You can buy train tickets online at tickets.kz, but our local friend said it was often buggy. Hence we went to our nearby travel agency to purchase them and got our printed tickets immediately.
We left for Almaty 2 train station on Friday night, and arrived in Shymkent the next morning before 7am. As we were waiting for our train in Almaty, a security officer approached us and asked if we were Chinese. I mean, ethnically yes, but nationality wise no. You can probably guess, he wanted to know if we were from China, say it with me, because coronavirus. This was in early February way before the first recorded case of coronavirus in Kazakhstan, but paranoia has no concept of time. Anyway, we told him no and that we were from Singapore, which was helpful because not a lot of people know where Singapore is. If you cannot convince them, confuse them.
Along the way, somewhere around Taraz, I received a message from my telecom provider welcoming me to Kyrgyzstan.This could be explained by railroads being built in the Soviet times with no regard for today’s international borders. However the only information I could find online about Kazakhstan’s trains dipping in and out of Kyrgyzstan is an unreferenced point on Wikipedia, so you just read this paragraph for nothing.
SC
Hi Joey, thanks for sharing your adventures in Kazakhstan. Is Kazakhstan expensive? Any tips on how to save money in Kazakhstan? How do you communicate if the people there mainly speal Russian?
joey.is.msadventuring
Hi SC! Kazakhstan is extremely affordable, especially for people with a student budget. In Almaty, an average set meal costs ~USD3-4; my most expensive shared meal has never exceeded USD8. A Yandex from Almaty airport to the city centre costs ~USD3, so travelling anywhere within the city would be a lot cheaper than that. To save money, I recommend taking the public bus/metro/trains instead of cab/airplanes, plus you get a more quintessentially local experience! Almaty metro has a flat fee of 80KZT (~USD0.20); long distance trains cost several times cheaper than a plane ticket depending on which class you choose. Of course if you venture out of Almaty, prices would be even lower. Language wise, I managed to get by fine with Google Translate:) Else, it would be good to learn a few key phrases and numbers in Russian. Good luck!