Randy Cornholio's Expedition

[GLCQuantum]

Just viewed this blog and thought it was a great 'tongue in cheek' view of places around the world.

Although lengthy, a good insight into places you may not have been.

BTW Randy, what is your problem with Russians. I'm sure if you ask them nicely they will smile for you.

Randy, you do not belong in England. Hurry up stacking shelves and get your behind back to the Land Of Smiles ASAP.

www.thaidave.blogspot.com

[Big Boy]

GLCQuantum wrote:

BTW Randy, what is your problem with Russians. I'm sure if you ask them nicely they will smile for you.

Back in the good old days when I used to travel by Aeroflot all of the time, I spent many hours transiting through the Airport at Moscow. In those days (late 80's) you were not allowed to be happy in the airport. I remember one poor lad, he started to play his guitar to entertain us - he was arrested, and was not on the flight back to the UK.

Another memory of that airport was watching the guy (dressed in a very important looking uniform doing a menial job) checking people through the metal scanner. Every time the alarm sounded, he made them empty their pockets of cash. Without fail the person who had set off the alarm had a coin that the official never had in his collection. Invariably, the coin was added to the collection. He must have made a hell of a lot of money out of that scam. How sad must I have been - that was only form of entertainment at the airport - watching him.



I agree that Randy's blog is excellent - I've been dipping in to it for at least a year now.

[Randy Cornhole]

Wow praise indeed guys, thanks.... I havent updated for a while as been a bit depresed back here working in London, but will make an effort to add some new stuff....
As for the Russian stuff. It really was hard travelling around, people diddnt seem to want to serve me and were quite brusk. Good for the old diet though!

[Mack111]

The Russian are quite hard people on the face of things and they not the friendliest people on this planet I grant you that but a few years back I went to Moscow to set up walk in interviews for Engineers in a hotel, was there for about 5 – 6 weeks doing this and once you get to the no them they are actually very nice.

Some of the older ones still have a distrust for the west but the younger ones I found were very friendly once you had broke down the initial barrier, lack of English probably don’t help.

The 2 female translators we hire for the interviews took us to there house and made us food and gave heaps of vodka and introduced us to the families, I’m sure they could probably not afford to such a thing either.

Also another time in Kiev (Ukraine) we did more walk in interviews and the people there were really nice to a point one night I was sitting in a bar minding my own business and two girls heard me speak English and they asked me out for the night and showed me round Kiev and then of to a nightclub then the next night to a show and more drinks etc, even they tried to pay for there drinks.

I really think even though they hard people on the surface if you can break down the barrier you’ll find them a lot more friendly

[redzonerocker]

excellent blog randy.
i was in the ussr back in 1986, moscow & kiev. like mack said, found them to be very distant until they get to know you. i suppose years of living under communist dictatorship made them that way,much the same as east germany was just after the wall came down. very poor people & genuinely suspicious of the western world.
it was a very interesting experience though & a beautiful country too.

[Randy Cornhole]

Strange thing about Russian women is that they are really pretty up untill the age of about 25. Then they all turn into Peggy Mount.......

[Terry]

All interesting stuff

I worked in Moscow between May '87 and November 91 and actually lived in a soviet apartment block through the whole of 1990.

Russian people are no different from any other - most only want a decent roof over their head, food in their belly and to enjoy life.

The Russians have found this with Vodka - which transliterated means - a liquid with not a lot of water - i.e. alcohol

I found them very warm and friendly - after the already mentioned cool period.

One endearing character about the Russian folk is their ability to laugh at themselves.

Russian joke

Guy goes to a Lada car showroom to buy a car.
Salesman says - 'no problem, order now and it will be available on 27th November 2015'
Customer says - 'OK, morning or afternoon?'
Salesman - ' Why are you asking?'
Customer -' I've got a plumber coming in the morning, and I don't want to miss him, that's why.'

One guy once said to me - after checking that he was not being overheard - 'You know? Our Communist system has treated us like mushrooms for 73 years - kept in the dark and fed on shit!'

Great folk

And Randy, your comment on women is absolutely spot on - on the 25th birthday they suddenly expand in every direction.

[Mack111]

just to add further;

After doing the walk in interviews, we hired 9 engineers, these guys were all turned out to be super loyal, super hard working and a joy to have on the team, ah and the vodka nights were a good laugh!!

