In soviet Russia, report trips you

[Fantic125]

What is/was the axe for? .... Dangerous combination... vodka & axe :evil:

The axe is for taking the top off the bottles...

 

[Solid]

Love those $4 bottles of vodka! :mrgreen:

I got 2 bottles of vodka & a free axe for $12 while I was there.... WINNING!!! :mrgreen:

Doesnt that mean your axe was $4 rather than free?

 

[Wezza]

What is/was the axe for? .... Dangerous combination... vodka & axe :evil:

It was Drova vodka, drova in Russian is firewood. It's for chopping your firewood.

Doesnt that mean your axe was $4 rather than free?

The $4 vodka was different vodka. This is what I got in my little package deal:

Apologies to the OP, I don't mean to hijack the thread.

 

[Solid]

Nice. I also like its ecological. Nothing like chopping down trees for firewood for being ecological.

Are those beers on the left or something else?

 

[jetlagger]

Thanks for the explanation... I like the picture too... I'm still not sure & convinced about the axe as an appropriate gift tho..

 

[Wezza]

Nice. I also like its ecological. Nothing like chopping down trees for firewood for being ecological.

Are those beers on the left or something else?

Yeah they're beers, Staryi Melnik.

Thanks for the explanation... I like the picture too... I'm still not sure & convinced about the axe as an appropriate gift tho..

I thought the same. That's why I took a photo, not many people would believe me otherwise!! Only in Russia.

 

[Demented Freak]

Everybody knows the best kind of vodka is AK-47

http://a2.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-prn1/18736_246346273305_2759179_n.jpg

 

[Major]

Everybody knows the best kind of vodka is AK-47

http://a2.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-prn1/18736_246346273305_2759179_n.jpg

Obviously the drink of choice for Mr Kalashnikov

 

[k_sheep]

17/5/12, SIN-PEK take 2!

I get to the airport ridiculously early. No way I’m taking that chance again! Check in was the usual Changi efficiency, and I had a boarding pass for 2A in my hands quickly. Off to the lounge, after very very carefully checking the departure (note: not boarding!) times. A quick tipple, a few emails to friends to assure them yes, I really am leaving, and off I go to the gate. But not before ice cream. Mmmm ice cream. I also note that again there are emails from S7 saying to expect a phone call from their payment office to get my credit card number to pay the fare difference. Still no phone call. Hmm.

Boarding begins early, I am second in line behind 2 people in business who also has a baby who just has that look of “screamer” in his eyes. My heart sinks when I realise I have met Mr and Mrs 1A+B. My heart lifts when I realise we have one of their brand new A330s for 2 reasons 1/ new plane! Sweet! And 2/ no bassinet in 1A+B, Jnr Screamer moves with his minders to the other side of the aircraft The flight is only about 1/5[SUP]th[/SUP] full, and the seat next to me stays vacant.

I must say, this is one of those times when I’ve fallen in (*@&#% and come up smelling like roses. Being able to change my JQ flight for free, having a minimal fee to change my S7 flight, Sheraton in SIN having points+pay available, the fact I love SIN, can happily sleep in that airport and get to try a brand new fitted out plane instead of the rather dated one I was meant to be on (lightly loaded, rather than the full one I was expecting) ... well it all seems to have worked out rather well! Oh, and I earned 120+100 SC instead of the 140 I would have going direct. Score!

Compulsory legroom shot!

Anyway, new plane fitout was quite exciting – it was the first time any of the crew had flown it so they were excited too. Food was served pretty promptly. I was still a little hesitant to go for more pumpkin after the last one, so went with the pork belly. Note I don’t normally eat pork so it was a bit of a change! Tasty though. Glass noodle salad was also very tasty, and went down well with a vodka and lemonade.


Braised soya pork belly served with linguini, chives, steamed baby kailan and black mushroom.


For dessert I opted for the opera cake, which was taken around the cabin on a cart, and plated individually along the way. I again opted for a Baileys’. Om nom nom. The other option was a Seppeltsfeld Tawny port which I’m also a bit partial to, but thought the irish cream would go better with cake. Pretty sure I went to sleep straight away, because there’s no more photos after that!

 

[k_sheep]

PEK airport

We land at Terminal 2, I pass through transit passport control and I collect my bag. After much wandering around, I can’t find a checkin area. Eventually I find what I believe is a staff member who directs me to Terminal 3. She assures me the inter terminal bus runs all night (it’s about 2am at this stage). I wander out to find this mythical inter terminal bus, where dozens of chinese taxi drivers try their best to convince me there is no bus and I have to take their taxi at a ridiculous price. Ahh china, how I don’t miss you. I eventually find the bus, and off to Terminal 3 we go. I also note at this point I’ve entered China without a visa, because there is nothing at all to stop me from going into the city and beyond.

