In a nutshell: we started in Kazakhstan and traveled from there to Uzbekistan and on to Tajikistan. In Tajikistan we picked up a rental car and drove the Pamir Highway, ending in Kyrgyzstan. From there, we carried on back to Almaty and then I traveled solo, further north into eastern Kazakhstan.

This post outlines our route, including the border crossings and transport we used. In total this trip was 4 weeks long (so relatively short) but if you are looking to fit an eclectic mix of highlights – think nature, silk road history and that dash of weirdness only the former Soviet Union can provide – from different countries in the region into a month or less, read on for ideas.

Update in 2025: we’ve been back and forth across the ‘stans a few times now, and I’ve added a few inserts here in this post to that effect. Specifically, we recently visited Turkmenistan as part of a (much) longer overland trip. When we finished up in Turkmenistan, we exited to Uzbekistan and carried on from there to Tajikistan – and from there, to Afghanistan.

Kazakhstan
Uzbekistan
Tajikistan
Kyrgyzstan
Kazakhstan (…again)
Turkmenistan

Kazakhstan

Remote places and empty spaces.
Currency: Tenge

Almaty

Almaty makes a great starting point for a Central Asia trip: it’s well-connected, it’s cheap and there is plenty of stuff to see and do in and around this green, sprawling city. If you’re just starting out it’s easy, and if you’re at the end of your trip and want to eat some good food, then you’ve got plenty of choices.

Almaty – things to see and do

• Zenkov Cathedral, a beautiful wooden Orthodox church – try to get a look at it at dusk, when it’s softly lit up.
• Take the cable car up to Kok-Tobe, a lookout over the city and the mountains beyond. There is an assortment of stuff up here like a zoo with chickens in it, carnival games, and a Beatles statue.
• Soak yourself at Arasan Baths, a massive bath house with a maze of baths, saunas and steamrooms, in separate sections for men and women. Entrance to the baths is cheaper on weekdays than on evenings and weekends. There are changerooms with lockers and hairdryers. You can hire slippers and a towel – the towel is only for wandering in the maze of corridors, and inside the actual baths clothing is forbidden. This is clearly indicated by drawings of underwear crossed out with big red Xs like no-smoking signs (there’s actually a smoking room though, as well as a bar).
• Ride the subway. A token costs almost nothing and it’s easy to navigate (it’s only one line…). Hop off at a couple of stations to look at the tiled murals and grand, vaulted ceilings.

That’s just in town – keep in mind that Almaty’s most famous attraction is the accessible and beautiful nature surrounding it. There are plenty of options for daytrips and hikes in the mountains that are right on the edge of the city. Ask at your accommodation – there are always trips on offer if you want help organising one.

The basics

Food. No shortage of places to eat – always popular, we liked Gosti (Russian), Daredzhani (Georgian) and My Cafe (French), as well as the local chain we’ve seen in Kyrgyzstan, called Navat.

Beds. Staying in a central location is a good idea – this city goes on forever. First we stayed at InterHouse which is a bit far away – but not a huge deal thanks to the abundance of share-taxis, and the owner is really great. Later, I stayed at Cinema Hostel which is a handy location and a really cute hostel as well.

Transport. This is the main thing with transport in Almaty (and most Kazakh cities): get used to unofficial taxis. Stand at the side of the road and flag almost any passing car. If he pulls over, he’s a taxi. Keep in mind these aren’t official cabs and aren’t marked, so it will probably feel like hitching at first. Often you don’t even need to flag them down – they’ll honk at you if you are standing around or walking, and assume you want a ride. Tell him your destination (or the closest intersection, or a well-known landmark) and ask how much. Pay attention – they charge per person, and a seat is generally around 500T/1.25 USD depending on how far you’re going. He might pick up other riders going the same way (hence, ‘share-taxi’).

Turkistan

Turkistan is home to Kazakhstan’s greatest monument, a mausoleum built by Timur himself in the late 1300s. It’s like a mini-preview of what’s to come in Uzbekistan (with less crowding). A few hundred years ago Turkistan was an important city; today it’s just a quiet town with a forgotten feel. You can get there easily by train from Almaty and it’s a handy stop if you’re heading to the Uzbek border.

Taking the train from Almaty to Turkistan

There are two major stations in Almaty, cleverly named Almaty-1 and Almaty-2. We bought our tickets online at: https://www.railways.kz/en/

It was super easy (this time. It’s never worked for me again since). The site requires you to register first and then book and pay. Bringing the e-ticket on your phone is all you need.

You have several options. The cheapest is taking the ‘slow train’ in ‘platzkart’ – carriages where all the berths are in the open, rather than inside of closed compartments. It’s perfectly comfortable and I’ve traveled alone in platzkart (for close to 30 hours in one go). A ticket from Almaty to Turkistan in platzkart on the slow train costs around 4000T/10 USD and the journey time is about 20 hours. There’s a samovar at the end of every carriage so you can get hot water for tea, and you should bring food.

