Kazakhstan: Semey to Ust'-Kamenogorsk

[kuki]

hello fellow travelers!

i am excitedly planning a short trip around kazakhstan and after finally settling on an itinerary yesterday ("nur-sultan" - karaganda - semey - ust-kamenogorsk - almaty) and finding couchsurfing hosts almost everywhere i started booking train tickets. and. there are no trains between semey and ust-kamenogorsk? i can't find any busses on my dates either (ideally i'd leave in the afternoon/evening of september 10th, early 11th would be ok, too). panic-stricken, i decided to sign up for this forum, since caravanistan has been very helpful for my planning so far and i thought maybe you guys can help.

how do i get from semey to ust-kamenogorsk (and not cross any russian borders)? also; while in ust-kamenogorsk, i'd like to make a day trip to ridder (or generally just go see nature). what's the best way to get there? i can't drive, so renting a car is out of the question, unfortunately.

thank you so much, i appreciate any input you might be able to give me!

[itfcfan]

Congratulations on finding a way into Kazakhstan this year!

Trains do run between Semey and Oskemen, but due to some quirks of the railway system you need to be very specific of what you search for to find them! Oskemen has two railway stations - each on different lines. The station on the line towards Semey is officially called Oskemen-1 (Оскемен-1 in cyrillic) but it *used* to be called Zashchita and depending on the website, the booking system might want you to use this name.

A daily train (067*Ц) runs on this route:
https://www.tutu.travel/poezda/rasp_d.p ... t2=2700730

I recommend using tickets.kz (https://tickets.kz/en/gd) to book the ticket. On this website, you'll want to enter the following station names:
Semipalatinsk
Zashchita

Good luck!

John

[kuki]

Thank you! That name change thing explains a lot.