Saturday, February 24, 2007

Air Travel and Packing

Air Travel
Getting to and from Kazakhstan
The Lufthansa/United flight from Chicago – Frankfurt and subsequent Frankfurt – Almaty were uneventful, no problems. Seating in coach is “tight”; anyone who has done any flying knows that seats in coach for a long flight are no picnic. In Frankfurt, had gate related changes but no need to change terminals to get next flight. Signage was good in Frankfurt airport (plenty in English). Reminded me of Heathrow, in that in some places you end up walking through and by a lot of shops to get to your gate. There were places to grab a bite to eat (generally Euros needed, there are exchange places to do that.) Our luggage was checked through to Almaty so we hope it gets there when we do (it did). Blackberry has GSM access but the network doesn’t seem to handle text/data so no email back home.

The Lufthansa flight had no forms on board for us; stewardess said we’d need a landing card (this we would keep with our passport) as well as a Declaration form. Nick stayed with all our carry-on stuff while I ventured over to find the forms we needed. The temptation when I’m tired and in a crowd of people is to ‘rush’ as there were lines to get in once forms were completed … there were a number of people crammed around the forms area, they were all in Russian.. bottom line and note to self is just be patient. And have something to write with handy.

The landing form not a problem – just some basic info. Took a while to get through passport control, we were exhausted and messed up with the time change, so pretty disoriented. After we got our checked luggage, we started looking for the declaration form. In hind sight I would have done this differently, probably should have just headed out the door where we saw our Almaty coordinator waiting for us instead of clearly being out of sorts looking for a form… the airport was dead, so me wandering around… well I stuck out like a sore thumb. No way were we going to claim all the $$ we had on us. Part of our concern was that we were carrying (we thought) more cash than we were allowed to bring in – we were hoping to adopt two children AND bringing cash to get us through ~ 7 or 8 weeks). Ended up getting ‘help’ from one of the agents there, and it ended up costing us. When we admitted that we had not declared what we had in our pants pockets (a couple hundred bucks), well they brought my husband inside a room to discuss it, and well we ended up paying to resolve it. Recommendation would be to read up on what the current limits are, what to expect, from travel experts. Some of these things change over time. I have read of quite a few folks that never had any problems, so I don’t think our experience was the norm.

Getting to and from Zhezkazgan

Flight to Zhezkazgan via ZhezAir… the Almaty airport is not large. Our Almaty coordinator was not able to go in with us, so after walking with us to the first ‘queue’ we were on our own. He told us someone would meet us at the Zhez airport, perhaps our Karaganda Region Coordinator or her assistant. We’re not sure. (Not exactly the response we were looking for, since it didn’t give us that warm fuzzy feeling, but we were here, so we kept rollin’.) We did allow ourselves plenty of time, so at least we could take our time trying to figure it out. Checked two bags and had the two back packs as carry-ons. We had kept a pretty close eye on our luggage weight – carried a small luggage scale that had found on Magellans site – and though we were a bit over they didn’t charge us anything. Once we were in the waiting area, well we were a bit confused; we didn’t know the ‘routine’ here, and we were temporarily panicked when it looked like the signs were not in English – but if you are patient they do ‘flip’ to English now and then. Electronic signs ‘switch’ between English, Russian and probably Kazakh. That said, we came close to missing our flight – so recommend that you know for sure when your flight departs, watch the gates, etc. Took a bus to the plane (on the tarmac) only to see all the checked luggage at the base of the plane’s stairs ready for us to carry it up into the plane and stow it ‘anywhere’. The crew did not help; seemed like the system could use some help on that one, not very efficient. No real assigned seats either, fortunately we were able to sit together.

Certainly smaller plane, looks like it could handle 30-40 passengers if it didn’t need room for all the luggage. There are about 12 of us on the plane (plus pilots and stewardess). We seem to be the only Americans, certainly the only English speakers, on the flight. The stewardess does not understand or speak any English, none of the announcements are in English. They didn’t weigh our carry-ons. Our checked baggage weighed in @ 54 kg and 27 kg (max is 40kg for the two of us for ZhezAir). Our Almaty coordinator had told us to expect to pay for overage; I guess either we were ‘close enough’ or due to limited number of passengers on the flight they didn’t charge us [nb: they made up for it on the way back!]

The flight itself was warm and "cozy", but I don't think it was more than a couple hours. When we arrived in Zhezkazgan our Translator was there to meet us, with a taxi waiting to take us to the Samsung.

