Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
minibuses to Shymkent (500T, 2½ hours) and
some services to Taraz and Almaty.
Altyn Orda
Avtobeketi
, almost opposite, has more comfort-
able Shymkent vans (800T), a bus to Bishkek
(2500T, 11 hours) at 6pm, and further Taraz and
Almaty services. The main
Avtovokzal
, 250m
further along on the left, has 800T Shymkent
vans till late afternoon, plus minibuses to Kyzy-
lorda (1000T, four hours) until about 7pm.
The
train station
, at the far end of Tauke
Khan, 3km past the bus stations, has nine daily
trains northwest to Kyzylorda (1770T to 3480T,
four to eight hours), four or more to Aralsk
(3215T to 5920T, 13 to 19 hours) and Aktobe
(5480T to 8990T, 23 to 29 hours), eight or more
daily southeast to Shymkent (1590T to 3020T,
three to 4½ hours), ive or more to Almaty
(4140T, 17 to 22 hours), at least two trains most
days to Tashkent (5450T to 11,125T, eight to nine
hours), and one most days to Bishkek (9640T to
9950T, 17 hours).
marshrutkas 2 and 10 (40T) run between Sul-
tanbek Kozhanov and the bus and train stations.
by cooler Almaty when the Turksib railway
reached there in 1929. Oil and gas opera-
tions in the South Turgay Basin, mainly Chi-
nese-owned, underpin its economy today.
Kyzylorda's chief role for most travellers is
as a staging post for Aralsk or Baykonur.
Carry your passport in town: police can be
very zealous with document checks.
The
Regional¨Museum
(
%
27 62 74; Auezov
20; foreigner/Kazakhstani 500/200T;
h
9am-1pm
& 3-7pm Tue-Sun)
spreads over 11 rooms, rang-
ing from abandoned Silk Road cities and the
Aral Sea to renowned local musicians, most-
ly labelled in Kazakh only. Your enjoyment
may be diluted by the museum's security
guards, who gave us a thorough body scan
then followed us round room by room.
4
¨Sleeping¨&¨Eating
Hotel¨Kayr¨
HOTEL $
(
%
27 67 97; Aytbaeva 29; s/d with shared bathroom
7000/7500T, with private bathroom 9500/12,000T,
incl breakfast;
naW
)
The Kayr, 1km south-
east of the train station, is at the cheap end
of the price scale by Kyzylorda standards
and has well-kept, comfy rooms. Shared
bathrooms are good and clean, though the
rooms that go with them are smallish.
Kyzylorda
КЫЗЫЛОРДА
%
7242 / POP 199,000
On the Syr-Darya 290km northwest of
Turkistan, Kyzylorda became capital of So-
viet Kazakhstan in 1925 but was replaced
BAYKONUR¨COSMODROME
The Baykonur Cosmodrome, a 6717-sq-km area of semidesert about 250km northwet
of Kyzylorda, has been the launch site for all Soviet- and Russian-manned space lights
since Yury Gagarin, the irt human in space, was lobbed up here in 1961. In fact the
cosmodrome is 300km southwet of the original town of Baykonur, but the USSR told
the International Aeronautical Federation that Gagarin's launch point was Baykonur,
and that name also tuck to the real site. The military town built to guard and service
the cosmodrome, formerly called Leninsk, has now acquired the name Baykonur too.
The Kyzylorda-Aralsk road and railway pass between the town and the cosmodrome,
some of whose intallations are visible (the whole site tretches about 75km north). The
town's train tation is called Toretam (Russian: Tyuratam).
Since the collapse of the USSR, Kazakhtan has leased the cosmodrome and town to
Russia until 2050. Baykonur today has nine launch complexes and sends up atronauts
from many countries, including space tourits, as well as unmanned spacecraft. Fol-
lowing the end of the USA's space shuttle program in 2010, it's the world's only launch
centre for human space light apart from China's Jiuquan.
Visitors to the cosmodrome and Baykonur town require advance permission from the
Russian space agency,
Roscosmos
(www.roscosmos.ru)
, and the only practicable way in
is through a well-connected travel agency. Among the few agencies ofering visits on a
regular basis are Almaty-based Silk Road Adventures (p68) and Arnai Tours (p68), and
Karaganda-based Nomadic Travel Kazakhtan (p110). Three-day trips planned to coin-
cide with launches, including return lights from Almaty to Kyzylorda, cot from around
€900 to €1400 per person. You can cut cots by tarting the tour at Toretam tation.
Launch dates are known three to six months ahead and you need to tart the paperwork
at leat one month in advance, but better two months.
