July 21, 2011
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The Silk Road Overland
Wednesday 20 July 2011
The arrival at Aktau Airport was very smooth. I had my passport stamped, collected my suitcase, had it scanned and that was it. After having been warned that border crossings in the Stans can be difficult, this was a positive surprise.The guy picking me up at the airport played Russian radio on the way in to town and tried to teach me how to say hello in Kazakh, but I could not get it right. Six or seven syllables for a simple hello was too much for me at 3.30 AM I think.
I only slept a few hours and then I tried to book a train ticket for Almaty – my number one priority today. Over the day, I found three separate outlets for train tickets and they all said the same: all trains for Almaty are fully booked until 11 August. So, with 67 hours to Almaty by train, demand still heavily outstrips supply. Interesting. You would have thought the supply/demand thing would have worked itself out 22 years after the collapse of the Soviet Union. Anyway, I’ve booked a flight to Almaty for Saturday. I’ve got no other choice – as Jack Bauer would say – and my vision of an overland trip along the Silk Road is now definitely dead. Dead as a doornail.
Reality check: you can’t do a Eurail-style train journey across Central Asia. You have to book every single train journey in advance, nail down every single date a month or two in advance. In other words, a six-seven week overland journey with zero spontaneity. Doesn’t sound like much fun. It was the spontaneity of my train travels in Europe and South-East Asia over the past twelve months that made them fun. How can I decide in the middle of May, “Oh, I think I’ll need to book the Aktau-Almaty leg of my journey for the evening of 21 July”? In the middle of May, I didn’t even know I was going to Aktau. Last week, in fact, I didn’t know Aktau even EXISTED!
Anyway, I have to re-label my travel blog entries, removing the “overland” as of this Saturday. I’ll think of something.
The price of my hotel here in Aktau – Chagala – is double that of most three-star hotels in Dubai (it’s USD140). It’s nice, and the breakfast was excellent, but I hadn’t really expected these kind of prices in this part of the world. The reception staff try to be helpful, but they don’t seem to know anything about all the archaeological remains in the Mangistau desert region – underground mosques, ancient necropolises, caravanserais – many with Sufic associations and also strong links to the Silk Road. They don’t know where these sights are, how much a taxi there would be, or where I can get hold of an English-speaking guide. Am I really the first English-speaking tourist asking about this?
Anyway, I won’t give up. I did the mini town walk described for Aktau in the Lonely Planet guide. It took about 30 minutes, walking between the WWII memorial and the MIG memorial next to the beach and then walk around the beach for a while. For the rest of the day I tried to get some more information about transport and guides to the most famous archaeological remains in the area. I couldn’t find Caspian Tours recommended by the Lonely Planet (after two taxi rides), nor could I find the other tour operator mentioned in the Lonely Planet: Turist. However, for the latter I was told that a girl called Christina would be at the Turist office tomorrow from 3.00PM and that she spoke English. The cheerful reception girls at Aktau Hotel actually knew quite a lot about where the archaeological remains were located and prices for taxis. I also noticed that the price for a room at Aktau Hotel was nearly half of Chagala. I’ll probably move there tomorrow. OK, my hope is now that Christina can help me tomorrow.
Taking a taxi in Aktau is kind of fun. Every car is a potential taxi – there are no “real” taxis. You wave you hand at the passing cars and if someone wants to give you a ride, they’ll stop. All journeys in town are KTZ200 (about USD1.30) and it took me on average 30 seconds to get a ride.
Oh, and I forgot. Don’t ask for the same information twice at the reception just to double check. If you do, the reception girl will say: “But I already told you that…”
Checked a bit online before going to bed about the places to visit here in the region. Apparently Beket Ata is the most famous of the underground mosques, though it’s quite far away. I hope that Christina, the English-speaking tour operator, can tell me more about Beket Ata tomorrow.
Comments (2)
I have my fingers crossed for you!! Some of your travaiis echo mine as a deaf person. Imagine coming out of the theatre in London and your hotel is in Notting Hill. Trying to find a taxi with everyone else was a chore. But the scariest was when the driver wouldn’t take my credit card. Finally a passerby helped me talk to him and he agreed to let me go into the hotel and get his money! Then there was the day I I was going all over London by bus with an all day pass and boarded the wrong bus to come back. A young man got off the bus with me and walked me to my correct station!! Like your receptionist’s conviviality, I have always been treated well in the UK
I am anxious to read your next blog!!
@Sojourner_here - Thanks for keeping your fingers crossed!!