Auckland... VS. Dxb Moscow Part II

Not much chance to party this weekend cos Saturday nite I was leaving for Auckland…
But cos I missed Zouk so so so much…
Had to go on Friday nite… though I was completely shagged out from a Bkk turnaround, having to be up at 430am since morning n only getting an hour’s sleep before…

Met Jules n Cheeks for a much needed lychee martini at members’ …
B4 catching up with Dan n his friends…

He intro-ed me to a girl friend of his…
Who went like…
“Ooh.. I know (insert my name).. I like (insert my name)!”
I was like… “huh? Who R You???” Totally puzzled…

Felt warm n fuzzy inside when Dan explained that she read my blog on the drama…
And when she said.. “I like you more than her!!! I tell him you’re better than her but he dun wanna listen!!”

Hahahahaha~

Well… all’s over n all’s well..
As long as Dan is happy w his choice… ;)
Oooh.. n got people read my blog one!! Yippee!
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Had mild fever on the flight into AKL..
Lucky for me, it was a team flight n my flymates were nice n asked after me, n offered Vit C pills n all…

It’s not like a land job where you can hop out during lunch or tea break to see a doc n get half day off…

When we are sick onboard.. we’re like on our own…
I’d feel bad if I were to become unfit to work n my colleagues had to make do with one crew down ya know?

Thank god the fever n bad throat went away… I prob caught a chill when standing under the blasting air con at the gay platform in Zouk the night before…

Anyhoo… while catching up on much needed rest in between concerned phone calls from Ray…
The fire alarm came on in the hotel…

It’s common for hotels to do drills… n sound tests during our stay.,..
But this one went on for some time…
Totally going “wee weeee weee weeee weee weeee weee weee. This is an emergency, evacuate evacuate!” or some crap like that…

Wah lan…. Had to call the front desk to confirm before reluctantly deciding if I should indeed go down…
In the end, I pulled on a jacket n took my mobile n water bottle n room key n took a piss b4 leaving the room…

It was a pretty funny sight when I went down lei!! ;D
Apparently all the 4 sets of crew were sleeping or something… even though it was only like 7pm in the evening…

Some were even gonna check out later in the evening…

Everyone had tousled hair n looked slightly embarrassed n harassed in their PJs.
Some were only in bathrobes…
And many in not much else… heh heh..

The Team in PJs..

Fire Engines on standby liao...

A first for me!
So fun!! ;D

But nothing happened in the end… n when the hotel staff allowed us to; we lumbered back to our rooms half an hour later….

Anti climax…

We gathered in team girl’s room for cigs n girlie talk…

Roobs... with her bf problems n commitment issues..

Chris n her pillow who travels the world with her…. Hahahaha~

AKL is super boring…
Cos of the time difference n flight timing… most of my time there is spent sleeping..

For the first time though… my AKL room is equipped with a big ass plasma TV..

COOL!
But dunno how to connect my DVD player to it… -___-“

It’s stuck to the wall!!! Cannot find the holes to plug my player to!!!

SO, I have decided to finally blog bout my MOSCOW trip…
Super outdated…
Sorry larrr… but if you guys wanna go Moscow for holiday still got something to refer to rite rite rite?!???? ;p
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DXB MOSCOW APR’06 (Part II)

Mommy asked me b4 I left…
“Is it Mos – coh or Mos - Cow ah?”

hee hee…
I would like to call it The Cow affectionately…
K lame. Never mind.

Pax profile on the Moscow flight damn hideous…
They r abrupt to the point of rude… highly impatient n demanding….
And they freaking drink a lot can!!

They even brought their own bottles of vodka on board!!

Anyway… before you go, should do some homework on wat to sightsee lar..
I went only with intention of seeing the St Basil’s Cathedral, probably the Red Square n the Kremlin…

And language is gonna be a big barrier… esp when asking for directions…
So you need to bring along a person with a good sense of direction (ME ME meeeee!!!), n someone who can read maps… n figure out how to use the metro…

So many many times we tried asking for directions, we ended up with different instructions from different people… n in different languages…
One lady can only speak French.. n all I caught were “deux” n “alle” which meant “there” or if I can remember…
Crappy…

Okie moving on…

DAY 1

First intended stop was the Flea Market… at Ismailovsky Park Metro…
We were all sleep deprived having arrived in the morning n not rested… but determined to make the most of it…

The metro stations in Moscow were all beautiful…
This is only Prospekt Mira, where our hotel was…

Metro map in train…

Tips when taking the metro…
1) Have a metro map in hand n physically count the stops to your destination or transit stations…
They dun have those hanging signs in the stations n you dun understand the Russian announcements n it’s easy to miss your stations…

2) The lines are colour coded n the brown line is like the Circle line…
To transit to different line… have to walk to different platforms..

3) Look at the freaking Russian alphabets!!! The laterally inverted “R”s n all..
Have to be keep looking at direction signs in the station n compare with map n figure out if it’s where you r indeed going…

Spes, myself n Muscleman Larry
We overshot one station n came outta underground…
Nice rite!!!

We made it after getting lost on the metro thrice!!!!
Aprene n myself. At the Flea market

Russian dolls!
Super expensive can!
They rip tourists off!!

Exchange rate bout 1SGD: 17. something roubles…

Apparently a must buy souvenir when going Russia..

But I hate ornaments… they collect dust.
n I can’t think of any one I know who like to clutter their space with souvenirs
I like to buy practical stuff for people know? Like food to try or stuff cannot get in SIN…

Kebabs!! Or Soulvakis!?!
The lamb, pork n salmon damn shiok!

