Overview post on my Russia trip!!!!! Quick one because aku actually dah malas lolol

Our Travel Dates

5 May 2016 to 13 May 2016

Flight Itinerary & Journey Duration

Singapore to Moscow via SQ: Depart SG at 2.30am, arrive Moscow at 8.10am (10 hours 40 minutes)
Moscow to Singapore via SQ: Depart Moscow at 2.20pm, arrive SG at 5.35am (10 hours 15 mins)

Time Difference

Russia is 5 hours behind Singapore (If it's 12.00pm in Singapore then it's 7.00am in Russia)

Weather During Our Stay

On average 16 to 20 degrees during the day, between 8 to 12 degrees at night

Why We Chose to Travel to St Petersburg & Moscow

Because... kita gatal nak experience something different...??? Hahahaha! I was just too intrigued and wanted to experience Russia for myself so we went through lautan bara api (at least that's what their visa application process felt like at that time......) to get our asses down there. No other reason, to be honest hahaha.

Where did We Stay at in St Petersburg & Moscow

We stayed at Golden Triangle Hotel in St Petersburg and St Regis Moscow Nikolsvaya in Moscow. Both hotels are right smack in the middle of the busy central area so we were very happy about that!

In terms of comfort and service, it was decent at Golden Triangle (basic breakfast, printing services, sufficient bed and bathroom) and (obviously) fantastic at St Regis. I mean... macam mana lagi aku nak gush pasal St Regis punya layanan mesra la kan nanti korang campak senapang gajah kat muka aku HAHAHA

Which Attractions did We Visit in St Petersburg & Moscow

We went to a number of places in Russia, all of which you can read about by clicking the links below:

St Petersburg

St Petersburg, Russia, May 2016 (Video)

St Petersburg, Russia, May 2016 (Part 1)

St Petersburg, Russia, May 2016 (Part 2)

St Petersburg, Russia, May 2016 (Part 3)

Moscow

Moscow, Russia, May 2016 (Part 1)

Moscow, Russia, May 2016 (Part 2)

Moscow, Russia, May 2016 (Part 3)

Moscow, Russia, May 2016 (Part 4)

Moscow, Russia, May 2016 (Part 5)

Availability of Halal Food

Food that is officially halal certified is difficult to find in the central parts of St Peterburg and Moscow. There are options, but they are either very difficult to find (we gave up after spending 1++ hours looking for a halal cafe in St Peterburg) or they are out of the way (terceruk at jauh tercampak locations).

So if you're the sort who is very, very strict i.e. MUST ada official certification from official body segala then Russia is most definitely the place for you to go to mati kebuluran hahahahaha. (I'm kidding. It is not your place. At all. Not kidding about you will mati kebuluran part though) We're not the sort who are super strict about certification, especially when we're overseas, so we made do with pastries, vegetables, seafood and pasta for most of our meals and ate/ordered from one halal place each in St Petersburg (Tandoori) and Moscow (Pizzarion).

Transportation Around St Petersburg & Moscow

With the exception of our guided tour around the Moscow Metro (look at us losers touching the dog sculpture in one of the metro stations which locals believe will bring good luck..........), we didn't take their public trains because we stayed in hotels which were located in the heart of the action and all of the attractions/museums were within walking distance. We did take Uber twice in Moscow though, and had the luck of getting drivers who spoke and understood basic English. And the fares were so cheap as compared to Singapore!

As for airport transfers, we made prior arrangements with Welcome Taxi. Highly, highly, highly recommended. Super reliable and super affordable. Standard of drivers differ but generally they will do their job well and will drop you off safely at your destinations. (What I mean by difference in standard of drivers:- Our driver in St Petersburg was polite, well-groomed and helpful whereas our driver in Moscow was a little unkempt and his car was dirty on the outside but he spoke pleasantly and wasn't rude or creepy or anything so we didn't mind)

Where to Buy Souveniers

There are many souveniers booths and shops littered around the central area. We bought souveniers from a mix for souvenier shops, souvenier booths and the departmental store at GUM. We also bought beluga caviar for ourselves and IT WAS &#$&^#$&*#$( SO SEDAP FOR WHAT patut la mak dalam cerita Batu Belah Batu Bertangkup sampai merajuk tak dapat makan telur ikan terus kena telan dengan batu belah batu bertangkup HAHAHAHAHA

Availability of Wifi

There are cafes which offer Wi-fi but they are few and far in between - Wi-fi is not readily available in and around St Petersburg and Moscow, so it was a good thing we bought SIM cards at the airport! I think we paid slightly less than SGD20 per person for the SIM cards. We usually sewa portable wifi router from Changi Recommends when we travel but they don't offer any for travel in Russia (wtf...) and other companies who offer wifi router rental for Russia travel were gonna charge us almost SGD300 for 9 days usage. Harga go and die pls.

