UPON my arrival at the Domodedovo International Airport in Moscow, the Customs officer refuses to stamp my passport. She responds to my protests with even more indecipherable Russian and finally gestures me towards a dodgy-looking hallway, while my travel mates look on worriedly from that beautiful, post-Immigration land of liberty mere metres away.

For one brief, paranoid moment, the little that I know of Russia - Stalin, communism and the KGB via James Bond - flashes before me as I walk towards the door that will settle my fate.

An employee inside the consular office explains in broken English that my visa mistakenly lists me as a man and that it will take only a moment to issue a new one.

I relax and feel obligated to offer an amiable laugh, just to set the extremely apologetic and harried-looking man at ease.

Armed with a brand new visa, I head outside to meet my Russian friend, Vitali Zagorodnov.

It's much more fun to travel with a native of the country because of obvious language issues.

In Russia, there's also the fact that people there are pretty much unhelpful and unfriendly unless they learn that you are a friend of a friend, upon which they morph into the warmest people you will ever meet on either side of the former Iron Curtain.

Vitali, a computer engineering professor at Nanyang Technological University, is on his annual trip home with his Singaporean wife Su Ling, and has invited me and two friends on a tour of Russia.

Vitali leads us to the Moscow Metro, a model of public transportation with trains arriving every minute, literally, and 171 underground stations boasting an array of architecture and art, mostly deep enough underground to withstand a nuclear attack.

It has been only 15 years since the end of the Cold War, after all.

We walk from the station to our rented flat in Pushkin Square. Russia is a wonderfully literary country with enough statues, monuments and historical sites devoted to Pushkin and Tolstoy to rival those of Lenin.

Our flat is a mere 15-minute walk from Red Square and the Kremlin, Russia's equivalent of the Istana.

So even though we are spending just 21/2 days in Moscow, that's enough to take in the usual tourist attractions like the Kremlin and St Basil's Cathedral.

Considerable portions of both - like the rest of Russia, apparently - are under renovation but the outside of St Basil's, with its red facade and onion domes, is Russia at its picturesque best.

Inside, we find a crowd of Russians praying in front of intricate, gold-leaf icons of Christ and various saints.

After the fall of communism, the Russian Orthodox Church has regained popularity, even among the young.

For Pete's sake

ON OUR third day, we take an eight-hour ride on the Red Arrow, the overnight train, to St Petersburg - or simply Peter, as Kirill, Vitali's younger brother, calls it.

Vitali has gone ahead to visit his parents near the city of Saratov while Kirill, an engineering undergraduate, acts as our interim tour guide.

After lugging our backpacks onto the bus on the way to our rented flat, we peer out the windows at the scenery flashing by and wonder why we spent any time in Moscow.

Founded in 1703 by Peter the Great, the first tsar to travel to Europe, St Petersburg was meant to be forward-looking and European in design and spirit.

Situated on the Baltic Sea just across from Finland and with most of the historic buildings designed by Western European architects, it still is.

It's July, and the feel is that of Europe in summer, with girls in strappy tops and white peasant skirts. It's certainly a very different picture from the snow-covered Russia most foreigners expect.

With its canals, bridges and outdoor cafes, the city deserves its reputation as the Venice of the North - only without the stink.

We spend four happy days here, visiting tourist attractions like Peterhof - Peter the Great's former palace, now a park outside the city - and the Hermitage.

The latter is a museum housed inside a collection of former royal buildings where, audio guide in tow, we try in vain to cover in one visit everything from Leonardo Da Vinci paintings and Rembrandt's The Prodigal Son to a comprehensive exhibition of French impressionist art.

The best by far though is the Church On Spilled Blood, built in the 19th century to commemorate the 1881 assassination of Tsar Alexander II.

When the bright blue, green and gold domes first come into view, we stop in our tracks and hastily whip out the digi-cams, pausing every few steps to snap another shot and murmur 'wow'.

The inside is covered with stunning wall-to-wall mosaics, mostly depicting scenes from the New Testament. We frequently bump into other gawking tourists as we stare upwards at the ceiling and walls, covered with thousands of small tiles made of jasper, rhodonite and more than 20 other minerals.

With Russia's 'other capital' (it was the seat of government from 1712 to 1918) being such a repository of history, art and culture - just three years after its renovated look was completed for its 300th anniversary in 2003 - it's no wonder that St Petersburg was chosen for Russia's turn to host the annual G8 summit recently.

Tired out from all the sightseeing, we frequently retire to our flat, which is located in a dilapidated concrete building that belies the actual apartment's cheerful and modern interior.

There, we enjoy a cup of tea while Kirushka - the affectionate nickname we have taken to calling Kirill by - whips up a snack.

