napoxoguk
-
Posts
245 -
Joined
Content Type
Forums
Store
Blogs
Downloads
Events
Gallery
Posts posted by napoxoguk
-
-
30 minutes ago, CruiserBruce said:
The issue is proper scientific research and documentation of vaccine testing
Ah, I see...
So you seem to be positing that Sinovac/sinopharm or cansino have been less than properly researched and documented.
May I ask you - purely for educational purposes, of course - which research papers and documentation have you reviewed to arrive at that conclusion?
-
17 hours ago, CruiserBruce said:
As opposed to Chinese or Russian vaccines which no documentation to Western standards.
EU approvals of both CN and RU vaccines will likely follow, but for the time being, that's kind of ironic, as the "Western Standards" seem to be set a fair bit lower than the Chinese or Russian ones when it comes to documentation.
To illustrate: all Ru citizens have an account with the Russian e-government site; each account has a unique identifier that is linked to the account holder's ID; vaccination info is uploaded there and available in the form of a QR code. That arrangement seems a bit more secure than a hand-written laminated vax card, if you ask me...
-
1
-
-
On 4/21/2021 at 2:23 AM, the english lady said:
(mind you we have no way of knowing how effective the chinese or russian vaccines are)
Unless we care to read some literature or even news outlets, that is... Such as the most recent piece of news from Chile on Sinovac/Coronavac protective efficacy (based on 2.5m vaccinations, one of the largest samples worldwide to date), or Gamkovidvac's publication in the Lancet.
-
15 hours ago, ilikeanswers said:
. So maybe they should move to Russia😜.
That - or maybe they just went for "in Soviet Russia" meme.
It does get pretty ridiculous, though - all of my Russian friends who wanted to get vaccinated did it back in January. The vast majority, though (all educated, smart, successful people) claimed they were "on the fence", pending official publication on efficacy in a reputable peer-reviewed journal. Well, publication in Lancet came and went, and they are still on the same fence. The vaccine has been readily available across all age groups for months now. All your have to do is open a stupid app on your phone for a same-day or, at the worst, next-day appointment. These same people do bi-weekly PCR and antibody tests just for the fun of it. Blows my mind.
-
1
-
-
On 1/8/2021 at 3:30 PM, deadzone1003 said:
Have you considered just Googling "Sinopharm, Sinovac vaccine:" to see what you come up with if you think I am not credible.
I wonder what you come up with if you google that...
Your "50% efficacy" figure for Sinovac, for instance, is in fact the regulator threshold in Brazil, not the reported efficacy of Sinovac.
Sinovac's reported efficacy in Turkey is about 91%, and 78% in Brazil, which doesn't seem too impressive, but then again, Pfizer's efficacy in Brazil was also not quite 94 (something like 87.7, iirc).
At any rate, at this point, given the opportunity, I'd be happy to get anything - Sputnik, Sinovac, Moderna, Oxford, whatever...
-
7 hours ago, Hawaiidan said:
Go see "REDS"....
Go listen to "This American life" with Yelena Khanga, a granddaughter of one of those people, and see how it all worked out: https://www.thisamericanlife.org/694/get-back-to-where-you-once-belonged
-
7 hours ago, Hawaiidan said:
why someone with the freedoms we enjoy in the western world would want to flee to a communist oppressive dictatorship.
Could pose the same question to a bunch of Black engineers and cotton agro-technicians who decided to go from the "free" Alabama to the "communist" USSR back in the late thirties. Or to Snowden.
-
On 10/25/2020 at 9:59 AM, Fran2020 said:
Does anyone know if they get any support from the government?
As small and medium businesses, Russian tour companies qualify for a pretty comprehensive stimulus package (off the top of my head, I can think of tax breaks and deferrals, moratoriums on ad-hoc fiscal and safety audits and creditor-initiated bankruptcies, as well as direct support, but I'm sure there's more to it). In addition, there was a substantial injection of cash to support domestic tourism (afaik, the government compensates 15 to 25 percent of domestic tour costs as instant cash back for consumers, provided that tours are purchased from qualifying providers and via a qualifying payment system).
Even with these measures in place, tourism industry has suffered a substantial blow, and there is little doubt the market will see some major reshuffling before things are back to normal. Frankly, I hope this reshuffling will lead to a more transparent and accountable market (remember recurring advice on these boards to pay with crisp US cash? How much of that cash do you think has ever made it into those companies' official books?)
That said, in the case of St. Petersburg, I believe the two most important components (world-class attractions and world-class talent and knowledge of individual guides) are still in place. Even if some companies go, there will be no shortage of others willing to take their spot - and no shortage of highly qualified guides to make it all work.
