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2026-05-11

original document mostly written on 2026-05-01

Russia travel notes

Disclaimer

• Quick Note
• I have deliberately left out anything even somewhat related to work or politics or AI. This is intentional. There is a possibility I may want to visit again. Also there are people I know here, whose privacy I must protect.
• My Russia trip is not over yet, however I figured I may as well make the notes, given that I want to make notes and I don't want to do this after returning to India.
• See also: Link to yet another rant

Main

• Travel dates - 2026-04-10 to 2026-05-09
• People
  • Stereotype about Russians not smiling at strangers is true.
  • Russian society has problems, but they're quite different from the problems of Indian society. I previously commented that they're happier than indians (atleast considering middle/upper-middle class), but I'm not sure anymore. [1]
  • I don't know if people trust each that much or not, it is possible they don't. However, people generally don't care much about what others are doing and aren't interested in trying to control each other (unlike previous generation of Indians lol). Extremely individualist society, atleast in Moscow. This is my guess based on very limited data, I could be wrong. Also, multiple people have money-related issues. A lot of people have moved to cities (Moscow or St Petersburg) from the hometown where their extended family may live, and life is different in hometown versus city.
  • Chinese people in Russia are more willing to publicly show affection as compared to Russians lol.
  • Russians living in Moscow are extremely similar to my understanding of what western europe is like, to a degree that surprised me. This includes everything from the music people listen to (lots of western music) to the clothing styles (standard jacket, jeans, coats etc in black blue brown etc) to the spectrum of political opinions people have to the liberal nature of society to the religious demographics (half christian half atheist many non-practising) and so on.
  • People are generally friendly and willing to help out strangers / tourists / etc including me.
  • Lots of pretty women lol, and approachable enough, atleast considering I am a random tourist with no shared context and big language barrier. Dating was not a priority during my trip though.
  • People seem good at opening a conversation with a joke or a gimmick or similar.
• Work
  • Analytical philosophy is popular for some reason.
  • IT and cybersecurity are popular.
  • People read fiction and nonfiction in Russian too which was again interesting to me.
  • Ofcourse, the most skilled people tend to leave the country for uh ... multiple reasons I won't discuss.
  • I don't have a lot of information on what work people do.
  • Lots of people into photograhy / theatre / etc.
  • Lots of unemployed / partially unemployed people.
• Language
  • Big language barrier, all communication is in Russian by default. Younger college students know basic english to survive but still prefer Russian by default. This is new for me, I am not used to a highly educated society not being good in English. Most places I have visited so far in life are either at a lower level of education or are good in English.
  • I got so frustrated with ios translation app, I ended up building my own. (Will discuss this in some other post not this one.)
• Meetups
  • There are a lot of hobby meetup groups, which is good if you actually live here and know russian. AI is good for finding quite niche telegram hobby groups.
  • I learned a lot of things by just showing up to random meetups and sitting with a translation app.
  • Maybe a bit risky for me given my past history, but I did also visit a bunch of bars while sober and heard stories that were surprising for me.
  • I am a bit sad I couldn't attend more meetups and talk to more people. I have to make peace with the fact that this (travelling and talking to lots of people) is not my current priority in life, so it is fine.
• Sightseeing
  • This was not a sightseeing trip for me, however I did do a bit of sightseeing. "Go do sightseeing they said, it will be fun they said." I did not enjoy much of the sightseeing I did, but I did enjoy a little.
  • For the first few days of the trip, my mobile data didn't work, and I actually think this made me happier since it distracted me from work or anything online. For instance I visited this art museum, and I don't have words to describe the experience, in a good way. My guess is people with money but also free time to aimlessly stroll around, will like a place like Moscow. Urban planning is good and many places are walkable.
  • There's basically a small area around Kitay Gorod and the Kremlin where a bunch of tourist spots are concentrated. Nothing particularly impressive for me, although if you're a tourist you should probably visit.
  • Moscow subway stations are works of art, even the ones which aren't literally filled with artwork. They are absolutely beautiful although again, you get a bit used to it after a few days. It is common to find people playing music to make money inside the stations.
  • Visited the tallest building in the city for uh ... reasons, not discussing in this post.
  • I absolutely loved visiting sauna which was new for me, so ofcourse I kept revisiting it until I would lose interest. This is like giving cocaine to a rat. I am actually mildly worried I am using this as a coping mechanism, given my long list of coping mechanisms over the past year or so. But also, I am leaving Russia soon hence I am not too worried about it.
  • Same gender nudity is normal in saunas/pools and I quickly got used to it. There's zero issues, unlike mixed gender nudity where I can imagine issues one must solve for. This is theory though, and I don't know about practice.
  • I visited a nude beach too, very few people were there because I visited in the wrong season. But it was fun. I now mildly prefer this over regular beaches.
  • Visiting vndkh left me with so much grief I had to just walk out of the place midway to feel okay. I think this was the point where the novelty factor of the place started running out for me, and I started feeling yep, this is just yet another city.
