Saint Petersburg Travel Answers

You should not have any such problems. There are a lot of Asian tourists in SP!!

I visited St. Petersburg 1-2 years ago. I walked around the city, museums, shops, etc. and had no problem at all. Still a normal precaution for traveling unfamiliar places applies.

I travelled to St. Petersburg some months back. I spent 8 wonderful days with a local tour guide and it was just wonderful. It is safe ok, but while there I could not see many English signs and my friend kept telling me how difficult it is for an idependent traveller to visit this place. I don't want to scare you but it is better to be with a group when there, or at least speak some Russian. It is surely worth a visit, but travelling alone....I wonder! We spent hours and coming an going for those papers with my friend I remember to the post office, but in all it was an unforgettable trip.Thank God I had her with me all the time! I don't think that having an Asian descent will be a problem, the problem starts from the language and signs, and much bureaucracy.

there are a lot of foreign tourists in StP every day and I am sure therearen't any problem in present days. and even I disagree with a point above that there is not much signs in english in StP but i guess there are much more signs than in Moscow in my opinion. and if it is ok with your visa and hotel place staying :-)there is no need to pay anything to police.

I really don't think you have a problem, though I am not Asian, I am Australian and do not speak any language other than english, I was there 5 years ago as an independant traveller and am not young and did not have a problem, well minor problems (such as going to the Ballet and coming out and finding all the Taxi's were charging unbelieveable prices and to make matters worse it was snowing. After about 10 mins one driver took pity on us and dropped the price a little. We had checked at the hotel and asked the price we should pay but everyone was about 10 times dearer. I agree there is not a lot of sinage in English but we are in another country. Go, take normal precautions and enjoy yourself. I have a few stories to tell - makes it even more memorable.

to ohaiyo - just interesting, you visited many countiries and whether not-good things you read and heard about before your visit to the country, everything happened? :-) oh yes, the foreigners are the main fortune for the taxi drivers in Moscow and StP :-))

if the travel takes place in summer then it is White nights :-) not dangerous i guess :-)))

Hmmm... I am Russian-American and I had few interesting experiences... but not in St. Petersburg. I was living in Cupertino for a while. At the time I worked in Menlo Park, just opposite of the Sun Micro building. I had to commute through East Palo Alto - and once as I was returning home I was shot just before merging to 101. An other time the daughter of my friend visited us fromGermany and they went to the City for a day. While walking south of the Market Street an African-American who was walking next to them was shot and killed. That German lady was born and raised in the port city of Pireus, close to Athens - she did see few sailor brawls... but nothing like that. She refused to visit San Francisco after that happened (and to tell the truth - I resigned from the place where I worked after I was shot).

By the way: my father had darker skin and while he was from Hungary - he was always mistaken in Russia for a Georgian. Nothing ever happened, except that once a group of drunk Georgians was upset that he forgot "his" country. So they tricked him by pouring real spicy Georgian stuff in his food... All what happened, he told them: "wow, now it tastes like at home in Hungary" - than he was forced to drink hours to celebrate the Georgian-Hungarian friendship. Drinking wine for hours is what Georgians mean very seriously, so it was fun...

I did not hear anything... I wasn't hit, but in the morning I noticed a nice hole in my car. I called the police - they told me it was a 9mm softpoint ricochetting from 100 yard distance at the angle what perfectly fit the place as I described. I told the very beautiful police-lady that she is a genius to tell me everything just looking at the hole. She told me: "We have a LOT of experience" :( After that I got an offer from Apple and I took it instantly. Because in Cupertino you can walk at night. But apparently, driving in East Palo Alto is not that good idea. It was 1996.

We're all in God's hands..

Are you in Devil hands? 8-()

>>> We're all in God's hands.. Aha. Don't forget, that like us for over 15 years the O.P. is living in the Bay Area. That is scary enough - the story with the 9mm bullet was scary AFTERWARDS. But imagine, you are driving on the freeway - and for a moment you feel like you are up in the air, flying. Than you hit the road again (literally). That happens, too - and happened with me. It was just a "minor" earthquake, but slightly stronger than the ones happening usually once in few days we did not even noticed after a while. We lived almost on the St. Andreas fault and the Earth in that area is not very calm. If that's OK with the OP, than St. Pete will be less risky.

