Moscow and St. Petersburg

After playing golf, we watched the sunset at 10:00pm at the Tseleevo Clubhouse.

Vladimir and Elena, our Russian friends who live in Hong Kong, organized a golf trip to Russia for 30 friends in early July 2017.  The Athanas family attended.  Joe had been to Russia once before in 1985 and was curious to see how things had changed.  Joe told Stella and the boys about the circus, where bears played hockey, and the Hermitage art museum, which rivals even the Louvre in Paris. 

The flight from Hong Kong to Moscow is about 10 hours.  When we arrived in Moscow, we had dinner and checked in to the St. Regis Hotel downtown.  The St. Regis is only a few blocks from Red Square and the Kremlin. 

Red Square in Moscow with a view of St. Basil's.

St. Basil's in Moscow.

The Athanas boys in Red Square.

This is Putin's office building in the Kremlin. 

 On our way to the Red Square, we learned about the headquarters for the KGB in Moscow.

Athanas family walking with
our tour guide in the Kremlin.

Office building and church within the Kremlin in Moscow.

Jamo with our tour guide.

The next day, we took a tour of Red Square and the Kremlin.  Everyone was amazed by St. Basil’s and the many beautiful churches inside the Kremlin.  St. Basil’s was built by Ivan the Terrible, who transformed Russia from a medieval state into an empire.  According to our tour guide, Ivan gets a bad rap because the Russian word translated to “terrible” really means “awe inspiring.”  Thus, he could just as easily have been called “Ivan the Awesome.”  At one of the churches in the Kremlin, our Chinese friend Jamo (who owns and rents out some 70 yachts in Hong Kong) was rubbing his hand along a tomb when the tour guide explained that the person in the tomb had died of small pox.  Jamo turned and wiped his hands on the tour guide’s shirt. 

Joe and Stella at the Ukrainian restaurant.

We had a big lunch at a Ukrainian restaurant.  The waitresses wore flowers in their hair (which our group quickly appropriated) and danced (which our group eventually joined in).  Our Dutch friend Tess and our host Vladimir started what became a daily event of singing (in opera voice) “nostrovia!” as we all downed numerous shots of “wodka.” 

That evening, Joe and the boys went to the circus with our Chinese friends, Jamo and Allen and their wives, and saw hula hooping, breakdancing sea lions.  Stella went to the ballet.  The boys and our Chinese friends complained that Joe had oversold the circus and that hula hooping, breakdancing sea lions were not as cool as hockey playing bears.  Tough crowd. 

Forest Hills Golf Club was built on so much land you couldn't see the next fairway.

Enjoying dinner after playing Forest Hills Golf Club.

On July 3, we took a long bus ride about two hours north of Moscow.  There is a lot of beautiful wide open country in Russia.  Russia is nearly twice the size of the US, but has less than half as many people.  We played a round of golf at Forest Hills Golf Club and then had a huge feast afterwards with lots of “wodka” and repeated toasts of “nostrovia!”  Greg, a Brit, started photobombing everyone, which he did throughout the trip.  Jamo brought cigars and we all enjoyed them. 

Joe and Stella at Forest Hills Golf Club.

Pre-golf "wodka."

On the Fourth of July we took another long bus ride and played golf at Links National Golf Club.  In honor of US Independence Day, Stella and Joe were paired up with Steve and Roenel, South Africans currently living in Thailand.  Stella and Joe played great and won mini St. Basil’s trophies for being the best team.  That evening, there was another feast with a lamb roast (it felt like Greek Easter), and even more “wodka.”  

Peter and Spiro with their Russian caddies.

Stella and Joe receiving their award.

The next day, the lovely cool weather became downright cold weather (this cold in July means you definitely don’t want to come in winter!).  We played a round of golf at Tseleevo Golf Club.  The boys had beautiful young Russian girls as caddies.  The caddy clearly paid off for Peter, who won the men’s stableford event by 5 points.  After another feast and more “wodka,” they set up a tee next to our dinner table and we had a 90-yard pitching contest onto the 18th green below.  It was a tricky shot because (1) Allen, as he did throughout the trip, sang 1990s pop songs and danced while people hit and (2) the green sloped away from our dinner table.  One of the worst golfers in our group

Peter receiving his "Russian boy doll trophy." 

won with a shot that landed five yards in front of the green but then very slowly rolled down and to the left before resting just a couple feet from the hole.  Each person had to put something in the bucket before being allowed to hit, so the winner got HK$1,800 (about US$230), a shoe and a pair of sunglasses.

Dinner at the Tseleevo Clubhouse after playing golf, “nostrovia!”

Watching the 90-yard pitching contest...many laughs that evening.

