"From Russia with Love" Moscow by kenyneo

From a distance- bette midler

from the moment I know that I will be assigned this engagement in Moscow till the moment on the plane ...I was still wondering what russia is like ?... what moscow is like ? ...I look out of my window ...and keeps wondering ....so many questions ...is it like europe ? never been to an ex-communist country ...

....A moment in time-whitney houston

The thought of being at the Domodedovo airport still gives me the creep ...the people dont look friendly ...dead serious in fact ...and I was praying that my visa will be no problem and the immigration officer is not a nasty one ...coz I could imagine all the hassle I would go through ...no way ...I am planning to be in the Red Square in less than 2 hours ....so all this depends " on this moment in time "

( else I will just take the next flight back to Kuala Lumpur ? No ..thats not gonna happen ...)

Total Eclipse of the Night - Irene Cara

my stay could not be more memorable ....not only because of being in a country which had embraced Communism but now rapidly enjoying the so call road to democracy ...but two important events took place while I was there ( at least one in Russia ) the G8 ( or locally called G7 ) summit where the world leaders of so called "democratic " and "rich" nation have a tea together ....

thanks to them also I decided to cancel my trip to St Petersburg, it was reported in the newspaper that untidy people, beggars and the homeless were being tucked away to give the impression of the flawless St Petersburg ....reminds me of the story of Prince Siddhartha ( then after Gautama Buddha ) ...where his father ( the king ) tried to hide all the world misery from him ...guess what it "came out in headline of the English Moscow Daily that the locals are being instructed to comb their hair properly , ( another reason why I should not go there rest I want them to arrest me for having the "messy look " hairstyle ...talking about democracy huh ...

the other even that happend was the war of Lebanon - " hezbollah " vs Israel ....everyday CNN, BBC etc bombarded me with news of Israeli bombing Lebanon or Hezbollah firing rains of rockets in Israel ...this seems to have shadowed the forever crisis of Palestinian Vs Israel and Iraq's unrest ...

did you know

Do you know that Stalin actually wanted to demolish this Cathedral during his reign because it was blocking his marching army from the Red Square ...how could he ? But he did destroyed the Cathedral of Christ Saviour ...but it was rebuilt again in the 1990s .

Shhhh...Lenin is sleeping here ...

Well , just a cool guy standing in front of another cool guy's mousoleum...lol.. try figure out their mind boggling Cyrillic alphabet ..

Its so so hot in Moscow now ...especially when we tried to follow other European tourist to walk along the Tverskaya St , from our hotel Grand Marriot to the Red Square...though distance is not very far ...under the scorching sun ...its reall uncomfortable .,but at least we made it to the Red Red Square ...

The building on the left most is part of the Kremlin Palace, the burning red one should be the Historical Museum of Moscow . Next to it stand the Gate of Resurrection ( which is a 1990 replica , the original 16th century one was demolished by Stalin in 1931 again to make way for his army )..and next to it is the Kazan Cathedral (built to honour their victory over the Poles ) and then the most famous building for the ladies ..GUM ( pronounced as Goom ). GUM to MOscow is like HARRODs to London...happy shopping