18:53
Luxury Travel Discounts
Feb 2008 saw myself and a colleague stopping off in Moscow for a few days on our way down to Kazakhstan. We had selected a routing using BMI and Transaero, because they are affiliated and the points scheme is applicable to both airlines. That meant that we could earn points for our entire trip and use them in future for BMI or Transaero.
Anyway I digress, the aircraft seating was arranged in a 3/3 formation, i.e. 3 seats either side of the aisle, so we thought we would be clever and sit in the aisle seat and the middle seat, figuring that it was unlikely that anyone would elect to sit in the window seat next to 2 strangers. A bit cheeky I know but worth a go! My colleague got the aisle seat due to his unfeasibly long legs and I got the middle seat. Unfortunately for me a rather surly Russian guy came and sat in the window seat so I was pretty much hemmed in! What is worse, after take off, this guy produces a paper bag from his hand luggage and starts swigging sherry (sherry of all things) from a bottle hidden in the paper bag! During the four hours of the flight as the sherry took hold he became ever more friendly and started chatting to me. I did my best to carry on reading my book but there was no stopping this guy, so eventually I ended up having a semi coherent conversation with him.
We arrived at Domodedova airport in the early evening and once we were out of the main area of the terminal and through customs we found our way to the train station which is quite a walk from international arrivals but well sign posted. We were looking around trying to find where to buy tickets and figure out how much they cost and which train we should get on and who should appear but my new friend from the plane. He immediately jumped to our assistance and helped us buy tickets and board the correct train.
These trains are a sight to be seen too. They look about 100 years old and are enormous old things with torn lino on the floors, cheap vinyl seating and grubby net curtains at the windows. I really felt like I was in the USSR as all my 1980's childhood pre-conceptions seemed to be coming to life!
It's about an hour into the centre of Moscow by train and we ended up wandering around the very large station at the other end wondering where we might find a taxi or metro and if we did find a metro how on earth we might get off at the right stop. Remember all the signs were in Russian and Cyrillic so being silly tourists who didn't speak Russian it was a bit tricky. Anyway our friend stepped in again and rescued us by taking us to the taxi rank and pre-agreeing a price with the driver. It is VERY important to pre-agree the price for taxis in Moscow as we found out later on that same trip. I wont give the details but suffice to say - pre-agree the price!
We had spent quite a bit of time looking for hotels and I was astonished than the main hotels charge upwards of £200-300 per night. However if you look around you can find "Tourist class" hotels for around the £100 mark. We had booked into one of these hotels and I was expecting it to be a bit rough. Luckily it turned out to be surprisingly comfortable, if a bit basic. For a few nights it did the trick. The most important thing for us was that it was right in the middle of the city. Moscow is a very big place and to have to get around by taxi or metro would be a bit daunting, however walking has its disadvantages too.
In the morning I looked out of the window to see that about 2 feet of snow had fallen overnight! Not to be deterred by "a bit of snow" though we headed on out roughly in the direction of Red Square and The Kremlin (yep we were in tourist mode!) The temperature was around -15c and you really do need good warm clothing and boots for this type of weather.
I am really pleased that we visited during the winter as it just seemed to add to the authenticity of Moscow as it was supposed to be in my minds eye, but next time I will definitely go in the Summer!
All in all, Moscow was an experience and not one that I would have a problem repeating. The people were friendly, the city was exciting with many things to see and do, but it was a bit pricey.
You need a visa and a letter of invitation to get into Russia, this company can arrange these for you and has some good low cost hotels listed. Russian Visas and Travel
While in Abu Dhabi we were working on a software implementation at a power station located about 250 Kms from the city, basically a drive straight into the desert for 2 1/2 hours! I love the UAE and enjioy staying in Abu Dhabi itself for the sheer opulence that you find yourself surrounded with, so I was a little miffed about having to stay out in the dessert in an area where the only hotel is a little run down and rough around the edges. On arrival however I was pleasantly surprised to discover that we had actually been booked into a new hotel in the area... the Danat Resort Jebel Dhanna.