Anyway, the hotels we stayed at in St Petersburg and Moscow provided free Wi-fi so no issues on connectivity bila kita dah kat dalam our hotel rooms.

Shopping in St Petersburg and Moscow

Saliheen and I didn't really shop in St Petersburg and Moscow because there weren't anything we wanted in particular. I bought one piece of dark olive t-shirt in Zara though, they miraculously had a piece of clothing in my size on sale ha ha ha ha ha ha ha.

Would We Return to Russia for Vacation

No, I would not make a conscious effort to return to Russia. And Saliheen agrees with me. Haha!

To be honest, it's too much work and inconvenience to get there and be there, but the pay off is not that satisfactory, as compared to travelling to other states/countries. 

I'm so used to being able to travel to most countries with my Singaporean passport (spoilt Singaporean...) so going through the visa process to travel to Russia is already an experience in itself: You have to complete the form, attach copies of various documents and colour photograph whereby your facial expression has to be neutral (???), submit in person to the visa centre and then you have to return to the centre to collect your visa after it is approved. It's not complicated la, just paperwork and legwork that requires some effort and time.

And then when you arrive in the country, you have to navigate through other leceh things; constant queue cutting at waiting lines (provided you can find the right one anyway), confusing signs, difficulty in communication because not many locals speak English, very limited options for food, unfriendly locals and officials. 

We were particularly ticked off by the immigration officer at Domodedovo Airport who stamped our passports just before we boarded our plane back to Singapore; she stared at us in an intimidating and hostile way and it was obvious she wanted to make us squirm in discomfort. She also made a VERY deliberate show of slooowwwly checking our records and stamping our passports. And by slowly, I really mean slowly. Like, you know that slow sloth sequence in the movie Zootopia??? That slow, but not that funny at all. It was unsettling.

Saliheen got so upset, he said that's probably the woman's way of making sure we never want to step foot into her country again. She didn't really have to worry though, because we most probably won't (unless we have to be there for official stuff like work... which is unlikely) 

Don't get me wrong; I think Russia is a truly fascinating and beautiful country; and their museums and attractions are unreal (in a good way) and worth a visit if you ever get there. But it's the sort of country I only want to go to once for a unique experience. I'd rather spend my tourist money in a country that welcomes me next time! (WHICH I DID HAHAHA)

The Total Expenditure

I usually share my expenditure details because I get queries on travel costing sometimes and want an easy way to refer people who ask, but I don't anticipate getting queries for travel to Russia HAHAHAHA so I'll skip this part this time round. (Also as I said, I tengah malas hahahaha)

Anddddd I am finally done with my Russian entries wtf. I wanted to publish all my Russia-related entries before I headed to London but as we all know that didn't happen because aku dah pergi, aku dah jalan and aku dah balek dari London pun hahahahaha tsk tsk tsk tak guna betul ah the blogger in me ni

Birthday in Russia: Moscow (Part 5)

So after Day 1, Day 2, Day 3 and Day 4 in Moscow, we have come to our last full day in Moscooowww.

I woke up feeling much better on our last full day - turns out the local Panadol punya dosage was so freaking kuat, my mind became so clear when I woke up lol. I still had a little bit of flu but that's only because I didn't get any flu medication la. Fever and cough and sore throat were gone dengan serta merta! I guess I know now why you need to go to a pharmacy to get a prescription and pick up your Panadol from their dispensary in Moscow......