-
23 hours ago, Fouremco said:
Using that logic, a Russian nuclear submarine should feel free to surface in Chesapeake Bay, as it would still be in Russia, according to CBP, as long as it didn't land elsewhere on its way to the US.
As an aside - it's not exactly the same logic - first, Chesapeake Bay is not a very good example (I think it's one of "historic" bays that are considered the country's internal waters through historic conventions); and second, to qualify for innocent passage, submarines must travel on the surface. But yes, otherwise it would've been OK for a Russian submarine, nuclear or otherwise, to enter Chesapeake Bay under innocent passage clause, and it would still be considered Russian territory 🙂
-
On 10/16/2020 at 7:24 AM, dogs4fun said:
wonder how the independent operators are faring during this trying time in Russia. Have you heard anything?
For what it's worth - I have a bunch of friends in the industry.
Yes, most have been hit pretty hard - but they were able to switch to domestic tourist flows (Russia was more or less completely open for domestic tourism between I think June and until recently). Not sure about corporate financials - but I think it's safe to assume they don't look too good, - but for individual entrepreneurs (and most of individual guides are IPs by definition), it has been a trying time financially. That said, looking on the bright side, they were able to switch from the top 5 "must sees" to more interesting places, and some found it refreshing.
Another thing to remember - for a good number of guides, it was a seasonal job, they have another profession or two to fall back to. Once it's back to business as usual, they can all come back, even if the landscape of top 10 preferred companies changes.
-
I'd
12 hours ago, firefly333 said:I'm sure, but right now I envy them getting it now.
I'd probably reconsider posting someone's personal data (phone nr) on a public board. I'm sure Romeo will be less than thrilled when he finds out
🙂 As to stolen/different - can't comment on "stolen" part, but it does seem to be quite different from the rest of the current adenovirus-based bunch - for starters, it's a two-shot deal, the first one based on ad-5, followed by a ad-26 booster.
-
1 hour ago, Goodtime Cruizin said:
All the guide services pretty much carry everyone where 'they' want you to go and show you what 'they' i.e. Russia wants you to see
I'd argue the selection of sights offered is primarily demand-driven. That, and time constraints.
There's so much more to SPB than the self-perpetuating list of "must-sees", but, given time limitations, only a tiny minority of cruisers would pick something like the museum of the Siege, the Russian Museum, the excellent Navy Museum, or Grand Maket miniature museum over the much more intuitive combo of "Top 2 cathedrals", "Top 2 imperial palaces", and a mandatory gift shop stop.
On a separate note - Goodtime Cruising, thanks for the metro videos. And kudos to the OP - at $36, I think your panorama tour was money extremely well spent!
-
1
-
1
-
-
18 minutes ago, njkruzer said:
Rode their very clean subway...of course clean with no passengers and only 5 stops!
You mean daily ridership of about 2 million, only 5 lines, and about 70 stops?
-
Speaking of breakthroughs in East-West relations, I think over the past couple of years Bald and Bankrupt has, single-handedly, done more to humanize "the other side" and at least partially undo the damage done by mass media on either side of the infobubble than all cruise line tours, cultural exchanges, and travel forums combined.
Here's a couple of my favorites:
Searching for Moksha speakers in Mordovia:
Drinking with random people in Belarus:
-
2 hours ago, GOARMY said:
It is the bureaucracy that gets in the way. It was the occasional "Minder" at the Hermitage shouting "Nyet" to someone in our, or a neighboring group that leaned against a wall--any wall.
Ooh, this brings back some memories 🙂
I was there in 2018, at the height of the World Soccer Cup, with a group of younger Americans, for a guided Hermitage tour. Given an average of 2 hours of sleep a night some of us had gotten over the course of the previous three days, - White Nights, nightclubs and all, - it didn't come as much of a surprise that all the more "outgoing" members of the group wanted to see in the Hermitage was a usable bench to sit down and snooze away for some five minutes. As you remember, these are nowhere to be found, so a member of our group decided to lean against a wall to catch some zzzs, - not any wall, mind you, but the frescoed wall of the Italian Enfilade (Rafael's Loggia, opened for the public circa 1790). Unfortunately, the "Minder" was nowhere to be seen, so I had to sneakily find my way through the crowd, making sure I don't attract our guide's attention, to bring the guy, as politely and inconspicuously as I could, back to his senses.
Needless to say, the reaction I got was less than lukewarm, so I felt at least somewhat redeemed a little later when that same guy decided, for the reasons still beyond my comprehension, to give Michelangelo's Crouching Boy a pat on the back - and the "Nyeeeet" from the "Minder" was so emphatic and thunderous that everyone in the room had to duck and cover.