We booked the ‘fast train’ (Talgo), which reduced the journey from Almaty to Turkistan to 13 hours. We went second class meaning we had a 4 bunk compartment to share with two others and it cost 16000T/41 USD per person. Even first class, where you have a two-bunk compartment, is relatively cheap. Leaving around 5 pm means you’ll arrive around 6 am so it’s perfect for covering a long distance during your night’s sleep. On the fast trains there’s a restaurant and bar car, the toilets are kept pretty clean, and there is hot and cold drinking water available in every carriage. Bring yourself a mug and some tea and you’re set.

Turkistan – things to see and do

• Visit Turkistan’s main draw, the Yasaui Mausoleum that Timur built in the 1390s for a Sufi mystic who died here around 230 years previously to that, and is still revered today.
• Sauran. The ruins of what was once a prominent Silk Road city and the capital of the Mongol White Horde. We got there easily from Turkistan by hailing a taxi and saying ‘Krepost Sauran’. The driver agreed on 5000T/13 USD for the 40 minutes drive (so around 1.5 hrs return) with 30 minutes waiting for us at the site.

The basics

Food. There are many restaurants in Turkistan, mostly cheap, and serving mostly shashlik – just follow your nose. We both ate huge amounts of the usual fare for around 4000T/10 USD in total.

Beds. We stayed at the Edem Hotel where we paid 8000T/20 USD for a comfy double including a pretty decent breakfast.

Transport. The town is small and walkable but the ubiquitous unofficial cab is everywhere and if you don’t look for one, they will look for you. Around town we’d generally pay 100-200T/0.25-.50 USD per person for short rides.

Uzbekistan

Silk road history and amazing architecture.
Currency: Som

How to cross the Kazakhstan/Uzbekistan (Chernyaevka) border

You can get from Turkistan (Kazakhstan) all the way to Samarkand (Uzbekistan) in a day. It takes about 9 hours in three stages including the border crossing at Chernyaevka which goes straight to Tashkent (Uzbekistan). We broke the trip up staying in Shymkent overnight, and took the first bus out in the morning.

Tip: it used to be impossible/a huge pain to get cash from ATMs in Uzbekistan. That’s not a thing anymore. But still, I’d come prepared with at least a little Uzbek Som and/or USD, so that running around looking for a reliable ATM is not the very first thing you have to do. Withdraw/change money in Shymkent before leaving.

To cross the border:

1. Turkistan to Shymkent. The fastest way from Turkistan to Shymkent is by minibus/shared taxi which leave from any of the town’s bus stations, when full. Get going in the morning when the vehicles fill up faster. This costs about 2000T/5 USD per person and takes 2 hours.
2. Shymkent to Tashkent. There is a direct bus that goes to Tashkent (Uzbekistan) for 1500T/4 USD per person, and it takes around 3.5 hours including the border, where everybody has to get off with their luggage and walk through immigration and baggage checks. It only goes a few times per day at set times starting early in the morning – try to ask in advance. It leaves from Shymkent’s Stary Avtovokzal or ‘old bus station’ and ends at the public bus station in Tashkent.
   Tip: If you want to explore Tashkent or stay in the city, there is a metro stop – Sobir Rakhimov – right across the street from the bus station. A ticket costs 1200 som/0.15 USD. Cab drivers around here will attempt to charge exorbitant prices; it’s a lot simpler to just ride the transit.
3. Tashkent to Samarkand. Share-taxis depart for Samarkand directly across the street from the bus station, just outside the metro stop. They are easy to find (drivers will shout ‘Samarkand’ at you); getting into a share rather than being forced into a private one is harder. As usual, they depart when full. It takes about 3.5 hours and costs 50 000 som/6 USD per person.

Samarkand

This is probably one of the most famous cities in the whole region. Although it can be very crowded with tourist groups, they are there for a reason, and I wouldn’t want to give it a miss. In our case on this trip, it made a very handy and nice stopping point for a few nights while we sorted out some more plans on our way to Tajikistan.

Samarkand – things to see and do

Pretty self-explanatory: you have a massive collection of well-known sites here starting with the Registan and going on to a succession of mausoleums and mosques, which I’m not going to list here. Suffice it to say, that’s what we did.

The basics

Food. There’s a place in the old town marked on Maps.me as ‘Nice Shashlik and Beer’ and it really is, really nice. Also, there’s Old City Cafe, not far from the Registan and pretty good.

Beds. We liked the huge, rambling Rahmon hotel in the Old Town for 20 USD for a double. There’s a big open terrace upstairs for breakfast with views onto the Registan. The backstreets are a confusing maze….if you can’t find the hotel you’re looking for, there are plenty of others all around.

Transport. Cabs are everywhere, both official and unofficial. Just agree the price before you get in.

