Dreams of Moscow

This was supposed to be written up much earlier in September, but I never got around to doing it till now. :p

Arrival in Moscow was a drag... all because of the rain. Rain, in 10 degree temperature, with heavy winds, is not a joking matter. I was somewhat stranded for about an hour before I was even able to hail a taxi to the hotel. On hindsight, I enjoyed the weather, and almost frowned whenever I saw the sun!!

I won't talk about work this time round, as there really isn't much to mention. Out of the whole trip, I only managed to visit central Moscow once, and I did a lot of walking (i mean kilometres worth) Taxis are still expensive, actually more so than when I was there a few years back. Price haggling over the fare hasn't changed much too. :/ The Subway is convenient, but woe to me, most of the place I am at, entailed at least a 700 metre walk to any station. Once you make it to the Subway, trains are like 1 per minute.

I don't speak Russian, maybe "this", "that", "I", "you" "here", "there", "left", "right", but that's just about it. So, when I stick my head into the "hole" in one of their convenience shops, I usually come out having my neck in pain, if I am trying to buy anything other than Coke or cigarettes....

Overall, Moscow is getting more expensive and more crowded. Given that people all over Russia come here to get a better living, its not surprising. I managed to catch some dinner with my friend (previous colleague), and he says the same thing too. His hometown is in St. Petersburg, a fair sized city, and his rent in Moscow has been increased 3 times since I last saw him.

The most memorable thing I did this trip, was walking 1 full kilometre to McDonald's..... following the road signs. It was near my hotel (not so near I found out, 3 kilometres), somewhere after Leninsky Prospekt. I have the photos of my little "trip". Let me find out where I put them, and upload them later.

Photo links to Flickr

The Korean Connection

October came and went, and I spent 3 weeks of it in Seoul and Busan. I loved the weather there (its fall), and the many conveniences you could experience while living there: like the abundance of convenience stores, availability of vending machines, free internet within the hotel... the list goes on.

I did find time to catch up with a few friends in Seoul, go window shopping, visit the bazaars in Busan and take some pictures. One thing I still noticed in Seoul, was how inconvenient it MIGHT be in Seoul, when you don't speak Korean. Most people you meet on the street would try to runaway the moment you spoke that incoherent, multi-faceted, guttural sounding (at least to them) language. The younger ones would try (I sincerely applaud their effort), however, but some still fail to understand.

Travel through the extensive subway was still good as ever, with the additional of more stations than when I was first there. The only gripe I have, is that the outer lying subway stations closed at about 10.30 - 11.00pm, which made late night outings pretty difficult this time round (I was living in an area just outside of Seoul.

The only regret I have is not being able to take more pictures. :(

http://www.flickr.com/photos/james_chuas/sets/72157602832083586/