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On our third day in Moscow, we did our duty to the great socialist cause - visited Lenin at his mausoleum. We were surprised by the long queue but it moved reasonably quickly. Weather was cool, close to zero probably but not too much wind chill fortunately. We went through security and walked past heroes of the Soviet Union before going down to the basement of the mausoleum when he lie. Just like Mao (Kay told me) he had a warm reddish light shining on him making him glow with life; unlike Mao, his hands were visible. We were not allowed to stop, just file past, in and then out just as quickly. Outside we passed other leaders such as Chenienko, Andropov and Stalin himself (he used to lie next to Lenin but was buried by Khruschev).
We then visited the Diamond Fund, a collection of the finest treasures of past including the Romanovs. Once one viewed the large range of diamonds and other precious stones then one can appreciate the Revolution; the diamond studded crown made the Queen’s looked paltry.
It being a Saturday, Red Square was a hive of activities. We saw a dozen weddings and lots of local and foreign tourists. The biggest organised tour groups were the Chinese, guided by Russian guides speaking in Mandarin.
So far we have been quite impressed with the new Russian society, even though we should not judge Russia by central Moscow. We have had bad reports but we found a rather civil society – minimal push and impatience in the crowded road traffic, underground trains, and long queues. We found helpfulness even though the communication barrier is always there. As a sign of our relaxed state - the three of us are in different places right now: I headed for the Internet cafe, Kay went back to hotel while Yvonne went by herself to a Russian art gallery.
For us from Sydney, the metro has been a highlight of Moscow. The statistics say they carry 9 million a day, more than NY and London combined. Trains are old and very noisy but they arrive so frequently that they sometimes have to wait for the preceding train to vacate the station. We buy a combined ticket of 10 costing 200 R or 8 AUD which we could share; the fare is a flat rate of 20 R per trip regardless of distance. The transfers between lines can be complicated because the different stations have different names even when they are linked together. Of course we are slow in reading the Cyrillic script but it was fun. Yesterday we visited a couple of stations famous for its Socialist art decorations, complete with Lenin's bust, hammer and sickle insignias, memorials to socialist struggles, and mozaics of Lenin addressing crowds. Probably because those were tourist attractions, there were some young loutish characters hanging around watched by a few serious looking policemen.
Tonight we joined the tour proper. We will have a full day of guided tours tomorrow before proceeding to Novgorad and then St Petersburg.
More to come in the next few days.
Cheers,
Kin Mun
We then visited the Diamond Fund, a collection of the finest treasures of past including the Romanovs. Once one viewed the large range of diamonds and other precious stones then one can appreciate the Revolution; the diamond studded crown made the Queen’s looked paltry.
It being a Saturday, Red Square was a hive of activities. We saw a dozen weddings and lots of local and foreign tourists. The biggest organised tour groups were the Chinese, guided by Russian guides speaking in Mandarin.
So far we have been quite impressed with the new Russian society, even though we should not judge Russia by central Moscow. We have had bad reports but we found a rather civil society – minimal push and impatience in the crowded road traffic, underground trains, and long queues. We found helpfulness even though the communication barrier is always there. As a sign of our relaxed state - the three of us are in different places right now: I headed for the Internet cafe, Kay went back to hotel while Yvonne went by herself to a Russian art gallery.
For us from Sydney, the metro has been a highlight of Moscow. The statistics say they carry 9 million a day, more than NY and London combined. Trains are old and very noisy but they arrive so frequently that they sometimes have to wait for the preceding train to vacate the station. We buy a combined ticket of 10 costing 200 R or 8 AUD which we could share; the fare is a flat rate of 20 R per trip regardless of distance. The transfers between lines can be complicated because the different stations have different names even when they are linked together. Of course we are slow in reading the Cyrillic script but it was fun. Yesterday we visited a couple of stations famous for its Socialist art decorations, complete with Lenin's bust, hammer and sickle insignias, memorials to socialist struggles, and mozaics of Lenin addressing crowds. Probably because those were tourist attractions, there were some young loutish characters hanging around watched by a few serious looking policemen.
Tonight we joined the tour proper. We will have a full day of guided tours tomorrow before proceeding to Novgorad and then St Petersburg.
More to come in the next few days.
Cheers,
Kin Mun
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