On this trip we simply passed through Samarkand on our way to Dushanbe, as Oyv had never been there. But I spent a few weeks last year travelling in Uzbekistan myself. Check out these posts for my travel tales from Bukhara, Khiva, Nukus and Moynak:

Silk Road Tripping in Uzbekistan
Three Days at the Ends of the Earth, Also Known as Nukus

From Turkmenistan (Farap/Alat)

Alternatively, on a recent trip we entered Uzbekistan from Turkmenistan, at Farap/Alat border near Bukhara. From the border, we travelled on to Bukhara, Samarkand, Tashkent, and then to Tajikistan.

See more about Turkmenistan and the border, later in this post.

Tajikistan

Stunning nature and ever-changing landscapes.
Currency: Somoni

How to cross the Uzbekistan/Tajikistan (Penjikent) border

You can get from Samarkand (Uzbekistan) all the way to Dushanbe (Tajikistan) in a day. It should take around 6-7 hours, in 2 or 3 stages including the border crossing at Penjikent. A pretty big caveat: in our case it took two full days, due to weather conditions. We were travelling in the early spring and landslides blocked the road from Penjikent to Dushanbe – twice. Crews work hard to clear the rubble away but it does take time. There was also a snowstorm on the way into the city over a high pass. Moral of the story: don’t be in a rush, especially in the springtime when the weather is unpredictable.

Tip: you can get cash from ATMs in Tajikistan but I’d still come prepared with at least a little Tajik Somoni and/or USD, so that running around looking for a reliable ATM is not the very first thing you have to do. Withdraw/change money in Samarkand or at the border before leaving. Also, if you’re driving the Pamir highway you will definitely need to bring cash.

To cross the border:

1. Samarkand to the border. First, cab to the bus stand making it clear you want a bus to the Penjikent border. At the bus stand there are plenty of minibusses going that way, they fill quickly, cost around 5000 som/0.60 USD each and take about an hour to the border.
2. Border to Penjikent/Dushanbe. There are plenty of unofficial money changers hanging around the border if you still need Tajik somoni. The border is a collection of big, imposing, mostly empty buildings and the most intense staff around was a responsible-looking German Shepherd patrolling in no-man’s land. It’s quick and painless to process the border on both sides with a short walk in between. Make sure you have the printout of your Tajik eVisa with you. After the metal gate clangs shut behind you and you’re in Tajikstan, you’re at the mercy of tons of taxi drivers. You can get a ride to Penjikent for around 15 somoni/1.50 USD per person. They were also offering to take us straight through to Dushanbe for 120 somoni/13 USD each.
3. Penjikent to Dushanbe. A share-taxi from the bus station in Penjikent to Dushanbe cost between 80-100 somoni/8.50-10.50 USD per person depending on whether the car is a 4 or 6 seater. In good weather, the trip should take around 3.5 hours.

Tip: ask for a seatbelt. Everyone will laugh uproariously at you…but they are there, wedged under the seats, and the driver will likely pull it out for you.

Dushanbe

Thanks to all the delays I mentioned in getting to Dushanbe, we didn’t have much time to see things like ‘The World’s Tallest Flagpole’ (it’s now been surpassed, anyway) but we did get to organise a few things we needed before setting off on our Pamir roadtrip. We stayed the night at the very popular Greenhouse Hostel and left the next morning for the Pamir Highway.

I’ve written a story about the highlights of this incredible roadtrip:

An Epic Road Trip: Adventures on the Pamir Highway

And a complete itinerary for self-driving the Pamir Highway:

Self-Driving the Pamir Highway: Eight Days on the ‘Roof of the World’

How to cross the Uzbekistan (Oybek)/Tajikistan (Fateh-Abad) border

On a recent trip, we left Uzbekistan from Tashkent and traveled to Tajikistan via the Oybek/Fateh-Abad border.

1. Tashkent to Oybek. We took a Yango all the way. This took about two hours and was obviously easy. It cost about 25 USD. We got out in front of some shops near the border where you can change money.
2. Oybek and across the border. We walked across the border. Very straightforward. If you plan to stay longer than ten days in Tajikistan, you need to register with the police in Dushanbe. Your hotel/guesthouse can help you with this or even do it for you.

2. Border to Khujand. There are plenty of taxis just on the Tajik side of the border. We waited for a shared one to fill (very quick) and took that to the first town, Khujand. That takes less than a hour.
3. Khujand to Dushanbe. We asked the share-taxi driver to drop us at the share-taxi station for Dushanbe. There are buses but there were none going any time soon, so we found a share-taxi (or they found us) and off we went. This is a longer drive – about five hours. Right through the mountains, it’s super-scenic. Also scary, depending on your driver.

Once again in Dushanbe we stayed at Greenhouse hostel, this was useful for planning our onward travels to Afghanistan. Also: there’s a good local place nearby to eat called Restaurant Noor, serving up Qurutob, the Tajik national dish. So good.