Thank you everyone for putting this issue into perspective for me. I am going to take a Russian language class for a few weeks and learn the Cyrillic alphabet. I'll then rely on my travel karma and have a good time in St. Petersburg.

You have a point, but I think it the same in other cities too. I have been visiting S&P some 40 times and normal not-routines keep you out of troubles: not alone, not night time, not in crowded places, not much money, not many credit cards, and not… I have been in troubles three times. Some 15 years ago (may be we don’t count these) our car was stolen from hotel parking place (in front of hotel guards) . We were away from the car some 40 mins, and it was enough (never got the car back). Secondly some 5 young (girls and boys) made a rush around my friend (besides me) and tried to rob his suitcase, but no luck to them, we noticed the try. But the last time you have to worry. Two years ago I my wallet was stolen in Mayakovskaja metro station. We (four persons) were going to metro, some 4-5 men game away from the train and one of them tried to puke to my face. In ¼ of the second my wallet disappeared from breast pocket (and it was even difficult to me to take wallet out from there) and I didn’t even notice what happened. In second I noticed the wallet was gone, but I didn’t have an lighest idea who of them took it. I lost driving license, some money and some cards. Lessons learned, be aware and avoid being in same kind of situations (is all possible places.

Sunny cat - on VT we do not discuss religion. Please read the guide lines. "5. Do not post political or religious discussions. This is a Travel Forum and Political and Religious Discussions will be deleted." Read more: Travel Forum Guidelines

To unaS, IndianPacific: culturally what Sunny_cat said is not only 100% acceptable but even expected... even from a Russian militant atheist. People are somewhat more superstitious there. Yes.... we are in "God's hands"... yes, we don't kiss while staying in the door... yes... and this is a long list of what silly (some say not-so-silly) things may mean: neptun8.ru/Literatura/Suever... The sillinesses above are from folklore, but it was funny to observe these habits (and their more advanced versions) being present even during meetings of Communist Party. The most important ones: - Spit over the left shoulder and knock on the wood while praising somewhat or someone - Never walk with an empty bucket. Put somewhat, even trash inside. - Don't give cash in hand, put it somewhere else (if you pay to train attendant, taxi driver, etc). The negative karma may spread through cash (they say) from hand-to-hand. Put it on the car dashboard (if there is anything what resembles a desk - don't put there!) - and leave ;-) - Don't take anything out of your house during the night - Don't put keys, empty bottles, change on the desk - Never give gifts having glass, never give knife or watch/clock as gift either. Chinese or Viet may dislike glass, too. (easy to go around: I never gave camera lens as a gift - I always sold them for one Cent! That Cent for a500 lens is strictly demanded and paid, no kidding! - As said, never kiss across the doorstep. Doorstep for Russians, Chinese, Mongolians, etc. is anyway an evil object, full of all kind of bad things. - Unmarried girls NEVER should sit in the corner (in Hungary, too!) - You should sit down before you travel - Don't ever sit on the desk! However not everything is bad: - having a lot of spiders in home is good (and don't dare to kill a spider!) - stepping on sh*t is good (you will get money) - if you drive under the bridge and it's a freight train passing the bridge, ask the train to give you money (according to some it works, I, in person never heard about that superstition. But next time will try out, who knows, hehe) This is just a humble collection of sillinesses - but keep in mind, these are pretty deep, just live with them. :-)

Gyuri That was interesting, enjoyed reading it. My culture (Jewish) has many of the same supersitions :) Your link is in Cyrillic letters (Russian), so I couldn't read more. I understand what you are saying, but the wider cultural reference as understood by most of the world would make Sunny cat's remarks religiously related even if she didn't mean it that way :(

In that link everything is in the spirit of the utter wisdom the more "intellectual" things represent I listed out ;-) Would be probably extremely boring to translate. Pretty much like "call a kitty a 'little mouse' and the kitty will die" (yes, that's there, too). As silly all it sounds - even people who otherwise don't believe would follow the rules. At least I can proudly say: I never ever gave a single eyeglass, binocular or camera lens as a gift, I "sold" all of them - even to my children.

LOL - and I never kill a spider LOL Of course I can rationalize that - they eat the mosquitoes.

Wow..I had to go back to the first question to see what has been going on here.The question was about St. Petersburg and the Asian descent member and the whole theme changes with the last 4 or 5 contributions. lol