RUSSIA 2019 - ST. PETERSBURG (DAY 3)

On the 3rd day in St. Petersburg we were taken to Nevsky Prospekt, St Petersburg Mosque and also a visit to Catherine Castle. On the way to those places, we stopped for a photoshoot here - St. Isaac,s Cathedral.

Nevsky Prospekt

This is the main street in the city of St Petersburg. Here we did some shopping at the Galeria Shopping Mall (the largest and most famous in St Petersburg) situated near the Moscow Railway Station. We also had lunch at a restaurant on the 4th floor named Baklazhan Restaurant. The ambiance and food served met our expectations.

Galeria Shopping Mall - photo from their website

St Petersburg Mosque

We had the chance to visit this mosque and perform the prayer. More about the mosque information can be found here.

Catherine Palace

Catherine Palace is located in Pushkin, about 40-45 minutes of travel time from our hotel in St. Petersburg. It is situated in Pushkin.

Hard Rock Cafe St. Petersburg

Finally, before concluding our tour for the day and returning to the hotel, we were taken to the Hard Rock Cafe, St. Petersburg for some souvenirs shopping. 

HRC St. Petersburg - picture from Google

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