Anyway! Enough about my penyakit issues. Dah over! Brand new day, brand new experiences :D

We booked a Moscow Metro Tour via Viator for this day, but we weren't really sure what to expect. There are several tours like this and some tours listed 5 metro stations, others listed 8, 9, 10 and so on. I just knew I wanted to see the popular Komsomolskaya Metro Station and Novoslobodskaya Metro Station (We also got to see Kievskaya Station, Prospekt Mira Metro Station and Ploshchad Revolyutsii Metro Station, amongst others)

Day 8 - 12 May 2016

Our tour guide appeared at our hotel lobby within 5 minutes of the scheduled meeting time - we thought she'd come with other tourists but turns out it was only for us two?! Which was fine with us la, because the tour turned out to be very fast paced and their trains were so loud and stations so busy (9 million passengers everyday!!!), we would have struggled to hear and pay attention to our guide if there were other people who joined the tour.

Side note: We didn't take the metro (other than on this tour) during our stay in Moscow because most of the attractions were within walking distance from our hotel area and for the 3 times we had to travel a longer distance, we already had a private car arrangement / managed to book an Uber.

Last picture is of our metro tour guide and I! Rambut dah tak terurus because of all the strong angin caused by the trains thundering from station to station... check out my fringe sembarang campak hahahahaha

To be honest, our pictures of their metro stations don't do any justice to the real deal at all because we rushed from station to station and couldn't take quality pictures. Their stations are freaking luxurious and gorgeous ok. They have super intricate designs (I love the mosaic tiling ones, so beautiful) and are embedded with history. I mean, for the city to have GUIDED TOURS of their metro stations has to say something, right? 

Ok la as it is the stations were built when Stalin had huge ambitions of constructing majestic metro stations that looked and felt like grand museums, and for the intention of glorifying him (meaning, Stalin) and the image of the Soviet Union. You can read more (and see gambar lagi legit of the stations) here, here. and here. You can also read up about Stalin's First Five-Year Plan and Second Five-Year Plan to understand in a broader context why he had such massive plans for the metro system in Russia. Kalau interested la.

We had also read online and were informed by our guide about the metro station with a "secret" underground tunnel, which the Russian army forces used during World War II! I know there are good reasons why it's not meant to be visited by locals and tourists but if only we were allowed to go in and see eh?! Even if there's nothing WWII-related left down there, it would have been so surreal.

Really glad we took up this guided metro tour package anyway because we wouldn't have seen and experienced the public train system in Moscow otherwise. Our local guide was young, bright and patient and was able to give us detailed insight about the metro stations and system in Moscow. My only criticism would be the guided tour felt super rushed and short even though it was 1 and a half hours. If we had to do that again, I'd probably pay more for a lagi extensive 3-hour guided tour of the metro stations like this one... rasa macam tak cukup!

Had lunch at a traditional Russian restaurant as recommended by our guide, since it was just a minute's walk away from the train station we dropped off at. We had traditional steamed dumplings (they're called pierogi), one with potato fillings and another one with cottage cheese fillings + another set of fried ones which looked like giant curry puffs haha. Quite nice, the steamed ones reminded me a lot of the ones we had in Poland but less muak.

Walked over to the State Russian Museum after lunch and paid for entry tickets to look at some of the exhibits (no ticketing issues here because we were the only ones in line haha!) I think we have pictures from inside the museum but somehow I can't find them in my phone wth. Will post them here if I can find them.

Left the museum to walk back to our hotel and came across some souvenier booths along the way - bought traditional Russian dolls called matryoshka for ourselves and my mum because... I mean??? Ni Russia seh??? They're known for their matryoshka dolls! Ala, you know those wooden dolls that beranak pinak????? 

Yes, these. 

I bought ones with cat images instead of the usual female images, though. Didn't buy the traditional ones with female images because 1. The cat ones are way cuter, 2. They're different from the usual female ones, 3. My mum is ok with cat dolls but will balk at dolls with human imagery and say mana boleh letak patung patung gini kat rumah, macam sembah berhala nanti malaikat tak masuk rumah OK IBU

I kind of wish I found the exact cat matryoshka dolls like the one in the GIF below though; I think it's so freaking cool when each subsequent piece unveils the inner parts of the cat!

I LOVE IT.  I just can't deal with such coolness.

Walked back to our hotel to makan in our room; ordered food from Pizzarion again! I don't think I mentioned this earlier but this is a halal-certified food delivery service which we used in Moscow:

We had their chicken and mushroom pizza and beef udon during our first order and they tasted nice, so we tried ordering their meat pie this time round... WHAT A BIG MISTAKE! Tak sedap sak. It's like a big pastry pouch of..... bacin. Or maybe we are not used to their version of processed meats ah hahahaha. Both of us took a big bite of the meat pie, belched then terus letak tepi seh. Tak sengaja nak buang rezeki but really cannot telan! Luckily the meat pizza was okay so we finished that up instead.

