Journey to Kazakhstan

It was quite interesting travelling abroad for the 2nd time.

The 1st time was a paid picnic (from my dad's pocket), this one should be easy on the pockets as it was company paid.

I somehow felt my way through baggage check in, check in and immigration (the person looked at my 2001 photo atleast 5 times..wonder wat he was thinking) and finally security check. The wait in the lounge was quite boring, I managed to while it away calling parents & well wishers..not to forget looking around at people.

I now know why Emirates is called the best airways in the world, the ambience and the service was out of the world..not to mention the inflight entertainment. I spent the entire journey watching MI-III. The only irritating factor was all announcements were made in 3 languages(Eng, Urdu, Hindi) which sort of dragged things and interrupted my movie viewing.

The Dubai airport was a sight to behold, (I had only seen Changi before this) so that was the only comparison. At check in, I was told I had excess baggage (Dubai - Kazak) and was told to pay a fine of 50 USD. It was suprising considering I was not charged from Mumbai - Dubai. The ticketing person directed me to a counter where I was to pay the fine. I stood there for 45 mins watching the counter person indulge in all sorts of activities other than attend to the queue.

Due to my excellent knowledge of time zones (I mistook the 12 o' clock written in the ticket to be 12 o' clock Dubai time), it turned out to be 12 'o clock IST. I suddenly heard the call for boarding the flight to Almaty, Kazakhstan via Air Astana (Astana is the capital of Kazakhstan). I bolted from the queue, rushed to the check-in counter who asked me to proceed to the gate directly. The Air Astana people were very helpful, they re-opened ticketing, traced my luggage, put it in the flight (I would have frozen without the clothes in the luggage).Ultimately I never paid the excess baggage fine :)

Anna, the air hostess abroad Air Asthana, was breathtaking, somehow reminded me of a cat without whiskers. In that memory, I fell asleep and woke up only for landing.

The cold really hits you on the face once a person steps of the plane, despite it being a closed ramp. There was a baggage delay for an hour at the airport.but it came eventually, there was a taxi waiting for me with a placard...I saw cars covered in snow. First glimpse of snow in 26yrs

I came home (guest house) and crashed, woke up at around 11am (half an hour ahead of IST), went to office, got work assigned and read through documents. In the evening, we went looking around, walked lots, ended up getting our bones frozen despite wearing 3 layers of warm clothing, ate in a restaurant named Govinda's (wud u believe it), its run by ISKCON, had Dal, Poori and Chaval, took a taxi, came home , had a round of vodka and crashed.

Eventful journey...

For Info :

1) Almaty, Kazakhstan is exactly 30 mins ahead of IST.
2) Refer Kazakhstan @ Wiki