Christmas in Central Asia

[Mattg]

I love travelling in Central Asia. It's so different to anywhere else in the world, and I find it fascinating to see how each country has developed (or in some cases, not developed) since the fall of the Soviet Union.

I've previously visited Kazakhstan in summer; this time I decided to take a trip in winter. As it happens, I ended up spending Christmas in the Kazakh city of Shymkent. New Year was celebrated in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan.

Now, Kazakhstan is probably not the first place you would think to spend Christmas… after all, most of the country doesn't even celebrate it. But I had an absolutely brilliant time! There was plenty of snow, so I was able to enjoy a white Christmas. And despite 70% of the population being Muslim, there were Christmas trees everywhere and Christmas carols playing in pretty much every shopping mall in the country. Meanwhile, it was low tourist season (not that peak season is much busier in this part of the world) so most of the hotels were empty and flights were not that expensive.

This was not a trip for luxurious premium cabin air travel - quite the opposite, in fact. All 9 flights were in economy class, on narrow-body aircraft. Only 1 aircraft even had in-flight entertainment available - and on this flight my system didn't work! Around half the flights ran late and one leg was really messed up due to repeated cancellations. But it was totally worth it for the destinations!

On the way back, we stopped for a couple of nights in Tbilisi, Georgia. Here is the full routing (starting and ending in Amsterdam):



I travelled with a Canadian friend on this trip. Highlights included the incredible mausoleum in Turkestan and experiencing -30 degree temperatures in Astana. Lowlights included taking off in said Astana weather in an old plane that hadn't been de-iced!

Here's a small taste of what's to come in this trip report…

 

[Mattg]

Flight 1: LO266 Amsterdam - Warsaw
Boeing 737-800
Departure time: 10:30 (scheduled)
Arrival time: 12:25 (scheduled)

The hardest part of planning this trip was finding an efficient way to get from Europe to Kazakhstan. We were initially going to fly to Vilnius and then pick up a SCAT Airlines flight from there to Astana, but SCAT ended up cancelling our flight. So we decided to go with LOT Airlines via Warsaw. The only problem with this option is that it came with a ~10 hour layover in Warsaw... but that wasn't really a problem as it gave us a chance to explore the city!

The trip began at the Aspire Lounge in Amsterdam. This is definitely not the world's greatest airport lounge, but it's all that's on offer to Star Alliance passengers in AMS.

Our flight boarded slightly late. By the time we were ready to depart, we'd missed our slot so ended up sitting on the ground in Amsterdam for 2 hours before we could leave. There were a lot of unhappy passengers with missed connections... thankfully we still had plenty of time up our sleeves before the Astana departure, but we did miss a walking tour we had planned to do in Warsaw because of the delay. When we finally pushed back, sarcastic clapping from the passengers ensued.

This flight was operated by a Romanian low-cost carrier called Blue Air, for some reason. The pilots were from Blue Air and the cabin signage was all in Romanian, but the cabin crew were from LOT.

On this flight water, tea and coffee, as well as a chocolate wafer bar, were offered free of charge. Other snacks and drinks were available for purchase. As with the rest of the flights on this trip, there was no in-flight entertainment available. All in all, an uneventful flight.

It was just below zero degrees when we landed in Warsaw.

 

[Mattg]

Warsaw, Poland

We used the spare evening in Warsaw to do some sightseeing. We toured the old town before enjoying a nice dinner of Polish pierogi at Zapiecek.







It was easy to get around using the metro. We purchased day tickets for 15 złoty (around $5) at the airport which came with unlimited use of the buses, trains and trams within the city.



After a nice afternoon it was back to the airport!

 

[Major]

A lot of different places. Looking forward to your TR

 

[Mattg]

Flight 2: LO195 Warsaw-Astana
Boeing 737-800
Departure time: 22:50 (scheduled)
Arrival time: 08:40 +1 day (scheduled)

We spent a couple of hours in the LOT Business lounge before the flight. This was quite a small lounge but had a reasonable selection of buffet food and drinks, as well as clean bathrooms and showers. The runway views were also nice.

The boarding time for our flight came and went, and there was still no aircraft at the gate. Unfortunately, the LOT Lounge closed at 11pm and we were kicked out into the main terminal then.



LOT didn't provide an estimated departure time; the flight was just showing as "delayed". This was quite frustrating, but we did eventually commence boarding at 00:30. We took off around 01:15, well over two hours late. The flight was 100% full.

This was definitely not the most enjoyable flight I've taken. The flight time was only 4h 50m, but we lost 5 hours in the air due to the time difference. Although I was seated in an exit row with good legroom, the seat became rather uncomfortable very quickly. This was a 737 configured for short-haul flights.



Again, no IFE was available. But each passenger was also given a pillow, blanket and a small kit with an eye shade, earplugs and socks for the redeye.

We were served a full hot dinner shortly after takeoff:



After dinner the lights were switched off for the remainder of the flight.



After a couple of hours of restless sleep, I woke up to this view as we began our descent:



As we landed in Astana at 10:30 local time, it was announced that the outside temperature was -31 degrees! No wonder Astana is the second-coldest capital city on earth.

The other passengers applauded when we landed. This time it wasn’t sarcastic.

 

[VPS]

Looks amazing - following along

 

[tgh]

Looks amazing - following along….

me too

 

[jase05]

I’m fascinated by this, keen to tag along for the ride

 

[RB]

Have enjoyed your previous write-ups & looking forward to more of this

 

[burmans]

On board for this one, I may end up doing similar next Xmas.

 

[RooFlyer]

Grinding my teeth in envy before JohnM and I do 'the Stans' later in the year.

 

[RoMambai]

Great stuff Mattg. On a tangential note, I hear the Uzbek authorities recently granted Australians visa free status, starting next month. Hopefully this will entice more Australians to Central Asia which, like you, is a personal favourite of mine.

