Thread: Travel Blog; CIS/ex-USSR countries (i.e. Russian speaking)

Originally Posted by Hanna

My neighbours think that the demise of the USSR was a great tragedy and that all the bad information about it was propaganda and lies.

When TV showed a feature about the 20 year anniversary of the August coup in 1991, they both thought it was a great shame that the coup failed! Oh dear.

After Bernard Shaw visited the USSR during the starvation, he told everyone what a nice country it was, that there was actually no starvation there, that HE'd had there the best dinner in his life (!). He also said that "any 'skilled workman...of suitable age and good character' would be welcomed and given work in the Soviet Union". When he was asked by a journalist during his press conference why then he hadn't stayed in the Soviet heaven and had still gotten back, he said something like "The Britain is hell for sure, but I'm an old sinner and supposed to be in hell".

I guess your neighbors are the same kind of people.

I guess your neighbors are the same kind of people.

No they have nothing in common with him. They're just working class people who have been reading a certain popular communist Northern paper all their lives. Life was tough up here when they were young and workers were not always treated that well Then they saw reports of a modern country emerging fast in the USSR, where working class people like themselves were the heroes. Social democracy in Sweden never did away with capitalism, it was just bridled a bit. They've never actually travelled outside of Scandinavia so they are not basing their view of any practical experienes. But I was surprised to hear them both indignantly say that Gorbatjov and Yeltsin were traitors etc. It's one thing to be a communist in general, and another thing to idolize the USSR. Plus, they are also reasonably Christian, although not of the strictest kind. I don't know that it's possible to combine that with the kind of ideology that they seem to support.

But they are incredibly nice people and they are certainly entitled to their opinion as far as I am concerned.

Hanna,
I'm hoping to visit (maybe Belarus), Ukraine (Kiev and Odessa) and Russia (Moscow and St. Petersburg) in 2012. Now that your trip is over and some time has passed - is there anything different you'd do on your trip? Any places you recommend? Any places you'd say stay away from? Do you have any advice for anyone planning to go to Belarus, Ukraine and Russia?

Thank you,

Scott

You will always wish you had spent more time in X. I was just in Petersburg for 6 days, and I could have stayed another six. rushed through the Tretyakov in Moscow in under two hours b/c of time constraints. jeez!!

Originally Posted by chaika

You will always wish you had spent more time in X. I was just in Petersburg for 6 days, and I could have stayed another six. rushed through the Tretyakov in Moscow in under two hours b/c of time constraints. jeez!!

Did you stay in a hotel? If so, how much was it? How did you get your visa? There's a site evisa.kdmid.ru to get a visa. Ever use it?

Thank you,

Scott

@ Scott, here are my "lessons-learnt"......

No 1 tip, do not underestimate the difficulty with getting a visa to the great nation of Russia, lol!!! Start early, fill in all papers properly and generally treat the issue with great respect! You must do it in your own country, it is extremely complicated to get the visa anywhere else. By far, my greatest regret about this trip was not being able to get a Russian visa because I had underestimated the difficulty. If you want to travel visa-free to Russian-speaking countries, then Ukraine and Kazakhstan are the two possibilities.

2 - If you go to Ukraine, be aware that the majority of signs etc that you see when you walk around town, will be in Ukrainian. This is really confusing if you are trying to learn Russian. I think most people speak Russian between themselves, but do not go to Ukraine with the expectation that it is Russian-speaking in the same way as Russia itself. On the other hand, Ukraine itself is a very interesting cool country with super-friendly and helpful people.

3 - Forget all the stories you may have heard about "the wild East". It is basically not dangerous to travel in this area. There are no more crooks or theives than anywhere else, and the average person is MORE helpful towards strangers than what they'd be in an average Western European city, for example. There are no ticket touts and no beggars.

4 - If you travel by train (which is a good idea...) be sure to allocate LOTS of time to figure out how and where to get your ticket at the station, read the time table and learn train related vocabulary. The people who work in the railway industry in this area do not speak other languages, so you must be able to speak with them in Russian. Even if some railway staff members look a bit grumpy at first sight, they are almost universally very helpful if you ask them for help in a nice way. Also remember that when there is not a convenient train, there might well be a coach for the same stretch. They usually leave from a separate coach station.

5 - Do not comment on politics, since the politics of Eastern Europe is extremely complex and as foreigners we sound stupid and / or ignorant / arrogant almost regardless of what we say. Instead ask open and unbiased questions and simply listen to what people say. Alternatively forget about politics and enjoy the culture or history for example.