Note: we went this particular time to Tajikistan specifically because we were heading for Afghanistan, and at that time the Hairatan/Mazer I Sharif border crossing from Uzbekistan to Afghanistan was shut. Now, it’s open again. However, the Shir Khan Bandar crossing from Tajikistan is still handy though as you can get a visa on arrival for Afghanistan there. More about that coming up later in this post.

Tajikistan to Afghanistan – Shir Khan Bandar

On this particular trip we came to Tajikistan specifically to cross the Shir Khan Bandar border to Afghanistan. You can get a visa on arrival for Afghanistan at this border.

After a few days in Dushanbe we went to the Afghan border at Shir Khan Bandar, and got our visas there. We crossed the border and carried on to Kunduz in Afghanistan.

Read about the details of the border crossing here and our travels in Afghanistan here.

Kyrgyzstan

Amazing natural beauty and well-developed tourist infrastructure.
Currency: Sum

The Pamir Highway ends in Osh, Kyrgyzstan. We dropped off our car there, and caught a flight on Manas Air to Bishkek. They are frequent, fast and very cheap (30 USD).

From Bishkek we returned to Kazakhstan.

• If you are spending a couple of days in Bishkek, you can take a daytrip to Ala Archa National Park. It’s about 40 km from the city in the Tian Shan mountains. There are good trails and it makes for beautiful hiking (in season). Hostels usually offer an expensive transfer service where a cab will take you there and wait to bring you back – don’t bother. Just take an Uber or a Yandex taxi to the trail head. You’ll have to pay entrance at the main gate for the car to drive into the park but the trail head is 10 kms away so you don’t have a lot of choice. Do your hike, and when you’re finished, just start walking back from the trail head towards the main gate. In summer you will have no problem hitching a ride the rest of the way and back to the city.

I spent a few weeks last year travelling in Kyrgyzstan on my own. Check out these posts for my travel tales from all around Kyrgyzstan:

A Nomadic Feeling in Kyrgyzstan
And That’s Travel in Kyrgyzstan

How to cross the Kyrgystan/Kazakhstan (Korday) border

You can get from Bishkek (Kyrgyzstan) to Almaty (Kazakhstan) in less than a day. It takes around 5 hours, including the border crossing at Korday and you can catch direct transport straight through.

From the Western bus station, ask around/see the ticket window and take a marshrutka for 400 sum/6 USD per person straight to Almaty. It takes about an hour to the border, and after you’ve all walked through passport control and customs, the driver will pick you up again on the other side for another 2.5-3 hrs driving to Almaty. You’ll be dropped off outside the station Almaty-1.

…And back to Kazakhstan

Semey

Semey, formerly called Semipalatinsk, a small city best known for its proximity to the nearby Polygon – the Soviet Union’s main nuclear weapons-testing site for 40 years. Today, it’s a (totally safe) likeable, walkable, decidedly untouristy city.

Taking the train from Almaty to Semey

Oyv went home; I took the train from Almaty-2 to Semey:

The fast train (Talgo) in second class costs 11000T/28 USD for a bunk in a 4 bed compartment with a journey time of about 17 hours. I had problems on the website and couldn’t book online, so I went to the station a day in advance to buy the ticket in person. The easiest way to get to Almaty-2 station is to ride the metro to the last stop (Raiymbek-batyr) and then map it and walk just a few blocks from there. At the station, take a number, wait, and pay in cash. Write the date you want to go and ‘Семей’ down, to make sure you’re getting the right ticket in the event of language issues.

Although the town was renamed to Semey years ago – in regards to searching train tickets the old Soviet name, Semipalatinsk is still in use.

The train station is Semey is just a quick ride from the edge of town. There are plenty of cabs congregating out front, even early in the morning.

Semey – things to see and do

• Check out the parks with assorted war history items like an Afghan war memorial, a Fallen Soldier, a tank on a plinth and an eternal flame burning for the Great Patriotic War.
• See the ‘Stronger than Death’ memorial to victims of the testing.
• The Anatomical Museum at the medical school housing a collection of deformed fetuses. Bring a copy of your passport and be ready to talk to a few security guards about it.
• A park (behind Hotel Semey) containing some forlorn Communist statues, and not least, the tallest Lenin in Kazakhstan.
• Fyodor Dostoevsky’s home in exile is now a museum.
• The Polygon test site is nearby and I really wanted to visit it – but the prices for a solo-traveller are sky high. I’d go back (with friends) for that one.

The basics

Food. Try the restaurant Pepperoni for pasta, cake, salads, coffee.

Beds. I stayed at Europa Hotel which has a restaurant on the premises that’s ok too.

Transport. It’s easy to find taxis; or just walk.

