Russia Plans

- July 2007 message to an Uzbek friend living in Moscow

We are indeed going to be in Russia - for one month. Flying out of North Carolina and heading to Moscow, Volgograd, Moscow again, Novograd and St. Petersburg. My dad will also be in St. Petersburg briefly in August.

I agree with you that Vietnam is a fabulous place. Kade and I enjoyed it. Next time you're in SE Asia, be sure to visit Thailand. 

- His response

Hi Allen,

I live in Moscow city and I often travel to our production cite outside of Moscow about 100 km.

Well, you have quite busy schedule in Russia. I guess it's booked through some agency? As I see, you sure will get a sound impression of lifestyle in Russia and its history. Many of objects in your itinerary are not visited even by myself.

Some of it I can show you myself (free of charge). For example, on July 28th you plan to visit Tsaritsino estate and later Kolomenskoye estate. Well, it's near by part of Moscow where I live. So I can take you by my car to look around, have a picnic etc..

By the way, I couldn't find in your itinerary a day when you plan to visit my home and enjoy some Uzbek hospitality!!!

What else I can offer? I have a small country side house away from Moscow. It's located near small city of Chekhov. There I have real Russian bath called "banya", forest, river, lake, BBQ and open fire rice pilov show with tasting of it's outcomes :))) My father also would like to meet you.

Some other thoughts on your visit to Russia:

- Beware that Moscow is one of the most expensive cities in the world by now. So be ready for huge price tags. In St.Pet, prices are about the same but in Volgograd and N. Novgorod are generally lower.

- Be ready for huge traffic jams in Moscow. For example, it takes 1.5 hour for me to travel to my city office and 1 hour out to our production (100 km away from Moscow). 

- Boat trip along Moscow river you going to have on July 28th right? I recommend it.