Advertisement
Aktau
The fun has goneWe are off to the city of Aktau on the other side of Kazakhstan today and we had the option of 70 hours on a train or 3 hours in a plane, with odds like that the train option really didn’t have a chance of winning. Aktau will unfortunately be our last city in Kazakhstan due to poor planning, long distances between destinations, a reduced visa stay, and a nightmare getting tickets for planes and trains. So the new capital Astana and the Soviet nuclear testing area of the Polygon were scratched. Spoke to some ex-pats and they told us that Kazakhstan has some incredible landscapes but as a tourist it is hard to explore independently, especially if you only have 15 days.
Flight wasn’t till 10.20 but as usual we were having breakfast at 6.30 and out the door by 8.30. The staff at the hotel have been reasonably helpful just don’t ask them to smile. The taxi ride to the airport cost 3000 som ($12 AUD), which seems a bit high but the airport was 13km out of town. The airport
Aktau
Sunset looks fairly new and we got through to the departure lounge without a hassle or a smile. Onboard we discovered we had three seats to ourselves, so after takeoff we could spread out in comfort. Flying with Air Astana, with our only other choice being SCAT airlines, but after viewing on youtube a film of one of their jets burning at the terminal at Aktau last June we decided not to fly them. We had also been advised that of the two airlines Air Astana was better and I can tell you that the leg room was great, the food wasn’t too bad either, and they also employ the only people in Kazakhstan that smile.
It was pouring rain when we left Almaty and we flew above a huge blanket of clouds for most of the trip, but it cleared in time for us to view the northern remains of the Aral Sea. Landed in glorious sunshine and as we taxied to the terminal we noticed the burnt out shell of the Scat airliner parked to one side; I guess they couldn’t fly it out? Got off the plane grabbed our bags and out the front negotiated
Aktau
MIG 21memorial for a taxi to our hotel. Staying at the “Silk Way Hotel” on the outskirts of the city centre in the middle of a residential area. The woman at reception was as charming as a dead kitten but she was wearing a T-shirt that stated she was “awesome”, maybe her “got the shits” T-shirt was in the wash. Her effervescent manner has earned her the nick name “chuckles” from us.
We are in Aktau, it is Kazakhstan’s largest seaport on the Caspian Sea and is a fairly new city that was founded in 1958 to house workers who were mining Uranium nearby. It used to have its own nuclear power plant that also ran a desalination plant but this was closed down in 1999. The town isn’t exactly pleasing to the eye and is filled with lots of ugly old Soviet style apartment buildings. The main reason to come here was to get a tour around the countryside, but because today was a public holiday we decided to leave that task till tomorrow. As we walked down the main road a camel was weaving along with a police car behind it and a policeman on his PA
Aktau
Camel with police escort trying to coax it out of the traffic. Eventually the camel moved off the road into a park where some local thought he would get a selfie with it. The policeman had to intervene and I am not sure what he said but it sounded like “Sir, move away from the camel”. Had a long hot walk around town before settling into a bar called “Guns and Roses”. Whilst here we got text messages from Michele’s brother that her mother was okay after having an operation today. This had been a big worry for us over the last few weeks so it was good that we could now drink to her speedy recovery. Had a good feed of pizza and a couple of beers before getting a taxi back to the hotel.
Day 114 Wednesday 11th May 2016 – Aktau Today we set out to book some tours but only succeeded in driving ourselves mad. “Chuckles” on reception was busy in the morning but her assistant “Smiley” was only able to inform us that she couldn’t speak English and wasn’t capable of helping us in anything other than frowning at
Aktau
Runaway Camel us, but she could do it well. Hit the streets looking for a tour agency, couldn’t find the one the Lonely Planet recommended and then walked from one travel agents to the next finding no one that could speak English or was interested in playing charades. We actually don’t expect everyone in the world to speak English as we don’t know any Russian or Kazakh but it would be nice if they could at least have a small attempt at helping us. Finally found a travel agency that knew a bit of English and got us a map and pointed us to another agency that organises 4WD tours out into the country, but she warned us that they were the only ones in town that did. Walked down the road and whilst trying to find the place a young boy jumped out of a car and helped point us to where the agency was. I had been cursing the lack of help in this town and all of a sudden we had people jumping out of cars to help us and with a smile and a laugh.
