Before I get back to my maddening schedule in about half an hour now.....(I doubt if I’m gonna get ANY sleep today), let me just write this.....
I’ m kinda surprised that no one’s written on Kazakhstan s far. I understand that not too many people from India travel there.....but c’mon dudes.....the number can’t be zero for sure! And SOME of them at least have GOT to be on MS.....or am I overestimating the member count? ;-)
Anyways, guess I’ll cut the ribbon and inaugurate the review space for Kazakhstan.
I went there a long time back.....April 2000 if I remember correctly. And summer’s the best season to go there because in winters it is freakin’ cold!!! The temperature can easily fall below -5 degrees Celsius. Easily. It can be lower than that even if you’re in the northern parts of the country.
Anywayz, I was in southern Kazakhstan…..in the former capital Almaty. I think I’ll start describing this from the very beginning…..just the way the series of things happened…..with me. So, its gonna get long…..and I don’t have time……so I’ll write I installments. Like Part – I, part –II and so on…..
At that time, there was no direct flight to Kazakhstan. The only option was to go to Delhi, take a flight from there to Bishkek (which is in Kyrgyzstan, another CIS country), then cross the border between Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan …..by car. I was most excited about the border part. The flight to Delhi was all nicey-nice. Jet Airways. And what happened after that was a nightmare.
Our flight to Bishkek was at 12.30 in the night or so. I got to the airport at about 9.30 or so…..and there was this notice at the airport that the flight was no at 8 IN THE MORNING! Hell….. I thought. But there was no choice…..Anyway, I walked into the airport and was horribly surprised to find that there wasn’t enough place to sit anywhere!!!! Anyway, I found a chair (with great difficulty), put my luggage under my feet and covered my face with the ‘Jetkids’ bag that the cutie air-hostess in Jet airways had given me and decided to ‘fall asleep’. After about an hour, suddenly my eyes opened and I found an old grandpa sleeping right by my feet. It didn’t feel nice….I didnt want someone to sleep beside my feet on the floor. I could see why he did that. The whole place was getting filled up with people who were there for our flight. Believe me, there wasn’t enough space to sit. People were sitting on the floor, on their luggage…..anywhere that was sittable (if such a word exists). I thought maybe the grandpa could sleep in my chair. I tried to wake him up but angrily he mumbled in his sleep, “Mph….mph…..don’t disturb me…” I complied. His wife was there too. But she had found a chair.
I was hungry. But there was no packed food available at the airport. Only sandwiches and samosas and stuff like that and generally, I fall ill on eating stuff outside. I’m always over-careful about this over-sensitivity. So for the next 7 hours or so, I went hungry.
The airport really sucked. The cooling was soooo powerful that people around me were actually shivering. And if a flight is delayed so much, isn’t an airline supposed to provide some goddamned hotel accommodation????? Forget the hotel accomodation…..they didn’t give us any food either. The only choice was to eat the airport food…..and take a chance with my over-sensitive stomach…..which I was reluctant to do. By 7 in the morning….the situation turned from bad to worse. They told us that the flight wasn’t coming even at 8. It might bedelayed by ‘3 to 4 more hours’. Still no sign of hotel accommodation. Then, at like 10 , they started issuing boarding passes……then at 11, they said the flight is delayed again. The old people were shivering, had no place to sit….and I just couldn’t watch the trashy scenes. For a good while, I was seatless too.
For a while nobody knew what was going to happen. I was frustrated and my head was spinning after the sleepless night. Then, some guy went to the airline’s office….and got info that the flight wouldn’t take off because of ‘engine failure’. A volcano erupted soon as he said this. “Arre batao….he was SHOUTING….does anyone want ta go in a dadgee ayrcraaft”. (Read – Does anyone want to go in a dodgy aircraft?) I’m just tryin’ to bring out his accent. The people were quarrelling with the airline authorities like crazy. It was noisy as a fish market. Nothing was under control.
After one more hour, food arrived. I hoped it was packeged. It was not. Bu the caterers were Taj. So I thought it was okay. Though I didn’t particularly like the taste of what I was eating, I didn’t think too much. And then, FINALLY, they sent us all to a hotel…without any word on when the flight was coming.
The great news – THE HOTEL WAS A GOOD 10 KMS AWAY…..i had barely taken a shower after reaching there and had fallen asleep….when a guy knocks at the door. “Madam…..lunch ke liye neeche aa jayie.”
With heavy eyes, I went downstairs. The food wasn’t all that appreciable. But I’d stopped expecting anything to be worth appreciating as long as it was going to be associated with this crap airline.
We had barely started eating when some ‘people who seemed to be in authority’ started shouting. “Jaldi karo jaldi karo…..flight ke liye jaana hain”. I couldn’t care less. They make us wait for like 18 hours and then they say ‘jaldi karo’.
Again we got into the bus….10 kms to the airport.
Finally, we got onto the plane …at about 5 in the evening…..and surprise surprise!!!!! The aircraft was so bad…there were some yellow insects(bees, maybe) flying at the entrance…unfortunately this was the only way to get to Kazakhstan….sigh
The airhostesses seemed irritated…it was sooo hot inside the aircraft…..i didnt care.
The only good part was that to get there, you have to fly across the Himalayas. So I got a spectacular view from the flight….the food on the plane was fortunately better than the one on the ground. And when I landed there, I barely had enough energy to walk…..
Immigration people fortunately were cuties. They were fast and didn’t do any khit-khit. Cute, very cute. After 20 hours of hell…..any small act of goodness starts seeming enormously CUTE.
Part II tomorrow….or maybe day after that….hope you read on.