++THE ONE WITH Russia - BALTIC | costing

*ralat to the table above, pls add rm62+89.30+396 at the MISC row for the visa registration, visa invitation letter, and visa from the Russian embassy.
*and we also took travel insurance (all 3 of us took etiqa maybank travel insurans, mine was the platinum type, cost for about rm100 for the whole journey, quite cheap kan?
so now, actually, total is at around RM6878.
**(total ini bakal ditambah2 lagi bila teringat apepe lagi)

Hi hi readers yg dikenali dan tak dikenali,
we went to Russia and the Baltic continents (Estonia & Latvia je) lastlastweek.
and this entry is literally about the costing only.

1stly the journey & Flight ticket,
ofcourse the first thing we bought was the flight ticket.
The first ever plan was to actually do the ever trending transiberian-trip (train from beijing to russia belah kanan(Vladivostok) or via mongolia to ulaan batar and crossing (and stop at few) 6-7 russian continents up to russia belah kiri (st petersburg)) tuh... MMTK had researched and came at around 4iteneries planning the trip, but we finally decided to only goes directly to moscow ahahahhahahahahha..
the thought of being on train for 2days, another 1 day on ground, and repeat, for the whole 2weeks journey from beijing to st petersburg, scared (and literally stressed) the shit outta us.
and baltic came later, just because moscow & st petersburg are so near, and we have enough days to cover them, but i dunno why we didnt include lithuania. maybe because of the days that we have.
so it is between, hnm, pilihan yg terpaksa dilakukan, kot.
but it is ok, we can combine lithuania with any of our east europe journey in future (itu pon kalo hado)(kalo nonhado, kite tgk gamba2 org je la).
ok, back to the topic, so, KL to moscow directly, it is, but the plane ticket was such a nightmare too.
add it to the dates constraint and the annual leaves constraints. so we then decided to just buy return plane ticket to and from istanbul instead of moscow. (and the fact that we will be going back not from russia, but latvia, was also the reason).
so the journey was:
KUL -> ISTANBUL -> MOSCOW, RUSSIA -> VELIKY, RUSSIA -> ST PETERSBURG, RUSSIA -> TALLINN, ESTONIA -> RIGA, LATVIA -> ISTANBUL -> KL
*(Asyiko ulangkaji (AUK) journey is to/from scotland)

Below are the total spending for transportation perperson (in RM):

Flight KUL-Istanbul SAW-KUL                     $1,780.00 - QATAR AIR

Flight SAW-DME (istanbul to Moscow)     $320.72 -  PEGASUS AIR

Flight RIX-IST (Riga to istanbul)                  $442.14 - UKRAINE AIRLINES

Train (Moscow - Veliky Novgorod)              $66.50 -  RUSSIAN RAILWAYS (overnite)

Bus (Velikiy Novgorod - St Petersburg)    $38.16 - 

Bus (St Petersburg - Tallinn)                         $39.01 - LUX EXPRESS

Bus (Tallin - Riga)                                                $36.67 - LUX EXPRESS

Local transport/METRO/uber rides             $581.74

TOTAL:                                                                     $3,304.93

2ndly, is about the visa. 
Everyone should know by now that we have to get a visa to enter Russia (unlike europe/UK).
so, 2-3 months before the date, MMTK (as usual, the ketua travel) already researched and asked all of us to buy and apply for the invitation letter (to get the visa). the price was at 15pounds perperson.
you can apply it here:http://realrussia.co.uk/Visas/Russian/Invitations/Tourist
and ianya tidak habis disitu ya tuan tuan puan puan.
once we got the invitation letter via email, we then needed to register online here:https://visa.kdmid.ru/PetitionChoice.aspx
and get the registration online printed out, attached together a passport sized photo and then barulah we can go lined up at the russian embassy at jln ampang, that small office for visa application processes at the russian embassy.
AND PLS dont be like us, we only read the business hours online at their website, but actually, they already put a clear sign in their front office that the business hours are only on Monday/wednesday/Friday and from 930am till 1pm only. so, plan your journey wisely guys. gittew.

and, during the process of getting the visa at the embassy, 1stly, we need to queue to submit the passport & visa registration form, and get a slip from the officer.

then, go to the nearest bank to transfer the visa fee (of rm396 perperson) and go back to the embassy and show the slip/reciept to the officer, then he/she will give the reciept for the passport collection & the date for collection (normally in 1-2weeks time).

*we can also transfer online, and print the slip, but if u want to go back to office/home to print will take another time, so better go to the nearest bank and do manually at the counter so we can get the reciept on the same hour and go back to submit at the embassy at the same day.

the nearest bank is Maybank at bangunan perkeso, around 200mtr walk from the embassy.

total spending for visa:

Visa Russia	396.00
Russian Visa Invitation	89.30
travel insurans	113.12

3rdly is bout the insurance:
i was being reminded, constantly, not to burden the family members whenever you're leaving the birth country, and so, must i follow. who knows whatever accidental issues we might encounter during the trip kan, simpang malaikat 44...
the easiest for us ofcourse something we can just grab online and needs no seeing/meeting agent watsoeva. etiqa/maybank offered a comprehensive travel insurance, and all of us took it. mine was the platinum one, actual price for 11-18days at rm137 but i got discount.

