Making good out of a flight delay

I spent the morning indoors reinstating the bookings I had cancelled two days ago for my alternate scenario in case I cannot be hosted in Normandy later in the trip.  I had been expecting to pay megabucks for (re)-booking so late but surprisingly, I saved EUR8 in total across 7 nights in three cities.  Not that the savings was worth the effort.

My flight to Aktau, scheduled for 1710 had been delayed till 2000.  I was notified in the middle of the night, 15h ahead of departure time.  SCAT Airlines had been very reliable but their departures page on their app today was a mess.  They’ve probably had some tech problems with an aircraft or two.

This gave me a chance to go to the National Museum after my midday check-out, as I had a failed visit yesterday due to their monthly “Sanitary Day”.

Although I’m not a museum person, it was big and interesting enough to keep me inside for two hours.  The dinosaur skeletons were awesome and I enjoyed learning about the range of Turkic people and the Turkic world.

There were some warrior costumes on display including that of the Golden Man.  With very little information as to what the Golden Man was, I googled it later and it refers to the remains of a Saka warrior dressed in golden cataphract robes.  It was found in 1969 near Astana.

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I had a salad and samsa for lunch opposite the hotel before getting to the airport about 3h30 prior to departure.  At the airport, I noticed that the later flight to Aktau had been cancelled (amongst others) and I thanked my lucky stars that I only had well-notified delay.

We left a little bit later than 2000 and with a long taxi time, we landed in Aktau around 2300.  Amidst some rain, the 3 min walk to the Aktau Airport Hotel seem quite far.

I was glad to have booked to overnight at this location following this delay.  And I’ll once again appreciate it on the day after when I have an early morning flight to catch.