Red Corner: Moscow’s Millionaire Fair

by Neil Woodburn on

I’ve been to a lot of fairs in my life, but not a single one in the world compares to Moscow’s Millionaire Fair held last weekend. There was no cotton candy or roller coasters, but there were plenty of diamond encrusted cell phones, luxury yacht manufacturers, gobs of jewelry, and countless other high end products I won’t be buying any time soon.

The annual “trade fair of luxury class goods and services” caters to Russia’s ultra rich. Moscow is currently home to 103,000 millionaires and 33 billionaires–a higher concentration than any other capital in the world according to Business 2.0 Magazine.

Curious what Russia’s nouveau riche look like but aren’t heading to Moscow any time soon? Check out this video from last year’s Millionaire Fair. If you look really close you can almost see Lenin spinning in his grave.

Word for the Travel Wise (11/02/06)

by Adrienne Wilson on

Now that November has come the holidays will be here in the blink of an eye! And with the holidays, I always start to think about a nice cold glass of egg nog with nutmeg sprinkled all over the top, but besides that I think of all magical festivities. Take the Nutcracker for instance – sadly I’ve never had the chance to see the Russian fairy-ballet performed on stage. Yet, with each and every season it seems the opportunities to watch this show are a dime a dozen. Whether or not they’ll be great I can’t say and aside from all this babble, I bring you your very special word for the day.

Today’s word is a Russian word used in Russia:

tantsihvat – dance

Ready to learn Russian? Check out Master Russian first. They have numerous excellent sound files and the text is clear and easy to read. Learning also goes beyond your Russian A, B, C’s at their site as they have crosswords, literature, proverbs, folk music, and homework help. Other good sites include Learning Russian and this Ectaco Translation Dictionary. Click here for two language book rec’s on Amazon. BBC has the basics to download and hear audio, while Wiki provides the in depth Russian lang back history.

Past Russian words: , shakzochniy, paka, spasiba, tuhmohzhmyah

Red Corner: Moscow Yachting

by Neil Woodburn on

Perhaps the last place in the world one might expect a yachting trend would be Moscow. Sure, the city sits on a river, but it’s a river that one can literally sit on for 3-4 months of the winter when it is frozen solid. That’s not exactly great yachting conditions.

And yet, yachts have become the new plaything for Russia’s growing class of uber-rich. Sales are booming for all types of vessels. According to a Reuters article in the Moscow Times, salespeople can’t keep half-million dollar boats in their docks. And these are the low end boats. Those going for millions of dollars are selling like blinis as well.

I can’t imagine that Moscow will ever be the next Cannes or St. Tropez, but then again, “Luxury Yacht” and “Moscow” would never have been uttered in the same sentence ten years ago.

World’s 10 Most Polluted Places 2006

by Adrienne Wilson on

Make sure you include a respirator or some type of breathing mechanism on your packing list if heading to any of the destinations found on the Blacksmith Institute’s World’s Worst Polluted Places list. Keep in mind there will be no smelling of roses as you stroll the contaminated paths in Haina, Dominican Republic; Kabwe, Zambia; La Oroya, Peru; or Linfen, China. Instead, imagine whiffing the scents of sulfur dioxide, lead, Strontium-90, cobalt and Caesium-137.

On a very serious note the list is very disheartening and if you take an opportunity to read site descriptions in full it gets even worse. Numbers of the potentially affected population are included as well as types of pollutants (some longer than most), site description and cleanup activity. If you’re unable to connect with the dangers of what unusually high levels of any of the toxins noted can do — the pictures make it quite real. I mean, we’re talking some 3,500,000 people in Ranipet, India who could potentially be affected by disgusting, life-threatening toxins found in Tannery waste. This certainly won’t be the kind of information you find in tourism brochures or places your might ever consider for a holiday unless you’re into nuclear power plants, like Ukraine’s ever-so-popular Chernobyl. Chernobyl travel has most certainly been done before, but I wouldn’t recommend it. Then again, I’m just another sucker for fresh water and clean air.

via Gridskipper

Red Corner: Finding your Blini in Moscow

by Neil Woodburn on

It’s a common curse facing many developing nations: the local economy improves, money starts to flow, and suddenly ethnic restaurants start popping up on street corners everywhere because locals–long tired of eating the same old national dish–want to try something new and fashionable.

Over time, sushi and Thai food replace local cuisine and it soon becomes very difficult to find a restaurant that actually serves any local food at all.

This becomes a big problem for tourists; one doesn’t travel all the way to Moscow, for example, to eat sushi.

Thankfully, the good folks at The Independent have realized how this problem affects out-of-towners in Russia’s capital where ethnic restaurants have run amuck. Robin Buss has therefore put together a rather extensive article aimed at helping hungry tourists in Moscow find that traditional Muscovite meal. Be sure to take his advice; pass on the hamburgers and sushi and jump right into the caviar and borscht. You’ll be very happy you did.