FIRST POST FROM RUSSIA

Had a nice flight on Asiana into Khabarovsk. Not full, mainly Russians returning. Two of the FAs were from the Ukraine, all announcements were in Korean/Russian....then English
We landed and stopped about 100m from the Terminal. The Customs official on the tarmac was a young blonde woman in an impossibly short mini-skirt and huge heels. The unsmiling woman Immigration official asked her colleague a couple questions and then stamped my Passport. The RP had been worried about how she would be received on a pristine Russian Passport issued in New Zealand, but no problems
We then watched as the “ground crew” drove a truck to the rear hold, and threw the bags on board. No “cans” here. They then, with due ceremony, drove to the terminal and tossed the bags on a “belt”
Nice to meet our transfer guides, Svetlana and Alexander, our name on a board, got our HUGE amount of luggage into their SUV. (Did I mention the RP got the wine confiscated at SYD on departure, by packing it in my wheelie bag, without telling me)
We then went to find the Dalavia office to buy the tickets for Magadan. I found it myself in the end, upstairs in the virtually empty Terminal. The two woman took 10 minutes to issue the tickets off the File I had alreday created. Then, we were off
A beatiful, hot sunny afternoon. "Sacha" demonstrated his driving skills every 5 minutes by overtaking whatever/whenever, but Sveta devoured all the info she could from the RP about "New Zealand"
Everyone was "outside". We checked in (on 2 floors) at the Intourist Hotel and our room was on the 10th floor, overlooking the River. Two rooms, lounge with bilious green leather suite (sofa bed for Nikita) and big TV and huge a/c unit busy doing.....Nothing. Very hot....all night
(We got tired of telling them....And also the electrician we had to call to get the power points working. "I'm not sure" he told the RP, "But think of me as a magician from the circus")
We walked around the town for 2-3 hours, had a few beers in the only place we could sit outside, the RP and Nikita ordered their favourite salted dry fish to go with beer. "Are you going to comment on the miniskirts for all of the trip ?" I was asked
Then, late Dinner in the Hotel. All older Russian couples requesting songs from the band. The RP suddenly said "I've been here before.....Nothing has changed, We used to laugh then !" (AEROFLOT crew hotel.....) The waitresses were all in uniform, the wine was warm, ("What is ice bucket, you want ice for drinks ?") and the food very average
Next day, we were privileged to meet Alexander and Nina, Parents of Polina in Auckland. Wonderful people, Nina walked us around, then took us home for "tea". I should have guessed....Russian tea......Alexander had come home from work to cook. Huge amounts of food, and cognac, with many toasts…At lunchtime