6 - Give Belarus a chance and you'll have a very unique experience. It's a country that has very little tourism despite being very interesting for lots of reasons. For all extents and purposes it is Russian speaking although street signs are in Belarussian. The guidebook hysteria about Belarus being Soviet-like is totally exaggerated. The only thing that is a bit unusual is that you see quite a lot of people in military style uniforms, but I think they simply have desk jobs for the state, and are not policemen. Belarus is extremely good value for money compared with Russia. You can stay in a perfectly nice and clean hotel for USD 20 a night, just as an example. It is also an extremely safe country totally devoid of robberies or yob behaviour. Beautiful nature.

7 - Visit smaller towns, not just the capitals.

8 - I regret that I didn't go to more concerts or to opera, theatre or ballet. In Belarus in particular, it's super cheap and the quality is fantastic. I went to a piano concerto and it was amazing.

9 - Try to meet somebody who is local and willing to show you around. That way the city feels more real and you get a better feeling than you'd ever get from a guided tour.

10 - The local Gum/tsum department stores are listed in all guidebooks, but they are not where the good shopping is in Ukraine and Belarus . For that, try the markets, chic boulevards with new (and expensive) designer clothes, or indoor / underground shopping centres.

11 - The tastiest and best value restaurants are the ones serving local food. Do not have Italian, French, Sushi etc in this part of the world. For what you get, it is not good value. Be prepared for very long waits for food at restaurants and don 't get upset, it's just the norm.

12 - Consider fitting in some fun activity, like going hiking, going to a spa, take a week of skiing or sunbathing depending on the season.

13 - I would have loved to go to the Caucasus, to Central Asia or Russia's Far East. If you were to do something really cool, you could fly to St. Petersburg, then travel by train through Russia stopping in interesting places on the way and return to the US over the Pacific. There might well be some airline flying Vladivostok directly to the USA, else, just book a ticket with a change in S.Korea or China.

14 - Bring and give little presents to people from your own city - it's the culture! People you meet will be more hospitable and friendly than you could ever expect, and mutual gift giving is part of the customs, I think. I wish I had thought of bringing souvenirs to give away, but I simply didn't think of it. If you have food on the train, offer something to everyone sitting nearby, for example biscuits or fruit.

Originally Posted by Hanna

@ Scott, here are my "lessons-learnt"......

No 1 tip, do not underestimate the difficulty with getting a visa to the great nation of Russia, lol!!! Start early, fill in all papers properly and generally treat the issue with great respect! You must do it in your own country, it is extremely complicated to get the visa anywhere else. By far, my greatest regret about this trip was not being able to get a Russian visa because I had underestimated the difficulty. If you want to travel visa-free to Russian-speaking countries, then Ukraine and Kazakhstan are the two possibilities.

2 - If you go to Ukraine, be aware that the majority of signs etc that you see when you walk around town, will be in Ukrainian. This is really confusing if you are trying to learn Russian. I think most people speak Russian between themselves, but do not go to Ukraine with the expectation that it is Russian-speaking in the same way as Russia itself. On the other hand, Ukraine itself is a very interesting cool country with super-friendly and helpful people.

3 - Forget all the stories you may have heard about "the wild East". It is basically not dangerous to travel in this area. There are no more crooks or theives than anywhere else, and the average person is MORE helpful towards strangers than what they'd be in an average Western European city, for example. There are no ticket touts and no beggars.

4 - If you travel by train (which is a good idea...) be sure to allocate LOTS of time to figure out how and where to get your ticket at the station, read the time table and learn train related vocabulary. The people who work in the railway industry in this area do not speak other languages, so you must be able to speak with them in Russian. Even if some railway staff members look a bit grumpy at first sight, they are almost universally very helpful if you ask them for help in a nice way. Also remember that when there is not a convenient train, there might well be a coach for the same stretch. They usually leave from a separate coach station.

5 - Do not comment on politics, since the politics of Eastern Europe is extremely complex and as foreigners we sound stupid and / or ignorant / arrogant almost regardless of what we say. Instead ask open and unbiased questions and simply listen to what people say. Alternatively forget about politics and enjoy the culture or history for example.

