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DITTRICH · Posted: Sun Aug 23, 2009 9:39 pm Post subject: Russian Trip 2009

Well, I had all this typed up and then after one hour I seemed to lose it all. So it's being done in chunks to keep my stress levels down.

Les

DITTRICH · Posted: Sun Aug 23, 2009 9:49 pm Post subject: Getting to the Border

This year things were planned at the last minute. Just a few hotel numbers jotted onto a piece of paper (others in my navigation system - Garmin) and a eurotunnel booking a few days in advance.

Got to the Polish western border very quickly by driving the direct route via Antwerp ring (at night) and straight past Berlin to the border at Frankfurt Oder. The hotel I stayed in on the German side wasn't very good. Ramada. Never again. Must research hotels on the Polish Side. Next day, no more Polish border controls (EU internal borders) , straight through Poland (A2 motorway 3x PLN 11 tolls) very fast. Arrived at Kaunas, Lithuania at night. Stayed in Best Western hotel. One way system nightmare in Kaunas but after 15m arrived at hotel. Good rooms and food.

Next day set off for Latvia. At the Latvian border, a policeman (armed) asked to see my registration papers for the vehicle, otherwise no EU internal border controls.

Arrived at Russian Border near Zilupe, Latvia at around 2.30pm.
Everything had gone really well up to this point.

Les

DITTRICH · Posted: Sun Aug 23, 2009 9:56 pm Post subject: The Border

The crossing is actually called Terehova, Latvia and Buratchki, Russia. There was one small problem. A long line of 120 cars waiting to cross. Oh F**k - here we go... - or rather we didn't. I walked to the front of the queue and asked the border control guard at the entrance to the Latvian station a few questions. The answers weren't to my liking. This is the EU. There is one queue. You are at the end of it. I asked the people first in line how long they were in the queue. 15 hours they said.

It transpired that the Russians could only process around 10 cars and their occupants every hour. Every two hours the line - almost 1 km long - moved forward.

At around 0130hrs the next day, I found myself in agroup of 5 cars at the front of the queue before the Latvian border station. Whlist I was in the queue, the border guards used to take a list of the number plates of all cars in order to stop people selling their places in the queue to other drivers. If your number wasn't on their list, you had to go to the back of the queue. Don't leave the queue for any reason so you don't miss getting counted. I should also mention that I have absolutely no idea why on Monday 3rd August there were so many cars in the queue.

At last we get waved into the Latvian border station. I confess my memory wasn't so good at this point. There is only so much red bull you can drink. I think they looked at the car, its contents, my passport and my registration document V5C. I also ascertained from a border guard that it was possible to buy Russian insurance inside the "Terehova" customs building - you can't miss it - big building with the word TEREHOVA written on it.

Now inside this building is a branch of Parekh Bank and at 0200hrs on a Tuesday morning it was open for business. There were 3 ladies on duty. One in charge doing nothing. One playing solitaire on the computer and the last one, the insurance lady was sleeping under the counter on a camp bed. She wasn't very happy at being woken up. However, 1,710 roubles later I had a Russian Insurance certificate. They don't do windscreen insurance stickers anymore. I had to fight to get an accident form off of her and as for a terms and conditions booklet...at 0230 hours I let that part go as she had clearly lost interest. The third party insurance at 1,710 RBL for 1 month was cheap and based on engine cm3. My car fell into the 2,000 - 2,500 category - around £34 all in. Now you can change money here but there is no "bankomat" or "hole-in-the-wall" and you can't take money on a visa debit or credit card. You need to arrive there with sufficient cash money to change into RBL.

So back into the queue and before you know it we are in the no man's land between Russia and Latvia. But the fun had yet to start.

The Russian side I remember a little better.

The border guard at the entrance to mother Russia gave me a little chit of paper with the car registration on it and a migration card. The little chit of paper records your progress through the Russian side and you will give this chit back to the border guard at the exit to prove that the customs and immigration people have done their stuff.

The migration card - two parts - entry and exit. Fill out both now saves time later. I needed - literally - a magnifying glass - to fill the forms in.

