are sold
at the Turan Express kiosk ( % 771-789 1473;
Kassa No 16; h 9am-9pm) in the main booking
hall at Almaty-II station, as well as at Almaty-I.
The return train No 394 departs Altynkol at
8.45pm on even dates.
A weekly train departs Astana for Ürümqi on
Saturday afternoon, with the return train leaving
Ürümqi late monday night or very early Tuesday.
Ürümqi also has bus connections with Ust-
Kamenogorsk and Semey.
To/From Kyrgyzstan
Oicial Kazakh-Kyrgyz border crossings are
largely hassle free, but the 'green border' -
trails through the mountains, without border
posts - has been closed for several years.
From Almaty's Sayran bus station (p70),
there are plenty of minibuses (1300T, three to
four hours, hourly 6am to 11pm) and shared
taxis (3000T) to Bishkek in Kyrgyzstan, cross-
ing the border at Korday. minibuses and shared
taxis also run from Taraz to Bishkek, and there
are also buses from Shymkent and Turkistan to
Bishkek - all crossing the border at Chaldybar.
The scenic Karkara Valley crossing, south of
Kegen, reopened from June to October 2013