-
1
-
-
Another thing - pre-covid the best time for a full-day tour of the two main buildings of the Hermitage complex was on Wednesdays. One could start the morning with the General Staff building, which is far less crowded than the main palace, and then, after lunch, move to the main building. Most crowds are gone by 5 or 6, and all the organized groups are typically corralled to the Peacock Clock room to see the clock go live at 7. If you skip the clock experience, you pretty much have the whole building to yourself.
Currently it's not an option, as the schedule of the Hermitage has been altered to address social distancing requirements, but one would hope it'd revert to normal by the time cruises resume.
-
4 hours ago, Kiwifromkiev said:
Marc, trust me - ...In the gone by days <...> Nowadays <...> The bottom line - <...>. IMHO (and experience)
I'm sorry, but this take doesn't align with my experience, except to the extent that gone-by days and nowadays are indeed very different.
Also agree with Kiwi's bottom line: the tour programs (and the whole visa waiver arrangement in the first place) are designed to cater to the expectations of a typical cruise-goer and quickly move as many people through as many "must-sees" as is physically possible. The tour system that is currently in place is very efficient in achieving those design goals. So yes, in the most general case, it makes sense to reap the benefits of the system. For everything else outside the cookie cutter experience there is a 3-year visa, land tours, and/or independent travel.
Not to say one couldn't, while visiting Spb on a cruise, hire a private guide for a 2-day overview tour of all the buildings of the State Hermitage, or all the landmarks associated with the Siege of Leningrad, or visiting the Top-100 bars and nightclubs... It's all doable, it's just not what the cruise tour industry offering is designed to achieve.
-
11 hours ago, Roger88 said:
When we were in Russia I would leave 1$ tip. Russians love dollars.
@Roger88,
While any tip is usually appreciated, even if just for the good will gesture and not its monetary value, I can see a very limited number of scenarios whereby a $1 dollar tip would make sense - maybe a quick coffee from a hole in the wall vendor or a bite of street food, or a public bathroom...
Otherwise - 1-dollar bills are not in circulation in Russia, are accepted by Forex banks at a steep discount, and have to be in pristine mint condition to be accepted at all.
That said, if it's a dollar coin, then it would likely be appreciated for the novelty factor.
-
Here's a fun one: some photos of the places regular cruisers don't get to see often (the engine room, control room, etc.):
-
3 hours ago, dogs4fun said:
...Interesting that you have used the same company that the cruise lines utilize ...
Yes, we first used their services back in the nineties, - way, way, before Morskoy Facade and the accompanying cruise ship traffic came along. Frankly, I'm not sure if they are just being nice to us at this point for the sake of the old days, but I've been going back to them ever since.
3 hours ago, dogs4fun said:On another note - little steamboat? Aurora? Russian heritage?
Guilty as charged, on all three counts 🙂
Actually, I first picked the avatar pic and then had to come up with a username to match 🙂. Never got around to changing the avatar.
I wish this site appreciated the usefulness of private messages - I'll drop you an email instead.
-
On 1/11/2020 at 10:19 AM, dogs4fun said:
...In fact, I don't know if it is even possible to book through this company independently.
As a side comment - it is, and the vast majority of their guides I've ever dealt with are excellent, even if waaay overqualified for their regular whistle-stop routine.
Dogsforfun, thanks for your port link - it is indeed a very useful planning tool.
-
Also note that to apply for fan-id one also needs to have their match tickets firstThe first round of sales ended in December, the dates for all matches are already known.
It's a straightforward but somewhat time-consuming process, but it's very well worth it - and doing it via a cruise is a smart move: if 2018's World Cup is any indication, hotel prices around game dates will be ridiculously high.
-
1
-
-
9 hours ago, Biris said:
I was also informed that we could be on our own after the tour since a few in my group would like to see a soccer game if one is available while we are there.
Wait, wait - if that "soccer game" is one of UEFA games, the point is moot, as to get to the actual game you will need not only a ticket but also a fan-id, which doubles as a full-fledged Russian visa anyway.
-
1
-
-
Oops - I have just noticed the building on that piece of vodka candy is not Moscow State - it's the building you had on one of your earlier pictures 🙂
Summer Cruises in Med?
in SeaDream Yacht Club
Posted · Edited by napoxoguk
Now, that would be interesting - thinking about Italy and San Marino here. San Marino is not an EU member, is located smack in the middle of Italy, and the majority of SM population (which, at about 55% vaccinated, currently boasts one of the highest vaccination rates in Europe) has been vaccinated by Sputnik ...