Planes, Trains & Automobiles

They say the journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step. This one has been closer to 10,000 miles (I might be exaggerating a bit!), and we seem to be using almost every transport method available.

Our initial flight from Boston to Amsterdam went off without a hitch, after the panic at a traffic jam in the Ted Williams tunnel, followed by re-learning how to get to the Callahan on new surface roads! Since we had a 10-hour layover in Amsterdam, Jim’s sister offered us the use of her place to crash and shower. The ride there, via taxi, was a bit more interesting than we might have wanted: again with the traffic jams, compounded by a driver who not only didn’t know his way around, but who entered the wrong street into his navigator…Hmmm, this doesn’t look right!!! We did arrive, and totally crashed for a few hours. Needless to say, we took the tram back to the train station, and a train back to the airport. Faster and less expensive than the taxi – if slightly less interesting! And no Koffee shops for us this trip – oh well.

Nothing special about the flight from Amsterdam to Almaty, KZ with the exception of the landing announcement, which included the following: “It is forbidden to make the photographs of the inside or outside of airport Almaty.” Toto, I don’t think we’re in Kansas any more! We were met by a smiling driver holding a sign with the name of our agency. Because the connecting flight to Kostanai was full, he took us to a hotel for the day/night – to take the same flight the following day.

Here’s where things really start to get interesting. Picture every movie you’ve ever seen about Soviet-era construction and hospitality, and then double it. The woman at the front desk did not look at us directly a single time. We had to leave one of our passports with her as collateral against us exchanging money and paying her in local currency. Then it’s up to our room. The elevator is large enough for one of us and 2 pieces of luggage. Hmmm – there are two of us and 4 pieces. On arrival at our floor, we are greeted by the ‘floor lady’ who gave us our key and showed us to our room. She, or her replacement, is always at the desk by the elevator ready to take your key when you leave the room and return it when you do. No, we didn’t leave anything of value in the room unattended. Absolutely the most fascinating part (?) was the bathroom. One set of water controls, and one water spout (can’t quite call it a faucet). These are positioned on the wall between the sink and tub, so they can be used by either. Add to this the fact that hot and cold controls are reversed (despite having the color coding one would expect in the states) and the bathing process was a bit interesting, to say the least.

Perhaps the most amusing part of our stay in Almaty (though it didn’t seem so at the time) was our search for bottled water – what one must use for drinking and for tooth brushing. No, we don’t read Cyrillic; no, we don’t speak Russian; yes, we’re exhausted and numb. We managed to exchange dollars for Tenge, but were getting desperate for water when we heard the most wonderful sound…American accented English! A very nice woman from Texas walked us into a small shop and helped us buy a few bottles of ‘vadoo biz gaz’ (still water) to get us through the day. Whoever you are, we truly thank you!

The final part of our trip was the flight from Almaty to Kostanai the following morning. Nice clean airport, helpful staff, and a flight on SCAT Airlines. Don’t know what that’s an acronym for, but I’ll bet they didn’t check with Americans before they chose the name! The plane has to be from the ‘50s, has the most effective heating system I’ve ever come across, and was a prop – not a jet. After a 4 hour flight I have a new-found respect for both of our fathers for surviving globe spanning flights during the prop and early jet era! While in Almaty the weather was quite warm (I’d estimate close to 50F), it became apparent during the flight that we were moving north. The steppes in winter are a wonderful sight, but the blinding white everywhere reminds you that it’s really cold! When we arrived in Kostanai, the sun was shining, the sky was blue, and the temp was around 10F, a great relief from the 4-hour, 20K-feet altitude sauna. It didn’t feel too bad as the air is pretty still here…no weather created by the JH Tower to blow you along.

And so we’re here. More on what here is like in another post. Sorry no pix of the trip – remember, “It is forbidden to make the photographs of the inside or outside of airport Almaty.”