6 - Give Belarus a chance and you'll have a very unique experience. It's a country that has very little tourism despite being very interesting for lots of reasons. For all extents and purposes it is Russian speaking although street signs are in Belarussian. The guidebook hysteria about Belarus being Soviet-like is totally exaggerated. The only thing that is a bit unusual is that you see quite a lot of people in military style uniforms, but I think they simply have desk jobs for the state, and are not policemen. Belarus is extremely good value for money compared with Russia. You can stay in a perfectly nice and clean hotel for USD 20 a night, just as an example. It is also an extremely safe country totally devoid of robberies or yob behaviour. Beautiful nature.

7 - Visit smaller towns, not just the capitals.

8 - I regret that I didn't go to more concerts or to opera, theatre or ballet. In Belarus in particular, it's super cheap and the quality is fantastic. I went to a piano concerto and it was amazing.

9 - Try to meet somebody who is local and willing to show you around. That way the city feels more real and you get a better feeling than you'd ever get from a guided tour.

10 - The local Gum/tsum department stores are listed in all guidebooks, but they are not where the good shopping is in Ukraine and Belarus . For that, try the markets, chic boulevards with new (and expensive) designer clothes, or indoor / underground shopping centres.

11 - The tastiest and best value restaurants are the ones serving local food. Do not have Italian, French, Sushi etc in this part of the world. For what you get, it is not good value. Be prepared for very long waits for food at restaurants and don 't get upset, it's just the norm.

12 - Consider fitting in some fun activity, like going hiking, going to a spa, take a week of skiing or sunbathing depending on the season.

13 - I would have loved to go to the Caucasus, to Central Asia or Russia's Far East. If you were to do something really cool, you could fly to St. Petersburg, then travel by train through Russia stopping in interesting places on the way and return to the US over the Pacific. There might well be some airline flying Vladivostok directly to the USA, else, just book a ticket with a change in S.Korea or China.

14 - Bring and give little presents to people from your own city - it's the culture! People you meet will be more hospitable and friendly than you could ever expect, and mutual gift giving is part of the customs, I think. I wish I had thought of bringing souvenirs to give away, but I simply didn't think of it. If you have food on the train, offer something to everyone sitting nearby, for example biscuits or fruit.

Hello Hanna,
Thank you so much for the advice! I'll keep it in mind. My wife lost her passport so she has to get one then I'll start planning the trip.

Thank you,

Scott

I am SUCH an idiot - I have LOST my photos from this super cool trip.
I can't believe I call myself an IT professional and make such a basic mistake (have been on a laptop and an external drive only for the last year and a bit, since all my stuff is in storage in London - but obviously external drives too, can crash!)

I'll have to do a data recovery in the autumn when I have settled back in the UK ££££ this is super expensive.

My only backup is in fact this travel blog and a few photos that I sent to some friends and relatives.

But this was a VERY interesting trip and I am FAR from finished with these countries!
Travelling alone was much more fulfilling than I had expected and it is relatively easy to meet people to talk with. It's a bit "weird" and antisocial perhaps, but it gives you total freedom too. All I was missing is somebody to discuss the exciting experiences with.

The height of the trips were>

1) An impromptu "guided tour" of Kiev in Russian by a Belarussian guy on a business trip, who had a day to kill and knew the city quite well. What a grand city! I had no idea Kiev had so much to see. I'll be back for sure. Not to mention Yalta which I did not get to. Can't wait!

2) Ending up in the mysterious republic of "Pridnestrovie" by chance - a place that does not officially exist as a country, but has its own currency and border check.

3) Speaking Russian for the first time as an adult - in Moldova!

4) Positively surprised by Belarus - very well organised and newly renovated country. Gomel, Minsk and Vitebsk - all well worth a visit.

5) Staying at a sanatorium - funy, relaxing and different - and really helped my migraines which have been a lot better since - went on outings and met lots of nice and interesting people.

6) The beaches of Latvia - awesome!

Oh Hanna, I'm so sorry to hear that! Losing photos is so difficult. People say, "Oh, well you at least went there and have your memories," but it is not the same... I know.

So what you need to do now is download this diary, scan all your ticket stubs and anything else you have in hard copy form, and then along with all the photos you can find... save them all to a cloud somewhere so you hopefully won't lose anything else.

Originally Posted by Hanna

Positively surprised by Belarus

It seems that your compatriots don't share your opinion

Originally Posted by Hanna

I am SUCH an idiot - I have LOST my photos from this super cool trip.
I can't believe I call myself an IT professional and make such a basic mistake (have been on a laptop and an external drive only for the last year and a bit, since all my stuff is in storage in London - but obviously external drives too, can crash!)

