We took another marshrutka back to Shymkent and arrived around sunset. It was our last night in Shymkent before flying out the following morning. It was also Christmas Day, so we headed out to a good restaurant for a nice dinner. (I think we ended up spending around $20 for both of us, which was one of the more expensive meals we had.)
That night, I woke up feeling violently ill. Maybe I shouldn't have drunk half a litre of fermented horse milk with dinner, as recommended by the waiter.
Despite the restless night, I'd more or less recovered by the morning and did feel well enough to fly the next day as planned.
Flight 4: KC972 Shymkent - Almaty
Embraer E190
Departure time: 10:00
Arrival time: 11:15
Shymkent Airport was small but functional. This was the main entrance/check-in area:
Check-in was super easy - I just entered my name in a machine and it spat out a boarding pass. We then passed through security into the departures area:
There was only one boarding gate. In fact, there was only one bus to take passengers between the plane and the terminal. So it would not be possible to board multiple flights simultaneously at this airport.
We started boarding early and everyone turned up on time, so we also left a little early. Here's our Air Astana plane on the tarmac, in front of a Boeing 747 freighter:
Taking off from Shymkent:
Air Astana seems to be the airline of choice in this part of the world. I can see why - they run a professional operation and their service is excellent. The crew on this flight were all friendly and spoke English well. Announcements were made in Kazakh, Russian and English.
Before departure, the cabin crew came around handing out lollies. Interestingly, they were exactly the same type and brand of lollies as those given out on SCAT Airlines. Before departure they also came around offering complimentary newspapers, although they didn't have any in English language (which is fair enough).
The flight time was under an hour, but we still received a snack box and choice of non-alcoholic drinks. We also got a "surprise" box decorated in Christmas colours, which contained Kazakh chocolates and a scratch card. I'm afraid I didn't win anything, but the chocolates sure were nice.
We landed early in a cold and foggy Almaty. The approach was quite stunning as Almaty is surrounded by mountains. The temperature on arrival was -8 degrees.