 

[get me outta here]

Great photos and inspirational Matt. Brussels sprouts for dinner - that's brave.

 

[LadyC]

Fascinating locations and look forward to reading more!

 

[craven morehead]

I love travelling in Central Asia. It's so different to anywhere else in the world, and I find it fascinating to see how each country has developed (or in some cases, not developed) since the fall of the Soviet Union.

I've previously visited Kazakhstan in summer; this time I decided to take a trip in winter. As it happens, I ended up spending Christmas in the Kazakh city of Shymkent. New Year was celebrated in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan.

Now, Kazakhstan is probably not the first place you would think to spend Christmas… after all, most of the country doesn't even celebrate it. But I had an absolutely brilliant time! There was plenty of snow, so I was able to enjoy a white Christmas. And despite 70% of the population being Muslim, there were Christmas trees everywhere and Christmas carols playing in pretty much every shopping mall in the country. Meanwhile, it was low tourist season (not that peak season is much busier in this part of the world) so most of the hotels were empty and flights were not that expensive.

This was not a trip for luxurious premium cabin air travel - quite the opposite, in fact. All 9 flights were in economy class, on narrow-body aircraft. Only 1 aircraft even had in-flight entertainment available - and on this flight my system didn't work! Around half the flights ran late and one leg was really messed up due to repeated cancellations. But it was totally worth it for the destinations!

On the way back, we stopped for a couple of nights in Tbilisi, Georgia. Here is the full routing (starting and ending in Amsterdam):

View attachment 149729

I travelled with a Canadian friend on this trip. Highlights included the incredible mausoleum in Turkestan and experiencing -30 degree temperatures in Astana. Lowlights included taking off in said Astana weather in an old plane that hadn't been de-iced!

Here's a small taste of what's to come in this trip report…

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Righto then I'll come along for a look

 

[Straubs]

I love these TRs for discovering new places I previously might never have considered!

 

[Flying_man]

“Wa-wa-wee-wa!”
“My wife!”
“High five!”
Etc...

 

[Mattg]

Great stuff Mattg. On a tangential note, I hear the Uzbek authorities recently granted Australians visa free status, starting next month. Hopefully this will entice more Australians to Central Asia which, like you, is a personal favourite of mine.

I did see this. That's super exciting as it means there will now be 3 countries in the area which are completely visa-free for Australians! All the more reason to visit.

Great photos and inspirational Matt. Brussels sprouts for dinner - that's brave.

Yep, just what I felt like eating at 2am! Sadly there was no choice provided.

“Wa-wa-wee-wa!”
“My wife!”
“High five!”
Etc...

I'm sorry to say that I really dislike that movie. It does not represent Kazakhstan in any way, shape or form (it was not even filmed there), yet it seems to be what most Westerners now associate the country with.

 

[Mattg]

Astana, Kazakhstan

With such extreme cold weather, we couldn't spend too long outside in one go without retreating into a shopping centre/restaurant/etc. After around 20 minutes outside my hands and feet would start to freeze. But we did try to spend as much time taking in the sights as we could. Wearing thermals and several jackets, as well as gloves, a scarf and a beanie did help.

There weren't many other people outdoors, although there was a small army of people in high-vis working throughout the city to remove ice from the footpaths and other public areas. I really felt sorry for them working outdoors in those conditions, although I couldn't help but think that there might be more efficient ways to remove or melt the ice than with small chisels and shovels. (I wonder if they've tried using salt?)



Having just come off a redeye, I was pretty tired when we arrived. But we still managed to get in a few hours of sightseeing on the first day. We were predictably hassled by taxi drivers when walking out of the airport, but took the number 12 bus into the city (the fare is under $1 and the buses operate at regular intervals) and then spent the afternoon exploring around the main boulevard.

Astana is the modern new capital of Kazakhstan. The city is only around 20 years old, so everything is modern and new. And the architecture is simply incredible. You really have to see it to believe it.

 

[Mattg]

We stopped for lunch at a Kazakh canteen. The menu was only available in Kazakh and none of the staff spoke a word of English, so we played our first game of "menu roulette" for the trip. For those of you unfamiliar with this game, it's where you randomly point at some items on the menu and hope that would they bring will be nice. The strategy paid off and we had a very tasty lunch for just a couple of dollars! Here's what arrived:



We stayed at Jumbaktas Hotel, which was excellent. The service, facilities, location and buffet breakfast were all top-notch, so I'd be happy to recommend the place. This was the view from our room when we arrived back at sunset.



I fell asleep pretty quickly after that and slept for 13 hours. Jetlag does that to you sometimes.

The next morning we visited Nur Astana Mosque. This building has an impressive interior, but you're not supposed to take photos inside so I only have pictures of the exterior to show you. There is a separate ladies and mens entrance and you are supposed to remove your shoes before going inside. As we entered, one of the locals asked us if we were Muslim. "No", I said. "Well, welcome to our mosque. I hope you like it" was the reply.




We still had a few hours to kill in the afternoon before our flight, so headed to the Mega Silkway Mall. Here there were lots of shops and restaurants. And, most importantly, it was heated.



We played menu roulette again for lunch, and this is what we got:



This mall is right next to the former Expo site. Today, the giant dome which previously housed the Kazakh exhibition during Expo is now the "Museum of Future Energy" (which was also the Expo's theme).




Astana is a unique city with lots of interesting things to see, but not that much to do. In a way, it reminds me a little of Canberra or Brasilia which are also planned capital cities. If you are planning to visit Kazakhstan, I would absolutely recommend stopping in Astana for a day or two to admire the surreal architecture... but not longer, and on your way to somewhere else in the country.