Actually kena speak Russian when calling in to Pizzarion's customer service hotline but nasib baik it wasn't an issue for us since St Regis' butler service is awesome! We used Google translate to read the menu online, compiled our order then whatsapped the hotel's butler Whatsapp service with screenshots:

Easy peasy lemon squeezy. If only we have this service for our regular lives LOL WE'D BE SUCH SLOBS/BRATS

Went jalan jalan after dinner, specifically wanted to go to the children's mall opposite our hotel to belikan a Masha doll for our friends' anak Aisyah since she is kemaruk with "Masha and The Bear" cartoon and her parents dah kirim. I mean, where else nak dapat a Russian cartoon's merchandise if not in Russia kan??? Tak dapat ah kan kalau cari kat kita punya Toys 'R' Us hahahahaha. Kat Moscow's toy stores belambak lambak seh. But bagus and amazing eh our globalized world? Toddler in Singapore boleh tersangkut onto a cartoon in Russia haha!

Quick video clip of the cute little recipient of the Masha doll:

(It was filmed vertically because it was Snapchat video ok)

Anyway. We also saw a souvenier shop at the mall entrance so we walked in and discovered they had a huge variety of affordable souveniers! So kita borong more souveniers kat situ, including an ushanka (Russian trooper hat) for Saliheen. We previously saw an ushanka booth in St Petersburg selling its cheapest ushanka for $180! We got a nice black one for $70 from this shop and Saliheen kept saying he'll wear it for terawih prayers IRRITATING.

The shop employees were typical cold faced Russians who eyed us suspiciously at first but all of us broke into smiles and laughter when we tried to ask them for the meaning of the Russian words on some of the apron souveniers. Kecoh and kelakar sekejap ayam nak berbual bahasa itik, and itik nak berbual bahasa ayam haha!

Left the mall after that to jalan jalan outside and tangkap angin and tangkap mood - it was 12 degrees out so it was a nice cooling walk with my husband, hand-in hand :) We walked past by Bolshoi Theatre then walked around GUM, St Basil's Cathedral and the Red Square areas again. A different feel and look since it was night time and Moscow twinkles really, really pretty at night, you guys <3

But that doesn't mean we weren't homesick already LOL BESOKNYA NAK BALEK SINGAPORE BYE

Birthday in Russia: Moscow (Part 4)

Banyak sangat enjoy on Day 1, Day 2 and Day 3 in Moscow sampai I jatuh sakit on our 4th day in Moscow :( 

Saliheen and I have a habit of bringing medication (Panadol, po chai, plasters, minyak kapak, etc) on our holidays but turns out our local Panadol dosage had no effect on the virus affecting me in Moscow wtf. Had to get Panadol from a local pharmacy baru jalan seh... somehow their local Panadol punya dosage felt higher and stronger??? Kecoh. Dah la leceh nak dapat medication for fever, flu and cough in Moscow (more details on that later)

Day 7 - 11 May 2016

Popped some Panadol pills before leaving our hotel to start the day - first stop was Museum of Cosmonautics! I don't have a particularly strong interest in the mechanics of space travel but Saliheen very much does, so what's a supportive wife to do, amirite...? Not like Saliheen had any interest in sickeningly sweet cupcakes when he willingly followed me to dessert spots all around NYC, amirite..................

Took a private car ride via Welcome Taxi to the museum - we wanted to cancel our transfer from hotel to airport for our flight back to Singapore actually (because we wanted to use the hotel's airport transfer service instead) but turns out we could replace it with another trip. So we used that for our ride to Museum of Cosmonautics heh:

Very interesting to see how an actual spaceship looks like on the inside (there was a true-to-scale model in the museum, siap dengan lobang jamban), to see pictures and watch videos of how astronauts did their work in space and to see exhibits of food items and other things they bring out for their regular day-to-day living out in space. Also, last picture is of the actual spacesuit worn by one of the astronauts on the iconic Apollo 11 trip i.e. first spaceflight that landed humans on the moon. That was pretty cool to see!

