No-man's land and Kazakhstan

Bishkek to Tashkent via Kazakhstan
Well the journey from Bishkek to Tashkent was every bit as adventurous as I guessed it might be. After a morning exploring the Ala Archa base camp near Bishkek (beautiful snowy mountains, yurts and a thundering turquoise river slicing through the valley) the afternoon’s journey from Bishkek to the Kazakhstan border was incredibly quick – just 40 minutes. The border crossing out of Kyrgyz was the usual hectic crush, complicated by all forms being in Russian (definitely going to make sure we supply teams with a translator to get them across the border – I was very glad for mine!), then a short walk across a no-man’s land bridge to the Kazakh border post, with more forms, more stamping of papers, and finally stepping in to Kazakhstan – the world’s 9th largest country, land of Borat – for the first time. Again, my translator was a godsend in helping to find and negotiate a rate for a taxi for the 1 hour journey to the small town of Otar, and helping me change some dollars in to Kazakh Tilgrit. The ride to Otar showed a completely different landscape to Kyrgyzstan. While the area around Bishkek is all snowy alpine peaks, this corner of Southern Kazakhstan was just vast gently rolling grassy Central Asian steppe as far as the eye could see.
Otar itself – one hour from the border – was a dry dusty one-street town with a small provincial railway station. The friendly station manager looked at my ticket and confirmed that the weekly train to Tashkent was indeed running, and should arrive on time. And miraculously it did. Onboard the train it was heaving. I had chosen to travel 3rd class – open plan bunk beds full of women and children in one big carriage – as I’d been advised this was safer for a single traveller than being in an enclosed compartment (as per first and second class). I found my pre-booked top bunk, scrambled up, and settled down for the 20 hour journey. Though roastingly hot (no AC, though thankfully the windows opened) the carriage was very civilised – clean duvets, sheets and pillow for each berth, a toilet at each end of the carriage, and at one end an urn with an endless supply of boiling water for making pots of tea and noodle snacks – very handy. In my bunk area there was a lovely family from Almaty on their way to visit relatives in Shymkent. The 11 year old son spoke some English so we chatted for a while, then we all shared dinner (my contribution of crackers, raisins and jelly babies was pretty paltry compared to their vat of rice, chicken stew and green tea, but they were very gracious about it). The train journey was pretty smooth and quick, mostly through the night, but the real fun started the next morning when we finally reached the Kazakh-Uzbek border...
First the train came to a halt at the border, and instantly – without the benefit of the breeze from the moving train – the temperature in the carriage started to climb. Slightly menacing Kazakh guards and police boarded the train with sniffer dogs and started rounding up everyone’s passports and papers – again all the forms were in Russian, but this time I didn’t have the benefit of a translator, so had to take an educated guess as to what I was supposed to write in each box, and where to tick. For all I knew I could have blithely ticked the ‘I am carrying weapons’/ ‘I take drugs’/ ‘I work in espionage’ boxes – I had no idea, but had all fingers crossed as I handed in my papers... (Learning point: I took an extra form and I’m going to ask our resident Russian speaker Emma to translate it when back in office and make a template for teams so that they know what to put in which boxes and don’t get caught out).
Our passports were then taken away, stamped and returned. The whole thing took 2½ hours, by which point the temperature in the packed carriage was about 47C. Then a brief respite of 20 minutes breeze as the train rumbled on to the Uzbek border, and the whole thing all over again – police, dogs, passports rounded up, and another 1½ hours stuck in the furnace-like carriage by this time completely pouring with sweat, and with a carriage half full of fretfully grizzling toddlers just to heighten the stress levels. Finally we moved off again, passports all stamped and in order, and from the Uzbek border it was just 15 minutes further to Tashkent station. Incredibly, just as it had arrived exactly on time in Otar, the train pulled in to Tashkent at 14:20 on the dot as scheduled – very
impressive! This shining and immaculate air conditioned new station was a very welcome sight, and from the station I was picked up and whisked off to my fantastic B&B for 3 nights in Tashkent.
Each element of the journey – Bishkek to the border, then a taxi to Otar, then confirmation in Otar that there really was going to be a train, to the train actually arriving dead on time, and finally making it across the border from Kazakhstan to Uzbekistan and arriving in to Tashkent’s glittering new train station – felt like a minor triumph. I had a healthy wad of emergency dollars in case border bribes were required or the journey failed and was fully preparing for the train not to turn up and to have to travel to Almaty in Kazakhstan and fly to Tashkent from there, but amazingly the whole thing came together!
Travelling by train along the Silk Route is going to be a brilliant adventure for the teams: a bit challenging at times because of the language and logistics, and a little bit hot and stressful at the borders, but overall good fun and a great chance to interact with the extremely friendly local people. I was really pleased to make the journey myself and see that it’s definitely do-able – it looked like a good option on paper but very few foreigners use this route so it was definitely worth making sure before we send the first teams!