4thly, is about the accommodations, 
to which mostly MMTK booked earlier from KL (except at Veliky, our hotel was being cancelled last minute and she has to re-book another one, yg quite far from the train sation).

below are the list of our accommodations price perperson:

Hotel (Moscow) 2n	133.55 -portal hotel
Hotel Veliky Novgorod (1n)	30.54 -
Hotel (St Petersburg) 4n	141.40 - gh dvor
Hotel (Tallinn) (2n)	150.00 - hostelhouse talli
Hotel (Riga) 2n	105.00 - riga hostel
Hotel Istanbul 1n (Arrival)	66.67
Hotel Istanbul 1n (Departure)	56.67
TOTAL	683.83

and the rest was on eating, shopping, few unimportant entrance fees, and misc like the simkad etc etc.

-we only bought simkad at russia (310rubbles for 15days and 6gb data) and just depended on the wifi at the baltic continents.

-eating were mostly on subway tuna (sampai dah rase nak muntah dah makan subway tuna tuh), bread, sometimes we ate at the fancy2 restaurant, i think we went coffee (hot chocs for me) everyday at some fancy, some nonfancy cafes, some at the vending machine only, we also bring some instant noodles and vico and biscuits, and we cook 2 times (1 time in veliky and 1 time in tallinn). okla tuh, idokla mcm villagepeople sesgt pon kan. hehehe.
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RELATED LINKS:
++THE ONE WITH Russia - BALTIC | costing: http://videl-kuchiki.blogspot.com/2017/11/russia-baltic-costing.html
++THE ONE WITH Russia - BALTIC | eating out and some halal place: http://videl-kuchiki.blogspot.com/2017/11/the-one-with-russia-baltic-eating-out.html
++THE ONE WITH Russia - BALTIC | itenerary: http://videl-kuchiki.blogspot.com/2017/11/the-one-with-russia-baltic-itenarary.html
++THE ONE WITH Russia - BALTIC | Day 00&01 | from KLIA to Turkey to Moscow, Russia: http://videl-kuchiki.blogspot.com/2017/11/the-one-with-russia-baltic-day-00-from.html
++THE ONE WITH Russia - BALTIC | Day 02 | MOSCOW, RUSSIA: http://videl-kuchiki.blogspot.com/2017/11/the-one-with-russia-baltic-day-02.html
++THE ONE WITH Russia - BALTIC | Day 03 | MOSCOW, RUSSIA: http://videl-kuchiki.blogspot.com/2017/11/the-one-with-russia-baltic-day-03.html
++THE ONE WITH Russia - BALTIC | Day 04 | VELIKY NOVGOROD, RUSSIA: http://videl-kuchiki.blogspot.com/2017/11/the-one-with-russia-baltic-day-04.html
++THE ONE WITH Russia - BALTIC | Day 05 | SAINT PETERSBURG, RUSSIA: http://videl-kuchiki.blogspot.com/2017/11/the-one-with-russia-baltic-day-05-saint.html
++THE ONE WITH Russia - BALTIC | Day 06 | SAINT PETERSBURG-PETERHOF, RUSSIA: http://videl-kuchiki.blogspot.com/2017/11/the-one-with-russia-baltic-day-06-saint.html
++THE ONE WITH Russia - BALTIC | Day 07 | RUSKEALA, KARELIA, RUSSIA: http://videl-kuchiki.blogspot.com/2017/12/the-one-with-russia-baltic-day-07.html
++THE ONE WITH Russia - BALTIC | Day 08 | VYBORG, LENINGRAD OBLAST, RUSSIA: http://videl-kuchiki.blogspot.com/2018/01/the-one-with-russia-baltic-day-08.html
++THE ONE WITH Russia - BALTIC | Day 09 | SAINT PETERSBURG (MOSQUE & PETER FORTRESS): http://videl-kuchiki.blogspot.com/2018/01/the-one-with-russia-baltic-day-09-st.html
++THE ONE WITH Russia - BALTIC | Day 10 | TALLINN ESTONIA: http://videl-kuchiki.blogspot.com/2018/01/the-one-with-russia-baltic-day-10.html
++THE ONE WITH Russia - BALTIC | Day 11 | VIKING VILLAGE-ESTONIA: http://videl-kuchiki.blogspot.com/2018/01/the-one-with-russia-baltic-day-11.html
++THE ONE WITH Russia - BALTIC | Day 12 | RIGA, LATVIA: http://videl-kuchiki.blogspot.com/2018/01/the-one-with-russia-baltic-day-12-riga.html
++THE ONE WITH Russia - BALTIC | Day 13 | SIGULDA, LATVIA: http://videl-kuchiki.blogspot.com/2018/01/the-one-with-russia-baltic-day-13.html
++THE ONE WITH Russia - BALTIC | Day 14 | RIGA, LATVIA-CENTRAL MARKET: http://videl-kuchiki.blogspot.com/2018/01/the-one-with-russia-baltic-day-14-riga.html
++THE ONE WITH Russia - BALTIC | Day 15 | ISTANBUL-flight back to KUL