Travel Tips

Kazakhstan was formerly part of the Soviet Union. The total area of the Karaganda Oblast (District) is about 430,000 square kilometers. The population of the oblast is 1,392,000 people according to the information for 2000, and the urban population is 83%. There are 11 cities and 39 urban-type communities in the oblast. The key industry is coal-mining. Karaganda coalfield is one of the main power resources of Kazakhstan. In this coalfield coal has been mined since 1930.

Karaganda is a big railway junction. It officially became a city in 1934. The population of Karaganda as of 1999 was 437,000 people. There are the following branches of industry there: mining equipment enterprises, light industry, food industry and building materials industry.

There are 5 Universities including one of the biggest universities in the Republic of Kazakhstan (about 8 thousand students study there) and the branch office of the Academy of Science. Among other places of interest Karaganda has three theaters, the museum of regional art, and the botanical gardens.

Getting to Karaganda from the western world is not easy - the best method is to fly a major airline into Almaty and then take the 20-hour train trip to Karaganda. The total length of time it took me to reach Karaganda from Las Vegas was 3 days - I had to spend the night in Frankfurt, Germany waiting for my connecting flight to Almaty. The reason for not flying into Karaganda directly is the extreme difficulty in arranging reservations on flights internal to Kazakhstan. Also, you will need a visa that can be obtained from the Kazakhstan Embassy in New York or their consulate in San Francisco.

The people are generally very friendly and helpful but languages other than the Kazakh language and Russian are not widely spoken. I strongly recommend you take along a good Russian phrase book or brush up on your Russian.

There is one major non-food shopping district in Karaganda. Prices are very reasonable and most items you will need or want are readily available.

While a few quasi-supermarket stores and smaller shops exist, there is only one major food shopping area in Karaganda - this is very much the middle-eastern bazaar type shopping.

Karaganda is an old city but it is clean and generally in good repair.

Leaving Karaganda is considerably easier than getting there for a westerner. Flights to Almaty can be arranged through one of the many travel agencies in Karaganda. Almaty is an international air travel hub so all connections can easily be made there but be prepared for a very long layover because most international flights depart Almaty in the early morning hours.