• Architecture
  • There are a few absolutely massive buildings. Many of them are old though, probably constructed during soviet time is my guess.
  • There is a characteristic "building block" that is extremely common across Moscow, it is around 8 stories high but it is also wide and kinda square in shape. I'm sure there's some real estate nexus that just loves to endlessly build new blocks of this type.
• Lots of bureaucracy
  • Ugh. I'm sure some people find value in this sort of bureaucracy, but I am very much a "jugaad" person in Indian terms or a "move fast and break things" person in US terms.
  • Food in fridges must be bagged and labelled. If you are even a little sick, you're not supposed to visit public places. If a place doesn't have facility to accept cash but only card, they simply won't accept it, presumably because they have some accounting system they have to deal with. You must scan the entry card at the right place for the online system. You must stay in the exact room you booked even if you want to stay in a cheaper room than the one you paid for. You must have a FIDE-rating to play in the chess tournament (don't ask lol).
• Sanctions and internet
  • Issuing a local SIM card takes many days of work and most cards issued outside Russia don't work. So I had to rely on hotel wifi + indian SIM card international roaming, and use cash only. Many western sites are blocked and many of the VPNs are also blocked. There are ways to bypass, however I think it is safer if I don't discuss that here.
  • I lost a lot of time due to all this. For instance a few stores refuse cash and only accept card, and you won't know until you visit it. GPS is not always that accurate on international roaming, and this means you waste time navigating to places. There are multiple 24 hour blocks on international roaming on your SIM card.
  • Private telegram groups are the default for literally everything - work, personal DMs, meetup groups, etc. Public VK pages are also somewhat popular, to discover said telegram groups.
  • Flights are often delayed or cancelled, so be prepared for this.
  • I did not run out of cash. But I can see how either running out of cash, or being robbed of it, could completely mess up someone's travel and leave them stranded.
• Food
  • Quite bluntly, restaurant food was not particularly impressive anywhere considering the prices, be it budget or fine dining. But also, most items are non-veg and I am veg, so I am the wrong audience to judge this. It is possible to get veg food but also it's not the priority for any restaurant.
  • Drinking water is expensive in restaurants.
• Weather
  • The cold makes it hard for me to stay angry. But also, the cold makes me less productive and want to wake up late and so on. This is nothing specific to Russia honestly, and applies to cold places everywhere is my guess. I generally have a weak preference for not wanting to live in a cold place.
• Random quirks
  • Cars actually stop for pedestrians whenever pedestrians want. Bikes/cycles are not that common, although some delivery drivers use that e-bike thingie which you stand on not sit on.
  • Most buildings have a room to deposit your jacket because central heating. Central heating can be sometimes annoying though, I found some buildings too hot with jacket but too cold with just tshirt, which increases chances of me falling sick. (Obviously this is still far better than the alternative which is no central heating and everyone wears 2-3 layers 24x7. I have honestly no idea why Delhi doesn't have more central heating, people can afford it.)
  • Moscow is possibly the cleanest city I have ever visited. Cleaner than Singapore or London for instance.
• Cost (updated on 2026-05-11, after calculating it more properly)
  • Moscow is pretty expensive if you want a good life, but not too expensive if you want bare minimum to survive. Obviously way more expensive than Indian cities.
  • How much I actually spent: 2.87L INR on all flights (domestic indian flights, domestic russian flights, international india-russia flights) + approx 85k INR on hotels for a month + 1.71L INR on everything else for a month (groceries, restaurants, taxis, sightseeing, etc) = 5.43L INR total spend
  • I often prioritised novelty, convenience or speed, over minimising cost.
  • If you really wanted to minimise cost, you can stay for much cheaper - you can spend less than 1L INR on flights from India if you book in advance, a local can live on maybe 25k RUB (32k INR) per month if they get an apartment with yearly lease (as a tourist, you can maybe sublet an apartment from a friend, but this will have a premium), you can probably manage groceries within 25k RUB (33k INR) per month, one outing often ends up with you spending 5k RUB, taxi rides are 1k RUB but metro is cheap if you have time for it.
  • Exchange rates as of 2026-05-11: 1 USD = 95.1 INR, 1 RUB = 1.28 INR

[1] Side Note to myself

• I think I realise why I first made the (possibly false) comment that russians are happier than indians.
  • Indians are a lot more public about their unhappiness, on average. Like, after landing here, first thing I noticed is this bus driver busy shouting and shaming someone for wasting 30 seconds of their time. Median indian of previous generation frequently uses shame to control other people, and this shaming needs to be in public to get a collective behind it and be effective.
  • Whereas with russians you sometimes have no idea how someone is, someone could be cheerful in conversation with you but a heroin addict in private.
  • Maybe indians are still the more unhappy group here. But also, without more statistical data (not anecdotal data) I'm very hesitant to make this sort of sweeping generalisation.
  • Since I live in India, my brain is trained to filter out all the bickering and shouting I see, and all the civic sense violations I see, and all the garbage, and so on, but when I return from a different place I realise how much information my brain is filtering almost subconsciously.

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