"Flying Aeroflot to Delhi" a Moscow Travel Page by GrumpyScot

2 minutes to two and I've left British soil for a bit. We are now paying guests of Aeroflot - Soviet Airlines, on an Ilyushin Il-62m (the one that looks like a VC-10) and shortly (I hope) bound for Moscow.

20 to three and we're over the Thames estuary. I'm getting a crick in my neck from looking backwards. The pilot is still climbing, and about 50% of the passengers (mostly Japanese, with some Indians) are asleep. Cathy's one of them - so is the little Japanese girl on her left, who had difficulty understanding about seat belts.

It was reassuring that the Russian air hostesses went through the same emergency drill as on British airlines, even though I doubt whether lifejackets have save the lives of many airline passengers.

Drinks trolley - Pepsi-cola or lemonade free - pay for alcoholic drinks. I asked how much the vodka was.
"English money?"

Yes. The stewardess studied a folded bit of paper.

"One pound seventy-one."

We struggled to put the money together, and handed her the exact amount. She handed back a florin and held out a 10p piece.

"Another like this."

Fortunately I had one. I expected a measure of vodka, or a miniature, but got a 200ml bottle of "Stolichnaya" (probably translates as "falling over juice"), and 2 cans of Pepsi as a mixer. And a somewhat slapped wrist from Cathy.

Food - familiar (fairly!) but good - a beef stroganoff, salad etc.
Wine - one glass, good.
Water - a good idea (I have a bottle of "Highland Spring" stashed away, along with one of Red Label).
Tea.
We're flying at 10,000m+, at 950 km/hour, and we're now over the Russian border. I've managed to put my watch forward 3 hours to Moscow time.

Russia looks quite like parts of Britain (should that be surprising?) with a lot of forests interspersed with agricultural land, and a scattering of smallish lakes.

The passengers have woken up. Jabber, jabber - the foreign languages make it futile to eavesdrop. A European-looking couple opposite (Russian?) are playing poker dice.

8.03pm Moscow time (3 hours flying time). We're on approach to Moscow. Temperature is 11°C. Better put my jersey on.

8.23pm. Now descending at an ear-knackering rate, still above the clouds. The sky is a beautiful pink around the horizon, and there's a ¾ moon lying roughly south.

9.18pm Moscow time. A slick, if slightly unnerving, change of planes at Moscow. Militiamen in khaki uniforms at the gangway and passport control. The airport was almost empty, and semi-blacked out - I think they were just waiting for our flight.

We're now on an Ilyushin Il-86, the only Soviet wide-body jet. It has a lower deck, 8 seats abreast and is stuffed full of Indians. They're (the airline, not the Indians) playing the same muzak as before the last flight - over-orchestrated versions of the Moonlight Sonata and Bach's Prelude in C.

We're up in the back, in the extreme tail, next to an emergency exit on the starboard side. A few Buddhist monks in maroon robes are over to our left. Cathy's reading "Unreliable Memoirs" by Clive James.

I forgot to mention the age of the militiamen - young. In fact barely out of school.

Technical corner: distance to our first stop, which is Tashkent, is 3,000km, or 3½ hours flying time. There are Tupolev Tu-16 bombers parked next to the runway.