Leaving Zhezkazgan and getting to Almaty…. Flight out on Zhez Air. Getting through airport security and check-in, etc was a bit of an ordeal, but with our Translator there it worked out ok. We bought a ticket for our son (there was a new regulation as of May 1 that >2 y.o. we had to purchase a ticket – it was half price, came with a seat) Our baggage at this point consisted of 2 large suitcases, 2 backpacks, 1 soft bag with kids entertainment, my purse and 2 umbrella strollers. They weighed “all” our luggage, including the strollers, so we were 25 kg overweight (never saw things like strollers weighed anywhere else) so it cost us ~ 6000 tenge (est $60-65) which our translator had to take the cash back to the ticket window. Not sure what we would have done without her here, really, because it seemed like a lot of back and forth to this window and that. Once through security we had paid for someone to take some of our bags (500 KZT each) Once checked in, there was a room for everyone to wait; it was a good size, comfortable enough. Then when ready we took the bus/shuttle out onto the tarmack where the plane was waiting. [My husband said the plane on this leg was a pretty new one]. Getting on the plane is akward, given the stairs are narrow, tight aisles and of course the aireline staff are trying to go back and forth at the same time. Even though we paid for help w/ the luggage all that did was get it to the shuttle/cart; once we were at the plane you’re responsible for getting your own stuff into the plane. (The system needs work.) With the two kids, this was an ‘experience’.

The flight itself was cramped, but it is not more than a two hour flight. Getting off in Almaty and unloading was when it really got to be a pain. Passengers again unload all their own stuff, everyone ends up in the shuttle, so one has to wait until everyone is off the plane. So why people are shoving their way through to be first off the plane is beyond us. Handling the two kids (I did that, w/ a backpack & bag) and getting the luggage off (My husband got stuck with that…) . Again, passengers load and unload their own baggage – and carrying stuff up and down the narrow, steep stairs (and in the aisle of the plane) was a real challenge. None of the ZhezAir staff help, it’s a pretty stupid way to do it. And of course we were frustrated since Nick had to do most of the ‘porting’ while I kept the kids. So everyone gets off the plane, gets/carries luggage, gets onto another shuttle. My husband helped some women with their luggage, then was able to get ours off the plane. A couple other male passengers helped my husband with our bags too, which was very nice.

Packing, and Things we’re glad we took with us (or wish we had)
We brought 2 large suitcases to check and 2 backpacks for our carry-ons. We were pretty conscious of the fact that different airlines throughout this trip will have different weight limitations and carry-on limits, so we did pick up and bring a small “scale hook” (from Magellans) to try and disperse stuff. The packing was a tough process; had been gathering things for weeks that we wanted to bring – things for the kids (hopefully two!), things to pass the time, a few ‘comfort’ items – but in the end much of it did not make it. We really did try to travel light, planned to wear the same few outfits over and over, etc

- laptop (w/ dvd player)
- dvds
- ipod/itunes
- money belts
- books (we didn’t bring enough, actually, for 9 weeks)
- immersion heater (e.g. ordered online from Magellans; also would have liked a regular ‘coffee mug’, as their cups tend to be the smaller/traditional size. did eventually find some in a shop in Zhez)
- small cutting board (plastic, even those sheets would work) and paring knife
- drain cover (flat, round rubber thing; most sinks did not have stoppers/plugs) – take one or two of these, they take next to no space, and you will need one
- wash cloth (towels available, but never saw a wash cloth other than what we brought)
- blue light weight nylon bag; used it to carry stuff everywhere; actually would have liked to have a couple of ‘em for carrying stuff to and from orphanage, internet café, grocery (they do have very light plastic bags at the grocery, but they charge a bit for the heavier plastic bags)
- “Rubbermaid” containers, ziplocks (believe it or not did not see much of anything in the line of plastic ware)
- Travel alarm clock
- Notebook w/ 3 month calendar, key names/numbers, conversion charts for USD to KZT, temperatures, measures; a few pens & pencils,
- suduko puzzles (surprised, but we both got into it!)
- calculator
- travel toilet paper and antibacterial wipes

- dental floss would have been good to have
- a roll or two of TP, if you have space; the TP is different, certainly useful, but a bit like crepe paper
- kids toys
- ample supply of contact solution
- meds for cold, flu, Imodium ad (and RXs)
- obviously a camera – with extra batteries and memory card; we took both a digital and regular old-fashioned 35 mm. This came in handy for the pictures we needed to get developed for court and for the US Embassy. We just dropped off a roll of film now and then and got it back the next day. There were, I’m sure, facilities to handle digital development, we just thought this was easier.