Most of us had no mood to shop… too sleepy..

Me? Only thinking of trying the food in Moscow… :D
Beer there super cheap also!!!

The babes onboard…

Enough of crappy shopping…
Back on the metro to go back hotel to SnooZZzzzeee~

Ice cream to battle fatigue!!

DAY 2

Me n Spes decided to break outta the big group to get more places done in better time..
Big groups dun work when you have time constraints…


We started on our first leg of the Metro Tour.. En route to Moscow Hard Rock Café…

First stop… Novoslobodskaya…

Prob the most decorative with excellent stained glass windows…

Stop No. 2
Mayakovskaya (line 9)
Named after poet & playwright Vladmir Mayakovskaya (1893-1930)

Where the ceilings are decorated with mosaic such as these…

Hard Rock Café Moscow…Smolenskaya Station (blue line)

I was there!!!
But shot glass no stock again!!!! As in Dubai..
Nabei bananas…
Damn angry can!!!!!
And not easy to find somemore!! ARGH!!

Building Smolenskaya-sennaya Pl.

Skyline in Moscow not as pretty as NYC.. not many tall tall buildings one lar.
And all grey n dull.. if you know wat I mean..

En route again to the Red Square…
We exited at some metro n saw this.. think it’s the Aleksandrovsky Sad (blue line)
Haven’t figured out where we were or who this dude is though..
NIL English anything…

Walked past Moscow State Art Gallery of A.Shilov…

And got naughty…
My R(A) sense of humour acting up again… ;D
Anything phallic or nude gets me going… geez

Pushkin State Museum of Fine Arts

Random sculpture thingy outside Pushkin..

Din go in lar… no time!!
My next visit to Moscow (if ever)… will be whole days spent in museums for sure

Cathedral of Christ the Saviour
Stumbled upon it when walking in wrong direction…

Another majestic statue/memorial ground for someone great whom we dunno..
Once again.. NIL english.
How tourist unfriendly!!


Finally managed to reorientate n head in correct direction towards the Red Square!
Gates of Kremlin.

Once again din go in cos it’s like huge… but it houses The Armoury n many historical stuff.

The Red Square was blocked off for something for the Easter Weekend…

So we had to walk one big round to get to St Basil’s…

We passed the Historical Museum…

Think the front entrance to Red Square…

Got lost for a long while cos dunno how to get thru to the other side of the gates!!

In the end found the G.U.M department store…
A huge complex, which houses luxury, stores such as Dior, Gucci, the works…

The Dior Gaucho...
~Salivates~*

Inside the great G.U.M

At first thought fashion in Moscow sucks… seeing the way people dress..
Lotsa drab n dull winter wear..

But the street wear stores equivalent to our Blackjack in G.U.M has a good collection of international designers such as Marithe Francois Girbaud. Nice nice nice!!! ; )
But super expensive!!!

Even the Dior bags and Nike shoes are more ex!

The Puma boutiques carry the PumaXEvisu jeans…
In SIN, also have lar… in the Puma boutique in Marina Square…

I like quite impressed ready!!

Then walked past a shoe shop just outside G.U.M… n they had…

SWEAR shoes!!!
Yes, that’s a hyper hyper high pair of crazy platform boots…

Tried looking for ‘em in London n the naughty range of booties n skate shoes such as these like extinct liao..

CUTE!

Not that I would wear them now.. at this age…
Have a pair of cool boots at home where the soles have crumbled cos I kept ‘em too long…
Heart pain..*~ @300 plus bucks a pop!

Pair of red leather Converse, which Deniz has been asking me to look out for for the longest time…!
Wanted to give him as a bday pressie but no have his size! Sian!!



FINALLY!
After much-frustrated attempts to cut thru cos the Red Square was blocked off..

St Basil’s Cathedral!!!!!!
Yippeee!!!

Once again…
It’s like the Eiffel Tower for Paris…

Really much prettier than in the pics… all colourful n cheery!

And again…

Hee

The Red Square

And yes… our voyage is complete…
From tired grouchy to happy… ; D

After that I really felt that I had enough for the day…
Even got tired of taking pics…
But Spes urged me to complete our Metro tour… which we have only seen 2 outta 6…

En route back to hotel…

Ploshcad Revolyutsii (purple line)
Theme: The Great October Revolution of 1917

If you can see…there are figures on each side under each arch…
These 76 bronze figures are supposed to be the creators of the new socialist world.

Novokuznetskaya (green line)

Has many very patriotic themes including subjects of Russian history…

Kropotkinskaya (red line)
With marble columns n walls, it was built for the never begun Palace of Soviets…

Finally the last one…….

Komsomolskaya (red line)
Honours the Communist Youth Org.

Shag!!

DAY 3

Lunch with the crew at pasta joint near hotel…
Exorbitant prices considering the measly portioning..
And pretty much our first sit down meal together in the 3 days there!
Everyone was complaining of weight loss having lived on biscuits n cup noodles n eating on the run!!

And for me… back to G.U.M shopping department for Deniz’s red Converse when he finally replied with his shoe size…

As I said, his size ran out…

But before calling it a day for rest n relax b4 flight early DAY 4, I couldn’t resist getting a glimpse of the St. Basil again…..

St Basil n the reopened Red Square…

I looked n looked n tried to capture a mental picture… n also what I felt when I first saw it…

And remembered the feeling I had when I first saw the Eiffel Tower as well..

…… Nice! ;)

Bye bye Moscow!!
Maybe I’ll see ya again… maybe not!
But I’ll always remember ya!!
Hee hee*