RE: Diary Travelogues | Eastern Europe | 1994 | September 11 to 15 | Part 5 – Russia
It's interesting for me to read about your caution in Moscow - of course it pays to be cautious. Perhaps that came from your travel experience and general knowledge. I on the other hand felt almost none of that when I went there a year after you. I spent 3 days there, living on the outskirts of the city in an apartment and travelling into the centre to do the tourist stuff. I really liked Moscow - I somehow equate it to Glasgow, where Peter is Edinburgh, although I've never been to St P. The first experience I had of corruption was at the airport flying to Odessa, where we had to pay a 'shtraf' for I know not what. Boy was that a stressful day! It wasn't the main airport, but the 'domestic' one - Domodyedovo I think ? Can't quite remember now.
There was a fair bit of projection going on in my mind at the time I think... going behind the Iron Curtain and the psychology of that in 1994, no so long after the collapse. Also I'd been warned and warned (in Germany and Poland) about how dodgy it was and some of that rubbed off :D ..... and then, it was kinda a bit wild-Westish at the time. St.P had none of that - and I was also friendlier towards the city where Crime & Punishment was set! Hmm the Edinburgh - Glasgow comparison. Again can't say if St. P has the snobby, stand-offish approach to life that you find in beautiful Edinburgo, would have to ask a Moskovski :). And Domodedovskaya (Домодедовская) was the stop where the police got me....just looked it up, the domestic airport is Domodedovo, as you say.
Just looked through my diary - it was because our currency declarations hadn't been stamped and we were carrying a year's worth of rent money in USD. Seemingly the max USD permissible was $500. We paid $230 in fines to get the proper stamps - Me, Becks and Dom. Then excess baggage on top - mine was another $127.
Sounds like the three of you were plump targets for a bit of extraction and extortion in the name of biz as usual :D ...
Plump and ripe for the picking. After extended periods of time on those countries you get used to it and there's a certain efficiency to getting things done in some ways. The arbitrariness of visas and all that seem ridiculous to westerners, but once you get to know 'how it works', you can use charm, connections etc. I remember in Luxembourg, not long after I left Almaty, I had to get my carte de séjour and I'd forgotten some arbitrary document and I asked if there was nothing we could do. Of course there wasn't, but I still had my Almaty head on lol!
LOL, yes this is an excellent illustration of the differing ways of doing biz - India is similar. There you can use connections (or the threat of calling on connections) to push most things through at a quicker or more efficient pace. Of course if you don't have the means, or if you wanna play 'straight', you'll be waiting a few lifetimes :D