UKRAINE - Kiev (2002)

Kiev: 27.05.2002

We arrived at Kiev, the capital of Ukraine, today. Our travel was via Copenhagen, but since we had only 1.5 hours of transit time, we could not go out to see the city.

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When we changed our tickets from 28th to 27th, I had forgotten to specify 'veg meal'. There was none on flight and frankly, it was a temptation not to leave the grilled chicken and smoked salmon on the plate! The circumstances seemed to be providing an excuse. But happily enough, it was only a passing regret.

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Since we landed around midnight, the only thing I could notice was that it was 19 degC! The hotel, though big, seems quite shoddy. We may change it tomorrow morning.

Kiev: 29.05.2002

Had no time to write anything yesterday as I did kriya and meditation for around 1 hour from 9.00-10.00 pm. Today that has been sacrificed in favour of putting down a few words on paper.

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Yesterday was sunny and today was cloudy -- but overall good weather. We drove around during the day in the outskirts and residential areas (Ukrainian businessmen have a knack for converting homes into businesses, with the whole family pitching in). But this is quite an 'alive' city. Lots of shops and arcades, but also lots of smaller roads with old buildings with a tram-car rattling along -- reminded me absolutely of a north-Calcuttan street, I tell you! Food is also fairly cheap, maybe half the previous places we visited. We were attending an internet cafe that charges only 4.00 Grevnas = 80 cents = 300 baiza per hour, which is pretty cheap for a cafe. Haven't checked clothes prices, but talking to Olyesia (our interpreter) gives a feeling that it's a fairly comfortable city to live in. Electric trams, buses and minibuses ply as public transport, but the numbers are less. Owning a car is still a desirable convenience for the middle class.......

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The city is quite clean and well-kept. The monuments and architecture are lit up at night. Yesterday we had dinner at an Indian restaurant and took a drive around while returning to the hotel. The city looks quite pretty at night and there's plenty of people on the streets at 11.00 pm, generally promenading.

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Today we had a working lunch at a cafe where I had typical Ukranian dishes of borsch (soup with beet, cabbage, onions and a dollop of cream -- famous 'red soup' of the Ukranians), cheese sandwich (with the middle part on top) and fried mushrooms (cooked and served in a mini-saucepan). They were all very tasty. There's a major spread for non-veg also of course. To the Ukranian, a veggie guy, especially a man, is an extreme novelty!

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The Dnepro river flows through Kiev and is connected by three bridges. Rashid had a fish (maybe a perch) for lunch that is caught in the river and grows up to 5 metres long..........

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The Ukranian businesspeople like to make a corporation even out of a small shop. Today we visited one of our smaller customers. He has a slick office with colour-coordinated sales counter and white-panelled office cabin and all. The Director, in order to meet us, had also called his Import Manager (Miss Elena, who usually calls us up and tells us to add one more spark plug to that small carton) and the Toyota Sales Manager (who told us he needs a price list to start with) in order to communicate effectively and comprehensively with us. The Commercial Director (a young lad of 30) was summoned once to comment on the situation in Turkey, though we couldn't make out the relevance! We noted all his points and said we in turn (being Senior Managers), will go back and call for a meeting with our Chairman together with our Financial Controller and our Customer Services Director (both equally fictitious positions) and sort out all his problems pronto!

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The Ukranian people in general are quite good-looking (more dark-haired than blond), in love with wearing stylish and colourful (but not necessarily costly) clothes, and quite friendly and talkative. They think of themselves as more European than Russian. They have fairly close relationships with Poland and entertain hopes of entering the European Union.

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Tonight, for the second time in succession, we went for dinner at the Indian restaurant. Somehow, it seems to balance out the day, however hectic it may have been. For me, there's the added pleasure of getting a choice of vegetarian dishes, of course!

Kiev: 30.05.2002

This day also passed like the last one. The weather continued to be cloudy, with the added bonus of a fine drizzle. The scenery looks quite lovely, especially from inside the protection of a car.......

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For lunch I had a tomato stuffed with eggplant, onion and cheese, with rice -- quite good. In all these cities, I noticed that the menu mentions the weight of the dishes (eg 150 gm). The diner can judge his or his group's capacity and order accordingly. Quite useful.

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This country provides soda when asked for 'mineral water' (in India, we mean bottled drinking water), so that we have learnt to say "vada, bis gaza" to get plain water, without gas! Rashid has picked up a few Russian phrases. I'm quite bad with languages and can remember only "Das Vidania", which means "Farewell".

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We had dinner at the Indian restaurant again -- all their dishes are consistently good, what to do! There was a group of eight at the next table singing away to glory, quite rollicking in fact, causing no mean disturbance to our conversation. Sounded like their version of 'antakshari'.

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Rashid has a superlative ability for needing a toilet urgently when out for a while. I had the first demonstration of this during our first evening at St Petersburg, when we had been dropped at the shopping area, a mere 15 min ride from our hotel, when he declared he could hold it in no longer. It was the weather, he said. So we went running around, Rashid holding up his little finger and shoving it into the faces of passerby and asking:"Toilet? Piss?" and words of that nature. Ultimately we entered a cafe for some coffee and he could obtain some relief. Nowadays I force him to unload before we leave the hotel, so there is a little improvement, but still at a few customers' places, he would cut short the hi-hellos to enquiry where the toilet was, that too through the interpreter, simultaneously sticking up his little finger to prevent misunderstanding and loss of precious time!

Kiev: 31.05.2002

The weather continues to be BAD .... drizzle, drizzle and dim. We were idle till lunch since a customer we were expecting from outside Kiev did not make it. For lunch, I repeated the borsch with pampoushki (bread that looks like apple cores). Visited a few customers in the evening.......

