Transport - Central Asia - page 480

¨ Air Astana has useful
online booking for both
international and domestic
flights.
¨ Seating is a bit of a free-
for-all (there are often no
assigned seats), especially
if the flight is overbooked.
To minimise the risk of loss
or theft, consider carrying
everything on board.
¨ Helicopter flights were
once popular in the Tian
Shan and Pamir ranges but
rising fuel costs have made
most services prohibitively
expensive (around US$1300
per hour for a chopper).
Maintenance is also patchy;
avoid them except in
summer and go only if the
weather is absolutely clear.

timetable (or no departure
at all if there aren't enough
passengers to satisfy the
driver), and will stop any-
where along the route. They
can be clapped-out heaps
or spiffy new Toyota or
Chinese-made minivans.
Keep in mind that you're
at the mercy of the driver as
he picks up cargo here and
there, loading it all around
the passengers, picks up a
few friends, gets petrol, fixes
a leaky petrol tank, runs
some errands, repairs the
engine, loads more crates
right up to the ceiling - and
then stops every half-hour to
fill the radiator with water.
Bus Stations &
Tickets
Most cities have a main
intercity bus station ( avto-
vokzal in Russian , avtobekat
in Kyrgyz and Uzbek, avto-
beket in Kazakh, and istgo-
mush in Tajik) and may also
have regional bus stations
(sometimes several) serving
local towns.
Try to pick buses originat-
ing from where you are, ena-
bling you to buy tickets as
much as a day in advance.
Tickets for through buses
originating in a different city
may not be sold until they
arrive, amid anxious scram-
bles. At a pinch you could
try paying the driver directly
for a place.
Most large bus stations
have police who some-
times create headaches for
foreigners by demanding
documents. Be wary of any
policeman who approaches
you at a bus station. Long-
distance bus stations are,
in general, low-life magnets,
rarely pleasant after dark.
Disregard most bus-station
timetables.

Tashkent-Samarkand-
Bukhara) are fast and fairly
well maintained. A new mo-
torway between Almaty and
Astana is due to be com-
pleted by 2017.
Mountain roads (ie most
roads in Kyrgyzstan and
Tajikistan) can be blocked
with snow in winter and
plagued by landslides in
spring.
Hire
Almaty and Astana have
a Europcar franchise and
Bishkek has a local car-rent-
al company. Travel agencies
can hire you out a Mercedes
or 4WD, but you are almost
always better off hiring a taxi
for the day.
Hiring a car unlocks some
of Central Asia's best moun-
tain scenery and is well
worth it, despite the cost.
¨ Community-based
tourism organisations and
travel agencies hire 4WDs
for driving through the more
remote areas of Kyrgyzstan,
Tajikistan and Kazakhstan.
¨ Travel agencies have
better vehicles but are more
expensive.
¨ CBT in Kyrgyzstan
charges between US$0.28
and US$0.38 per km.
¨ Drivers in Tajikistan's
eastern Pamirs charge
between US$0.50 and
US$0.95 per kilometre for a
Russian 4WD.
¨ Long-distance taxi hire in
Turkmenistan works out to
around US$0.10 per km.
Taxi
There are two main ways of
travelling by car in Central
Asia if you don't have your
own vehicle: ordinary taxi or
shared taxi.

Bus
This is the best bet for get-
ting between towns cheaply,
if there are no shared taxis.
The major transport cor-
ridors are served by big
long-distance coaches (often
reconditioned German or
Turkish vehicles), which run
on fixed routes and sched-
ules, with fixed stops. They're
relatively problem-free and
moderately comfortable,
with windows that open and
sometimes with reclining
seats. Luggage is locked
safely away below. Journey
times depend on road con-
ditions but are somewhat
longer than a fast train.
Regional buses are a lot
less comfortable and a bit
more…interesting. Break-
downs are common. They
are also used extensively
by small-time traders to
shift their goods around the
region, and you could gradu-
ally become surrounded by
boxes, bags, and both live
and dead animals.
Private minibuses, gen-
erally called marshrutka
(Russian for fixed-route
vehicle), are a bit more ex-
pensive, always faster, and
usually more hair-raising.
They generally have fixed
fares and routes but no fixed

ORDINARY TAXI
One way to travel is to hire
an entire taxi for a special
route. This is handy for
reaching off-the-beaten-
track places, where bus
connections are hit-and-
miss or nonexistent, such as
Song-Köl in Kyrgyzstan.

Car
Driving a car is an excellent
way to get around Central
Asia and it needn't be
expensive. Main highways
between capitals and big
cities (eg Almaty-Bishkek-