At the tour agency we discovered that they only spoke
Aktau
Book him Danno a bit of English and could only offer us a one day tour that was going to cost us $340, which was about double what we had read – ouch. It was very cryptic what they had to offer us and it was sort of given to us like “take it or leave”. I guess when you have a monopoly you don’t really need to try too hard. It was way more money than we wanted to pay and we may have gone for it except they couldn’t (wouldn’t) show us on a map where we would go or what we would see other than one destination that looked pretty lame, so we walked.
An hour later we got back to our hotel to discuss the problem with Chuckles, and she at least got out her translating program to explain that there was only one tour agency in town and that we were screwed. I think there may have been a hint of a smile when she realised we were out of luck. Spent the next two hours on the internet and came to the conclusion that we only had two options, spend the money or sit
Aktau
Soviet Apartment block with light house in our hotel room for 3 days. The town does at least have a large number of Irish Pubs and outdoor bars but it also has a sewerage works just down the road and when the wind blows (which is most of the time) the whole town reeks, and I mean it REALLY stinks. In summary we probably should have skipped this place.
For dinner we returned to Guns and Roses for a few beers and a feed. As per usual Shelley had to choose three times from the menu before she got something that was available and we had to endure lame pop music despite sitting in a place that hinted it might play something a bit harder. On the way home we passed yet another car accident, which is the fifth we have seen in this country and this was the second involving a cyclist with the first being carted away in an ambulance. This poor woman cyclist was in the gutter with a bloody nose and the driver that hit her was screaming at her because she had scratched his bumper. Another driver who witnessed the whole thing was there wading into the argument
Aktau
Close up of light house on the cyclists side so at least she had some defense.
Day 115 Thursday 12th May 2016 – Hell Another day in paradise. Slept in till 8.30 and then wandered downstairs to get breakfast and the girl who was running the kitchen was too engrossed in watching the soapies on tellie to replenish the buffet. When Shelley indicated that they had run out of hot water she just got a sneer and a wave off. We had actually paid extra for breakfast in this hotel so was a bit pissed off and so was some of the other locals staying here as well. No need to rush out the door today so we took it slow getting ready and then headed downtown for a long walk around the limited sights. Aktau sits on the Caspian Sea which is the world’s largest inland sea and it was on Shelley’s priority list of things to see. So today we thought we would give it a good look over. On the walk we went through a large park that was more dead plants, weeds and concrete paths than anything else. On the high
Aktau
Caspian at Sunset bluff of land at the top of the city there is mainly huge mansions with great views of the Caspian with run down soviet apartment blocks behind, one of which has a light house on the roof, that would make a novel selling point – “3 bedroom apartment, 2 ensuites 1 bathroom Built in wardrobes and a light house”.
Whilst on our walk a horse with a smart looking saddle went galloping past us down the side of the busy road, and about 5 minutes later a taxi pulled up and 2 policemen jumped out, so we sort of guessed it was a police horse that got away. The guys ran off in the wrong direction and we probably should have tried to tell them the “horse went that way” in pantomime but figured they will eventually find the horse. Just hope it wasn’t carrying any police guns in its saddle bags, otherwise there will probably be a police bulletin about an escaped horse that is armed and dangerous. After a long hot walk we eventually found a spot where we could get down to the shore and we discovered that the waves
Aktau
Shelley were pure sewerage – so much for a swim in the Caspian. The sewerage treatment plant isn’t far from our hotel and the stench through the whole town is pretty bad but after looking at the surf maybe the sewerage isn’t treated at all but just dumped into the sea.
