Passport Ride

A recent event obliged me to take a 14 hour bus ride all the way down to Moscow; I absentmindedly lost my passport last month. Now don’t get all over me questioning unremittingly regarding how I lost it, or like most people would go on perpetually reminding me search for it at this ‘so-called last place I have put it’. Well, if I am able to recall where I last placed it I would not even be bothering making police reports, and going through all the trouble dealing such issues.

Made several stops for urination, cleaning, breathing and random photo snapping

I was lucky to be accompanied by a friend; going through all the hard times due to such loss. It may seemed like a minute problem, but really… it’s one of those times we can make a clearer filtration of who are those standing next to you when a problem such rock hard wacked on your face. 14 hours of bus ride is indeed straining, the cramped, confining seat causing you to change position every half an hour, the constant adjustment on where to place both legs; I ended up placing my root directly behind the head rest of this anonymous Russian in front of me.

Eelin’s Cappuccino with cinnamon and mine was with German chocolate  

We arrived an hour and half earlier before estimated time, the local time was 5AM with a degree of –5, was wondering in the dark streets of Moscow until I randomly spotted a 24 hour operating ‘Coffee House’. Rushed in to catch some warmth and waited till 6AM to place some orders. I recalled telling to my fellow comrades, one of the luckiest thing in life for me is to have a proper breakfast with a nice dose of caffeine, preferably coffee. Well, this happened to be one of those ‘lucky’ days.  

Breakfast was tortillas with cheese and ham

Chit chat, got hold of some friends from Moscow just in case I got lost or got kidnapped and tuned into some Cantonese soap operas in Eelin’s iPad while waiting for food to arrive. Uncommonly surprised to see people entering the building when it was only 6AM or around that time, mostly well dressed in suits and tuxedo after they removed their winter coats. Mid-aged working citizens beginning their day, most of them with croissant drizzled with chocolate syrup. I love social learning, hence being as observant as I can. 

Insisted on not wearing winter jacket, hence I wrapped myself with 3 layer of clothing including thermal over an autumn trench coat.

Took a cab that costs me more than a hand and a leg and had to wonder around an entire hector filled with embassy headquarters. The ratio of our Malaysian Embassy compared to Swedish and German is around 1:10:10, no joke. Took me sometime to rewrite documentations all in Malay, was stuck all the way thinking how to translate pocket from English to Malay. But thank God all is done.

Kievskaya

Mr. Tan, Minister Counselor of the Malaysian Embassy was really kind to buy Eelin and I lunch, had some really interesting conversation with this fellow. Drove us to the nearest train station and did some walking before heading back to Volgograd.

2 nights in the bus without sleep, missed Biochemistry and Russian for Monday. Thank God that things are settled now, lesson learned: chain every valuable items to yourself, that’s what limbs are for.