Astana

Just before I arrived, the capital had been renamed Nur-Sultan in honour of Kazakhstan’s outgoing president. Whatever it’s official name, this city has also been called the ‘Dubai of the Steppe’. I haven’t been to Dubai, and visiting Astana/Nur-Sultan did nothing to increase my non-existent desire to go there. But, many of its buildings are flights of architectural fancy and interesting to look at, at least, so you can easily spend a day or two walking around.

Taking the train from Semey to Astana

I took the fast train (Talgo) in second class which cost 8000T/21 USD for my bunk in a 4 bed compartment with a journey time of about 17 hours. I had problems on the website and couldn’t book online, so I bought the ticket in person in advance, at Almaty-2 station when I was buying my ticket to Semey. Write the date you want to go and ‘ACTAHA’ down, to make sure you’re getting the right ticket in the event of language issues. Travel time is about 14.5 hours on the fast train. The slow train takes closer to 26.

Astana – things to see and do

• The Exposition is worth a visit – best floor (for me) is 7 with the astronauts stuff.
• There is a banya (bathhouse) directly across from Keuran City Mall.
• Take a daytrip to ALZhIR, a camp established during Stalin’s time for the wives and children of men who were already imprisoned somewhere else in the Kazakh Gulag. The city bus number 180 goes to the Stary Avtovokzal (old bus station) from where you can take a marshrutka for 400T/1 USD towards Malinovka. When buying the ticket and boarding the marshrutka just repeat Alzhir and Malinovka…the driver will drop you at the side of the road about 45 minutes out of Astana. From there you can see the monument. There’s also a museum which costs 300T/0.75 USD but there’s not much English. To go back, exit from the monument and walk left, for about 15 minutes into the village of sorts until you eventually find apartments and some shops. You can get a cab from behind the supermarket for around 1600T/4 USD back to Astana.

The basics

Food. There’s a Galmart (big supermarket) at the Keuran City Mall right next to where I stayed, and that’s where I ate.

Beds. Stayed at Kapsula Hostel right behind Keuran City Mall. Mostly everything is behind/next to/nearby a mall here. It’s handy though for food, money and transport. And coffee.

Transport. Flag a car, any car. Or ride the city bus.

I was in Kazakhstan last year too, in Aktau, far away on the western side of the country. I went there to get a spot on a cargo ferry crossing the Caspian Sea to Azerbaijan. You can read about that gong show here (no really, it was a lot of fun):

Plan B: Taking a Cargo Ferry Across the Caspian Sea

And, for more about Kazakhstan in general (or if you’re still thinking about a possible trip) check out Why Kazakhstan? Why Not. 

Turkmenistan

Central Asia’s ‘quirkiest’ dictatorship.
Currency: Manat, but you need to bring all the money you’ll need in USD and change as you go

The Gates of Hell, a white marble city. The Silk road to the Caspian Sea. Dinosaurs, and performing goats. Dead goat polo, too. What? Yes, just go to Turkmenistan and see for yourself. You can read all about it, in this post: Travel in Turkmenistan: from a city of marble to the Gates of Hell.

Remember: independent travel is not allowed in Turkmenistan – there is no showing up and just winging it. Think more along the lines of North Korea and you’ve got the idea. To get a visa you need visa support and everything booked ahead with a tour operator. Check out this post about planning (and getting the most out of) a Turkmenistan tour: Planning a tour in Turkmenistan: our 9 day itinerary.

Things to see and do

See Travel in Turkmenistan: from a city of marble to the Gates of Hell

The basics

We spent nine days in Turkmenistan on this trip. Here’s our guide to getting the most out of your time there:

Planning a tour in Turkmenistan: our 9 day itinerary

How to cross the Turkmenistan/Uzbekistan (Farap/Alat) border

There’s no kidding around and winging it with Turkmenistan. As part of your visa application you’ll decide which border you enter and exit the country at, and on which dates. And that’s that. In our case, we arrived by air in Ashgabat (typically you’d fly from Dubai or Istanbul, we connected in Istanbul from Erbil).

We departed by road to Uzbekistan at the Farap/Alat border crossing.

1. The border. Your guide/driver will take you to the border, since it’s his job to get rid of you altogether.
2. Turkmen side. From the parking lot there’s a marshrutka that takes you to the Turkmen side of the border crossing, it costs about one USD. You do the formalities there, it’s a little confusing and a lot of people milling around and pushing, stand your ground or you’ll never get through.
3. Uzbek side. Then, there’s a free ride to the first Uzbek border post. This is just a quick check, but because of all the unloading and reloading of importer/exporter baggage, it takes a long time. So rather than wait for the ride to continue, we just walked to Uzbek immigration. Formalities there were very smooth and there were ATMs on the arrivals side.
4. Border to Bukhara. Walk out to the share-taxi stand. There you can find rides to Bukhara. Bargain hard. You’re stranded, and they know it.

