TBT - Russia (con't)

So we arrived in Yusno Sakhalinsk, the capital city of Sakhalin Island. Ithad been part of Japan prior to WW 2. We arrived at the hotel and checked into rooms that I describe as one step above camping and that cost $200/night. There were no credit cards in Russia, so we all carried about $9000 in cash in money belts to be able to pay for our visit. As long as we didn't carry  more than $10,000 we didn't have to declare it.

We all had jet lag so we headed out to explore the town. Before long we smelled a familiar odor......beer. We followed it to a brewery where some people were lined up with containers. Provide a container and they would fill it with beer. The brewery had a small room where we drank green beer and ate sausages.

Most of our time was taken up with visits to "schmooze" the local politicos and then revise our proposal to include whatever extra they wanted to include in the proposal. They wanted everything - roads, schools, medical facilities. They had rich western oil companies and they were determined to maximize what they could get. Such is the nature of  "scope creep".

We found out that the local facilities were dismal. We learned that medical care was minimal. One of the Corporate VPs, head of the medical department, broke a tooth when eating some mystery meat at the restaurant. He had to suffer until he got home. People were so poor, that military men would sell parts of the uniforms and insignia for dollars. Department store shelves were empty. All the result of 70 years of central planning. Russia was seen as a developed country but back then they were just emerging from the third world in reality.

One night, our project leader was invited to a night out with local businessmen and politicos. He didn't want to go alone so he volunteered me to go along. Turns out, it was a night at the sauna followed by vodka shots and sausage. It was a room full of middle aged men in togas doing shooters. But it's what one has to do to build relationships. We staggered back to the hotel.