Going to Russia doesn't start with booking your flights, oh no, it starts with a que..a que to get your VISA. Naturally, it is open only two hours a day, during work hours. And naturally the ques are that long you need to get there an hour in advanced to make sure you are in the part of the que which gets seen too in the allocated two hour daily VISA slot.

Going for Easter, we were all set to stay with Wes and Delia. Wes is my old boss at ConocoPhillips, but is currently on an expat assignment in Moscow. Wes is great value and always has a smile on his face, he and his driver (Slava) came out to airport to pick us up.

First impressions of Moscow were that it was like anyother European city, but it seemed slightly better laid out, wider streets, bigger open pedestrian areas etc. We were looking forward to exploring.

Going back to their apartment, which was like stones throw from the Kremlin and the Red Square. They quickly introduced us to the good Russian vodka, which isn't anything like Smirnoff vodka. Next day...