Exchanging Money In Moscow

[Bobalouie 0]

Our rent, only, when we lived in Kazan' (on local rates not tourist) was 12000 rubles for a three room flat. 5000 can get you by in a month IF you own a flat. We managed to easily get by on 5000 for the rest of our expenses for a month.

Just got back from Russia. The cab fare between SVO 2 and SVO 1 was $60 (wanted to get $80 but i refused)! I paid $40 back in October. I think the cab mafia is getting very greedy. And, of course, Americans pay higher fares. I was in Siberia for almost a month. The costs are going through the roof.

$60 is what I paid too in August. In rubles it was going to be almost $80 going by his exchange rate. I was late for my flight (which I wound up missing anyway) so I didn't haggle. (I hear it's pointless to haggle anyway.)

Having said that, I certainly got my money's worth. When we went outside, the traffic was gridlocked inside the airport. So he told me he would take me in his personal car, parked just outside the airport. Despite all kinds of alarm bells going off in my head, we dragged my luggage through an active construction area, dodging cranes and back hoes and weird pneumatic thumping machines, jumping over trenches, I even tripped on some kind of mine cart track. Finally we crawled through a hole in a chain link fence and got in his car. I couldn't have gotten that kind of fear-for-your-life excitement spending $60 at Disneyland.

Always haggle. Every time they come at me wanting 2500rub and I tell them no way, 1000! They come down to 2000 usually, and I tell them 1000. They usually start comming down in 100rub increments after that, so I make a move to another cabbie, and they grab my bags and say "1000 OK". Make the move to another cabbie, and they will agree to your price.

[Bobalouie 0]

Russia buses and shuttles operate like the wind...variable. With a two-hour connection time for my flight to Siberia, I'm not paying roulette with missing the flight and sleeping in SVO 1 to save 60 clams. The true sucker counts his pennies as he sleeps on the airport floor.

Based on your "opinion" you have never been on Russia's buses, shuttles, or shared taxis. As a person who has ridden all three numerous time I can assure you they work like clock work. The US can learn a thing or two about public transit from the Russians. I probably made it from SVO1 to SVO2 in a shared taxi faster than in a taxi, because with a taxi I'd lose 15 minutes negotiating the price! And the only difference between a shared taxi and a regular one is how many seats and how many people ride with you. But hey, its your money, I just prefer to spend mine on something else.

15 minutes? more like 15 seconds. I am more than willing to pay $40 for the ride. That is what they charge for a cab ride minimum to the airport around here. Even if you live 1 mile from the airport, $40 please. Like Mox, I usually only have 1 hour or at most 1 hour 15 minutes to catch my flight to Sochi at SVO1. SVO1 is not a place I want to spend the night after traveling for 18 hours.

Edited February 15, 2008 by Bobalouie

[Satellite 1]

15 minutes? more like 15 seconds. I am more than willing to pay $40 for the ride. That is what they charge for a cab ride minimum to the airport around here. Even if you live 1 mile from the airport, $40 please. Like Mox, I usually only have 1 hour or at most 1 hour 15 minutes to catch my flight to Sochi at SVO1. SVO1 is not a place I want to spend the night after traveling for 18 hours.

For $40 here you got a lot farther than the 1-2 miles it is from SVO1 to SVO2. Last time I rode in a taxi here for 1-2 miles on my employers tab it cost us like $6 and that is in San Francisco. Even an airport shuttle here in San Francisco is $15 covering about a 20 mile range.

http://www.sftravel.com/shutl.html

So I can now conclude you are sucker both at home and abroad

As discussed earlier their shared taxis and shuttles work on the clock and there are literally tens if not hundreds of them circling both airport lots. As for why it takes 15 minutes to haggle, if you speak Russian you realize you have to speak to many cabbies, get the price down to regular Russian rates, because after all I got to convince them I am a poor local student from Siberia. By the way, for 20 rubles I got ride on the same shared taxi to the nearest metro station Rechnoy Vakzal from SVO2. It is a good deal, and we were in the car a good hour, because of traffic. See metro map below:

http://www.waytorussia.net/Moscow/MetroMap.html

[Bobalouie 0]

SVO1 is not a place I want to spend the night after traveling for 18 hours.