On this occasion we weren’t planning on spending a lot of time in Uzbekistan, just about a week. Heading towards Tajikistan, we used the fast, smooth, and very convenient trains to travel from Bukhara to Samarkand, and then to Tashkent. From Tashkent, we carried on to Tajikistan.

Read More

For more of our adventures (and misadventures) in Central Asia and beyond, have a look at our other travel guides and border crossing reports.

The post Central Asia travel guide: our itinerary for a month in the ‘stans appeared first on WhirledAway.

So back to Kazakhstan, for the moment. My experience in Kazakhstan last year was limited to Aktau – a flat and dusty city in the middle of nowhere. To be precise Aktau is on the edge of nowhere, perched on the shores of the Caspian Sea way out west with nothing much else around. It’s a faraway place that feels distant and remote. But as it turns out, a lot of places in Kazakhstan inspire that sort of feeling.

On the other hand (and on the other side of Kazakhstan) Almaty is living breathing green space, and seems almost encircled by beautiful snowy mountains.

It’s like a city inside a forest – big, mature trees line the boulevards and the parks are slightly unkempt, long-grassy and wild.

We went up to the lookout at Kok Tobe. For some reason there is a statue of the Beatles on top of the hill.

It makes a nice break from the usual statuary around here – communist former heads of state or patriotic monuments to military prowess.

In the afternoon we strolled past Zenkov Cathedral. During Soviet times the cathedral was used for concerts. In 1995 it was returned to the Orthodox Church and now it hosts the inevitable mini-carnival out front – toy train, cotton candy, kids driving rented PowerWheels jeeps – fun for the whole (Russian) family.

But we passed the cathedral again at dusk on our way to dinner (which was delicious by the way, Almaty also has great restaurants). The quiet in the park and the mellow lighting combined to make it absolutely beautiful.

There’s also a huge bath house with hamman, steam rooms, saunas, and heated floors on offer. If you buy your own bunch of dried leaves and herbs on the way in, you can hire an attendant in the insanely hot Russian sauna to beat you with it (or you can just beat yourself) to improve your circulation.

Since we were headed for Tajikistan – and with Uzbekistan to nip through in between – it wasn’t long until we boarded a night train bound for Turkistan, a city in Kazakhstan’s far south.

We settled into our compartment and just as I had hoped, the little old lady we were sharing with had brought an enormous hamper of homemade food, plus a butcher knife rolled up in a tea towel. She produced a cylindrical length of meat and sliced it up for us all. It was fatty and salty and delicious. ‘It’s sheep, stuffed into its own stomach’ said her grandson who had dropped by from another compartment. No worries, we’d assumed it was horse.

It was early when we got off the train in Turkistan, and the town was dead quiet (that’s normal at any time of day in Turkistan, as far as we could tell). There was no one at reception in the hotel we randomly picked and no sign that the whole place hadn’t in fact been abandoned so we lay down on a sofa in the hall and went to sleep, confident that a receptionist would turn up eventually (she did).

Turkistan is Kazakhstan’s most important pilgrimage site. There’s a mausoleum belonging to a revered Sufi mystic teacher and poet who died here around 1166.

Pilgrims were already flocking to his grave when Timur, that famous Asian conqueror, came along in the late 1300s and commissioned the monument that stands today.

If the tomb looks familiar to any silk-road-tripping visitors, that’s probably because Timur had a hand in the much-more-famous mosques and medressas at Samarkand.

While we were at it we visited the nearby ruins at Sauran.

Only traces of the fortress and foundations are visible today, but in the 1300s Sauran was a prominent Silk Road city and the capital of the Mongol White Horde.

Standing on the top it’s easy to imagine a mongol horde sweeping across the plain.

It’s easy to imagine that because so much of Kazakhstan is flat, endless steppe, little villages separated by emptiness. ‘What do they do here?’ I wondered aloud when we drove past yet another lost-looking village. ‘Pray?’ Oyv suggested, as a turquoise dome-capped mosque flashed by.

Later on, after our roadtrip in Tajikistan, Oyv went home and I was back to see some more of Kazakhstan. I decided to check out Semipalatinsk, 17 hours north of Almaty…on the fast train.

Settling into my bunk on the train I tried to get to know my compartment mates, two Kazakh guys and a Russian wearing a suit made entirely of denim, but language was an issue. From his tone of voice, together with exaggerated shoulder-and-eyebrow raising plus the repeated use of the name of my destination, I gathered that Denim Suit was asking me ‘Why Semipalatinsk?’.

‘Good question’, I thought. I’d already heard it once or twice, only applied as a sweeping statement to the whole country. But it’s hard to convey the idea of just going somewhere for no particular reason at all other than that it’s there, so I just said ‘Why not?’.

I thought about it some more (I had plenty of time). Semipalatinsk, a small city best known for its proximity to the nearby Polygon – that is, the Soviet Union’s main nuclear weapons-testing site for 40 years. Testing stopped in 1989 and the site closed for good in 1991. The city’s since been renamed to Semey in an attempt to shake off the negative associations, but the after-effects of exploding around 450 nuclear bombs without notice or protection inevitably linger.