After a long day of playing golf, Joe and Peter went to bed while Spiro and Stella went to see the
"opening of the bridge" at 2:00am in Moscow. In the summer Russia doesn't start getting dark until 10:30pm.
At 2:00am, the sky was a beautiful blue color.

After Tseleevo, we took the high speed train from Moscow to St. Petersburg.  Joe had not oversold St. Petersburg.  St. Petersburg is one of the most beautiful cities in the world.  The romantic and colorful European baroque architecture and the many spectacular churches are truly a sight to see.  Built on 33 islands surrounded by rivers and canals, Goethe, a German writer and statesman, called it the “Venice of the North.”  You should run and see Goethe’s statue in Lincoln Park in Chicago now, before it gets torn down along with every other statue in the US.

The entrance to the Summer Palace in St. Petersburg.

The Summer Palace in St. Petersburg.

Joe and Stella outside the Summer Palace
with 18kt gold plated statues.

Small church at the Summer Palace.

Peter and Spiro in the Summer Palace garden with Greg, photobombing.

Our group walking in St. Petersburg.

On July 6, we took a boat to the Summer Palace.  It was windy and freezing!  The Summer Palace, which is on the Gulf of Finland, was first constructed by Peter the Great beginning in 1714.  It has beautiful upper and lower gardens and a long canal to the sea, with lovely fountains everywhere.  After visiting the Summer Palace, we played a final round of golf at a nearby golf course that had just opened.

A photo of the Hermitage taken from our tour bus.

The next day, we went to the Hermitage, which was started by Catherine the Great.  The Hermitage consists of six buildings, including the former winter palace of the czars.  Among art museums, it is second in physical size only to the Louvre and has the largest collection of paintings in the world.  It was incredible.  After the Hermitage, we had a beautiful lunch and then took the train back to Moscow.

Our host, Vladimir, taking a picture of Stella in the Hermitage.

The Athanas boys walking into the 18kt gold entrance of the Hermitage.

A simple hallway in the Hermitage.

Spiro in the 18kt gold room in the Hermitage.

We had an fantastic dinner in Moscow at a really hip modern restaurant on top of a building.  Peter expressed his surprise at how cool all the “old people” in our group were, saying he had totally bonded with Jamo, Allen and Vladimir.  There was a little too much “wodka,” but hey, when in Moscow…

Last day lunch at Catherine the Great's lover's home.

The next day, Stella and Spiro went out to see the sights and had a nice lunch.  Peter and Joe slept in and then walked about a mile to a McDonalds.  There was zero English being spoken, but having spent so much time in Asia, we have become very skilled at ordering McDonalds without being able to speak the local language.  Across the street from the McDonalds was a huge upscale shopping mall with stores any American or European would recognize.  Russia is completely transformed from when Joe visited in 1985.  In the communist/socialist USSR of 1985, there were no billboards, no shopping malls, few restaurants, very little food, few cars, and churches were gutted (one was even turned into a museum of atheism).  Today, there are modern billboards, upscale malls, numerous restaurants with plenty of food, European cars of every make and model, and over 800 churches in Moscow alone.  There is no doubt that capitalism has transformed the lives of the Russian people in a positive way.

We all met up at the airport and, after a long wait on the airport floor for our delayed flight, flew back to Hong Kong.

Our group in St. Petersburg.

Stella and her Russian friend, Elena, in Moscow.

Peter and his new friend Allen.

There are more than 600 churches in Moscow today (picture taken by our friend Bill).

Peter slept on his new
friend, our host, Vladimir,
the entire 10 hour flight
back to Hong Kong.

Peter and Tess.

“Nostrovia!”

Siem Reap, Cambodia

The Athanas family standing at the back entrance of Angkor Wat.

For Spring Break, we decided to go to Siem Reap, Cambodia.  The flight to Siem Reap is only about two and a half hours.  However, the plane did not have infotainment systems which Spiro feels is “a basic requirement for a passenger plane.” The airport in Siem Reap is nice, in an old school kind of way.  Unfortunately, once we landed, we were in what Spiro described as “the world’s slowest moving immigration line.” We found a currency exchange and got some Cambodian Riel.  We later discovered that pretty much everyone in Cambodia takes US dollars and even the ATMs give you the option of getting US dollars. 

The night market on Southeast Asia New Year's Eve.

We stayed at the J7 Hotel, which is beautiful and centrally located.  We arranged for a tour the next day and found out that at the temples you are supposed to wear pants or skirts that cover your knees and no sleeveless shirts.  Since it is 95 degrees in Siem Reap in the Spring, we had not packed any long pants.  Thus, after having dinner at the hotel we took a tuk tuk to the Night Market.  The Night Market was going crazy because it turned out that we had arrived on Southeast Asian New Years’ Eve (Songkran)!  

