Central Asia: Getting to Bishkek from Urumqi

Airspace from Urumqi to Bishkek

Once I met up with sis, we took marshrutka 380 just outside of airport. We were charged 50 KGS per person including luggage. However there's a catch to this marshrutka, it drops off near Osh Bazaar in Bishkek. Marshrutka in Bishkek are really just van and you'll be amazed how many people can actually fit into a van. What I do admire is all younger passengers will always give up their seat for someone who is older than them. Never fails.

There's a reason why when I'm in a foreign land, I prefer trains or metro anytime compared to buses. Simply because I never know when to get off a bus. Same case here, we have no clue even when it reached the junction near Osh Bazaar. Lady Luck was on our side that morning. As I was talking to sis in Mandarin, a young Kyrgyz teacher overheard us and approached us as we were booted off the marshrutka as that was the last stop. After finding out where were are heading, she spoke to a couple of taxi drivers. So we thought she is helping us to haggle with the taxi driver. It turned out that she was willing to bring us to the hostel by another marshrutka. Yay!

We almost missed the sign to the hostel!

4 hours later, another cable car (10 KGS pp) ride and a long walk with our fatty backpacks on our back, we finally reached Hostel Nomad. It wasn't that far but unfortunately the kind-hearted teacher got the address mixed up as many road names recently changed. She is really kind-hearted, despite we have spent so long trying to get to the hostel and got on the wrong path, she didn't desert us.  By the time we reached the hostel, it was lunch time and perfect time to feed our tummies.

We had lunch at a nearby restaurant serving national food (just a block away) as recommended by the hostel reception. We actually ended up having a meal there a few times too. We were given a menu in Cyrillic and I could recognised compote and manti, many thanks to my ex-workmate T who introduced me to Russian food so that was what we ordered and another random dish. :P

Side note: I could do with some manti right now..!

Central Asia: Layover in Urumqi

I had a long layover in Urumqi, about 16 hours in total including an overnight stay. There are a few flight options, giving choices of duration you want in Guangzhou vs Urumqi. I decided to have a longer layover in Urumqi with a short one in Guangzhou. I opted for a 4 hours transit in Guangzhou and a 16 hours in Urumqi.

I have initially planned a couple of things I wanted to see in Urumqi or at least hope to see the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region Museum and Grand Bazaar. That, was the plan but one can only plan eh. I ended up only walking around near the hotel I was put up.

Ok - back to the transit hotel story. I approached the China Southern transit desk and was given a hotel slip and the staff in charge stuck a sticker on my backpack so that the driver can identify me. On my way there, there was only one other person and me on the same flight that was transiting to Bishkek. She wanted a room to herself and paid. I wasn't keen on sharing and have someone coming in to the room when I was sleeping (even though I am game to stay in dorm, don't ask me what logic is that..). So I paid ¥150.00 for the other bed as well.

I had every intention to get my own room on my return trip as well but as I reached Urumqi past midnight, there were not enough rooms even if I paid. :( I shared a room but all turned out OK though I did not have a good sleep.

The girl works in Bishkek and passed me her phone number if I needed help in Bishkek. Very kind of her. Even the van driver was nice, he helped me carry my fat backpack!

On my way there, I was put up in Yuyuan Hotel and Golden Beach Hotel on my return trip. The rooms were nothing to shout about, in fact the bathroom in Golden Beach Hotel was quite bad! It was those bathroom without door, only a shower curtain to cover the bath area. Serious, why do people make that kind of bathroom! = ="
Umm, I dont have any photographic evidence though because I was rooming with another person and it was right in the middle of the night.

I had half a day in Urumqi and an overnight sleep on a proper bed. Can't beat that! Though the lady at the counter in both hotels are a little strange. Both times when I asked what time does the bus leave, they responded as,"We will call you." Well, they did call but all they say would be "pack your bags and come down." No time to do anything because well, nobody is going to risk missing the bus or rather, flight.

There was a street full of restaurants and eating places near the hotel. However it reminded me of Petaling Street in KL and I much prefer a small, home style eating place so I didn't have my dinner there. I did however walk around the neighbourhood.

