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: St Petersburg (Part 3)

We wanted to go for a river cruise first thing in the morning on our 3rd day in St Petersburg! But we saw Victory Day-related festivities in front of the Hermitage whilst on our way to the pier so we stayed to watch.

Day 3 - 7 May 2016

Thankful for the fact that we got to see their Victory Day parade rehearsal! Rehearsal aje but it was already so impressive and grand la!!! I especially looked out for their women uniforms, so smart and so lawa seh. And it was surreal, watching tanks and missiles and war machinery going past me at such a near distance. With no barricades! Kalau kat Singapore, aku rasa the organizers dah pasang barricade batu and pagar besi sejuta inci.

I think we hung around at the parade area for about an hour half or two hours before we made our way to the Admiralty Embankment, where we took a boat out for a river cruise!

I read this to see the river cruise packages offered by riverboat companies in St Petersburg but they seemed to have many time slots and located everywhere = easy to find. So we didn't get advance tickets online and decided to just make our way down to the Admiralty Embankment (which is a popular pier) whenever we were free to take the river cruise. Heng we did that because we couldn't have stayed for the rehearsal parade otherwise!

In the end, we bought tickets from the company Driver on the spot because the other companies were being too aggressive and in our faces haha. We didn't bother asking for a cruise with an English-speaking guide so I don't know if they have any; the one we went on had the a Russian-speaking guide so kita pun tak paham apa dia cakap haha, although we were given a pamphlet with a route map and some English. Anyway kita pun cuma nak ambik angin and enjoy the sights and sounds je. Once in awhile, if other people in the boat turn their heads to look at a building because the guide pointed it out to them, kita pun ikut and pusing kepala sekali hahahaha

I don't have many pictures from our river cruise experience (which took 2 hours) because Saliheen was taking mostly videos (you can see the clips here) and I only Snapchatted the journey sporadically. But I do highly recommend this if you ever jejak St Petersburg! Although it would probably be more beneficial to get a boat that comes with an English-speaking guide ah hahahahaha

Oh, and be warned that orang sana (we heard them speaking their language) tak menyabar and will stand as close as possible to you (breathing down your neck kind) and will start to put pressure on your back (I can feel them getting ready to shove and jostle, tak takut jatuh laut eh!!!) padahal the boat crew baru start prepping for its next journey and the gate belum bukak pun. Takut boat tu tiba tiba pecut lari kot.

Had lunch at a nearby cafe after that and then we walked to Senate Square and St Isaac Cathedral.

St Isaac's Cathedral is besar gila! It was much more massive than I imagined.

Went back to our hotel to rest for awhile after that, then we went out again to walk down Nevsky Prospekt, which is a very popular and very busy main street at the heart of St Petersburg (and 1 minute from our hotel, of course!) 

Looked at some stuff, bought some stuff then we made our way to an Indian restaurant called Tandoori which we passed by the day before... asked one of their staff if their meats were halal (I already saw some posts online but wanted to confirm) and she immediately said "Everything is halal" SO YAY AYAM AYAM AYAM

We stuffed ourselves with so much food! That bowl of mutton briyani looks regular sized kan but it felt like it was bottomless ok haha. We also had butter naan, garlic naan, tandoori chicken and palak paneer to share. We didn't expect much from an Indian restaurant in St Petersburg la (some restaurants taper down their spice to accommodate to local tastes) but the food turned out to be spicy and sedap and oh so nikmattttttttttttttttt. Kind of wish we came here to eat the day before instead of looking of a cafe yang tak muncul haha. 

Took a nice chilly stroll down Nevsky Prospekt after dinner and went to see the Hermitage again.

Tried to capture the beauty of the area at night but these pictures don't do them justice at all!

Went back to our hotel after that to get some rest since we were leaving St Petersburg the next morning! Initially Saliheen and I weren't sure whether 4 days (technically 2 full days and 2 half days) was a sufficient duration for us to stay in St Petersburg but it turned out to be just nice for us. Off to Moscow next!

Birthday in Russia: St Petersburg (Part 2)

Started our 2nd day in St Petersburg bright and early by walking over to the Hermitage, which is a minute's walk away from our hotel. The Russian military band was practicing for Victory Day at the huge square in front of the Hermitage building so we caught some snippets!

Day 2 - 6 May 2016

Hung around for about 30 to 40 minutes then we made our way into the Hermitage! A piece of friendly advice for anyone who ever plans to visit the Hermitage in St Petersburg -  BOOK YOUR TICKETS ONLINE. 

I didn't plan to do so at first but then I read online that the walk-in queue can take up to 2 to 3 hours and ain't nobody got time for that! Info turned out to be true; the walk-in queue was sooooo long when we arrived. But even with our Internet Tickets voucher in hand, we were so lost because the directional signs didn't make sense somehow and we wasted another 1/2 hour trying to figure out where to exchange our voucher for entry tickets!!! This was where we got our 1st taste of how Russian museums suka menyusahkan orang HAHAHAHA

I don't know whether it was just our luck or own incompetence in understanding how Russian attractions work but we encountered problems a few times because their ticketing system is confusing or their entrances are random af - you guys will understand what I mean when I blog about other attractions later on. Haha! Sekarang can ketawa la bila ingat balek but when we were there, the frustration was tak kelakar, geng.

Anyway, lepas kena pekik by one of the Hermitage staff for trying our luck and entering one of the (wrong) lanes provided (who ask your signs to be so unclear, one...), we showed him our Internet Tickets voucher and he instructed us to "walk straight and turn left into a door". Siap dengan exaggerated hand gestures lagi. So we walked straight and turned left into a door, which led to 2 booths marked as "Tour Guides Only" 

Errrrr... ok? Mungkin kita ownself tour guide for ourselves kot...? Haha.

