The hotel wants the bill to date sorted, so thats not a problem ......do you take visa? If looks could kill, we would be goners as the receptionist blankly stares at us muttering darkly 'cash'.
To be honest we were not aware at that point that we were going to settle the bill, but a quick check with HQ confirms its down to us. Next challenge, where do we get the cash, where is the bank if there is one, where is the ATM and will our cash withdrawal facility have a limit? What kind of hoops will we have to jump through to pull cash in a bank - passports, home address, mothers maiden name, last school etc etc (that was what they wanted just to buy a internet dongle!!)
Panic over it turns out there is a ATM machine on the power station site - located in the security building.
Alan's first to let the machine swallow his card. Button appears that says 'english' - thats handy so we press that expecting the remaining instructions in english, but this is Russia, so it continues in Russian!!!. The translator was with us still, so she puts us right with what to press. Now, we need 15000 rubles, but the machine flashes red and spits card out. Try 10000, same problem. Try 8000, still refusing to pay. Is the machine out of money we ask? One of the guards says try asking for 5000 three times, that should work. We try and it does. Work that one out!!!!. We'll be ringing B'card just to tell them that our cards will be getting some heavy use in cash machines over the next couple of weeks with multiple transactions in one day and for pitys sake don't block the cards or we're doomed.
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