And Denim Suit was not alone in his disbelief as to my choice of destinations. Semey is the sort of place where the very first local I spoke to (who could speak any English at all) said ‘Why you come here? We have other nice town, Astana.’ Even as I sit in a restaurant writing this, a girl has leaned over from the next table to ask why I came, and suggest that I head for Astana. I didn’t say that I’d spent 17 hours on the train getting here.

As you’d expect, there are somber reminders of the town’s past. The ‘Stronger than Death’ memorial to victims of the testing depicts a mother sheltering her child under a mushroom cloud.

There’s a very disturbing collection of horribly deformed fetuses at the medical school (I was led by Lonely Planet to believe that this was an ordinary museum, open to the public. It’s not. My attempt to access it ended up involving two security guards, a copy of my passport, and four faculty members. But then they rustled up an English-speaking student for me, and it was all good).

There’s an otherwise perfectly normal leafy park where students hang out – with an alley of forlorn Communist statues, mostly Lenins, parading up to the tallest Lenin in Kazakhstan.

He’s huge, you can see him dramatically gesticulating over the treetops on the way into town.

There are actually plenty of nice things about visiting Semey. It’s not that big; it’s definitely not touristy. There are green parks filled with families; the medical university is one of the most important in the country. I was here on Victory Day, the day commemorating the end of the Great Patriotic War as Russia likes to call World War II.

Everyone was out celebrating – I could barely walk through a square without being mown down by cotton-candy fueled kids driving rented PowerWheels.

Abay Kunanbaev, a national poet and Kazakh hero called Semey home. As a major literary figure he wasn’t alone, either: Fyodor Dostoevsky spent two years in exile here, for too much revolutionary thinking back in Saint Petersburg. Now his house is a museum. I’d downloaded Dostoevsky’s complete works to my Kindle but even a Kazakh train trip isn’t long enough for that.

And there’s another pretty little candy-coloured church.

Back at the train station again, I was bound for Kazakhstan’s remote northern capital. I boarded along with residents of Semey who I guessed were longing to visit Astana. A fellow passenger asked me, via a translator app, ‘Why Semey?’ The question was starting to confuse me – but at least, we were already on the train to Astana.

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Want to know how we pulled this trip off? Take a look at our trip itinerary for our route and important practical details.

For more of my adventures (and misadventures) in Kazakhstan, check out the rest of my stories from the road.

The post Why Kazakhstan? Why Not. appeared first on WhirledAway.

One of them (my ideas, I mean) was to travel up into Russia from Kazakhstan. Visa policies in Central Asia have loosened up lately. Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan are even visa-free for many nationalities – something the officer at airport immigration in Bishkek seemed unaware of since he demanded to see mine. But when I told him I didn’t need one he just shrugged, stamped my passport and waved me past.

Russia is another story and I’d read conflicting reports about whether it’s actually possible to pick up a Russian visa on the road.  I thought I’d give it a go so I dropped by the Russian Embassy in Tashkent with my application, photos, and the addresses of some hotels I’d pretend to stay at, ready to hand over.

At the Embassy a police officer pulled me to the front of the line. A little drawer in the wall under a tinted window slid open and the officer indicated that I should drop my passport in. The drawer snapped shut and my passport disappeared into the Russian Embassy.

A speaker crackled to life and a voice asked me for my residency permit. Since I haven’t moved to Uzbekistan, I tried pointing out that I’d read about travellers receiving their visa at this very Embassy. The voice was not convinced and the drawer screetched open again. My passport lay forlorn at the bottom – in other words, a big fat ‘nyet’.

But Russia seemed awfully far away so I put it out of my mind and went back to my Silk Road-tripping.

When I reached western Uzbekistan, I was literally running out of space on the map. It was time to move to Plan B – or at least, to make a Plan B.

I opened a map and stared at the blue outline of the Caspian Sea and the countries on the other side of it. Azerbaijan’s prohibitive visa process had kept me away years ago when I was travelling ‘in the neighbourhood’. But things had changed in 2017 and the new e-visa procedure is fast and easy. I thought ‘why not?’

Of course there are plenty of ways to get to Azerbaijan. Flying, like a normal person, comes to mind for starters. But it’s also possible to cross the Caspian on old cargo ships that ply routes between Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan, and Azerbaijan. And even more than actually visiting Azerbaijan, I wanted to cross the sea.

But first, I had to get to Kazakhstan.

I left Uzbekistan early one morning on a thirty hour train trip into western Kazakhstan. Travelling on old Soviet rolling stock trains takes time and patience.

There were painfully long halts on both sides of the border when officials from each country took it in turns to board and check passports and search luggage.

I watched out the window as the train clanked along in the vast and unchanging emptiness of the Kazakh steppe.