The soaking wet Athanas family in the hotel lobby.

It is a South East Asian New Years’ tradition to pour water on statues of Buddha (and everybody else) to wash away your sins and bad luck.  Accordingly, the entire Night Market is transformed into a massive water gun fight with thousands of people blasting each other with supersoakers and hoses.  We managed to remain fairly dry through our arrival and pants shopping experience, but when we left, our tuk tuk ran the gauntlet and we were blasted from both sides of the road.  Spiro said “There were people shooting water guns and throwing water balloons all over the place. It was a circus.” We arrived at the hotel soaking wet. 

The next morning we had breakfast early so we could start our tour before the temples got too crowded.  There are about 50 temples around Siem Reap, so we had to choose which ones to see.  The Angkor area and the various temples were built by the Khmer Empire, which ruled Cambodia, Laos and parts of Myanmar, Thailand and Vietnam from 802 to 1431.  “I had no idea how vast and powerful the Khmer Empire was,” Spiro said.

One of the endless halls.

The first temple we visited was Angkor Wat, which we entered from the back.  As we walked through the jungle to the temple, our guide explained that in the 12th century, over a million people lived outside the temple where we were walking, but their wooden homes had long been reclaimed by the jungle.  Angkor Wat is a Hindu temple built in the 12th Century.  According to Peter, “it is the largest religious structure in the world.” It took 50,000 artisans 37 years to build and virtually every square inch is covered by carvings.  There are over 2,000 carvings of celestial dancers alone.  It has very steep steps “because the climb to heaven should not be easy.” “As we wandered through the endless halls of this colossal masterpiece,” Peter said, “we were accompanied by countless worshipers.” Spiro said that Angkor Wat “was the second most amazing place I have ever visited, topped only by Beijing.”

Spiro and Peter walking with the throngs of people visiting Angkor Wat.

Another endless hall at Angkor Wat.

Angkor Wat

Spiro and Peter are standing in what use to be a bath in the Temple of Angkor Wat.

This interior photo of Angkor Wat shows how virtually every square inch is covered by carvings.

Details of carvings.

After going through the temple, we came out the front and saw the long and spectacular road that leads from the main gate to the temple.  The road was already filled with throngs of people and the temperature was already in the low 90s.  The temple was built in such a way that when viewing it from the main entrance on the equinox the sun sets perfectly behind the center tower.  Outside the main gate there were numerous vendors selling cold drinks and food.

Carvings of celestial dancers. 

The Athanas boys walking down the very steep steps of Angkor Wat.

Details.

Once again, locals ask to take a picture with the Athanas boys.

Angkor Thom is a massive square walled area containing many temples, including Bayon temple, which we visited.  The walls are each 26 feet high and nearly two miles long.  They are surrounded by a moat that is as wide as a river.  There are five entrance gates that you pass over a bridge lined with statues to enter.  The gates themselves have four giant Buddha faces on them.  Bayon temple was built in the late 12th century and has about 50 towers with four giant faces of Buddha on them, all facing exactly on the points of the compass.  On the outside wall of the temple, there is a huge carving depicting a sea battle between the Khmer Empire and the Cham Empire (which was located in what is now central Vietnam), which Spiro found “stunning.”

Angkor Thom has 26 feet tall walls that are nearly two miles long.

The bridge to Angkor Thom is lined with statues.

Statues on bridge to the entrance of Angkor Thom.

Angkor Thom

The outside wall of Bayon temple showing a huge carving
depicting a sea battle between the Khmer Empire and the Cham Empire

Inside Bayon temple.

Bayon temple.

Ta Prohm temple.

Ta Prohm temple.

Spiro and Peter at Ta Prohm temple.

After lunch, we went to Ta Prohm temple.  Ta Prohm was built in the late 12th century.  It was a 600 room monastery inhabited by 12,500 people.  The jungle has grown into the temple and the trees have become intertwined with the architecture, making it a strange and wonderful place to see.  After that, we saw one last temple and headed back to the hotel, exhausted and overheated.   

That night, the boys just watched a movie and went to bed early.  Stella and Joe ventured back out into the New Year’s celebrations, finding a nice outdoor bar with a traditional Cambodian band playing relaxing music for tips.  The chaos of water gun battles swirled around the outdoor bar, but we were able to stay dry and enjoy the view.  We also, after extensive haggling, purchased a wooden statute at the night market.   

The Cambodian people could not be more friendly or polite.  They seemed to love talking to us to practice their English.   

The next day was spent by the beautiful pool at our hotel and then we cruised back to the airport and headed home.

Showing the intertwining of tree and architecture.