Now we get waved inside the Russian border post.

First the immigration part is fairly straight forward and they take the "entry" migration form, scrutinise my visa and passport, and stamp it and give it back.

Next customs...Well actually, at 0330 hours they were all pretty pissed off. And so would you be if you'd been working your ass off in the middle of the night. They were sorely pissed off and well just "Russian". The trick just to smile and deal with it. Firstly, you get two copies of the customs declaration in Russian. I can read some Russian but I make some mistakes on both identical forms and they make me do it all again - after pointing out all the mistakes - they enjoyed this part. Then we get to the temporary import certificate for which they need the registration documents V5C. This is where things have improved. Now you get the Vremmeni Vvosd (temp import doc) on the customs forecourt off a computer printer after a few minutes. No photocopying. No extra payments. They even asked me how long I wanted it for! One month please! So no need to waste more time in Moscow getting the t.i.c. extended beyond 10 working days. Now the inspection of the car. They inspected it twice just because they were nosey and because I was the only foreigner in the queue. I was told I had too much luggage for one person and "chocolates" were needed. I said nothing and although they were a little pissed off because I suddenly forgot how to speak Russian, the incident passed off. They were just being difficult and dealing with a foreigner at 0400hrs must have been just too much.
Now the last stage, I hand over the little chit to the border guard and I am in Russia.

Les

DITTRICH · Posted: Sun Aug 23, 2009 10:48 pm Post subject: The Russian Side

Now, in Russia at 0500hrs Tuesday, it is still dark. After deducting the 1hr time difference, the border has cost me 14hr30m compared to 2hr00m under normal conditions.

I fill up the car and retire to the service station cafe for a coffee and burger. I wait until it is light enough to see all the road ahead - especially "holes" and "cops" AKA the DPS... I latch onto a truck at 0600 hrs and go behind it for around 150kms just in case there are cops around and then zip off on my own.

The M9 has improved and continues to be improved. There was some contruction work going on mainly in Tverskaya oblast. Alot of the really crap bits have dissappeared entirely. Bridges and construction works must be treated with extreme caution. Variations in the road surface and level can buckle wheels. I almost did exactly that at a point where an S63 AMG mercedes saloon had succumbed. Only £100k worth of car on the roadside.

Inside Pskovskaya Oblast the M9 is a pretty good single carriageway road with some older patched bits and truck "lines". Tverskaya Oblast has major construction work underway. Some is very new and great, some under construction - gravel, and some older crap road. By the time you get to around Moskovskaya Oblast the road turns into a real dual carraigeway / motorway and its then very smooth the rest of the way into town.

10 hours later at 4pm I arrived at the Dacha outside Dmitrov, Moscovskaya Oblast.

Les

DITTRICH · Posted: Mon Aug 24, 2009 7:01 am Post subject: Road Maps in Russia

There are a number of useful shops of which Dom Knigi "Molodaya Gvardia" outside metro station "Polianka" is very good. Also "Biblio Globus" which is to the east of the Lubianka "Hotel".

However, I also had the opportunity to zip over to a company called Navicom in Ulitsa Rechnikov which is the Garmin distributor and authorised service centre to ask some advice. After an interesting discussion, I managed to get my GVN 52 satnav unit software changed to the Russian Version which allows both cyrillic and western input. I also purchased roads of Russia v5.15 and the latest european maps v2010.1 . And the price? Equivalent to £68 including the software install which required taking a notebook out to the car so we could use the head unit touch screen to put the unit into the correct "mode" and load the new software.

So now I get english menus with cyrillic maps. I can have english or russian voice guidance but the english doesn't work well with cyrillic names. I have full address searching in Russian and route calculation. It even shows the road where our Dacha is. The only compromise is that the european maps reside on another SD card and there is only one SD slot. It could have been arranged otherwise but not enough time to do all the file transfers which can take ages.

Now very satisfied and 1:200,000 paper maps largely redundant.

Les

romdur · Just Starting Joined: 17 Mar 2010 Posts: 0

Les,

Thanks for the terrific posts! There's no substitute for actual experience.

