Pregled posta

Marketing

(photos from archives)

There was a long story behind this complicated metro map.

When I was planning for my Moscow trip, what I found on the internet and Lonely Planet was full of advice to warn people not to go there alone as it was not quite safe for a solo traveler like me.

That really scared me for a while and since I was arriving in Moscow near 11pm and the hotel I was staying at was in the out-skirt of Moscow, I decided to arrange airport pickup over the internet to avoid any trouble. The taxi-driver who advertised a rather "reasonable" fee of about USD40 was sending me a SMS just right before I was boarding the plane at Warsaw, trying to rip me off by skyrocketing the price to USD100.

I decided not to be a victim of the rip off and decided to take public transportation. However, it was not easy at all. Problems were:
1. I couldn't take taxi from the airport since the taxi booth was really good at rip off, the price they offered was over USD100.
2. Staff at information center was not helpful at all
3. The only metro map I could get from the airport was printed in very small characters, I couldn't really read it but had to take a photo of it and use the zoom mode in my camera to read the map.
4. Lack of sign-post at the airport

To my surprise, the staff, I believe were from the immigration dept, was so helpful to offer me direction despite they don't speak much English. This was totally on the contrary to the advice / comments I read from the net.

I had to ride on the airport express to first get into the city. By the time I arrived in the city, it was past the mid-night and I managed to get into the metro by several attempts to ask people on the street. I finally got help from a group of youngster, they were so nice to give me direction although they appeared not to be nice people from my first impression. I have to do an inter-change for my trip, and I could not afford to take any wrong train as the metro would be closed at 1am, any wrong move, I would be end up staying on the street, in Moscow!!

To be frank, I was a bit worry about my situation and I had put my tripod on the outer pocket of my luggage and prepared to take it out to fight in case I am in dangerous. As the train approaches the out-skirt of the city, more and more people left the compartment and finally there were only 4 person left, me, another group of 2 guys and 1 guy traveling alone. I was almost prepared to leave the train if any one of them leave as I thought I would be in a dangerous situation staying with only a guy or a group of 2 guys alone during that late hour. Luckily, no one was leaving until I reach my destination.

Another surprise to me was that there were police on every station patrolling during late hours. And they were so nice to offer me direction, as opposed to the highly corrupted image as implied on the internet.

The first night in Moscow, although very challenging, I found that officials, police and people in Moscow I met were really very nice! The safety in Moscow might have been improved a lot during the past few years!!

i handed you my secrets, my past, my life. I trusted you with them; i loved you. You promised you'd lock them up, and swallow the key; no one will would ever find them.

Somehow the lock came undone, and my secret came out. They floated into everyones home, and they were no longer secrets. I trusted you, and in the end, you lied. Now, my secrets are out and imbedded onto my skin for everyone to read-- all because of you.

1. i want to start selling my photos, but i'm not sure how. Anyone know?
2. I want a penpal. One the likes to take photos especially so we can send each other disposable cameras, fill them up, and then send them back.
3. i like guys with a 5 o' clock shadow.
4. i don't like meat, chips, salt, or soda. i'm a fan of the sweets.
5. I like chocolate milk a lot.
6. I wonder if anyone is jealous of my photography; probably not. But, honestly, i'm very jealous of other flickr members photography skills. i want to be as good as them.
7. not to brag or anything, but i'm a pretty awesome new driver.
8. i think i've turned into a big flirt recently. I never use to be, but my sister told me i should lay off a bit.
9. i noticed that i don't have a style for photography. it's all over the place.
10. So i typed all these ten facts out and once i was done i accidently clicked "cancel". All my facts were lost. I was able to think of 7 but the last three, including this one, were new. I was very upset.