I wouldn't necessarily recommend this museum as a 1st choice but if you're like my husband and always wanted to be an astronaut when you were a young child, then by all means. (I guess it's true you learn new things about your spouse everyday.................) Plus the museum is small so you can complete the whole thing within 1 hour. 

Also, I just wanted to add this in because I think it's fun to get other people's reactions (Saliheen's eyes widened SO HARD when I showed him this hahahahaha) - nothing to do with the museum we went to, but just something sort of related to space travel:

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Hahahahahahahahaha!!!!! Sorry, I'm just dickin' with ya ok. Tapi tak kelakar ke?????

Ok la ok la, I've read that this was a fake meme created by a satire website similar to "The Onion" (apparently those pictures are of real astronauts but captions are made up) but that shit is still hilarious to me la. Lolol. Even if the actual astronauts are the ones who made those captions, I think it'd be more out of dark humour - which I love and appreciate - than an actual experience la. I think... and I hope...?????

ANYWAY. Back to real life where loser me and Saliheen couldn't figure out which train station to go to after that haha! So kita tried our luck again and booked an Uber - nasib baik our luck tak kentang sangat because we got a young Uber driver who could understand simple English... again! A 25-minute ride for 315 rubles, which is SGD6.50 wtf takde lagi murah lagi pe sak. Kalau aku tinggal kat Moscow, hari hari aku naik Uber! (Oh wait...)

Dropped off at Teatralnya Square, which is directly opposite Bolshoi Theatre (very famous opera and ballet theatre in Moscow), took some pictures then settled down for lunch nearby. Took some pictures of the Karl Marx stone monument too but I can't find any pictures now so here's a sample off the internet:

Last remaining monument dedicated to Karl Marx, which was erected in 1961. Inscription reads "Workers of the world, unite!" by the way. Haha. Hidup pekerja! Kerja la kau sampai kau mati! Oh tak eh hahaha.

Had grand ideas of going to Upside Down Cafe after that for a slice of birthday cake for myself heh, but I started feeling really ill and nauseous and didn't think I could make the 12 minute walk to the cafe and then back to our hotel (when I could have, under normal circumstances) :( 

Cheered up a little when we got to our hotel room and saw this on the desk:

Very tickled by the "Dear Mrs Binte" on the card! I'm amused at the thought of there possibly being a confused discussion between the hotel staff while they tried to figure out which part of my 5-part name is my surname (Which technically I don't have as a Malay person anyway haha)

Slept for a few hours, in hopes that my fever, flu and cough will subside. But I woke up still feeling sick so we washed up and went out in search for a pharmacy! We've been going in and out of convenience stores and supermarkets throughout the day and the day before, you see, but couldn't find any Panadol! Which puzzled us at first, but when we Googled, it turns out supermarkets and convenience stores in Russia aren't allowed to sell Panadol or lozenges, etc off the shelves, like we have in Singapore! We had to go to a pharmacy, get a queue number, wait in line to get a prescription and pay for the medication at their dispensary what what..............

Oh, the things, the things! The things we take for granted in Singapore. Sigh.

Maybe because their medication have stronger dosages than our local ones eh??? I don't know la, I just didn't want to be sick for the rest of our holiday so we went to a pharmacy behind our hotel to get me some medication. The staff who prescribed and dispensed the medication didn't understand English so we tried our luck and typed in our message in English to Google's translator app and converted it to Russian before showing it to her. Boleh paham pulak dia tu! She nodded and gave us a thumbs up and I was so relieved. Phew! And betul betul she gave me Panadol for fever and lozenges for my sore throat (which was causing my cough) haha. Tak balek modal seh kalau dia salah paham and kasi aku obat untuk other ailments. Tak pasal pasal lain pulak sakit aku nanti.

Went back to the same cafe we went to during Victory Day since it was just opposite the pharmacy, ate dinner then walked back to the hotel because I was feeling in the dumps and just wanted to crash. I knew Saliheen wanted to walk around St Basil's Cathedral area and explore somemore though :( But he didn't insist, God bless his sweet husband soul, so that made me even more determined to recuperate and recover by the next day. It was going to be our last full day in Moscow  the next day anyway, so all the more it was important I baik sakit!

Birthday in Russia: Moscow (Part 3)

After a quiet first day and festive but short second day in Moscow, we really balas dendam and walked all around Moscow and visited a few attractions on our third!

