Travel Destination	Kazakhstan	Place	Petropavlovsk
The  Region	Kazakhstan	Hotels Name	“Silver Pine Forest“

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Title

 Hotel

3-Star villa with plot of land

 

Villa with property, it has 20 rooms all together. Except the main building there are still a few inns for families and pairs. The main building is built in the “Swiss style”. It looks like chalet. Everything is really clean. One gets breakfast, lunch and dinner. Most of guests are Europeans, but there are  also Americans and Canadians. All arrangements are good for disable persons and families with children. For animals there are special rooms and darrangements.

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Placement

Villa is situated in the ecologically clean area not far from the city.  It’s got all kinds of winter sport arrangements and summer sport arrangements.  There is  bus connection. You  also can take  taxi or use  advantages of the  VIP tour which includes  transportation to and from the city.  There are 5 acres of land belonging to the villa “Silver Pine Forest”, where you could place your car, camping and so on. 

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Service

 

You will find here  kindness, helpfulness, competence and foreign languages knowledge.  Room cleaning, check-in, contact in case of  troubles, additional service, that everything is there for our customers on the first request.

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Gastronomy

Quality and quantity of the foods & drinks is there for your please as much as you can afford .  Neatness and hygiene in the restaurant, at the Buffet and at the table is in order.  Kitchens style ( local, Italian, German,.. /), atmosphere ware very friendlily.  Tips are permitted, prices are very deep.

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Sports, productive leisure and pool

Ski and Snowboard distribution, fitness, table tennis, wellness, disco, internet access, Boutiques, hall bath, child care are available.

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Rooms

Size, neatness, age, condition, furnishing, TV, balcony, terrace, minus bar, coffee machine, safe, telephone of best qualities.  There are TV-programs in all European languages, beds, bathroom (shower, bathtub, hair dryer, bathrobes, mirror, neatness).  There is no noise annoyance or smell annoyance.  Change of bed linen and towels, additional bed, power supply are regular.  Each room is equipped after the wish of the guest.

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 Advice,  impression and recommendations

Alternative hotels are only in the city center.  Mobile phone-attainability, telephone costs, general price achievement ratio will surprise you.  The Best trip time is   since the end of April till the end of March (10 months a year).  Seasonal weather ratios are following: There is a lot of snow in the winter and temperatures can be up to 20 degrees below zero.  Useful references:  Avoid taking large sums of money in cash with, pay with Visa Card, MasterCard, American Express, Maestro, Diners or Visa Electron.  Medical supply for a trip would be good to take with on your travel. Although there are also medical services available for additional payment. Kazakhstan is great place for those who like to make shopping.  

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By plane

Air Kazakhstan stopped flying at the end of March 2004. The most important carrier is now Air Astana which flies to Almaty, Astana, Aktau, Aktobe, Atyrau, Uralsk, Dubai, Moscow, Delhi, Beijing, Istanbul, Bangkok, Hannover, London, Amsterdam, Frankfurt and Seoul.

Lufthansa has also seven days flights to Almaty, the best city in Kazakhstan, from where you can go anywhere via local carrier SKAT, which flies to most cities in Kazakhstan. British Airways and KLM now fly several times a week to Heathrow/Schiphol. Turkish airlines is good passenger carrier, with flights to Istanbul (ask a travel agent about the student fares, which can be a great deal). There are twice a week flights from Seoul to Almaty, one is Asiana Air Line and the other is Astana.

By train

Popular routes include Almaty to/from Moscow (77 hours), Novosibirsk (35 hours) and Ürümqi, China. You can get Petropavlovsk to/from Moscow (48 hours), Novosibirsk (12 hours), Omsk(4 hours), Astana(9 hours).

The trains are a great way to meet people. A lot has been written about the pitfalls of being included in a vodka drinking party on a train, but for the most part fellow travellers are friendly, and keen to find out about you ("why aren't you married?" and if you are "why don't you have children?" and if you do "why don't they have children?"!). Most travellers take food for the journey as restaurant car provision is sporadic (and they expect you to share yours too!). If you don't have enough to last the distance, the trains generally stop for 15-20 mins at each station and there are always people on the platform selling food and drink, at any time of day or night.

Get around

Public transportation in big cities is rather popular. You can use buses, trolleys, trams and minibuses. One big minus of all of them is that they never come on schedule and very crowded on peak time. I would suggest you to use taxis as they are very cheap (1-4 euros within city). You don't have to use official taxis, basically you can stop almost any car on the street by raising your hand. Official taxis cost 3-5 times more.

You can travel within country using taxis, buses, trains and planes, it depends on your pocket and demands. Renting a car is rather costly comparing to other means of transport.

In Petropavlovsk (Petropapvl) a large bus cost 30 tenge, common taxi fare was 200 tenge (at the time, April of 2007, USD1 was approximatly 120-130 tenge).

A note of warning, getting to the Almaty airport can be expensive, I had the relatives of Kazakh guide to help, but they said a Taxi to the Airport costs USD50.

Taxis to the airport vary greatly in price. Any foreigner will be quoted a fantastic rate but usually cabs will come down once they see they aren't going to be able to get that much. USD50 is outlandish. It should be less than USD10, although it can NEVER be guaranteed that a foreigner will get that price. A better option are the minibuses and buses that go to the airport. The word "airport" is very similar in Russian and English.