On one particularly lazy afternoon (or evening rather - we're so far north the sun doesn't set until after 10pm), I sit by the kitchen window with my favourite Russian beer, a green-and-yellow label that Kirushka translates to Siberian Crown, as our consummate Russian host flips a few blini - ubiquitous Russian crepes served with cheese, jam or even caviar.

He tells me about his childhood, from the economically stable but complacent communist days to perestroika and glasnost.

Former leader Mikhail Gorbachev's famous call for openness and restructuring paved the way for today's capitalistic lifestyle - from rising prices to Moscow's small but ridiculously wealthy elite. But it also led to the fall of the Soviet Union and times of severe shortage, where there were plenty of roubles but no goods to be bought, not even toilet paper.

He mentions his hometown of Shihani, a town in the Saratov region, our next destination and reachable only by a 28-hour train ride (our friends do not recommend the local airlines) from St Petersburg.

We'll be living in a dacha, or Russian chalet, near there with his family for a week.

Unfortunately, Shihani houses a chemical weapons plant and we don't have the security clearance to set foot in the town. Instead, the Zagorodnov family has had to borrow a dacha an hour away for our benefit.

Some Bond-inspired Soviet stereotypes, it seems, still hold true.

Losing track of time

TIME has no meaning here in the dacha. It's a comfortable chalet located in a private camp ground, with a few other vacationing Russians.

I feel as if I've gotten lost on the way from St Petersburg and, like Odysseus, have slipped into my own personal land of the Lotus-eaters. In the Odyssey, the crew get too complacent to leave, and lose track of the outside world.

We spend much of the time in the nearby Volga River - the longest river in Europe and certainly the most sung about in Russia - either swimming, fishing or boating.

The rest of the time, we play endless games of durak, which is Russian for 'fool' and the name of the country's most popular card game, or try to stuff more of the delicious food cooked by Kirushka's mother into our bellies.

Taking in three enormous meals a day for five days - including rich borscht (beet soup), pelmeni (dumplings) and even mutton shish kebab served Georgian-style - is hard work.

We also make a few day trips, courtesy of our trusty Russian Lada cars, to nearby towns, fields and forests.

Inspired by the prospect of homemade jam, we try our hand at wild strawberry-picking in a field of wildflowers so picturesque I'm sure that I have just been dropped into the pages of Laura Ingalls Wilder's American pioneer classic Little House On The Prairie. Or perhaps more accurately, a laundry detergent commercial.

On a grocery trip - as if we need more food to supplement the family's homegrown garden vegetables - I pick up a half-litre of vodka for 100 roubles (S$5.80). I can't decipher the label but Vitali's father, Valery Kupriyanovich, assures me that it's fairly good quality.

And it is. Flavoured with birch sap, the vodka is so smooth that I don't feel compelled to eat the homemade pickled tomatoes the rest of the family suck on as a chaser after dinner that same night. The old man looks surprised and then gives me a thumbs-up sign.

For the rest of the trip, I am referred to by my new nickname: 'Russian Man'.

I try to live up to the monicker when it comes time to try out the traditional Russian sauna built into the dacha - walled with pine and heated with hot coals.

Vitali explains that Russian urbanites generally make a yearly trip to a public sauna, much larger than our small, private one. He asks me to imagine 20 naked Russian men lined up in a room so hot that you must wear special hats and slippers to protect your extremities, groaning as steam hisses off the coals.

When the wave of heat hits me, I feel all my pores open at once, and can't stop giggling from the shock.

All too soon, I find myself about to board the train from Saratov to Moscow, where we fly back to Singapore, and I notice that the berry stains under my fingernails are already fading.

My Russian summer idyll - a phrase that would have seemed paradoxical to me before I found out the country was not a land of permafrost - is coming to an end.

But there is no time for regret as we are caught in a flurry of hugs and kisses on the platform. Valery Kuryanovich and his wife Lyubov Kirillovna wave goodbye and implore us to return.

I say I will, and this time, I mean it.

How to get there

SINGAPORE Airlines started direct flights to Moscow recently. The standard economy fare is $1,650 round-trip, excluding GST and additional fees.

With a minimum of four people travelling together, the price per ticket drops to $1,150.

But check the SIA website regularly for the announcement of its $888 promotional fare, which is available on an occasional basis.

It reveals such deals usually about a month before the indicated flight date.

'The feel is that of Europe in summer, with girls in strappy tops and white peasant skirts. It's certainly a very different picture from the snow-covered Russia most foreigners expect'

Five things to do in Russia

1. Research alternative types of accommodation before you set off

Hotels in Russia can be outrageously expensive. Renting a short-term apartment is much better value for money, and they often cater to expatriates and tourists - that is, they have online booking and speak English.

I booked ahead of time through City Realty (www.cityrealtyrussia.com) although there are several other places that offer similar services.

In St Petersburg, for example, we paid US$155 (S$244) for a large apartment with kitchen and bath that fit four people comfortably.

