Almaty, Kazakhstan
December 10-13, 2012
First rule – do not accept a one or two hour layover in Frankfurt, if that’s the way you come in. Especially in the winter, when the weather is quite dicey. Three people in my group had their luggage delayed and had to wear grungy airplane clothes to the first day of meetings until their bags arrived – including me. Apparently this is quite common, since they had been warned to bring a change of clothes in carry on when coming through FFT – I find this a bit shocking, because the Germans are supposed to be known for efficiency, but FFT is complete opposite of that.
We arrived in a snowstorm on the 9th and were delayed getting into the gate. By the time we arrived in the terminal, our LH connection was to have already left, but we could see form the board it was delayed and since everything else was a mess, we figured we would make a run for it. And it paid off, running all the way from Z terminal to C terminal (a long trek, including security) and arriving just as the bus was closing its doors for the final trip to the plane. The attendants congratulated us for being lucky to have made the flight, and when we boarded, the attendant told us that by the way, we would be waiting for a while due to the weather hold. And wait we did. For 4 hours. LH treated us well though. Nice little snacks, and drinks, and I for one just felt grateful that at some point that plane was going to K’stan, and we would not lose a day of meetings by having to take the next day flight (which is what LH staff told us we had to do off the UA flight).
So we arrived Almaty at something like 5AM prior to our first meeting at 930 AM. We were amazed that we landed at all, because it was obvious that the city was SOCKED IN – in a way I don’t think I have ever seen. There was nothing but fog until we were almost on the ground and the landing runway lights appeared out of the gloom. No bags. Waited around, filled out the papers, and went to the hotel. When we drove in, we could not see a thing around us, the “fog/smog” (known as the skyfall by our client) was completely thick. Daylight arrived quite late (around 8) and did little to help. This is apparently quite common in Almaty, which is bounded on three sides by mountains and subject to “inversions” under certain weather conditions, esp in the winter. We barely saw the mountains during our week there. When you see them though, they are very impressive.
Airport – not bad, really. Smallish but reasonably normal, not nasty greasy smelly dark or anything. But crowded. Only about 3 immigration booths. There is a diplomatic line. There is one small form to fill out – very simple. Baggage claim is also small – I noticed not more than 3, maybe 2 belts. Took a long time for all of the luggage to offload, but that’s not unusual. There was a normal lost baggage window, and the person sitting tttheeere was the normal bored, moderate capability and nominal friendliness. You do have to scan your bags going out. There is a customs form, but it’s only for cash that you need to declare. If you are going through the green line, no need to do the form. No one checks luggage tags, at least not when we arrived.
Drive from airport to the InterContinental hotel was about 20-30 minutes. Since it’s holiday season, the whole way was lined with bright blinking light displays of every possible color and design. Trees covered in lights, cascading lines of lights running down the fronts of buildings, animal displays (a snake coming out of at large pot!), A mermaid or Neptune, rising out of a waterfall, and small pools of blue “water” lights in the median of the highway. Once we hit town the lights quadrupled, and everywhere you look, festive displays. Really cool. It looked even better on the way out, when there was fresh snow on the ground and the trees. The pine trees are that wonderful European style, with the heavy downward sloping boughs and kind of narrow, sloping graceful shape. The snow clumps perfectly picturesquely on those boughs!
The hotel – I rate it very highly. The front desk staff was very accommodating, helping us to find out what was happening with luggage, making calls to the airport on two occasions – The lobby is atrium style, and at this time it was very beautiful, as they lit a huge red gold and white lighted Christmas tree in the middle of the lobby lounge. Wonderful gingerbread house displays in the dining room. The mezzanine level bar is very attractive, with music sometimes. Warning!! Drinks, even beers, are very very expensive. About $10 each – at least. But the waitress was quite generous with the snacks, replenishing them every time they ran out – probably at least three times.
I didn’t try the gym, spa, pool but had good report from my colleague. Nor did I try the business center, so sorry I can’t comment on that.
