Category: holidays

It’s been quite some time since I wanted to write this post. This event dates back to september 2008 so it’s not really new but I doubt anything has changed since then in the above-mentioned airport.

We were heading back to Honk Kong to catch our flight back to Paris that day after spending two entire weeks in the beautiful islands of Cebu, Bohol and Siargao (Philippines). We had done mainly scuba diving during our holiday and we had filled our suitcases with beautiful seashells. Obviously the guy from the X-ray machine at the Cebu Airport would see them and we were prepared to leave them behind. That’s when the unpredicted situation occured. The man asked me to open my suitcase and at the same time told me that if I wanted to tip the guys (including himself) he would let me pass with my stuff. I then asked him how much my “donation” should be and he told me that was up to me. I brought my wallet out of my pocket and then the guy told me to keep it more discreet. I would meet him in the CR (Filipino for lavatory) and make my donation there.

In fact I was quite happy that my friends and I were going to keep our bounty. I went to them and quickly explained about what I was going to do while getting a few bills out of my wallet. I then headed to the CR, following the customs officer, went to the urinal near him and while pretending to pee handed him the few pesos bills. At that instant I felt like a traficking mobster bribing the authorities to let my business going through the gates. That was a movie moment.

After that I went back to my friends and we were able to board the plane with our luggage full of seashells (most of them we had bought from local people on the islands we visited). We finally brought them back to our homes where they have been ever since. The irony in this is that they never made it out of the boxes they were cautiously packed in. We probably just had left them on the beautiful beaches where we found them in the first place, but that’s another story.

There are many amazing things about cars in Russia.

It first struck me when I got out of the airport in Moscow : the stink. I don’t know what is different about cars in Russia than in France but they really smell bad. Maybe some piece is missing in the exhaust system but it’s really hard to walk down Nevsky Prospect or even cross the french-made Troitsky Most (bridge over the Neva) in Saint-Petersburg because of these digusting fumes.

The second thing that startled me was about the seat belt. People just do not wear seat belts in Russia. That’s a pity knowing there are four or five in each car, unused. Let’s just hope the governement will do something about it in a near future…

On my fith day in Moscow I had a boat to catch to reach Saint-Petersburg after a one-week cruise. We decided to go to the river station by taxi, given the fact that we had huge suitcases and did not want to carry them throughout the metro. So we booked a taxi, by phone, the day before. We were quite alarmed (amused) when the taxi company called us 30 minutes before the excpected taxi arrival time to tell us that maybe no car would be available. Some will say they have a strange booking strategy, I’ll just say : “That’s Russia !”. The taxi finally came on time and we got our boat without any other incident.

Travelling by boat is really relaxing. It nearly never stinks, maybe except when you’re at port and the winds are twisted. No need to worry about seat belts and no over sensitive alarm.

Let me explain this last point a bit further. After we arrived in Saint-Petersburg I soon discovered something new about cars in Russia. I discovered it the hard way. I was trying to get some sleep in my hotel room when this car kept buzzing on and on and on… Not only most of the cars have tinted glasses but it seems like every car has an alarm system. And I’m talking here about very sensitive alarm system, the kind that activates when a mosquito flies by the car or just when you look at the car, maybe the wrong way.

Oh ! I almost forgot as I got used to it after my quite long stay. Never cross a street without looking twice before you go. Cars just won’t stop for you. They’ll horn to warn you they’re coming but they surely won’t stop to let you go, you miserable pedestrian. You’ll certainly prefere to use the very common underground tunnels or have to wait for a vey long time before you can try to make a run when there is no tunnel in the area. And make sure you always look before you cross even if you are on a zebra crossing area and that your light is green. I nearly got killed when four or five cars went pass their very red light just in front of a cop. The cop finally blew his whistle at the sixth car so I could cross the street before my light turned back red and the cars went crazy again.

Anyway Russia is a very fascinating country and you should try to go there, just remember that cars are different.

Vocabulary :
car : машина
Nevsky Prospect (Невский Проспект) : Saint-Petersburg’s Champs Elysées