Day 6 - 10 May 2016

Had breakfast at the Coffeemania cafe right in front of our hotel, and liked it so much, we returned over the next few days because it was so convenient and comforting. Also because ada this barista who had super cute curly hair and both my husband and I wanted to see her again hahahahaha

Anyway. We started the day by making our way to the Kremlin complex! Observed a guarded memorial ceremony while we were on our way to buy tickets.

Random picture of random cute boy in his little uniform, running and jumping amongst the gorgeous blooming flowers near the memorial. So carefreeeeeeeeeeeeee, we also felt carefree looking at his infectious happiness.

But 20 minutes later, kita dah tak carefree sangat la kan. Sebab we found out again that buying attraction tickets in Russia is tak straightforward langsung HAHAHAHA. Aku pikir menyusahkan aku bila kat St Petersburg aje (remember our Hermitage tickets story???). Kat Moscow nak beli entry tickets pun, dia punya menyusahkan and sakitkan hati, nauzubillah min zalik! Nak pinang Puteri Gunung Ledang lagi senang aku rasa HAHAHAHA

Ya ya ya now I laugh la, but at that point of time I was so frustrated and dejected, I lost hope and almost told Saliheen I didn't want to go into the Kremlim anymore lol

Ok. So. We walked into this glass structure which had ticketing booths inside - we had to figure out if these was the correct ones because (1) there were entrances to another attraction next to the ticketing booths (2) the ticketing booths were a two minutes walk away from the actual Kremlin entrance.

Then lepas kita dah confirm that's the correct ticketing place, we had to figure out which booth to buy from because even though there were wordings at the top of the ticketing booths which, to their credit, were in English, but all of them weren't really clear (their descriptions were not straightforward). We eventually spent 15 minutes trying to decipher which ticket to buy = which ticket booth to approach from a poster next to an entrance which leads to another attraction CONFUSING I KNOW. 

We finally figured out there were 2 booths selling the tickets we wanted to buy; one booth had about 5 or 6 people in line and the other booth had 3 people in line. Naturally, I went to the booth with the shorter queue. Makes sense, right? After about 10 million questions from the 3 people in front of me (maybe if their directions/instructions weren't so susah to paham, they wouldn't get that many queries...) I was relieved that it was finally my turn............................................. except it wasn't.

Because the minute I stepped to the front of the counter, the staff slammed down the shutter and left. 

*crickets sound*

I was stunned because... ummmmm, rude much????? I wouldn't have minded so much if she looked at me, gestured that she wanted to close the counter and apologetically waved me to the other booth. I mean, it happens la, maybe she needed to be somewhere else and memang it was just my luck for choosing to line up at her booth. But no. The customer in front of me walked away with his tickets, I stepped to the front, and the staff just banged the shutter down in my face. The other customers behind me and I were flustered for awhile then everyone started to rush to the next available booth. 

I stepped aside to discuss with Saliheen if we still wanted to queue for the tickets, we decided we didn't want to leave Moscow without stepping foot into the Kremlin so we went back to the ticket booth that was still operating (with a longer queue) and resumed queuing. 30 minutes later, with two more customers in front of us, I made a silent prayer for the counter to remain open and for the staff to not bang down the shutter in our faces... again! But ternyata I should've also prayed for something else lolol because this happened: 

A middle-aged woman started hovering next to me and I wasn't so bothered la - maybe my head was blocking her line of sight or something, or maybe the counter staff was her relative or what, aku tak tau la, aku tak syak wasangka apa apa pun. Then she inched in front of me, squinting like she was really trying to figure out the information on the ticket price board, and right after the customer in front of us left the booth with tickets, this betina called out to her friend in Russian who appeared in a flash, brushed past me macam aku ni habuk, stepped up to the booth, took out her purse and started asking the counter staff for tickets!!!!!

Saliheen and I stood there, right behind them, with our eyes wide open, mouths gaping in bewilderment. Wow! Sedap nya cut queue! Mintak kena bakar ke tickets kau tu???

Unfortunately, we were on foreign land where English isn't the first language and their law enforcement/attraction officials isn't known to be kind or fair to non-locals, so I knew I couldn't protest or scold these women like I would have done here in Singapore. To be honest, I would have let it slide and shrugged it off as just a classic example of aunties cutting queue because they have self-entitled privilege, but after that first shocker of having shutters rudely slammed in my face, and now having locals pretending they just wanted to look at the price board and then blatantly cutting our queue after 30, 40 minutes of orderly waiting in line for tickets... aku seriously macam nak meletup with frustration. 

