MOSCOW DISCO BABY YEH!
JOURNAL ENTRY NO. 4
Making travel arrangements in Russia
14th - 16th JUNE 2007
Leading up to departure we had heard quite a few horror stories about landing at Moscow airports: people being robbed, turned home, customs denying baggage, people's visas being screwed up, guns being pointed...... you get the point. So, to say the least, we were crapping ourselves! Cavey was sweating, Dyl was sweating, we were both clenching our arse cheeks as we relayed these stories to each other!!!! To make matters worse the plane had to circle for thirty minutes so airport staff could clean away the other unfortunate tourists...... ha ha ha ha...... NOT!!!! Obviously this did not help our pant crapping situation.
Touchdown...... here we go! Walk, queue...... no time to be sick, just shoot us now!!!! Blank faced officer, no hello...... oh crap...... stamp, stamp, wave on and voila we are in Moscow, Russia. Easy! We didn't even slip over in our own puddles of sweat and liquid brown stuff. We figured other people would though!!!! Our rigs come up the lift and the dogfight for a trolley begins. We both had a crack at fighting old Russian ladies for one broken trolley (we had given our good ones to the younger stunning women of course...... being gentlemen) to no avail, beaten every time. Twenty mins later we are the proud owners of an un-steerable piece of soviet scrap metal.
Customs...... that's another story altogether. Bikes? Are they motorbikes...... in a cardboard box!!!!...... come on. Are they ours?...... nah we just knicked em off gramps over there!!!! DAAAAHHHH!! Where are you going?...... to Nepal. By train? Bus? Ah Daaahh...... bike. What else have you got? Clothes, camping equipment, etc. To sell? You've got to be joking right!!!! We show them the gear list, their heads swim at the six pages and they wave us through...... ALRIGHT!!!! We try to keep the trolley straight most of the time, run over the occasional grumpy, old lady...... payback, then all of a sudden we are outside – Moscow, Russia. No pee, no poo (we hope), NO SWEAT!
We are finally here after all the months of preparation: the stress, the worry, the financial difficulties, the thousands of phone calls and square eyes from staring at the computer screen for months on end. Aaaaaahhhhhh...... sigh...... the elation is just tooooooo much!!!!
We unpack, go to get some groceries, shower, sleep, then night one, 48 hours after leaving the golden shores of Oz, we hit the Moscow Disco Baby...... YEAH...... with the fine ladies of Russia! Drink, dance, eat some local take away and walk home at 3am in full daylight. Summer in Russia eh!!!!...... the nightless days. AWESOME!!!! Time to sleep again. Two days in Moscow organising train tickets, checking the sites, taking photo's, shooting video's, etc. Walking around in 40 degree heat and humidity that makes Queensland seem like Antarctica. Long hot days...... the perfect summer if there was surf around!!!!
Neil, a friendly Aussie Expat and keen Mountain biker we had been chatting to on the plane, helps us lug the gear outside, calls his wife (who happens to own apartments in Moscow) on the mob, tees up some cheap accommodation for us, organises a cab to the city for us, and even throws some cash our way! Far out...... we are blown away! What a brilliant guy! What a great experience!
On a mission to buy our Trans Siberian tickets we take a short trip on the Moscow Metro to the station that supposedly sell them. On arrival, the frustration begins...... can't buy the tickets here. We set off on foot to three or more stations, line up in forty different queues at miscellaneous holes in the wall, talk with loads of blank faced Russians, exchange broken Russian for broken English, and walk from window to window with a cool English speaking Russian helping us. Finally after at least five hours or hair ripping frustration and pure exhaustion, we have the tickets! Overall it was a pretty fast streamlined process...... we mean who really cares if you spend a whole day out of the limited number in your life, buying a freaken train ticket?!?!...... no biggie...... AARRRGGGGHHHHH!
Preparation follows for the Trans Siberian to Novosibirsk. Day four of Ride To Everest comes to an end as we head to the train. COOL, GNARLY, RADICAL, WICKED, SICK, WILD, ETC, ETC, ETC!