I am a firm believer in always trying my luck so we got in line anyway, and bila dah sampai depan, the counter staff could only speak in Russian and kept gesturing for us to go straight, straight, go straight. Didn't see any ticketing counters from inside (there were giant pillars blocking our view) so I was skeptical and kept asking her "Straight? Are you sure straight? Straight, straight? You mean straight?" hahahaha how can I be convinced you are giving me the right instructions when your colleague just gave me the wrong ones!!!

But fine, we walked out straight anyway, couldn't see any booths or counters, walked around the pillars, and lo and behold, we saw a makeshift booth marked "Internet Tickets" behind one of the pillars. Wow. Pandai nya space planning korang............................

(Which makes the first staff's instructions to us WRONG, right????? He should have told us to walk straight and turn right, but he made us walk straight and turn left into the "Tour Guides Only" ticketing booths instead. I mean, I bukan nak marah la kan, I cuma nak tegur je ni)

So lepas dah do the exchange, we skipped the lines and went in to the exhibition rooms!

Saliheen made me pose like RuPaul (queen of drag queens) in one of the shots but I'm not posting that one because it is EMBARASSING how tak fabulous I am actually HAHAHA

You guys have NO idea how difficult it was to get a shot without any people wandering in this room. Also, we saw 4 different people take pictures of their feet with the decorative flooring in this room within a span of 15 minutes. Nak post and hashtag #ihavethisthingwithfloors ler tu hahaha

All the pintu ada gold!!!!!!! Kalau takde duit je boleh pajak pintu hahaha

One of my favourite areas!!! You can totally tell from my very enthusiastic stance

A few of the portraits are blank because those generals turned out to be evil and betrayed Russia #informationyoulearnwhenyoueavesdropguidedtours hahaha

I think it took us about 2 hours to explore the exhibition rooms? Which is ok la. Kita banyak buat cerita je with the displayed paintings hahahaha you would have seen it if you follow me on Snapchat! I did save all the clips though, maybe if I rajin I will combine them all into 1 video and post here. 

One of the canals running through St Petersburg! This is the canal that is the closest to our hotel and we passed it many times a day. Passed by Stroganov Palace too! But didn't take pictures because the pathways were busy and teeming with so much human traffic. So we walked to the Kazan Cathedral after that.

Kazan Cathedral! We saw a couple having their wedding photoshoot kat situ. So bagus kan all these couples, can take wedding photoshoots at such a lawa location and in favourable weather! Spent a little bit of time here then walked to the Church of our Saviour of Spilled Blood pulak.

The church was impressive in real life! The architecture and the mosaic so nice, right. Macam mainan haha! History has it the church was built on the exact spot where Emperor Alexander II was assassinated in March 1881, which explains the name. Walked around for awhile then we made our way to the nearby State Russian Museum.

Remember I said earlier we realized Russian attractions suka menyusahkan orang??? Hahahaha! Ok, so when we walked to the State Russian Museum, naturally we would walk to the front of the building to look for the main entrance because that's where you'd think you have to masuk from, kan? But no, it wasn't! And lepas dah terpinga pinga sekejap, we eventually figured out that the entrance is this small, secluded door leading to an underground area at the side of the building because we saw people walking in and out. Haha!

Lepas tu masuk through the door, there is a freaking underground maze leading to many different rooms (cloakrooms, exhibition rooms, administration rooms, etc...) and you'll need to follow arrows to get to the ticketing counter. Lepas tu dah patiently wait in line, tiba tiba two burly middle-aged Russian women will very rudely cut in front of you when it's your turn to buy tickets at the counter. Perangai sardine.

Ok fine, I don't know if that happens to everyone, but it happened to me ok. Thanks mangkuk!

Nasib baik the art displayed in the State Russian Museum is really nice, and there were two pieces which became my absolute favourites - 'Storm' by Ivan Konstantinovich Aivazovsky painted in 1889, and 'The Last Day of Pompeii' by Karl Bryullov from 1830 - 1833. Not that grand when you see them on a computer screen but when I first saw them in real life, I was smitten!

 (Source: Wikipedia)

(Source: Wikipedia)

Location of both paintings facing each other. I enjoyed this room the most ♥

Side story: We were approached by two middle-aged women (I can't tell if they were Russian though) while we were trying to figure out the museum entrance, and they asked if we spoke English. I immediately said yes and regretted it a second later!!! You see, sebelum tu, Saliheen already told me to act bodoh and pretend we can't speak English if anyone approaches us on the streets because we didn't want to get caught in some kind of trap or scam. But I think it's easier said than done leh! I immediately replied truthfully because (1) I was caught off guard and (2) They looked like they needed help ok. Rupanya they wanted to pitch some educational programme to us, and I had to hastily say no no no and scurried away... and got scolded by Saliheen thereafter T.T

Tried to look for a halal cafe called Cafe Antalya to have our dinner after that but even after 1++ hours of rounding, we couldn't find it! We became so penat and disheartened! So we ended up eating blini (Russian traditional pancakes which look more like crepes) at a random cafe with English menu near our hotel. Can't remember its name, though! What I do remember is getting excited upon entering another cafe called "Fish Room" before that, and the staff inside speaking only in Russian and gesturing that they have no English menu. Wowow..... susah payah je you guys namakan your kedai "Fish Room" hahahaha THANKS kita dah lapar korang buat kelakar pulak!