My first mistake was thinking I knew what time it was in Almaty. I carefully set my alarm and thought I had plenty of time when I woke up. Turns out I was off by an hour and the front desk had to call and say that our driver was waiting. I threw everything in my bags and headed down. I missed the tea they made for us, since we were leaving too early for breakfast, but we got to the airport with lots of time to spare. We couldn't even check in until they were ready for our flight, so we waited. The airport is too new to even have a cafe, so I was happy I had a power bar with me. Once they called us for check in, we entered the secure area. It turns out that this flight makes a stop in Karaganda on its way to Kostanai. By the way, we're flying on the interestingly named "SCAT Air Company," which seems to have no russian or kazak translation. I just have to complain for a moment about the plane. First, you can bring on as much carry-on as you can lug up the steps, which is helpful to me, and you can leave some in the back of the plane in an open storage area, which is also helpful. But then you discover that the seats are placed so close that no one can fit comfortably. I literally have my knees squashed into the seat in front of my, and I there is no way to recline the seats at all. The distance between the edge of one seat and the back of the seat in front is about six inches. But every seat is full, and I am far from the biggest person on the plane. I'm not sure how we're going to manage with lap babies on the way back. We got lunch, which was pretty good, and hot tea, which I appreciated. I love that the flight attendant brought out hot water for the tea in an battered, flowered metal tea pot. We had to get off the plane in Karaganda, which the Lonely Planet guide describes as a central point in the Soviet gulag. We walked into a huge, empty terminal with the requisite socialist realist sculpture out front. It is hard to give a good sense of this echoing crumbling rather glorious space. Lori and I went looking for the bathroom. It was not obvious where to go, so I asked a guy wearing an airport worker jacket for directions, but as soon as he spoke I realized that he reeked of alcohol. Of course, he insisted on accompanying us. I would not have been surprised if he planned to follow us in, but fortunately the toilets were guarded by a matron who wanted money for use of the facilities. Unfortunately, we haven't changed any money yet, and while it was ok to use dollars to buy water in the Almaty airport, I was happy she seemed satisfied when I said we had no tenge. Then, when we came out and headed back to where we left our fellow passengers, there was not a soul to be found. We were starting to worry about what was happening when we got back to the door we entered through and it had a padlock on it. It was a twilight zone moment, since it looked as if noone had opened that padlock in years! Empty terminal, padlocked door, encounter with drunken man now nowhere to be seen... cue the spooky music. Then we heard our flight announced and we raced upstairs and found check in. We had to go through security and get a new boarding pass, and then we were led out a ramp down to the ground to walk out to the plane. And now we're off again.
8 March 2004
A visitor made this comment,
Alice -
Joe D. will be so disappointed that we had a direct flight from Almaty to Kostenai, as he is a complete fan "...requisite socialist realist sculpture..." and "...echoing crumbling rather glorious [Soviet] space..." :)
You might want to look into returning from Kostenai to Almaty on Air Kaz, which had a direct flight and flew Boeings, with plenty of leg room.
In any case, use VIP service in Kostenai. You will be the first on the plane and able to pick the bulkhead seats. |
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