As it was an eating street, there were many cute statues along the street.

The other thing I wanted to do in Urumqi was to eat dapanji (大盘鸡). I settled for a small family run eatery near the hotel (not in along the food street). However as per it's name - big plate chicken, the smaller portion still use half a chicken and there is absolutely no way I can finish the dish by myself. How I wish I can find another person to share it with me so that I could eat dapanji in Xinjiang. Not wanting to waste the food, I chose to have something else. The lady boss suggested stir fry noodles and I went with it. I can't even finish this stir fry noodles and it was for one person's portion. So it was lucky that I didn't order dapanji.

Despite my best effort, I could only finish half of this. Taste wise it was ok but the noodles were a little too al-dente to my liking.

So that was my rest and relax layover in Urumqi.


Side note: I think I'm coming down with a cold.. Noooooo

China Southern free accommodation transit service in Urumqi

From Urumqi to Bishkek

After confirming our fly-in and out destinations, the two 'contending' flight carriers for me was China Southern and Emirates*. I've only flown with China Southern once before this trip to China and the flight was delayed so I have not had great experience with them. I have not flown with Emirates before but of course reviews were excellent. Most of my friends urged me to go with Emirates especially when it only involved one transit (but I was later told by the customer service when I rang that the flight I was looking at had 2 transits - a very short one in KL and the other in Dubai).

Anyway after considering that both flights needs two transits and China Southern was much cheaper even after visa cost, I decided to give China Southern another try. There were a few flights options and I opted for a longer transit in Urumqi (approximately 17 hours and 11 hours respectively). Transit in Guangzhou was 4 hours on my way there and 3 hours 15 minutes on return flight.

I have heard of complimentary overnight stay if one transits in Guangzhou and wondered if there is one on offer for a long transit in Urumqi. I found that from China Southern's US-English website, under "free accommodation service" that they do with following criteria.

There are three criteria for the free accommodation service:
1. Travelers transiting from domestic to domestic flights: If a traveler has purchased an overnight China Southern Airlines-connected flight ticket and the transit time is less than 24 hours, China Southern Airlines Transit Services will provide the traveler with free accommodation for one night (each traveler will be provided with one standard room with one bed, checkout by 2:00 PM the following day, no meals included), and will provide a shuttle service between the hotel and the airport. 

2. Travelers connecting to international flights: If a traveler has purchased China Southern Airlines-connected flight tickets connecting to an international flight and the transit time is longer than 6 hours, China Southern Airlines Transit Services will provide the traveler with free accommodation for one night (each traveler will be provided with one standard room with one bed, checkout by 2:00 PM the following day, no meals included), and will provide a shuttle service between the hotel and the airport. 

3. Accommodation service for travelers that miss connections: This applies if the late arrival of the departure flight taken by the traveler makes it impossible to connect with the original connecting flight (for China Southern Airlines flights connecting to China Southern Airlines flights). If such a situation occurs, China Southern Airlines transfer services in Ürümqi will provide the traveler with free accommodation and free shuttle services between the hotel and the airport. 

Notes: Travelers arriving on domestic flights are asked to proceed to the China Southern Airlines transit accommodation desk next to Luggage Carousel No. 4 in the Domestic Arrivals Hall to complete accommodation procedures. Travelers arriving on international flights are asked to proceed to the China Southern Airlines transit desk at the entrance to the International Arrivals Hall to complete accommodation procedures.

I fulfilled criteria number 2 and if you read word by word, the free accommodation is only one bed in a standard room meaning I would be sharing the room with a random stranger. One could pay extra to secure the other bed though. I rang the China Southern customer service to confirm the free accommodation. I was assured that a booking had been placed and a bed would be ready for me subject to valid entry requirements (i.e. visa) on my part. However, they were not able to confirm on the hotel beforehand. I applied for a double entry visa to China. I'll write about the hotel in another post ;)

*Edit: 
I had a query from a friend on Emirates flight to Central Asia. Thought I'll be clearer, it was Emirates from Melbourne to Dubai, followed by flydubai from Dubai to Bishkek. Flydubai is not an entity owned by Emirates so there is no information of this "connecting" flight. However if you ring up Emirates, they will assist on booking the whole journey. 