Sometimes, folks who are making their first journey to Russia seem to imagine that it's only a more colorful version of the West... I try to explain that they could be in for some surprise...

This account of your road trip is of great educational value.

DITTRICH · Posted: Mon Aug 24, 2009 6:25 pm Post subject: Yaroslavl Note

The whole city is being renovated for their 1,000 year anniversary due next year (I think). Alot of the roads have been dug up and navigating the city is a nightmare. Coupled with this are the very enthusiastic militia who are fond of fining drivers for traffic violations. The signage is crap and I ended up with 6 other drivers in the fine queue. However, the militia school doesn't extend as far as teaching English or understanding a V5C registration document in English - needed to write up the fine. 100 RBL not a big deal. So they flunked filling out the form and let me off. I was travelling with, and following a Russian driver so feeling a little guilty I paid half of her fine.

We stayed in the hotel "Kotorysyl" which was on a street that was being dug up. Hence very few guests but we negotiated the lumps and bumps to get to the avtostayanka. Good old soviet twin rooms (£50 for a 2 bed room) sharing a bathroom and toilet between them. Hotel almost empty. Restaurant closed, but bar operational and restaurant menu operational. Food was good by Russian Hotel standards.

Fact of the month: this hotel appears to have one lift capacity 4 people serving the lobby for a hotel with 100+ rooms.

Les

DITTRICH · Posted: Mon Aug 24, 2009 6:51 pm Post subject: Rostov Velike Note

I almost always get to Rostov. Such a nice sleepy town that goes to bed at 6pm unless you are a tourist or it's friday night. Fortress, churches, monastries and lake Nero. Normally we stay at the "Dom Xors" by the Kremlin on the lakeside. However, we now decide to upgrade our horizons and book into the Boyarski Dvor right next to the Kremlin gates. An interesting experience. Rooms were quite good but on the third floor which is in the roof. the water pressure is unreliable especially if people in adjoing rooms try out their bathrooms at the same time. The credit card machine works! With my visa card! Getting credit cards to "work" is an experience - there are so many possible problems it's unreal. But the major problem is breakfast - if you could call it that. Some blinys, some "Kotlets" sort of burgers and that "hard rice" stuff gretchka? can't remember. Instant coffee and no fresh milk - we're in the countryside for f**ks sake. Never again. Avoid like the plague and I've stayed in some pretty ropey places but this is not value for money. I felt sorry for the staff - it's the owner who should be shot and 50 years ago he would have surely been.
However, around the corner from the hotel just past the souvenir shop is an alleyway and in here is a nice little georgian cafe that does **excellent** cheap food. Shashlik to die for and a whole bunch of other stuff I can't remember what it's all called. Well recommended.
And I almost forgot. On friday, the Slavianski restaurant (best joint in town) was fully booked out for a birthday so we fetched up at another place in the centre where a wedding bash was going on. Miss tax inspection (full gold wedding dress) was getting married to Mr oil refiner from yaroslavl. Cut to the chase, we just joined in, and ended up proposing toasts to the happy couple, and ordering each other russian champagne and vodka. Then dancing and, well, getting pissed. A class evening out with the locals. We paid our bill ourselves which was largely alcohol related £70 for 6 people. Food wasn't bad but we were past caring at this point.
Les

kjedwards · Posted: Wed Aug 26, 2009 12:05 pm Post subject:

Hi DITTRICH

Glad to hear your trip went well - except for the awful wait at the border.

A couple of friends have just arrived in Tagenrok/Rostov and drove there (first time) without problems except they had a 12 hour wait at the Poland/Ukrainian border at the Ukrainian side.

My wife and I are off to Russia and Ukraine again this Monday. This time we will be gone for 9 weeks and going to explore more to the south - Stavropol, Sochi.