Kazakh steppeVendors roamed the aisle from time to time selling food and huge stacks of clothing.

I woke from a nap to a lot of shouting and a minor scuffle between the conductor and a passenger. Things like this don’t really seem that weird anymore so I sat calmly back in my bunk and watched. Via my translator app I asked a man next to me what was happening and waited with interest as he typed rapidly on his phone. But when he handed me the phone it was playing what appeared to be his own wedding video. When that finished up and I’d congratulated him, he asked for my phone number.

I’ve noticed that stupid questions from men and requests to be in touch on social media  despite a complete and total language barrier are often a standard part of the solo female traveller experience. From an immigration official who asked me pertinent questions like the English word for the beautiful colour of my eyes; to men approaching me, WhatsApp at the ready in restaurants (and in one notable case, in a public bathroom); and right on up to two invitations to dinner and a disco from the train conductor himself during this very journey.

But other passengers kindly offered me chai, and asked my name and nationality – I heard the news travel down the aisle. Apparently convinced the world would eat me up and spit me out, a sweet old man took me under his wing. As I made my bed he was right there, tucking the sheets under the sides of my bunk. He showed me how to put the pillow into the case. He demonstrated that I should drink some water and spit it out the window. As I climbed into my upper-level bunk, he made a stirrup of his hands and hoisted my feet up behind me.

Finally I disembarked in Aktau, a dusty port-city on the edge of nowhere, and stretched my legs in Kazakhstan.

Crossing the Caspian is anything but a straightforward process. I’m not talking about passenger ferries following a schedule, or booze-cruises with a spa deck and terrible live music provided by bands who failed miserably on land. These are cargo ships that cross when they’re full, taking with them any passengers who have the stamina to wait around in total uncertainty in Aktau hoping for a ride.

Searching travellers’ forums I’d found various office addresses, phone numbers, and vague hints about people in the city who might sell tickets and I started asking around. After two days it quickly became apparent that I was in Aktau for the long haul. Ever budget-conscious,  I badgered the front desk at my hotel into letting me move into the basement, where I knew there were cheaper rooms. Sure enough the basement was under construction and seemed to be partially lived in by staff.  It reminded me a lot of the ‘sanatorium’ I’d stayed in in Nukus but it was cheap. Part of the hallway ceiling fell down in the night but that seemed like the least of my problems.

The day after I moved to the basement, a series of phone calls placed by the front desk receptionist (who clearly wanted me to leave) unearthed a man named Hamid who came to the hotel and sold me a ticket on vessel called the ‘Professor Gul’.

Hamid had sold tickets to three other travellers and we arrived at a distant port outside town together, to be greeted with shifty looks and reticent behaviour from the port crew. After an eight hour wait in the customs office the reason for this became clear – the Professor Gul was loaded with an unidentified ‘dangerous cargo’ and wouldn’t be taking passengers after all. My fellow travellers Matt, Sherry, Nico and I returned to Aktau in defeat at 3 am.

Basing ourselves at a truckstop hotel we spent the next week pacing the seafront; pestering port and management office employees over the phone and in person; and obsessively tracking the Professor Gul’s nautical position online.

On my very first day in Aktau I’d found a restaurant called Italiano, with good pizza and great wifi and we went there – Every. Single. Day.

We watched Borat and we drank vodka. We drank vodka and we watched Groundhog Day – after all, the story of the same day repeating itself again and again seemed only fitting. Until one evening when Nico ran into the living room at the truckstop, disrupting our Harry Potter marathon to announce that the Professor Gul had sailed out of Baku and was expected in Aktau port the following night.

The next morning we rushed to the ferry office and waited tensely til Julia (who we’d all met several times and who by now seemed as invested in getting rid of us as we were in departing Aktau) hung up the phone and triumphantly proclaimed ‘Bilety! (tickets)’. Our ship had come in.

And so a week to the day I’d arrived in Aktau I went to the port – again – with my fellow castaways (but not before one last pizza and attempt at saying goodbye to the bewildered staff at Italiano).

Waiting was second-nature to us by now. We patiently lurked around the port til the cargo was loaded and we could board the Professor around midnight and settle into our shared cabin.

The Professor Gul awaits

Professor Gul’s engines rumbled to life around 3 am and we edged out of the port.

The trip to Baku took around 32 hours. That gave us plenty of time to explore the Professor Gul.

We went onto the bridge, and we climbed up into the radar tower on the top deck.

On Wednesday morning I watched from the deck as the Professor docked.

It was a plan I’d hatched one day on a whim; a single step on this journey that was more than a week in the offing. If there’s one thing I’ve learned from travelling, it’s that the very best plans are the ones you didn’t make in the first place.

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For more of my adventures (and misadventures) in Kazakhstan, check out the rest of my stories from the road.

The post Plan B: Taking a Cargo Ferry Across the Caspian Sea appeared first on WhirledAway.