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For dinner, for a change, we went to a Georgian restaurant. I had a real heavy dinner -- char boiled eggplant with tomato, capsicum, onion etc as a sort of stew, and then flat bread stuffed with cheese and baked. Oooof, the second item was a real stomachful! The decor was also interesting, with stained-glass windows. Rashid had ordered chicken and got a full chicken on his plate, with legs sticking into the air! Weekend has started, and all the tables were full.

.Today FIFA commenced in Seoul and Senegal beat France in a grand upset! Tomorrow must be a national holiday in Senegal. We watched some of the match on TV.


Kiev: 1.06.2002

It's only 8.00 pm here, but I'm signing off this account. We'll not go out for dinner today. Our flight being at 7.00 am tomorrow, we have to get up at 4.00 am, so early-to-bed is indicated.

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We had an outstation customer coming to visit us in the morning at 11.00 am. Between this meeting and our next one at 5.00 pm, we had a gap of around 4 hours. The weather, in response to our prayers yesterday to give us at least 2 hours of average daylight and a dry spell, brightened marginally, and the four of us, viz self, Rashid, Olyesia and driver Vladimir, pushed off to see the War Memorial........

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The War Memorial is indeed impressive, dominated by a 90 ft stone statue of the Motherland. This is the site where, in WWII, Ukraine (at the time part of USSR) engaged with the Germans and defended Kiev. There are huge black stone carvings of wartime scenes -- soldiers fighting, people working in arms factories, women tilling the soil as all men were at war, and old people grieving over the death of their children. There is also a museum, which we did not enter, where war uniforms, letters from soldiers etc have been preserved.......

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There was a fine view of Kiev skyline from this high point -- the bridges on river Dnepro, the Church of St Michael's and the Gold-dome monastery (which we visited later). This location should be visited first and then one can decide: "Okay, we want to go there and there and ..... there!"

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With dark clouds again gathering in the sky, we went to visit the big orthodox church of the region, St Michael's. It has a 100 ft high belfry or bell-tower and there is an old monastery attached to it. We entered one chapel which was most popular amongst visitors who wanted to pray. It had beautiful paintings on the walls but our appreciation was impaired by lack of illumination. People were lighting candles for prayer, something that always produces a reverential atmosphere in any chapel.........

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We also visited the monastery, non-functional now. There was a large prayer-hall and an eating-hall (this hall now sells church artifacts). Then we walked to the monastery itself, down the hill along a path of black flagstones. The caves where the monks used to live and pray were underground. It had started raining by now, our period pf 2 hour grace being over (wish we'd prayed for a longer period) and the long walk downhill half-drenched us, especially me as Rashid and Olyesia somehow shared her small umbrella. We bought some yellow tallow-candles and entered the narrow passage (around 2 ft wide), following a long queue of people moving inside. We could see grills or windows in the walls of the passage through which water would be passed to a small room inside where the austere monk would be sitting in prayer without a break. A number of such monks were later declared as saints and their bodies now lay outside in niches along the passage, with their pictures and names hung above them. Lying in glass cases, none of them over 5 ft in length, these bodies are fully covered with decorative cloth. It is said that no embalming has been used, but still the bodies, though shrivelled, have not decomposed. They looked similar to the Egyptian mummies. In some cases, a shrunken bony hand has been left protruding from the material, as evidence of the body within. People would pass along and touch and kiss the cases and sometimes stick a candle in a holder attached to the case.

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The atmosphere was quite heavy in the passage and it was not a place to panic in! In fact, due to the heavy rain outside, the queue had stopped moving, and for a while I could feel my old claustrophobia closing in, with heaviness of breath and darkness of vision, but a little 'ujjai' breath with eyes closed cleared it up.

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We emerged to find that it was raining cats and dogs! Torrential. The road had become a stream and we had to climb up the slippery black-stone path now. Anyway, there was no help for it. I volunteered again to do without the umbrella and wrapped an Ukrainian scarf around my head instead, much to the amusement of the tourist crowd around, the scarf being quite colourful and fluttery and much more suited to young Ukrainian girls. But an emergency is an emergency. That 5 minute walk soaked me to the skin and the occasional hail (yes, hail) forced us to seek shelter a couple of times. We thankfully reached the car and found the rain reducing merrily to a fine mist!.......

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We returned to the hotel since I at least needed attending to my whole body -- right from my dripping hair to my squelching shoes! Both myself and Rashid gave our clothes for emergency laundry and out we went again for lunch.

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We chose an Ukrainian restaurant that Rashid had patronised on an earlier visit (that "pirate place"). With a profile of a ship outside, we went down 'below decks' to an eating area fitted out as a ship's interior, with a capstan and pulleys and mounted axes and cutlasses. The waiters and waitresses were also dressed as pirates and the table mats were leather treasure-maps! I had a plate of 'Vikruni', which are like flat 'momos', in this case stuffed with potatoes and mushrooms (my choice -- could be something else) and vegetable shashlik. Both good, but rather bland.

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In the restaurant, Olyesia presented both of us with some picture post-cards of Kiev, since we'd not been able to see all the places due to bad weather. Very kind of her! She was also a thorough professional. In spite of being no dryer than either of us, she had declined our offer to go home and remained behind to guide us through lunch.

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We came back to the hotel just in time to meet our last customer. He was free for 2 hours and would not leave us! Finally when we left, we took printouts of our estimated bills from the reception and realised that our office would be rather strained this time as the bills were completely in Russian!

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Das Vidania!

LINK TO KIEV ALBUM

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