Also, look into renting a dacha. There is a wide range in price and quality, with a private room starting at about US$25.

You can also stay with a family, even if you don't have Russian friends. Your hosts will more likely than not be friendly and curious about your culture, and will extend their best Russian hospitality, especially by overfeeding you.

Try Host Families Association at www.hofa.ru

2. Take the metro

The map may intimidate you with its criss-crossing routes and Cyrillic (Russian) alphabet but it's the cheapest and easiest way around Moscow and St Petersburg.

For a few roubles - prices vary depending on how many trips you buy at once - you can get a one-way trip anywhere on the metro.

Stop by a swanky hotel first - for Moscow, I recommend the historic Metropol on Teatralnyy Proezd - for a free map of the city. You should be able to find one with a metro map that has the stations marked in English, although this gets tricky when you run into Russian metro signs.

If you don't want to take the metro, you can try your luck with a taxi. But the official cabs, marked with a chequer pattern on the side, can be hard to find. You can apparently flag down any car on the street, and they will stop to ferry you around, but it's a less reliable bet.

You'll have to negotiate a price beforehand, which can be difficult if you don't speak Russian.

3. Explore the Kremlin

INTRIGUE: The Kremlin is the place to visit in Moscow, so do not be tempted by the rows of shops nearby into giving it a miss. -- AFP

Approaching the corner of Red Square from Tsverskaya Ulitsa - try not to get too distracted by the street's excellent shops featuring familiar names like Mango, Zara and Tiffany - you'll see tour groups setting off for the day, either for the Kremlin, nearby St Basil's Cathedral or both.

Listen for guides shouting English (or Mandarin - there are plenty of Chinese tourists) into their bullhorns, and you can either fork over the money to officially sign up with them, or surreptitiously follow the crowd for a guided tour.

Sadly, much of the place is under renovation - like the State Armoury museum - but it's still the place to visit while in Moscow. Inside, there are a few cathedrals and museum exhibits worth seeing.

A general tip when sightseeing: Take along your student ID if you have one. You'll save a load of rouble with this as you can get in for free or half price at most of the major tourist attractions.

4. Shop at the Vernisazh Market

Shopping can be expensive in Russia, but the biggest exception to the rule is the Vernisazh Market near the Partizanskaya metro station. It's the best place in Moscow for souvenirs.

Open every day from 9am to 6pm with a 10 rouble entry fee on weekends, this huge bazaar hawks everything from Russian dolls and music boxes resembling St Basil's Cathedral to antique samovars - the elaborate water boilers used for tea are popular among tourists, but be careful of fakes - and Soviet memorabilia. I picked up a nice poster that reads 'Lenin was, Lenin is and Lenin will be!'.

The hawkers are used to foreigners and will often speak some English, or even be willing to bargain.

5. There're lots of things to do in St Petersburg

For one, check out the Church on Spilled Blood. Reopened in 1998 after more than 20 years of restoration, it is possibly the most beautiful building in Russia.

Visit the Hermitage. One of the most famous museums in the world, its collections (from prehistoric to 20th century) are displayed in six buildings, with the main one being the Winter Palace, which used to be the official residence of the Russian Tsars.

And don't forget Peterhof. It was the one place our trusty guide Kirill demanded we see, and for good reason. Featuring the former palace of Peter the Great - inspired after he visited the famous Palace of Versailles, which became France's seat of government in 1682 when King Louis XIV moved there - the 607-ha park boasts sculptures, beautiful green spaces and several fountains.

The highlight is the Grand Cascade, a sequence of 37 gilded sculptures, 64 fountains and 142 water jets that descend from the Great Palace to the Baltic Sea.

2 don'ts

1. Try to bargain

Hawkers won't take kindly to bargaining, with the exception of those selling mostly touristy goods like Russian dolls (above). If you speak Russian, it's probably better at outdoor markets to haggle for higher quality goods rather than a lower price.

With the exception of Russian souvenirs, shopping generally is not recommended though there are some unique vodkas to be found.

Try shopping at supermarkets and malls where prices are marked, but be prepared to pay exorbitant prices.

2. Forget to carry your passport, visa support letter and registered immigration card at all times

It's common to be stopped by the police, who will ask to see your passport. Do not be alarmed if this happens.

You should also carry your visa support letter - necessary for obtaining a tourist visa - and your registered immigration card.

You must register within three days of arriving in the country, excluding weekends, and you must register in each city you stay in for more than three days.

Most of the time, these checks are legitimate, but be wary of imposters - those who seem to pop out of nowhere, as opposed to police who are in plain view on the street checking tourists and natives alike.

Offer bribes at your own peril. It's better to know your legal rights, available on travel and embassy websites such as www.singapore.mid.ru.

If you have all your paperwork in order, they can't make you go anywhere.