In general any taxi will quote a foreigner a fantastic rate. If you ever take the first price, you're getting overcharged.

A common way to get around is by unofficial taxis. Any time of day, just wave your hand and someone will stop. Locals do this all the time. Negotiate the price and destination before you agree to go. About $2-$4 is fair for a ride within the center of Almaty. To be safe though, do not get in a car if more than one person is driving. Also, do not take these kind of taxis for long distances or anywhere that goes through remote areas, as there are frequent robberies- especially of foreigners.

A fun and cheap way to get around is by taking a marshrutka. These are the dilapidated vans that cruise around town. They usually have a sign (in Russian) listing the destination, and the driver will usually call out where they are going.

Talk

The Kazakh language is very difficult to understand and to pronounce, though it is notably easier than some other regional languages like Kyrgyz. Actually, travellers proficient in Turkish might be able to get by.

If you speak and/or understand the Russian language, then you should be fine. But still Russian is considered to be tougher to learn (grammatically speaking). At the very least, become familiar with the Cyrillic alphabet (it's easy) and learn a few phrases.

Note that despite the president's campaign to stamp out the Russian language, Almaty and much of the north are still predominantly Russian speaking.

Many people under age 20 will know some English. Most customs officials and airport people know English.

It is difficult to get around the country without some Russian or Kazakh language skills. Within the city it is easier. Have your place of residence written on a card and get a cab if you get lost (you might be somewhat overcharged by the cab, but it is better than being lost). Eat

Meat, potatoes, rice and pasta. And lots of it. If you're vegetarian be wary, because if it doesn't have meat in it, it was almost certainly cooked on meat stock.

Some recommend dishes:

• Laghman - a thick noodle dish, usually served as a soup
• Manty - large steamed dumplings full of meat and onions
• Plov - wonderful dish of fried rice, meat, carrots, and sometimes other bits such as raisins or tomatoes
• Beshbarmak - wide, flat noodles, with boiled horseflesh on top - the traditional meal of Kazakhs
• Shashlyk - skewered, roasted chunks of meat, served with some sort of flatbread (usually lavash) and onions

If you're a vegetarian, you're probably thinking there's nothing for you in Kazakstan. And you're right - so long as you eat out. But if you're cooking your own food, you'll be more than satisfied. Kazakstan has some excellent produce available at little markets everywhere. For a treat in Almaty, try Govinda's, a delicious vegetarian Hare Krishna restaurant. Malls have food courts with some vegetarian options too. Even some small Kazakh eateries will prepare vegetarian meals for you if you make it very clear to them (e.g. "byez myasa" (without meat), "ya vegeterianetz" (I [male] am a vegetarian), "ya vegetarianka" (I [female] am a vegetarian) in Russian). At some places (e.g. smak) you can even find vegetarian manty made with pumpkin.

On the other hand, in Kazakhstan you can find any dishes you want, but Chinese and Japanese dishes are very expensive. The most delicious is caviar, which is very cheap, you can buy 1 kilo of caviar for less than USD300 in Almaty Zyeloniy Bazaar, but you can't export or take it with you home, you will be stopped at airport and pay high fines...

Drink

You can find any sort of drink you want, some of the traditional beverages include:

• Kumiss - fermented mare's milk.
• Kumyran (Shubat)- fermented camel's milk
• Kvas - described as similar to root beer it can be bought in a bottle in a store, or by the cup from people with giant yellowish tanks of it on the street

Cheap alcoholic drinks can be found at every little corner shop (called the astanovka). These places are open 24/7, just knock on their door if the shopkeeper is asleep. Kazakhstan's specialty is cognac, though stores still sell vodka cheaper than bottled water at times.

Sleep

There are numerous hotels, from very cheap ones (10 euro per night) to the luxurious ones. You wouldn't find the cheapest ones on the web, the only way to book them is to call directly, but in that case you'll have to speak Russian at the least.

Work

Not impossible to find. English teaching schools are sprouting up all over. The English department at KIMEP might be a good place to start, depending on credentials and experience of course.

Stay safe

The general rules of safety in Kazakhstan are the same as in any other civilized country of the world. Besides the normal risk of pick-pockets etc, the main risk is meeting a group of corrupt police. Try to avoid being taken to the police station. But in general this is a very friendly country where foreigners are respected as the hospitality is one of the Kazakh main traditions.

Fire brigade: dial 01 (land line phones), dial 101 from any mobile

Police: dial 02 (land line phones), dial 102 from any mobile

Ambulance: dial 03 (land line phones), dial 103 from any mobile

Or just dial 112 from any mobile for Ambulance, Police, Fire

The Siberian river Ishim, during a high water time 

Fire place in the 'Silver Pine Forest" villa

01.01.2007 New year

07.01.2007 Orthodox Christmas

10.01.2007 Holiday of sacrifice

16.03.2007 Day of republican guards

22.03.2007 Nauryz meyramy

01.05.2007 Day of unity of people 

07.05.2007 Fatherland defenders day

06.07.2007 Birthday of the President

13.07.2007 Day of Committee of national security

30.08.2007 The constitution day

22.09.2007 Day of languages of people

01.10.2007 The international day of elderly people

01.10.2007 Kazakhstan Teachers Day