RUSSIA 2019 - ST. PETERSBURG (DAY 2)

Our itinerary for today is the visit to Grand Palace in Peterhof and the State Hermitage Museum. We left the hotel at 9.00 am and the journey to Peterhof by coach was approximately 50 minutes. All museums in St Petersburg require visitors to wear shoe cover and not to take photos using the flash. We were also told not to touch anything in there.

Grand Peterhof Palace

Since our trip was in winter, the water fountain was not in operation😞. The entrance fee is RUB 550 (included in the package). Since the weather is cold, we had coffee at the cafe before entering the palace. We also bought some souvenirs after finishing the tour at the stalls beside the palace. 

This is our tour guide in St Petersburg. Very knowledgeable, friendly and helpful. Able to speak some Malay words effectively. Jovial and funny at times.

State Hermitage Museum

After a late lunch, we were then taken to The State Hermitage Museum. It's already dark (about 5pm) and we had to brave the cold weather made worse with a little drizzle. The museum is very huge to cover with our already tired legs after visiting the previous palace. The entrance fee is RUB700 (included in the package). We took a lot of photos and these are some of them.

On the way back to our hotel we stopped at this souvenir store.

Some shots of St Petersburg taken on the way to our hotel.

SWITZERLAND & ITALY 2020 - UPDATES DUE TO COVID-19 (27 MARCH 2020)

Due to the serious worldwide situation of the current outbreak of COVID-19, we decided to cancel our planned trip to Zurich, Luzern, Interlaken, Lauterbrunnen, Zermatt, and Milan in May 2020. It is not worth the risk to travel at the moment. 

By canceling the trip we had to cancel all the accommodation made earlier, some are free of charge whilst for the property in Milan and Lauterbrunnen, a request had to be put up (through booking.com) to waive the room charges which had passed the free cancellation period. Luckily the property in Milan agreed to waive the cancellation fee and I would like to thank them for being understanding with this global situation. I am still waiting for the property in Lauterbrunnen to waive the cancellation fee and am hoping for positive feedback.

We are still waiting for our carrier Thai Airways to cancel our flight back from Milan on 21 May 2020 and be refunded.

On 13 March 2020 I received an email from Thai Airways informing me they had canceled my flight from Milan to Bangkok and replacing it with a flight from Zurich to Bangkok on 21 May 2020. With this information, I emailed Thai Airways to request a full refund of the fare. Till today, 17 March 2020 I have yet to receive their reply. 

updated - 17 March 2020

On 20 March 2020, I received an email from Thai Airways informing me about the cancelation of flight TG418 KUL-BKK from 4 May 2020 to TG416 KUL-BKK on 6 May 2020. I found this flight adjustment ridiculous as my previous flight itinerary (KUL-BKK, BKK-ZRH is a connecting flight) is as follows:
4 May 2020 KUL-BKK
5 May 2020 BKK-ZRH

With the new flight adjustment, the itinerary is 👇. It seems they are trying not to refund the fare even though their unprofessional action (connecting flight blunder) clearly shows it. How can I travel to Zurich from Bangkok on 5 May 2020 and travel from Kuala Lumpur to Bangkok on 6 May 2020? Just refund me the fare due to the COVID-19 situation worldwide.

updated 20 March 2020@1950

On 24 March 2020, I received another email from Thai Airways informing me about the cancellation of flights TG416 KUL-BKK and (6 May 2020) and TG415 BKK-KUL (22 May 2020) after realizing their mistakes which I had mentioned above on 20 March 2020. But they have yet to cancel my flight TG970 BKK-ZRH (5 May 2020) to avoid refunding the fare I guess.

updated 26 March 2020@1802

Today, 27 March 2020 I received another email from Thai Airways about the cancellation of all my flights TG970 BKK-ZRH on 5 May 2020 and TG971 ZRH-BKK on 21 May 2020. With this cancellation, all my flights KUL-BKK, BKK-ZRH, MXP-BKK, ZRH-BKK (flight adjustment) and BKK-KUL.

With these cancellations hopefully, Thai Airways will refund me the full fare.

updated 27 March 2020@1104

RUSSIA 2019 - ST. PETERSBURG (DAY 1)

BRISTOL HOTEL, ST. PETERSBURG

After clearing the immigration, customs, collecting our luggage, and changed currency (€300 to Russian Ruble), we exited the arrival hall and met our local tour guide. We were transported to the hotel as it was already 2.00 pm. Our double room was quite small with limited space but the bed was comfortable with clean sheets. The complimentary WiFi was fast and stable. Breakfast was acceptable but had to follow the scheduled time for our group. This is the first experience for me.

Currency Exchange at LED

Hotel's Breakfast schedule

BAKY PECTOPAH (BAKU RESTAURANT)

Upon completing check-in and other necessities, we were taken to this pectopah (restaurant) for our late lunch before proceeding to complete our itinerary for the day. The food here was great especially the Borscht Soup. The interior decor is beautiful.

CHURCH OF THE SAVIOR ON BLOOD

We were taken to this iconic landmark and a tour inside the church. The outside to the main entrance had some maintenance/renovation work being done so we had to snap our photo from a different side.

Some of St. Petersburg's pics were taken along our first day there.

RUSSIA 2019 (ST. PETERSBURG & MOSCOW) - THE JOURNEY

KUL-TAS-LED

Since we are using a travel agency for this trip, SafirGo Travel (half board package), we were told to be at counter G KLIA @1900 to meet with the agency's representative. After receiving our passports and boarding passes and a simple briefing, we then headed to Gate C6 for departure.

Departed KLIA at 1047 and arrived at Islam Karimov Tashkent International Airport (TAS) @0306. Overall the journey was smooth. Upon landing, we were shuttled from the tarmac to the Main Terminal Building. But halfway to the building, the shuttle bus broke down and a replacement bus took us to the building. 

Since we are transiting in TAS, we were told to board another bus to the transit building. It's quite unusual to take the shuttle since the building is connected. Whatever the reason is once there, we were given a new boarding pass and underwent a security check.

When it was time to board the flight, we noticed and experienced the chaos at Gate B8. There was no proper queue and passengers simply jumped the queue. We departed TAS @0852 and arrived at Pulkovo Airport St. Petersburg (LED) @1138.