Moscow Via Dubai ( 25 April to 4 May)

Upon receiving news that I was to fly to Moscow via Dubai, my initial feelings were mixed with apprehension and excitement. The thought of 10 days away from Singapore, away from my friends and my nice, cozy warm bed was quite hard to swallow. However, the very idea of visiting Kremlin, St. Basil's Cathedral (The building with lots of colorful domes), Russian Metro, etc was indeed something to look forward to!

And of course, I was definitely curious whether the Russian girls look as hot as Maria Sharapova and why the domes/facade of ancient Russian buildings was so colourful!

Day 1, Dubai: Stopover in Dubai. After some rest, we took a cab to the Mall of Emirates, the largest shopping mall outside North America. The 223,000 square meter Mall was spacious and palatial, offering a wide range of entertainment including an artificial skiing facility, Ski Dubai and a 2-level arcade. The eclectic mix of shops (As many as 450 retailers in total) definitely held our interests as we zoomed in from one shop to another in search of the best bargains. Oddly though, Vivo City (Singapore’s largest shopping centre) came to our minds whenever walked through the mall.

Day 2, Dubai (Friday): Our mission of that day was to experience the famous Gold and Spice Souks in Dubai. The catch: The shops were closed till 4 pm due to Friday prayers in Dubai! (So remember, do take this in mind if you are planning a tour to Abu Dhabi/Dubai) Therefore, we ended up hunting for more bargains in another shopping mall in Dubai before flying off to Moscow at night.

Day 3, Moscow: (We warned you first) After enduring a 2 hour journey from the airport to the hotel, we finally reached our hotel at noon time. The rest of the day was spent in Tverskaya Street, Moscow's main street where we sipped coffee and watched the world go by. The sights was simply dazzling, we kept seeing beautiful Russian girls everywhere we went, as long as they were young and thin, they were simply beautiful. This made me wonder on how Russian supermodels would look like if the girls in the street looked like this!

Day 4, Moscow: We took the metro down to the Russian flea market, which sold an interesting array of items including Russian Dolls, intricate hand painted jewellery boxes, fur hats of various assortments, etc. Interestingly, many Russians were interested to take pictures with 4 of us girls. In general, most Russian women are womanly and statuesque in height. Being Asians and being petite, we were very interesting to them! Standing at approximately, 5 feet 2, we were similar to the smallest piece of the Russian doll. Russian Dolls are beautiful handmade dolls in cylindrical shapes and can be opened up into 2 halves to reveal a smaller doll of similar painting. The smaller piece will open up to reveal another smaller piece and this will continue till it reaches 10th piece. At 3 pm that day, our little flea market adventure came to a halt when snow unexpectedly fell and we had to cower under shelter (As well as to quickly buy more winter gear as we were ill prepared for snow) till the weather got better. We ended the day with a quick trip to the Red Square and Cathedral of Christ the Saviour before heading back to our hotel.

Day 5, Moscow: Our trip this time consisted of just us 4 girls instead of the entire group. The metro, breathtaking and unique, was not easy to navigate as the signages and directions were all in Russian (We had someone to guide us the day before). The weather forecasted today was ‘light showers’, luckily, the sun was shining brightly that and we finally reached our rendezvous point, the Red Square. We started our sightseeing with the most famous cathedral of all, Cathedral of St. Basil the Blessed. The church was built by order of the Ivan the Terrible to commemorate the victory of the Russian army over the Kazan Khanate and final liberation of the Tartar-Mongol yoke. There is a legend that Ivan had the eyes of its architects removed so that they could never create something of comparable beauty. Its also said Ivan was especially fond of the cathedral because the domes reminded him of Tartar heads on sticks.

Thereafter, we proceeded into the Kremlin where we visited buildings such as the Cathedral of Dormition, Cathedral of Annunciation, etc. The interior of the cathedrals were wonderfully painted with frescoes of Christ with many of them richly decorated.

Before proceeding back to our hotel, we hopped in and out the stations in the Russian Metro where each and every station displayed a royal splendour of its own. We visited stations such as Kievskaya, Mayakovskaya, Novobolskaya, etc in which each station were adorned with either magnificent sculptures, basreliefs, paintings, stained glass panels or murals executed by the best artists.

Day 6, Moscow: During my trip from the hotel to airport, the sights were just as interesting sd I actually managed to see a Russian walk a bear (Sadly in chains! around the park. Disparity between USSR and new Russia could be seen with grey non-descript buildings amid the colourful houses and buildings.

Day 7, Dubai: Our excursion to the Gold Souks were a success this time round however the excursion itself was not as interesting as expected. It did not help that the temperature was dry and went up as high as 35 celcius. We ended up shopping in Mall of Emirates and ended the night with a quick trip outside of the famous Burj Al Arab just to take pictures. The Burj Al Arab is one of the most famous landmarks in Dubai and is designed to resemble a billowing sail. Entry into the Burj is strictly prohibited except for its guests. You may enter the hotel should you wish to have tea or a meal there as well. However, a tea can cost you up to S$120 per person!

Day 8-9, Dubai/Singapore: After getting some rest, we flew back to Singapore and back to my nice, cosy bed!