It was a long very hot walk and by the time we got to the centre of town we had decided to park at a Chinese restaurant and listen to the waves laps on the shore. Luckily the place was safe from the stench, the food was good, the beer freezing cold and the waitresses were really friendly. We were going to walk up to the tour agency once again and see if we could somehow get some more details on the tour we were thinking of doing but in the end we just drowned our sorrows. At one point Shelley said she was going to get the bill but “somehow” only managed to order another round of beers – yea I’m sure it was an accident.
Sat in that restaurant all afternoon and into the night and then got a taxi home for
Aktau
Beach side art work $1, which was far better than walking home with a wobbly boot. A new guy was on reception so Shelley decided to see if he understood drunkinese and to our surprise he did, so we asked him about doing tours in the area and before we knew he was ringing around for us. The guy was really friendly and helpful (must be a blow in), but ultimately he could only get us the same price as the tour agency, and I think he basically just rang them. Unfortunately it is just too much money and still no further details about the sights or even if lunch is included, so it was a gracious “no thanks”.
Day 116 Friday 13th May 2016 – Hell Breakfast today gave me flashbacks to house sharing with my teenage mates, we had a choice of warm, hotdog frankfurts, cold boiled eggs, cold potato chips and cold leftover pizza. At least in my day we would microwave the pizza. There was no bread or toaster and the girl “running” the breakfast spent all the time preening herself and applying makeup in the mirror. We actually paid
Aktau
Sewerage on the shoreline extra for this breakfast but at least like the hotel it was relatively cheap.
Feeling a bit annoyed with ourselves for getting ourselves stuck somewhere for too long with nothing to do. Flight out of here isn’t till Sunday, tours are too expensive and there is absolutely nothing to do here other than gagging on the stench from the sewerage works. For dinner we returned to the shore based Chinese restaurant in the centre of town and had a decent feed and a few beers as we watched the sunset in to the Caspian. Like all sunsets over water it was spectacular and it made us feel a bit better about being here, but we still cannot wait to leave.
Day 117 Saturday 14th May 2016 – Hell Yet another day in hell. Same as yesterday but at least it gave us more time to plan the next few legs of the trip so we don’t have another Aktau to experience. We don’t do “bored” very well especially when travelling and just hate having nothing to do or see. All day the town has been shrouded with
Aktau
Abandoned pier a mist/fog making it look even more bleak but it lifted about 6.00pm so we got a last look of the sun over the Caspian Sea on the Kazakhstan side.
Tomorrow we are leaving Kazakhstan and can’t say that we are sad to be going. We certainly haven’t done much whilst here which comes down to poor planning and the fact that it isn’t an easy country for independent travelers. There is a lot to see in Kazakhstan and it is a huge country and with more time and patience it could be rewarding. This is the first country that when we asked about going somewhere a friend or relative of the hotel was not a taxi driver or tour guide. After the warmth and openness of the people of Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan, the abruptness and hard attitude of the people we met in Kazakhstan came as a rude shock. We just hope that perhaps we were unlucky in who we met and that the people here can be just as nice as their Southern neighbours, again with more time and patience the experience with the people may be more rewarding.
Advertisement
Tot: 0.088s; Tpl: 0.016s; cc: 9; qc: 26; dbt: 0.0309s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.2mb
D MJ Binkley
Dave and Merry Jo Binkley
Downside to independent travel
Traveling the world without a plan is a good thing as it allows you to just wing it. Your last few days you've been confronted with the down side to this independent travel. It is give and take and sometimes a hard decision when to trust their tour and when to sit in the pub. Balance is the key. When you get back home and reflect on this wonderful adventure it will be interesting which of the "Stans" was your favorite. If we were going to just one which one would you send us to? Fortunately we always travel with our kindles so we can sit and read if we've planned poorly but you get mad at yourself as it feels like you are wasting valuable travel days. Good luck on the next stops.