@rgumental @dvisor

There is a touch of elegance in everything related to this city. Be it the roadside restaurants, or be it the opulent palaces of Tsars, everything has an element of elegance. That elegance is not one enmeshed in a fashionista world like Milan or Paris. It is rather a unique sense of royal charm. There is a melancholy in the air reminding us of the Tsarist past. There is still that intellectual element that gave birth to new ideas in politics and science. And, I'm quite sure that those unique spirits will shape up this city going forward as well. The intellectual & cultural capital of Russia -  St Petersburg has a rather short history starting only in 1700's. At different times, it was named as Petrograd & Leningrad. It was here that Bolsheviks overthrew the Tsars. It was here that Dmitri Mendeleev invented periodic table. This city has also witnessed one of the longest millitary sieges in modern world history during second world war. We reached from Moscow in a n...

The land behind the iron-curtain has fascinated me for a long time. Be it for the Communist legacy, or be it for the legion of chess champions , or be it for the modern oligarchs who buy off Soccer clubs, Russia seemed to be an enigmatic land. We flew to Domodedovo International airport on a wednesday evening. EK131, a five hour flight from Dubai. Moscow has three airports. This one was quite outside the city. A one hour taxi ride took us to our hotel .  Its the olympic hostel of 1980 converted to a hotel. Pretty big complex with all the amenities.  Thursday Morning :- We started off to explore Moscow. Started off with a taste of Russian expenses. Couple of sandwiches and tea costed us 300+ Roubles.  Enter Moscow metro. Moscow Metro Network You would wonder at the engineering marvel of Russian engineers once you see the enmeshed map of metro tracks. Considering that this was built beginning from 1930s, it is really astonishing.  Advice 1 : You need a map ...

"If Earth was a single state, Istanbul would be its capital" - Napoleon Bonaparte A visit to this city will give a feeling that you have lived through the history.. From the times of Emperor Constantine to Ottomans to Ataturk & to the bustling metropolis today. You would see charms of each of those phases here.  EK 121 - Dubai Istanbul flight took about  3 1/2 hrs. We landed at the Ataturk International Airport ( Istanbul has two airports - So, be sure where your flight is landing ). As directed by our host Julien ( https://roomorama.com/short-term-rentals/istanbul/galata/apartment/48437  ) , we could easily get the 30 minutes Airport Bus service Havatas to Taksim square. 10 minute Taxi Drive from there took us to our apartment. Day -1 . Covered much more than what we expected.. Blue Mosque, Hagia Sophia, Topkapi palace , Bosphorus cruise and Istiklal street. The three monuments are next to each other and this place ( Sultanahmet ) is well connec...

How much is the rupee going to depreciate ? That's a question which the expatriate community keeps asking to every Tom Dick & Harry. The intention is to lock in on the most favorable exchange rate (i.e, highest depreciation ). Similarly when I visited India recently, some of the discussions often veered towards concerns on depreciating rupee as it is increasing the fuel cost.  Now, predicting the level is like a lottery. I'm not going to do that. The level, hinges on a lot of policy decisions by Govt, RBI & even the European Central Bank. Instead I want to write on a set of common misconceptions prevalent in Indian media about this phenomenon 1) Why cannot RBI sell dollars & pop up rupee ?  RBI cannot and should not try intervening in forex market beyond a level. The volume of INR currency market is supposed to be about $40 - $50 billion a day . Now, to seriously make an impact on the exchange rate, RBI will have to release about $10 billion a day ( i.e, bare...

Imagine a place where people are happy about everything.. No big complexities in life.. You work from 10 to 4:30 / 5 PM on weekdays..Everything in city is closed from Saturdays 1 PM .. Most of the natives party on Saturday & Sunday evenings on beaches... That's Seychelles. A quickly planned trip over an extended weekend. We flew in EK 705 from Dubai. 4 1/2 hours flight.. A quick tip for all flying to Seychelles - Always take the window seat and make sure that you land there in the morning. The runway in Mahe Island runs parallel to the coast line..The view that you see while you land is one of the best experiences that you get in the trip. Snippets from the trip..  Long time back when I used to collect stamps & coins, it was very difficult to get a few stamps / coins of small nations like Seychelles. I'm no longer into those hobbies. But somehow, didn't want to forego this chance.. Central post office in Victoria, the capital city has a philatelic cent...