I'm a data recovery guy
Do you want my help?
I'll try to make it free of charge but shipping is on you

If you don't want to ship, I can recommend a good data recovery company in the UK (we DR guys like mafia, know each other ) but as you already know it is expensive

Originally Posted by Basil77

It seems that your compatriots don't share your opinion

I know - this is so silly!
This whole country is in the grip of extreme political correctness - you wouldn't believe some of the things... One of the basic tenets of this is a fixation with democracy as the ultimate good, and solution to all problems, according to the latest definition coming our way across the Atlantic. These people don't really know what they are talking about, wrt Belarus, or they've been drinking the US Kool Aid and think they do... If they need to worry about European countries in shambles, I'd recommend them to go to Rumania or Albania. Peopler there are a lot worse off than Belarussians. They could use our economic help. Democracy is a means to an end, nothing else. If the Belarussians want to change things, let them do it themselves. It's not Sweden's or anybody elses business.

Even sillier is that the exact same people that complain about socialism in Belarus at the moment, were falling over themselves in turning a blind eye to serious issues perpetrated in the name of socialism prior to '90, and praising or wanting to copy the latest grand project in the USSR, giving Swedish foreign aid to North Korea or Communist guerilla groups. Because this was PC back then, political struggle and equality was cool and democracy was secondary.

In my opinion these people lack principles! They change their opinions to match whatever winds are blowing from the nearest super power at the moment... And add some homespun nonsense to it... This has unfortunately been a trend in Sweden for a century now. When is my country going to wake up and actually stand firm for a position that is rooted in what people here actually want, rather than being a pathetic copycat of whoever holds the most swing in international policy. I guess it's only a matter of time until these spineless people start regarding China and whatever views the Chinese hold as the best thing since sliced bread...

Either way - I can't believe a professional diplomat, the ambassador, would have anything to do with a stunt like this. Who could it possibly have benefited? Nobody.

Originally Posted by Doomer

I'm a data recovery guy
Do you want my help?
I'll try to make it free of charge but shipping is on you

If you don't want to ship, I can recommend a good data recovery company in the UK (we DR guys like mafia, know each other ) but as you already know it is expensive

Wow you are so kind, thanks! Cool job, but a tough industry I guess! Any MR users in the US definitely ought to use your business as a first stop for data recovery.

I read that there are quite a few scammers, and it's hard for the honest professionals to justify the seemingly high prices to customers.

Let me get back on whether to take you up on your offer! I really appreciate it!
I have a lot going on at the moment, so I thought I'd take care of this in September, in the UK.
The British company I was thinking about using is called "Kingdom Data recovery". It sounded like the name of a Christian business.. and they had some good and genuine sounding customer testimonials. I wrote there, and the guy responded back straight away, warning me that it sounded serious. Did you here of them, or who would you recommend?

~

The technical background is this:
The drive in question is a Seagate 2 TB drive, internal, although it is temporarily housed in an external bay, since I am using a laptop. The drive was bought only about 5 months ago, so the problem is not down to "wear and tear".

The fault appeared almost immediately, with about 1 hour during which is was a bit noisy (which I should have reacted on). I think it got a bump, while in use. Fell over from standing upright... My fault!
The fault is almost certainly mechanical, although I wouldn't know what.

• After plugging in the USB cable, the drive makes a squealing sound for 1/2 second, with about 1 second inverval. This carries on for about 15 seconds, then stops.
• I think that it can't read from the drive due to some mechanical problem, perhaps a fault with the disk itself, or the "arm".
• I haven't been able to test the drive connected with the SATA cable directly to a normal motherboard, because I don't have a desktop PC here.

I have my collection of Russian films which is quite large, on this drive, as well as my collection of Asian films, photos and my Audiobook collection. Everything but the photos are replacable, although it would take significant time. Some of the audiobooks had not been copied to my ipod and could be hard to find online again.

This data was first on a small "travel" 1 TB Samsung drive that can only connect with mini USB. I think it's a solid state drive - or a laptop drive, it is too small to be a normal internal drive.
This drive contains almost the same data, just 5 months out of data. But it packed up too (!!!) however I was able to get the data off it in time, using recovery software "GetDataBack". But this drive is inaccessible too now, at least to me. Doing data recovery on this drive, rather than the 2 TB would be an alternative, if the 2 TB fails. But the photos are not on it. The majority of the films are also on the hard drive of my regular PC, which is in storage in the UK.

