Internet at the Hotel Skif

My...desk

Prior to leaving for Kazakhstan I asked a number of times whether or not the Hotel Skif (or Skify as they call it here) had Internet access. I was finally told that they did in fact have Internet service in the hotel. Imagine my surprise when I got here and was told it was dial-up and handed a telephone number (I use a Macbook Pro…no modem). Contemplating trying to communicate with work crammed into an hour a day down at an Internet cafe for three plus weeks definitely caused my blood pressure to rise.

After a quick recheck with the front desk our translator learned that they had in fact put in wireless just a day before our arrival. So I can confidently say that the Hotel Skif now has wireless. Unfortunately wireless here means a DSL router and wireless access point down at the front desk. All the decent rooms are on the second floor so the only way you get wireless up here is to either sit in the hall or in my case shove myself as close to the inner wall of the room as I can – and then can I only just get a signal. High speed it ain’t.

The connection also tends to drop occasionally (2-3 times per day) but we’ve now managed to teach the front desk how to reboot the DSL modem. I had to endure numerous deadly stares from the staff and the security guard when I calmly reached over the desk to reset it after being ignored or dismissed while trying to explain that their DSL connection was down. They even complained about me to our translator (few of the staff here speak English).

I did learn yesterday that the manager is thinking of adding another antenna – hopefully on the second floor as it would be nice to be able to sit on the couch and stay connected. So we are keeping our fingers crossed that it actually happens. Always on Internet no matter where you are has definitely not come to northern Kazakhstan. I’m going to appreciate those access points on every floor in the hotels I stay at back in the US that much more after this (not to mention my cell modem!).