Sleeper train: Tashkent to Almaty
The 17 hour sleeper train is an easy way to get between Tashkent - the capital of Uzbekistan, and Almaty - the second city and old capital of Kazakhstan. There are of course flights between the two but if you’re anything like us and trying to cut down your carbon emissions then you will be seeking something different. The sleeper train is also an experience in itself and provides something that travelling by plane cannot seem to achieve - relaxation, freedom, and rest.
With no limits on luggage, a range of class options which are all affordable and a restaurant/bar car, you can have a huge amount of fun on the sleeper train, and still get a good nights’ sleep. The trains are sleek and modern, providing comfort and necessities - there is one plug in each compartment so perhaps bring a battery pack to charge your devices. There are lamps for each berth as well as the main cabin light, there is a temperature control panel, and you are provided with a blanket, pillow and sheets.
The timetable - though in Cyrillic it can be easily deciphered
Departing Tashkent at 12:39 three times a week year round (correct as of October 2023), the service rolls in to Almaty at around 7am the following day. There is a time change of an hour. We paid £40 each for our bottom bunks in a 2nd class 4 berth cabin. You can book tickets and see timetables online at https://eticket.railway.uz/en/home.
We chose to go for a 2nd class 4 berth cabin, and booked both bottom bunks for ourselves, aware that two others would possibly be sharing with us. The bottom bunks have the most room for luggage as you can store it underneath the beds and we had a huge backpack and two smaller bags as well as a bag of snacks.
On boarding, we were the only two people in the entire carriage we had booked in - score! The attendant was polite but rather brusque; checking our tickets and passports methodically before letting us board around 20 minutes before departure. Our cabin was spacious and we were very excited.
The train departed on time as most do in this part of the world, and we were off! We settled down with our books and crossword, snacks out and enjoying the scenery out of the window. Our cabin had a spacious table which we made the most of.
The best thing about travelling in this direction is that you get the border crossing out of the way fairly early; around an hour after leaving Tashkent you roll to a stop at the Uzbekistan side of the border. The attendant will come round and ask for your passport, which they whisk away out of sight leaving you slightly panicked.
Serious looking officials then board the train to check your documents; passports, train tickets, visa if you have one, and they question you as to why you are in Uzbekistan, why you are leaving, whether you will be returning etc. They will stamp and return your passports.
Once this is done, the customs officials will come round - there is always at least one who can speak English and that will be the one to visit you - check the cabin using a mirrored device and sniffer dogs, and ask you to empty most of your bags so they can check what is in there. The officials are very friendly and were more interested in my crime fiction books than the contents of my backpack! And the dogs were super cute; I had to restrain myself from distracting them from their oh so important work. This stop is scheduled for 1.5 hours and does take around that long.
Top tip - they lock the toilets at the borders so make sure you take a trip there before the border stop.
When the officials disembark the train, you are on the move again, for about 10 minutes until you reach the Kazakhstan side of the border where you go through the whole rigmarole again!
The Kazakh border stop is much more efficient and only takes around 40 minutes for the whole process. Once this is done, the train is allowed to go on its’ merry way and you can relax. When travelling in the other direction, the border stop is early morning and at the very end of your journey which isn’t quite so relaxing!
Once through the border, the whole of the train journey straddles the Kazakhstan/Kyrgyzstan border but there are no more official stops or document checks. Now the fun begins!
Get yourself down to the bar car where most westerners on sleeper trains tend to congregate. Order some local beer, some local vodka, and play some cards*.
*NOTE - On our return trip from Almaty to Tashkent on the sleeper train the attendants would not let us play cards. However, on our way to Almaty we played for almost 3 hours so it seems they can be quite contrary on this point.
Once you’ve enjoyed a few drinks you can have dinner on board as they have a whole menu of local foods to choose from. Tom had Plov (his staple diet in the Stans) which is a local dish of rice, meat and vegetables. I had a soup. There is an English menu for food/drink if you request it from the restaurant car staff - prices are in Kazakhstan Tenge and payment is cash only. There is a “money man” on board who comes through the train regularly and will change Uzbekistan Som, USD or GBP to Tenge for you at a fairly reasonable exchange rate. Beer was 1100 Tenge which is just over £2.
On we rolled, a fairly bumpy ride at times, and soon as we had predicted, several westerners joined us in the restaurant carriage. We chatted to a man who had travelled from the top of Scotland to Kazakhstan overland (train and bus) and was seeing how far he could get. We met another Englishman who was working in Tashkent and doing a visa run into Kazakhstan and back to Uzbekistan. We heard German accents and English accents and it was strange but quite enjoyable - so far on our trip we hadn’t seen any other westerners.
The restaurant car
We were treated to a spectacular sunset from the window of the restaurant car, which seemed to be over in a flash.
Once we’d spent enough of our Kazakh Tenge in the dining car we went back to our compartment. We still had no friends there, and the train had stopped several times and it was now 8pm. We had enjoyed the time on our own, especially since the cabin was very warm!
Bit warm there Tom?
We settled down for the night after reading our books and chatting for a bit longer. There was a longer stop of around 10 minutes at 8pm so we went out onto the platform to get a bit of fresh air, have a look around and visit the platform shop for some hot food - I got a cooked and buttery corn on the cob for around 50p, bargain!
We were ushered back on board by our carriage attendant before departure and noticed that our carriage was now quite full. We still had no-one else in our cabin. The beds were very comfortable and we found ourselves going to bed quite early at around 9pm.
You know what’s going to happen here, surely?
9.45pm - the cabin opens and the light turns on. Groggily I stir awake, I’d only just gotten to sleep. We have a friend! A lady pokes her head in, puts her bag on one of the top bunks, then leaves again - leaving the light on. I assume she’s gone to the toilet or to sort some things out and will be back momentarily, so we leave the light on and lie back down. But when she doesn’t return and it’s been nearly 30 minutes I decide enough is enough and I turn the light off and close the cabin door.
Around 5 minutes later she comes back and goes about the noisy business of making her bed, sorting her belongings out and assembling the ladder to climb onto the bunk above me. I go out to use the toilet, and when I am back she is settled. Light off once more, I get back in to bed and am rocked back to sleep by the rhythmic rocking of the train on the tracks.
There are various stops throughout the night and I wake at one or two of them, but not for long, and I wake up around 5am to get dressed for our arrival into Almaty feeling strangely refreshed. Getting off the train, we see a beautiful sunrise coming up behind the train carriage and we stand for a minute to soak in the beauty of seeing a new day come in, in a new place and country.
