Moscow and St. Petersburg for the non-Russian

[Jack Kollmann]

         Re: travel to Russia.  If you don't have your own contacts and
experience in Russia, I have always recommended -- in both Soviet and
post-Soviet times -- that Americans join a tour group sponsored by a
reputable American organization.  Russia is not geared to serve the
individual; you can spend a lot of time and suffer frustration trying to
get service that you think is coming to you.  The problem is not a language
barrier:  it is a service barrier.  Groups, on the other hand, if the tour
is well planned and the tour managers are skilled, you accomplish much,
waste little time, and are comfortably housed and decently fed.

         Nothing in your description of what went wrong surprises
me.  Things will go wrong, the living standard is below ours, shysters are
ready to rip you off, elevators and stairwells in apartment buildings are
trashy and smell of urine, etc., etc.  Those of us who have lived in Russia
can top any horror story you can relate.  Many of us do, however, have an
abiding love for the country, the culture, and the people that keeps us
going back again and again.  We do, however, make arrangements carefully in
advance with people we know and trust.

         Back to the person who does not have the contacts and
experience:  take a tour sponsored by a reputable American organization.  I
recommend tour sponsors that send along both an American (or West European)
tour manager and a lecturer; that way, you don't have to fuss over the
logistics of the experience and you learn things in perhaps better depth
and perspective about the culture, history, etc., than the native guides
can provide.  I do NOT recommend tours sold directly by travel
companies.  Rather, I recommend taking a tour sponsored by a cultural or
alumni organization:  e.g., university alumni associations, museums,
Smithsonian Institution, National Trust for Historic Preservation.  These
organizations hire experienced and reputable tour companies to set up and
manage the tour, and the reputations of both the sponsoring organization
and the tour company (typically American) are on the line.

Best wishes,
Jack Kollmann
Stanford University


At 04:23 PM 6/12/01 -0400, you wrote:
>A word of warning to anyone preparing to go to either Moscow or St.
>Petersburg without a reasonable command of Russian and/or very close
>Russian friends there. My husband and I have just returned from two of the
>most miserable weeks we've ever spent - anywhere. I speak Russian, he does
>not and that seems to make all the difference in the world. Tourist,
>especially American tourist, equals "enemy," thus anything goes, all
>manner of chicanery. The xenophobic "them" and "us" perspective ruled in
>Moscow from the airport and its taxi drivers, to the Kremlin and its
>ticket booths, and everything in between except for the lovely hotel, the
>Moscow Marriott Royal, in which we stayed thanks to my husband's Marriott
>points. St. Petersburg proved to be an nightmare from start to finish. The
>"humanitarian-cultural center" Piligrim that solicited my patronage on
>March 22 from a notice submitted to this listing:
>
> > I represent the Humanitarian-cultural center "Piligrim" based in
> > St.Petersburg. We are specializing in receiving groups and individual
> > tourists in St.Petersburg and can provide you with the required services
>at
> > considerable prices. As for accomodation we can offer private appartments,
> > hotels for students and rooms in St.Petersburg hotels (*** to *****).
> > You can advise us what amount of money you are ready to spend for your
> > acommodation and we can choose the suitable accomodation for you.
>
>started the ball rolling. I made a call to them from Moscow, a few days
>beforehand, to confirm our arrival in St. Petersburg. No mention was made
>at the time that "the suitable 'accomodation'" that we had chosen and for
>which we wired American cash to them as a deposit, alas, could not be
>rented to us because the owner (suddenly?) decided a longer-term rental
>would prove more profitable. The apartment on which we had agreed was five
>minutes walk from the train station. The apartment assigned to us was near
>the Neva and a good hike from any metro station. The entry was dark and
>littered with trash, the stairs were in total disrepair and a safety
>hazard, the closet-sized elevator reeked of urine - everyday during our
>week's stay there. When my husband mentioned our displeasure with the
>situation, he also remarked that at the end of our stay, we should not be
>charged for the ride back to the train station. We heard nothing more from
>this "humanitarian-cultural center" until the day before our departure. At
>that time we were informed that "the manager would not let the driver"
>take us to the train station for free and were given the number of a taxi
>company. Nadia left the entire task of making the arrangements to us/me
>after stating some "agreed-upon fee" that proved entirely fictitious, and
>not in our favor, either! The farce continued up to and including the taxi
>ride arranged in St. Petersburg with Moscow Taxi to take us from the train
>station back to Sheremetevo. Theoretically a reputable taxi company, they
>too stated one fare and charged an entirely different, higher fare. Our
>sojourn at the airport needs no comment. It simply provided the expected,
>carnival conclusion to the grotesque nightmare of the preceding two weeks.
>
>Once again, I share this experience in order to forewarn those planning to
>set off to Russia on their own for the first time. If you have any
>illusions that you're going to a civilized country, I would like to
>disabuse you of them. In what western nation can "individual tourists"
>enjoy the experience of being ushered into the wrong apartment through
>trash and darkness, up broken stairs and a urine-scented lift? My husband
>was certainly impressed by all the new experiences Moscow and St.
>Petersburg afforded him. And for those imagining that this was my first
>time in Russia, you're sadly mistaken.
>
>Alla
>
>Alla Nedoresow
>102 School Lane
>Trenton, NJ 08618-5021 USA
>alla-n at home.com
>+1 609 392-5231
>
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