I wanted to ask the data recovery firm to see if there is any way they can access the content on one of one of these drives, and copy or clone it to a replacement disk. Does that sound feasible to you, or would you recommend me to do something else?

Originally Posted by rockzmom

Oh Hanna, I'm so sorry to hear that! Losing photos is so difficult. People say, "Oh, well you at least went there and have your memories," but it is not the same... I know.

Thanks, you are always so sweet!!!

Originally Posted by Hanna

Wow you are so kind, thanks! Cool job, but a tough industry I guess! Any MR users in the US definitely ought to use your business as a first stop for data recovery.

I read that there are quite a few scammers, and it's hard for the honest professionals to justify the seemingly high prices to customers.

That is very much true

Originally Posted by Hanna

I have a lot going on at the moment, so I thought I'd take care of this in September, in the UK.
The British company I was thinking about using is called "Kingdom Data recovery". It sounded like the name of a Christian business.. and they had some good and genuine sounding customer testimonials. I wrote there, and the guy responded back straight away, warning me that it sounded serious. Did you here of them, or who would you recommend?
[B]

I've never heard of the "Kingdom Data recovery" company
In the UK I would recommend this company - Professional Data Recovery Service UK : Hard Drive Recovery : USB Memory Stick Recovery : Memory Cards Recovery : CD-DVD Recovery : PC Images

Originally Posted by Hanna

The drive in question is a Seagate 2 TB drive, internal, although it is temporarily housed in an external bay, since I am using a laptop. The drive was bought only about 5 months ago, so the problem is not down to "wear and tear".

The fault appeared almost immediately, with about 1 hour during which is was a bit noisy (which I should have reacted on). I think it got a bump, while in use. Fell over from standing upright... My fault!
The fault is almost certainly mechanical, although I wouldn't know what.

• After plugging in the USB cable, the drive makes a squealing sound for 1/2 second, with about 1 second inverval. This carries on for about 15 seconds, then stops.
• I think that it can't read from the drive due to some mechanical problem, perhaps a fault with the disk itself, or the "arm".
• I haven't been able to test the drive connected with the SATA cable directly to a normal motherboard, because I don't have a desktop PC here.

This is most likely an indicator of seized spindle problem
When you drop a hard drive, relatively heavy platters packet puts an excessive force on the spindle fluid bearing causing it to jam
The sound you hear is drive's inability to spin up
This is quite complex problem but it is good in some way because it preserves drive from further mechanical damage
Please do not power this drive up anymore, you won't get anything good from it
You definitely need a DR professional to do this kind of job

PS: there is also a chance that it is not a seized spindle problem but jammed heads. Newer Seagate drives have a parking ramp on outside of platters packet. If heads got between the ramp and platters, because of the excessive force they could have created media damage, in this case you data might be unrecoverable

Thanks for explaining all this, and for the recommendation! Do you think my chances of recovering the data are slim, or quite good?

Which drive do you personally think is most reliable in the 1-3 TB class, I mean what brand or type?
I thought Seagate was very good, but this is the worst crash I have ever had.

Originally Posted by Hanna

Thanks for explaining all this, and for the recommendation! Do you think my chances of recovering the data are slim, or quite good?

It all depends on the damage, it is impossible to answer before proper evaluation

Originally Posted by Hanna

Which drive do you personally think is most reliable in the 1-3 TB class, I mean what brand or type?
I thought Seagate was very good, but this is the worst crash I have ever had.

I use WD Green family drives recently

But neither of drives is protected against drop

All hard drives should be protected against two things: heat and vibration/shock. These are two major damaging factors

Originally Posted by Hanna

In my work I have come across policies where all credit card transactions from a Ukrainian IP address are categorically denied (due to percieved risk of cyber crimes). This also contributed to making me worried, the prospect of ending up empty-handed and alone in a country where you can barely make yourself understood, is rather scary.

Hanna:
I'm so glad that I read your post again before my trip. I've just called my credit card and debit/ATM card company and apparantly it was a smart thing to do. They actually asked for my departure and return dates and ran them through their security systems.

I called mine also. Luckily I had more than one credit card because one of the cards I used once and then for the rest of the trip was declined. When I got home and called them they said even though I informed them of the countries we'd be in how would they know if my card was stolen or not.

Good luck,

Scott

Originally Posted by Ann

Hanna:
I'm so glad that I read your post again before my trip. I've just called my credit card and debit/ATM card company and apparantly it was a smart thing to do. They actually asked for my departure and return dates and ran them through their security systems.