Yours

Kevin

kjedwards · Posted: Wed Aug 26, 2009 1:54 pm Post subject:

Sorry that should have been Ukrainian/Russian border and not the Poland/Ukrainian border

DITTRICH · Posted: Tue Sep 01, 2009 3:04 pm Post subject:

Dear Kevin,
Thanks for the comments.
I may pm you in the future about the south becaue my next crazy plan involves getting to the black sea via the Ukraine, crimea, kerch ferry and then to Sochi and ferry to Trabzon in Turkey and back via Greece and Adriatic coast.
Rgds
Les

DITTRICH · Posted: Sun Sep 13, 2009 2:06 am Post subject: And Back Again

On 27th August, we fetched up at Buratchki at around 1530 hrs. This time only 30 or so cars. 3 hours later we are in a group of cars at the front of the queue. I am told by a Russian friend that it is possible to pay to get to the front immediately. He paid around 1,000 RBL I think. But basically this time it is much easier. We show our passports and get into the station in a group of around 4 cars. Next fill out customs declaration twice and hand over t.i.c. and show V5C registration document. Customs inspection almost non existent. Immigration lady very nice, processes passports and chats with my son in Russian. Then we show our passports and V5C at the exit and then enter Terehova.

Latvian customs decide to be real bastards because I rolled into an empty bay when the light on the overhead gantry was red. As the sun was full in my face at that point, it was an easy mistake to make as the only red light I saw was the one in the inspection bay itself.

Well this young guy half my age starts getting really worked up about violating the customs protocol and says we must wait 40 minutes until his boss comes and lets us go. I turn to my wife and say in a loud English voice that they can wait all they want, I'm not paying anyone anything and I'll take the guy's details and make an official complaint. I think there were some extra words in there but I don't want to wear the "star" key out too much. We go back and sit in the car and wait...and after 10 minutes we get our documents back. They sort of inspect the car but its no big deal. We "show" them 3 bottles of Russian Champagne and 2 bottles of Vodka and own up to 10 packs of fags. They aren't interested in trying to find any more - their loss our gain - or in trying to confiscate babushka's home made dacha jams. 10 minutes later we have our entry stamps in our passports from the immigration lady and we are in the EU again.

Total time 4 hours.

Then off to Kaunas. But this time we have better satnav and decide to go cross country. Note that close to the Latvian border (<50 kms) there is a little village (I forget which) where the cops wait to pounce on speeding Russians. Be careful.

At the Latvia- Lithuanian border, the armed cops look at our passports and wave us on. At night the deserted border station is quite eerie and still.

It's dark now and we zip along as fast as we dare (quite fast actually) and arrive in Kaunas at 2330 hrs.

We spent a day in Kaunas and stayed 2 nights. Nice provincial town. best Western Santakos is a great little hotel, but we did have some problems there this time. The first room selected wasn't cleaned and we had to move again. The next evening the restaurant was booked out for a function and only when I complained did we get somewhere nice to eat. The food when it came was very good.

On the way out of Lithuania, we go cross country again to Trakai castle. Quite nice. Parking difficult though. On the way out of Lithuania we decide to go cross country on little roads. It starts to rain very badly. We suddenly hit a minor but very wide unpaved road for farm vehicles - up and down steep little ridges - sand, gravel and mud. Traction control lit up like a christmas tree for 30 kms. If I stopped in those conditions, I'd never get going again in a 2wd rear wheel drive car with low profile tires. So ever so gently kept going 30 - 40 kph all the way slipping and sliding everywhere - backend fishtailing - opposite lock on steering around corners. Almost needed new underwear but finally arrived back on tarmacadam. made it to Poznan, Poland by 2am. Then to Frankfurt-am-Main to visit friends and then home through the tunnel.

chrisrein · Posted: Mon Sep 14, 2009 12:00 am Post subject:

DITTRICH,

Excellent post, very useful but horrible information! I was already complaining for waiting 3.5 hours when I used that bordercrossing....

This year I only went to Ukraine (Crimea) and the crossing from Ukraine to Poland (near Lviv) cost me also 3.5 hours. Just because the polish borderguards did not work faster. The ukrainian side was no problem. (it is the northern way from Lviv center towards Cracow, not Premzysl)

A friend of mine has been waiting at one of those crossings for 15 hours this year, just to drive back to a schengen country.....

Advice for other travellers that go from Russia towards Poland: drive a little bit further via Romania or Slovakia!

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