Well the airport isn’t anything special. We get off the plane and are put on a bus to take us to the terminal. We walk in and are greeted by a wall of people. It seems they won’t open the door to the baggage room until everyone is in from off the bus (fire hazard anyone?). The baggage room is tiny with only 2 carousels. What I notice is that as people pick up their bags they are not allowed back into the terminal but must exit to outside. Another bottle neck is created due to just one person at the door checking that the baggage tag on your suitcase matches the tag on the back of your passport/boarding pass. I suppose this not having a suitcase is a bit of a blessing at this point.
I just stand off to the side with the girls stuff as they go to pick up their luggage. F & C had already seen our taxi driver that had been prearranged for us so he is now waiting outside. All bags collected (except for my missing one of course) we head to the mini-van that is to take us to our hotel in Vladivostok.
It’s just before we’re about to all pile into the van that we notice one of our party is looking a wee bit panicked and she informs us that she can’t find her passport. Between the 4 of us we check all her bags 4 times but no luck. 2 head back to the terminal to try and find some assistance as the thinking is either it was left on the plane or she’s been pick pocketed in either the queue to get into the baggage claim area or the queue to get out the door.
What I find a bit annoying/strange is that at no point did our driver offer any assistance to help out. I mean he does speak English so I’m sure an interpreter would have been appreciated but he just sat there looking bored.3 hrs later they both finally immerge after having survived the ordeal with the police & airport security with a police report of the incident which we hope will be enough along with the photocopy of her passport until she can reach the UK consulate to get a replacement issued.
The drive to our hotel takes about an hour. This is a strange place, everything is gray and muddy yet so many people seem to have chosen white as the colour for their car. The architecture reminds me of a mixture of Caribbean (plain concrete block walls with corrugated tin roof) and frontier town with very weathered wooden buildings. In general everything looks tired.
The driver stops to add some petrol yet keeps the vehicle running which doesn’t seem like a safe option. There don’t seem to be any lines painted on the roads that I can see so I’m unclear as to if this is actually a 4 lane highway or just a make it up as you go along kind of road. And the pot holes! I swear some of them were big enough to swallow a VW Beetle.
We arrive in our hotel and the lobby looks like your typical generic hotel lobby. A young guy is behind the counter and his English is very good. When he finds out that the girls are from Scotland right away he mentions football and his favourite player is a Mc something and he was Scottish. Being that none of us are football aficionados we weren’t of much help to narrow it down any more.
Our rooms were what you would expect for a circa 1970ish hotel in the communist bloc. Very dated, small, the bathroom was a bit on the creepy side. But fresh sheets and towels and a surprisingly very comfy mattress. There is a balcony that opens up to the bay and you can see the remains of what looks like a play park.
I grab a nap (it has been 48 hrs since I last slept) while the others go for a short walk to get their bearings. Once back we hit the restaurant attached to the hotel as one of the guide books mention it so figure it can’t be that bad.
As Vladivostok is so close to China it’s not surprising that Chinese food here is supposed to be good and tonight is our chance to see if it’s true. Our feast consisted of fried eggplant in oyster sauce, sweet and sour chicken, a Halibut dish and scheuzean pork. It was all amazing and really flavourful. We also ordered a bottle of red wine that wasn’t horrible, but it wasn’t anything to write home about either. We pretty much ate everything and were too full for dessert.
We get back to our rooms to find the bar below is playing loud thumping music but to be honest I’m so tired I really don’t care. I nip down to the lobby to attempt to log into the internet to see if I can find any more information about my lost bag but no luck. The signal is far too weak and slow to be of any use. I’m able to borrow some PJ’s and an assortment of clothes from the girls since it will be 4 days until we arrive in Irkutsk where I hope to be reunited with my bag.