Eastern block women, some of the most beautiful women I have ever seen, one of the guys sisters who I became quite friendly with that worked as a part time model earning a pittance I am sure could have went on to become a super model, mind you she was only 24 but she was one of the most stunning girls I ever seen on this planet

[Rob W]

I too worked in 83 / 84 in USSR I was over in Siberia and found the people fantastic and extremely helpful. they had such a hard life out there but were willing to share what they had.
we were miles from anyware on the pipeline into Europe ( I was on the northern end).
The women were lovely although the metal teeth put you off a bit at first
had a good time up there, and the few oldies ( trappers mainly) up there always had a laugh via the interpreters.
lots and lots of vodka with the locals and the Finns working there as well.

[redzonerocker]

the entrance driveway to the factory we worked on in kiev was lined with trees. on each tree was a photo poster of different people. after investigation we found out they were pictures of the workers of the month! the nearer to the factory you were, the more respect you had with your work colleagues & company.
the ambitions of the workforce were simply to get their picture posted on a tree & ultimately as near as possible to the factory main entrance.
as for the women, i think they weather a lot better than most regions as they get older. maybe that has changed a little since i was last there as they have now adopted the western ways & the fast food outlets have arrived in vast numbers.
to say they drink vodka like water is a bit of an understatement!!

[Guess]

I too worked in 83 / 84 in USSR I was over in Siberia and found the people fantastic and extremely helpful. they had such a hard life out there but were willing to share what they had.

Rob, as a matter of interest were many of the people you met actually Siberian of race or Slavics that just happened to live their.

I am surprised to hear about the Finns working voluntarily in Russia. I suppose the lure of cheap strong vodka was just too much to ignore and patriotism becomes the first casualty.

[Bamboo Grove]

I am surprised to hear about the Finns working voluntarily in Russia. I suppose the lure of cheap strong vodka was just too much to ignore and patriotism becomes the first casualty.

There´s a way to conquer the world, if you can´t do it by force, do it by giving them something they need and they don´t have. That´s what the Japanese have done as well, haven´t they.

[elem]

perhaps off the original post but anyway..
I had the opportunity to work for a week this March in Moscow, and found the first impression of people very "cold" -not a smile in sight anywhere (except for the Georgian fab restaurant where they could not serve Georigan wine since 6 months because of political reasons, darn).
There were plenty of slavic/maffioso and/or bodyguard-looking guys with 3 mobilephones each in the lobby of the hotel, and almost as many stunning "barbie"-looking girls. The real people were to be seen on the Moscow metro, where you had all the Russian stereotypes -and most of them carried bags from "Stockmann" (imported Finnish version of Tesco/Lotus) but no smiles in sight there either...) and of course the old ladies selling veggies outside the metro stations.
Gum (the former state-owned covered shopping centre) was an experience! Formerly people had to stand in line for hours for a piece of bread, now people have all the choice they want, but still cannot afford anything in the "haute couture" shops, or hip expos with the latest Italian furniture on show...
I won't tell you about the scary experience of trying to get into the Red Square...
We met some really nice locals anyway. The history of a country always put its' marks on the people...
Randy; keep up the gallery

[Rob W]

I am surprised to hear about the Finns working voluntarily in Russia. I suppose the lure of cheap strong vodka was just too much to ignore and patriotism becomes the first casualty.[/quote]

The Finns were contractors the same as me , they built the buildings that contained our equipment and also our accommodation.
Of the local people quite a mixture some were Eskimos some were contractors mainly from other parts of the USSR working on a promise that after 25 years working in Siberia they would get a dacha on the black sea and in some of the local villagers was the actual locals who trapped and chopped wood not sure of there backgrounds.
On our job it was a mixture of people from the UK, France, Germany, Italy, Belgium, Japan and of course the Finns. We certainly did some drinking !

[Mack111]

Guess

In Siberia is a pretty mixed bunck, lots of Koreans born in Russia are there, even soem of the hotels are Korean owned such as Hyundi hotel, lots of buiness trading between the two countries up in Siberia anyway.

also with Sachiline island kicking off with some major wester money in the oil patch the whole island is going crazy with expats from all over the world, its like the gold rush in Sachiline just now