Journey: Trip to Moscow in 2007

7th Feb 2012 : I took this from my old blog actually .. I had a chance to visit Moscow when I was a helpdesk trainer.. In my earlier write up in this blog, I did mentioned that I set a goal to be like my previous trainer when I joined Shell .. well, my wish did come true .. I really believed that Allah heard my prayers while in Makkah (Alhamdulillah).. in just 18 months being a helpdesk, I got the job to be the Helpdesk trainer .. my first trip to Manchester came in the first day I work as Helpdesk AsiaPac Trainer .. I'll share some photos later about that trip .. the second trip came few months later and this time to Moscow.. It is because Moscow never really had a real helpdesk before, they were supported by Cyberjaya Helpdesk .. but due to the language barrier, they decided to set up one with proper settings as in Cyberjaya .. so I was there to train the new helpdesk .. the challenge was, a normal training in Cyberjaya took 3 weeks, but due to time & money constraint, they cut it to 1 week .. but i don't have any reason to complaint because the journey itself was awesome .. I can say that the training really went well .. my boss told me that they want me to go there again as they really satisfied with my training, but she didn't approve the second time because it was not cost effective, so I end up train the local trainer via netmeeting.. anyway, that 1 time was enough for me because I don't think I will ever had a chance to go to Moscow is it's not because of work .. :)

the famous Red Square

The hotel I stayed, it cost RM1500 per night .. my boss almost had a heart attack..hahahaha ..

The new helpdesk team ..

Another challenge, no proper training room, so we use laptops

The entire Russian helpdesk team ...

In front of christmas tree

On my last day, they took me to the Moscow Zoo

And take the underground train .. it is still one of the best underground station i ever seen

And then, I took them out for dinner .. of course, paid under Shell.. :D

Moscow Airport .. I took the Singapore Airlines because there's no services from MAS to Moscow

Believe it or not, when I was in Moscow, the weather was exactly like Malaysia, very hot.. it was a surprise because Moscow is known as a cold country.. I even brought all my winter clothes .. In newspaper, they were reporting about the strange weather everyday.. it was reported that it was one of the hottest week of the year ... some of my students were saying it's probably because of my present .. I brought sun with me from Malaysia .. awwww that's so sweet .. hahahahaa ..

Being in Moscow was great experience.. to move around not really easy because there are not many people speak English .. most of the time, I walked by myself as the hotel receptionist told me not to take the train as I can't read the sign .. she was afraid that I'll get lost .. I did meet a few Malaysian students there .. first, they thought that I was their senior .. because of less Malaysian you can see in Moscow.. how do they know I'm a Malaysian, not Singaporean or Indonesian? It's because of Tudung Bawal (my scarf) .. only Malaysian wore Tudung Bawal at that time.. hahahaha .. what a legend.. 

What did I ate when I was there? Fruits and bread most of the time .. and sometimes, I just told the chef that I'm a vegan and they'll cook vegetarian for me .. it's not that hard to travel as a muslim .. you just have to adapt with your surrounding.. but of course, once I'm back from any trip, I crave for meat .. hahahaha ..