China - Kazachstan - Russia

1

Why not, Laros?

Actually you are intending to travel along a new flourishing branch of the Silk Route (I'm meaning new ways of carrying Chinese goods) appeared after the collapse of the USSR.

I have never heard about any serious problems (any frozen to death passengers) with Kazakh and Russian trains in wintertime. In January sometimes it will be about - 30 C (or even – 40 C at the dark time of the day) in the steppes. May be it is too cold for cross country skiing or horse back riding but for sitting in a warm train car, watching outside through the window decorated with the frost and drinking vodka it is the best weather I can imagine.

The train will be full of TRAVELERS at least Kazakh and Russian ones. Some of Russian knowledge and a little bit of Good Will would help you to fight your loneliness. If you search more among the passengers, for sure you would find somebody who can speak English at least, or even some EU people, who knows?

The best place to buy a r/w ticket Almaty – Moscow, I know, is Almaty City itself. After arrival from Urumqi to Almaty-2 (city center) r/w station, you can try to purchase the ticket on your own.

A) If you want to have something very well done in this country, you have to do it yourselves.

Or you can order the ticket in advance through any local travel agent. For example -
G/h Valentina (Almaty). E-mail: ili@mail.ru.
At least you can get from them free information about the schedule and Kazakh RW prices.

B) For avoidance of being disappointed, book everything in advance.

You are welcome. There are no any reasons to apologize. It is a FORUM = the place where people may ask ANY questions and where, who wants it, may give any answers.

Marat

2

Thanks for your reply, decided to travel that route, indeed not really nice wheater for sightseeing in Kazachstan but I will get at least a glimps of the country and propably the urge to get back there in summer. Will buy the guidebook and hope to find people in west china who are heading in the same direction. Thanks again!

Laros "Guess I'm not a traveler, just want to find out where the sun comes from"

3

We travelled this route in the opposite direction last year (diary and photos at www.calara.co.uk). Although we were there in the summer and so found it easier to wander around a bit - we would recommend that you break the journey between Almaty and Moscow at least once - there are some really interesting towns and cities. We found that the direct train from Moscow through to Almaty (3 days +) was booked up some weeks in advance but there are plenty of others.

Good luck deciphering Russian Railway timetables - even more challenging than the Chinese ones!!! There is a great website at http://www.poezda.net/en/index which helps a lot - don't forget the time change at the border where the trains run on either Astana or Moscow time - not the time where you are.

Recommended stops (bearing in mind the time of year) would be Turkistan, Aralsk (might be a bit bleak - get your ticket out before you arrive), Samara and Kazan. We needed to tell the Russians that we wanted to stop off in the Volga valley - although there were absolutely no problems travelling through Russia at all - and Moscow is a fantastic city.

Good luck and happy travels.

Rod