Hitchhiking vs. marshrutka in Kazakhstan

[Crazydre]

Wondering about the driving Habits of car Drivers vs. marshrukta Drivers. If I want to go 450 km on a poor road (Beyneu-Aktau in Kazakhstan), what would generally get me to my Destination faster on a Friday afternoon? Hitchhiking or marshrukta?

Also what are the odds of finding a driver willing to take you?

[steven]

Don't want to leave this open, but really don't know.

[thl989]

Realize this is old but just want to revive the topic. I've started to notice that marshrutkas are mostly women and older people. It seems as if hitchhiking is a preferred method of travel for long distances. And why wouldn't it be? No going to the bus station and waiting for the thing to fill up, and hitching has been cheaper for me so far. So far in my experience I have got 3 out of 3 cars to pick me up, literally the first ones down the road. In one case this involved some luck as it was two of us with bicycles and the first vehicle was a lorry. Also all three cases were going back to Almaty. I imagine it is a little trickier leaving the city until you get on a road where everyone is headed the same direction. Two cases did not want payment and a third asked for 2,000 tenge for two people + bikes for 200km, where a marshutka would have been 6,000.

Also I've often seen people asking people they seem not to know where they are going, and getting in their cars. Given that this is common practice in the city I would expect it to be used for longer distances as well.

[steven]

I d have to agree.