Been there, done that. For people-watching, there's no better place than SVO at 2am. But I sure would have rather caught my flight.

Yea, its much more comfortable when you sleep with your sweetie in your arms! I have sat in SVO1 for 6 hours waiting on a flight, from around 12pm to 6pm, and it is like a madhouse in there. Does it slow down at 2am?

[Kazan' Tiger 1]

Well, I'll pipe in. I must be skilled, good, or lucky. Last year, I paid a taxi 500 rubles from SVO1 to SVO2 and I've also taken the 15 ruble маршрутка too. And I don't speak fluent Russian whatsoever. But did do my negotiating in the best Russian I could. I have sat in SVO2 for 18 hours before. I have no idea how many times I circled the place pushing my little cart around. I finally ended up in a corner sitting on top the cart and the luggage. The longest 2/3 plus of a day ever.

[eekee 182]

40-60 dollars for one mile? i usually pay 150-200 roubles for 10 km in SPb. Were you guys catching cabs on the street or calling a dispatcher? Whenever I've taken a cab to Pulkovo it's usually around 450 roubles i think, and that's calling a dispatcher. Now I hope I never have to fly through Moscow and pay 60$ for 1 mile!! Maybe it just helps being a girl, I don't know.

Edited February 15, 2008 by eekee

[KGSodie 0]

I realize I read some of the first posts incorrectly. I've never had to get between SVO1 and SVO2. My only cab rides (other than between Solnechniy and Volgodonsk) have been between SVO2 and the train station (to Rostov), and from SVO2 and Hotel Kosmos.

[eekee 182]

40-60 dollars for one mile? i usually pay 150-200 roubles for 10 km in SPb. Were you guys catching cabs on the street or calling a dispatcher? Whenever I've taken a cab to Pulkovo it's usually around 450 roubles i think, and that's calling a dispatcher. Now I hope I never have to fly through Moscow and pay 60$ for 1 mile!! Maybe it just helps being a girl, I don't know.

When you exit customs at SVO, the first thing that happens is that you are mobbed by taxi drivers. And when I say mobbed...you know the horde of villagers with pitchforks and torches chasing Frankenstein? Yeah, those guys look at the taxi driver mob and say "damn." About 5-6 of them are right up in your face as soon as you come through, and all you can do is wade through. Because I was running late for my flight I only talked (or got talked at, really) to a couple drivers and then that was that. Had I not been pressed for time and still wanted a cab, I'd have ignored them and gone directly outside where I would imagine haggling works a little better. In actuality if I'd have had enough time I would have just figured out where the Aeroflot shuttle was and taken that for free.

If I spoke the language I'm sure I'd have done better. But I'm pretty sure the prices for an American are "fixed," plus "cheapest fare" was not my goal at the time.

i also think it's much harder to be a foreign man in russia in terms of people hassling you, trying to rip you off etc. than a foreign girl.

[Bobalouie 0]

40-60 dollars for one mile? i usually pay 150-200 roubles for 10 km in SPb. Were you guys catching cabs on the street or calling a dispatcher? Whenever I've taken a cab to Pulkovo it's usually around 450 roubles i think, and that's calling a dispatcher. Now I hope I never have to fly through Moscow and pay 60$ for 1 mile!! Maybe it just helps being a girl, I don't know.

Its not 1 mile, everyone says it is, but it is actually 3.75 miles. Not that it makes much difference If you grab your bags and brave the take offs / landings by running across the runways, then it is about a mile.

[slim 1,533]

Do you guys think it's possible with the Olympics coming and all that someday Moscow will join the rest of the world and have a modern airport, complete with free shuttle service that leaves straight from the terminal to the other terminal? (Going across the field, not around town?)

Or is it going to always be "it's Russia" and things will have to be done the most expensive and inconvenient way possible?

[Satellite 1]

Do you guys think it's possible with the Olympics coming and all that someday Moscow will join the rest of the world and have a modern airport, complete with free shuttle service that leaves straight from the terminal to the other terminal? (Going across the field, not around town?)

Or is it going to always be "it's Russia" and things will have to be done the most expensive and inconvenient way possible?

I'm keeping my bets with the second statement.

[KGSodie 0]

Slim, you just kill me! I can't tell you how many times Natasha would look at me, shrug her shoulders, and say "It is Russia!"