I find the checkin area easily, and a lovely young chinese gentleman checks me in for my flight. I attempt to ask about the outstanding fee I owe for changing my flight, but the language barrier overcomes us. In any case I’m given my boarding pass for 3A and am given a lounge invitation and directed to the BGS premier lounge near gate E19. The airport is a bit of a ghost town at this time of night, very creepy! I circle gate E19 multiple times before I find an elevator tucked away. It whisks me away to a nice, spacious lounge which is 100% empty, bar a lounge attendant. I ask for a desperately needed shower and am directed to a huge shower room, which includes a full size cupboard to hang everything up. It was well appointed with all the usual toiletries. Sadly, I could not get any hot water! Arrgh! My last shower for 4 days and it was bitterly cold


Plenty of seating.


Lots of food.


A nice touch, tropical aquarium and koi pond in a lounge

The lounge is open 24 hours, and paid entry can be bought for 23pounds for 3 hours. The bar was self serve, and had a single red wine on offer, along with Tequila, Captain morgan rum, Gordons gin, Jack Daniels .... whatever it is, ?scotch?, and several chinese beers.

Power points are decidedly absent from this lounge – I eventually found one and parked myself there. I decided not to sample any of the vast display of food, not knowing how long it had sat there. I also wasn’t much in the mood for alcohol in my jet-lag addled brain so just stuck with water. After being there for about an hour, a couple showed up, tripling the population of the lounge. Shortly after the attendant came and found me and between lot of sign language and motioning, I realised S7 were finally chasing me to pay the outstanding fee. I was given a Russian number to call, luckily the attendant took me to the business centre and I was able to call from there. Short phone call, credit card details given, sorted. Not sure why all the waiting and drama there? Anyway, I was shortly off to the gate for my scheduled 5am departure.

 

[Kangol]

Re: PEK airport

Amazing TR!

After being there for about an hour, a couple showed up, tripling the population of the lounge.

 

[k_sheep]

Re: PEK airport

Thanks Kangol ... it's coming in drips and drabs! I was at home sick yesterday so figured I'd get another couple chapters out

 

[k_sheep]

S7 pek-ikt

Now this was an interesting flight to book. Discount economy was going to cost about 7,700 rubles, however only earns 0.25pts/mile on QFF. Full economy was going to be 12,000 at 1pt/mile. Business was 11,000 at 1.25pts/mile, with 4 times the SC than discount Y. Being a good AFFer, I chose the latter I earned 1282 points and 60 SC for this flight (note it did not post automatically however, I didn’t get this until about 4 weeks after a claim for points).
Business was just me and one other guy who got to his seat and promptly fell asleep, never to rouse again. The J FA spoke excellent English which was a bit of a relief – I hate not knowing more languages!! It was very hard to convince her I didn’t want a vodka for breakfast though! Eventually she relented and I got some juice with peanuts. Although I wasn’t particularly hungry given my uncertain time zone, I thought I’d better give the meal a go! An interesting breakfast was served, with an entree of prawn and some kind of sashimi-like thing, with a salad of artichoke, capsicum, pickle and cold meats.



I managed to battle my way through about half of it ... then the FA turned up with the main course! Choice of beef, chicken or fish. I went with beef and veges. Quite good, but I seriously did not need food! My poor confused body. Economy was served from long cadboard boxes like what MH has been doing laterly. Looked reasonable.




I again fell asleep, but not before noting the incredibly bright purple which adorns most of the S7 paraphenalia, including the blanket. Cheery.




Some beautiful siberian scenery on the way in ... sadly this is as close to Lake Baikal as I got thanks to my SIN stopover!

 

[k_sheep]

Irkutsk - airport

I arrive at the somewhat depressing Irkutsk airport and fill in my landing card. 2 lines form for immigration and slowly people trickle through. My passport and visa are stamped without a word and I am through. I collect my bag, and realise for the first time ever there is an airport official at the door, making sure our luggage tags match our tags on our boarding pass. Am glad I didn't lose that during the trip! At customs, there are dozens of A4 sheets in Russian, presumably saying what you can and can't bring in, but with no translations. Thinking of the cheese in my bag, I just follow the crowd. All bags are xrayed and I'm waved through.