Abeh betul betul kita dah kat depan, the booth sebelah (where the staff left me standing there macam tongong) opened its counter again and started selling tickets. Thanks. Asal tak lepaskan waktu Maghrib je. 

Hahahaha bingit eh, bingit eh. And ok, before you question why we didn't buy tickets online beforehand, it's because I assumed the Kremlin is just a huge square which you can walk in without any fees whatsoever, and then you can purchase tickets to masuk each individual cathedral/church/building. Which is the case for Red Square la, but apparently not for Kremlin. Pfffffttttt. You need a ticket to masuk into the Kremlin complex itself then just keluar masuk the cathedrals and buildings within it without any additional fees. 

After purchasing our tickets, we went through two other security checks and entrances before finally stepping foot into the Kremlin complex.

There are a few attractions within the Kremlin complex; Kremlin Palace, Ivan Great Bell Tower, Church of the Twelve Apostles, Dormition Cathedral, Cathedral of the Annunciation, Cathedral of the Archangel, amongst others. Very pretty! Walked around for awhile, then left the complex to have lunch at the Red Square area. Had to do a huuuuuge walking detour, which I suspect contributed to my health condition later that night. Lolol.

Visited the St Basil's Cathedral again after lunch! This time dah takde barriers and metal structures and we could freely walk around the square sebab the parade organizers dah dismantle and bring down the stuff for the Victory Day parade. But sayang we didn't get to masuk Lenin's Mausoleum to tengok the preserved body of Lenin because it was closed when we were there because of the Victory Day celebrations :( I comforted myself by telling myself it's just a mayat, it's just mayat, but it's not just a mayat, it's mayat of someone who was revolutionary and influential in his time, IT'S JUST A MAYAT DIA DAH MATI SO DIA MAYAT.

What to do. Takde rezeki. Tak dapat tengok mayat, kita pergi tengok souveniers pulak kat GUM LOLOL. Discovered a nice indoor departmental store where we could buy souveniers for our family, friends and colleagues. Also bought beluga caviar for ourselves because when in Russia, WHY NOT #FANCYAF 

Lepas jalan jalan, we took a train down to a cool vaping space called Babylon Vape, but no pictures of the actual space because we were too engrossed with the whole experience. Haha. Really wish we took some pictures though, because that space was dope af. Extra smoky because it's a super small intimate space, and had very intimidating edgy vibes. Henley Vape (the one we went to in NYC) had a more chill but welcoming community vibe and wasn't as smoky because it was 5 times bigger in terms of space whereas Vaping Ape (the one we went to in Tokyo) felt more mellow and familiar, and had a strong kedai kawan feel. It's been very interesting to experience different vape spaces and communities in other countries! If vaping ever becomes acceptable and legal locally, our local spaces would probably feel just like lepak bawah block hahahaha

Ventured out to Fallen Monument Park next! Also known as Graveyard of Fallen Monuments haha.

Saliheen was so tickled when we walked past this structure and I exclaimed "Eh kepala batu!" Lolol

Pretty cool to see all the different statue heads and monuments scattered around in a park, instead of inside glass boxes in a museum. Started feeling exhausted and almost ill when we reached the end of the park and I was really lemah already at that point, and we would have taken some time and effort to figure out our way back. So kita nekad to try and take an Uber back!

We were apprehensive at first because of Russia's notorious taxi/private car street pick-up reputation (mostly from negative online reviews though) and the language barrier but we decided to cuba nasib because #yolo. Nasib baik we were picked up by a young driver who understood simple English. Actually it didn't really matter since he can just ikut GPS + our location was a known location (St Regis Moscow), but it was comforting to speak to him and know that he knew exactly where we were heading and how to get there. The whole ride was smooth and uneventful and the trip cost us 220 rubles (SGD4.50) can you believe it????? For a 15 minutes ride! 

Arrived at our hotel safely, had our dinner and then went down to the hotel's luxurious-looking swimming pool for a late night backstroke to celebrate my birthday at the stroke of midnight :D

Happy 29th birthday to me! Patut la malam tu jugak jatuh sakit, nak membesar rupa nya.