[slim 1,533]

That's when you put on your best Viggo Morteson "Easter Promises" face. That's where you do the heavy-lidded disdainful/disinterested look and hope it doesn't come across as looking constipated.

I can't pull that off. Not that I look constipated, I'm just too chubby to look anything but American. Even with a track suit and some loafers, a big gold cross, a flat-top... it doesn't matter. Not even my wife standing next to me helps "the look." Although, she's trying! I'm sure in a few more years I'll be able to seamlessly transition between East and West. Just gotta drop about 15 kilos first. (I already have the track suit and big gold cross, so we're good there.)

In a similar story, I read an email once that said "You know you've been in Korea too long when you think you're starting to look Asian." Just prior to reading that one I had been out with a group of Korean guys and girls and was thinking to myself, "I'll bet when I'm out with these guys, at first glance, nobody can even tell I'm American." Yeah, after that I realized that even with a ballcap and sunglasses, the 60 extra pounds on my frame was a dead giveaway. Well, that and the rhythm. Ever seen Koreans dance?

I should fare slightly better in Russia.

[visaveteran1 33]

How was your visit by the way? I don't think we got a trip report from you. There's a fine for that you know.

Thanks for asking mox. I had a great visit with my wife but I had one lingering issue...my stomach. It started when I got to SVO1 on the trip in. When I arrived at 6 am my wife met me and we went to her flat. Of course she had breakfast ready for me...a BIG breakfast. I tried to eat but it was a mistake. By evening I was in pain so Nadia called for a nurse to visit me (nice they still have home visits there). An EMT type practitioner arrived and checked me out...then told me i had to go to the hospital. Next thing I know I'm riding in a cold little ambulance and taking a long and bumpy ride to the local hospital. As i sat in the little van I was in a state of disbelief that here i was on my first night in Russia with my wife being taken to a Russian hospital for a stomach ache.

The hospital was pretty bad and there we many homeless men who had gotten drunk and got in a fight...bleeding from various areas of their bodies. I noticed a lack of sterile conditions and saw hospital staff handling bloody bandages without gloves. Wow! I wanted to leave asap. But I was committed and a nurse comes along and pricks my finger for blood and gives we a little glass bottle for a urine sample...without a lid! The staff started talking among themselves and my wife told me later that they didn't want to send me to the patients bathroom as it was too funky for a VIP American guest...so they ended up unlocking the staff bathroom and letting me use it. I would have hated to see the patient bathroom as the staff one was pretty nasty.

After a short time a young doctor shows up and talks to me in passable English. He tells me I seem to be ok but suffering from "gastric distress." He orders some meds and sends me on my way...free of charge! Wow...something free in Russia. I think they felt it was enough to have an American visit the hospital...a real novelty The staff is probably still talking about me. My stomach SLOWLY got better but I never felt a 100% well. I think it might be stress related because once i got home to the USA it magically went away.

The visit was good for me and Nadia because I lived as a Russian lives...not as a tourist. Instead of daily touristy stuff we did simple things like having coffee or tea at the nearby cafe or window shopping a the new shopping mall. We took long walks and enjoyed just being together in her warm and cozy flat. A few times i went to the local sauna which always makes me feel good. I grew comfortable with our daily routine and occasional fun outing like dancing at a nearby restaurant at night.

There's more to tell that i think that's good for now. The month flew by and I hated to come home. Now I'm alone again...the revolving marriage...one month together then many months apart. I keep telling myself...soon! Soon!

[eekee 182]

Do you guys think it's possible with the Olympics coming and all that someday Moscow will join the rest of the world and have a modern airport, complete with free shuttle service that leaves straight from the terminal to the other terminal? (Going across the field, not around town?)

Or is it going to always be "it's Russia" and things will have to be done the most expensive and inconvenient way possible?

SPb has the same thing (two airports just far away enough that you can't walk) and I had honestly never considered the possibility that they would have a shuttle service. It just never crossed my mind--"It's Russia."

I can see them doing that for the Olympics though, or simply rerouting the flights from Sochi to leave from the International airport rather than the within-CIS airport (i assume that's what the two SVOs are?). A lot of people are going to be flying through.