There are 4 ATMs in the lobby, none of which want to accept my 28 degrees mastercard. All have an option for English, however only 2 of them actually provide english instructions. There is no option between cheque/savings/credit which is probably why the card didn't work. I sigh and use one of my savings cards, trying not to think of the steep ATM and foreign conversion fees.

Outside I follow the crowd to where there are a dozen or more minibusses. I find the one I am after quickly (no 20) but the driver yells at me and waves me off. He was gesturing to my backpack, so I'm guessing he didn't want to take my luggage. No matter, there are 2 other #20 vans waiting and the second is glad to have me on board. I take a seat with my backpack and carryon on my lap so as not to deprive him of a second fare. I alight at the last station, and am charged 24rub for the trip. I know this is double or triple what it should have been, but it's still less than a dollar, and I had luggage. Besides, what choice do I have?!

 

[k_sheep]

Irkutsk 18/5/12 - the train!

The train station is vast, with several buildings running along the length. I walk into the closest door, and line up. I show the cashier my barcoded e ticket, and she wave me in the direction of another building. By luck or fate the next window I line up at has a lovely lady who happily exchanges my e ticket for a paper one, and even spoke a few words of English. At this stage, I had 6 hours to wait for my train. I couldn't find any luggage lockers, so I went wandering around the immediate vicinity with my bags. I stopped at a cafe where I pointed at a plate of unidentified food and a drink, and relieved of 120 rubles. I spent the next 5 hours wandering around different parts of the station, trying to find a warm area to while away the time.

I found a sign which stated my train was on platform 1. Of course, I could find how to get to all platforms besides that one! I was pointed vaguely in several directions, and managed to find a gate which took me through. Staff motioned for me to head to the back of the train, where the provodnitsa tore my ticket and motioned me on board. Taking a guess I headed for bed 18 since there was an 18 on my ticket (however, I was also on carriage 18 so who knows??). In any case, bed 18 was vacant so I sent up camp.
As cabin mates, I had an older Russian gentleman, a kid and a woman. Now I'm no supermodel waif but this woman was fat. Ridiculously so. When she lay on the bed, most of her rolled off the edge. Luckily she had a lower berth, as I could not imagine anyone sleeping under that would feel restful, if she had even managed to manhandle her great girths to such heights. Naturally she snored like a freight train, but her daughter was quick to slap her when she started up again.

I quickly learned the Russians seem to fall into 2 distinct groups - those who are ridiculously friendly and those who completely ignore me, even avoiding any eye contact. The woman and child fell in the latter category while the man the former. He spoke some school level german, as did I, so we managed to have some short conversations. He helped me learn some Russian from my guidebook, even to the point of quizzing me at times! He pulled out a magnet with a picture of his hometown and gave it to me. I regretted not bringing any Australian paraphenalia at this point. He also shared all of his food (and I reciprocated of course), and left me with a bag of seeds that I said I had liked.

I have to say, I'm not one of those women who talks all the time (well, I don't think so anyway!) but not being able to communicate makes it quite lonely. The fact Russians even avoid smiling means there is not even body language to feel a connection with. At one stop I get off to stretch my legs, and a young girl begins speaking to me in German so it was lovely to have even that sort of stilted conversation.

Along the corridor. The contraption at the end is the urn for making soup, noodles etc. I also had a steel water bottle which I'd fill, and then let cool for drinking water - highly recommended!



In the 4-berth cabin; not mine, I was a lot cleaner


Our train


The dining car

 

[Virgin Bart]

Absolutely fascinating reading!

 

[Ansett]

Great trip report and pictures is it the Trans Siberian? and if so did you through Novosibirsk?

 

[k_sheep]

Great trip report and pictures is it the Trans Siberian? and if so did you through Novosibirsk?

It is indeed, and yes I did - just passed through though, didn't stop until I got to Moscow.

 

[Ansett]

It is indeed, and yes I did - just passed through though, didn't stop until I got to Moscow.

Cool I was in Novosibirsk in June lasy year there is an excellent train museum there. Must have been damn cold now lol

 

[casanovawa]

Hmmm, went to Moscow and St Petersburg in July this year, think the majority of my interactions with Russians were negative, quite a rude group of people i tended to find, but did have one or two ok interactions...

So not sure i would go back again and if i did, not sure i would go out into the back woods... Maybe sometime, but its not high on the list of things to do anyway... But yes interesting reading... The missed flight reminds me of two flights i managed to miss in Russia, the one from St Petersburg to Moscow requiring a wait of a couple of hours for the next S7 flight and the one Moscow - Munich which required me sleeping over night in the airport till the next morning... Only missed one other flight in my life...