The room was fully furnished – iron and board, nice coffee service that was restocked daily without fail. Two free bottles of water, every day. Full supply of toiletries, which I badly needed under my circumstances, including razor, tooth cleaning, and the other usual items. The bathroom is nicely appointed, not huge, but perfectly fine. The tub was odd, in that you had to really lift your leg and step up and over to get into it. A less agile person would have trouble I think. The shower doors open from the middle out, and that was fine, because it prevented spray out, but kind of narrow and awkward esp when you are trying to start the water without getting sprayed.
Towel supply – A+ fluffy, two washfloths and hand towels and 4 big towels. Very good size, hand towels worked for my hair perfectly. Nice large comfortable bathrobe.
Hairdryer = good
Toiletries – very nice, upscale quality – A
Water pressure – excellent, and temperature, also excellent.
Closet – really nice, A+ due to the wooden hangers with extra wide arms to support clothing. Large full length mirror, and a set of drawers as well. Umbrella provided.
Safe – great! Large enough for laptop (with charging outlet also) and plenty of electronics or whatever.
Bed – large king, very comfortable mattress and large selection of pillows, including a couple of special pillows in the closet, which I used.
Room temperature – it was too warm for my taste much of the time (but that was true all over Almaty) and I tried to adjust the temp down, but it would not go below 21.5 no matter what I did.
Lighting – there were plenty of lights all over the room and I never felt that I did not have enough light anywhere.
Furniture – nice large desk, comfortable chair, and a couch with large coffee table. A bureau with the TV on top with more drawers in addition to the ones in the closet.
Room size – not huge, but very comfortable. In my opinion, the perfect size for a standard hotel room, because it was cozy but I could get around it without bumping into things.
TV – channel selection seemed to be good. Probably more than the usual selection of U.S> style channels.
Internet – wireless was free for 512 speed and there is broadband also. Was fast and easy to access.
Room service – I did not try in this case. Cannot rate.
Laundry – picked up fast and delivered on time.
Restaurants – the breakfast buffet was very very nice. I would rate it A+ for a business hotel. The omelet was perfectly cooked. Lots of ethnic options, such as Japanese and Korean. The bread and roll selection was amazing. Fruit was very fresh and appealing, bacon was nice and hot and crispy. My only objection was the scrambled eggs, which were the floating in water version that I personally find kind of gross. Coffee was very good, nice and hot. Service attentive. I had colleagues who went to the Bosphorus restaurant, and they said it was very good.
As I said, the overall service level of this hotel was excellent. Everything happened timely and efficiently and the staff were friendly.
Departure – airport
You have to go through the customs door to get to the check in area, which is a little strange. Once in, it’s straightforward check in process, and the immigration counters are fairly efficient. This was at 230 am, so maybe when it’s really busy it’s different. After immigration is security, and after security (three lines at most) there is a single person at a desk who is checking passports and tickets for something, not sure what. She enters them into a ledger and stamps them. But, I can easily imagine that when the place is busy, there is a huge backup at that desk!! On the other side is a large room that kind of feels like a bus station, with just a couple of gates. There are no souvenir shops and only one small café kind of thing where you can get drinks or snack. One duty free shop. If you want souvenirs, you have to get them before you pass through the “customs area” door.The “business” lounge, where I am sitting now, is just a large room off to the side, with no particular controls on access, threadbare chairs and couches, and another kiosk café thing where you can buy refreshments at exorbitant prices ($16 for a beer and small Pringles).
Airport timing – my colleagues who make this flight often (445 am to Frankfurt) say that you can easily get here an hour before flight time because the airport is so small and in the early morning the traffic and crowds are small. I would say that this appears to be generally true, but on certain days of the week or times of year it may not be so. This time I erred on the side of caution and arrived the usual 2 hours before.
So, not an appealing airport particularly, but actually not one of the worst either. I would actually compare it favorably to Nairobi, which is packed, hot, stuffed with people and not easy to find your way around. There’s more going on, but it’s more stressful too.
Almat generally – I wish I could have had more time to look around and experience the city. We spent the whole time climbing in and out of cars.