However if you run a search on flight search engine (e.g. Webjet), the results will show connecting flight via flydubai. 


Side note: I got to exercise better self control over food :(

Central Asia: Of Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan

Source: Wikipedia

Central Asia spread from Caspian Sea in the west (Caspian reminded me of Prince Caspian from Narnia..) to China in the east. It generally consist of five republics of the Soviet Union - Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan. Sometimes Afghanistan is also included.

Of the usual 5 countries, our limited time, cost of airfare (yes, this is important) and visa - we decided on three and forgo Turkmenistan and Tajikistan. Many asked, why Central Asia. Why not? The beautiful Kyrgyzstan and the Silk Road cities of Uzbekistan. Umm.. Kazakhstan is a bit of a cheat, we were only in Almaty and to be exact, two days in Almaty before taking our flight out.

I have been toying with the idea for awhile and at the end of last year before Christmas, I was browsing some books in a book shop. Lonely Planet travel books were on sale and the one which caught my eye - Central Asia. I was a little hesitant to buy it as there were no firm plans and I didn't want the book to be outdated. In addition, I was running low on both funds and annual leave. A friend told me it would still be ok, and I would probably jet off in the next five years. I didn't really need too much persuasion to bring the book to the counter.

For all who are worry about safety in travelling to Central Asia (excluding Afghanistan), the Australian smart traveller advised a DFAT1 & DFAT2 overall. There are some concerns over the borders between some countries due to landmines or security issue. For everyone (who are concerned about us), we avoided land crossing by flying and also to save time. However there are many who do land crossing.

This time I actually flew out of Melbourne on a Wednesday night to give us enough time in Kyrgyzstan. I had 2 transits - Guangzhou and Urumqi and my flights were with China Southern.

N = night, A = afternoon, M = morning, E = evening

26/08, Day 00 - On flight
27/08, Day 01 - Transit in Guangzhou and Urumqi* (Yuyuan Hotel)
28/08, Day 02 - Bishkek* (Hostel Nomad)
29/08, Day 03 - Song Kul* (Yurt stay booked with CBT Kochkor)
30/08, Day 04 - Song Kul*
31/08, Day 05 - Bishkek* (Hostel Nomad)
01/09, Day 06 - Bishkek*
02/09, Day 07 - Bishkek. Morning flight to Tashkent* (Jahongir B&B Tashkent)
03/09, Day 08 - Tashkent*
04/09, Day 09 - Tashkent. Afternoon flight to Urgench, taxi to Khiva*. (Mirza Boshi)
05/09, Day 10 - Khiva* - day trip to Elliq Qala
06/09, Day 11 - Khiva*
07/09, Day 12 - Khiva*
08/09, Day 13 - Khiva. Morning shared taxi to Bukhara* (Sarrafon B&B)
09/09, Day 14 - Bukhara*
10/09, Day 15 - Bukhara*
11/09, Day 16 - Bukhara. Travelled to Nurata, followed by Kyzyl Kum Yurt Camp*.
12/09, Day 17 - Left Kyzyl Kum, reached Asraf Village at Nuratau Mountains* by noon. (Yahshigul Home stay)
13/09, Day 18 - Left Nuratau Mountains in the morning, reached Samarkand* by noon. (Jahongir B&B Samarkand)
14/09, Day 19 - Samarkand*
15/09, Day 20 - Left Samarkand in the evening for Tashkent* (Jahongir B&B Tashkent)
16/09, Day 21 - Afternoon flight to Almaty* from Tashkent (201 Lessor Apartment)
17/09, Day 22 - Almaty*
18/09, Day 23 - Night flight from Almaty. On flight*
19/09, Day 24 - Overnight transit in Urumqi* and connecting flight in Guangzhou at night (Golden Beach Hotel)
20/09, Day 25 - Reached Melbourne in the morning. 
Note: * referring to where we overnight


Side note: My ex-boss told me that I'm only allowed to go to Kyrgyzstan when I know how to spell it correctly. LOL.. I do now ;)