Just as other airlines are ditching in-flight magazines because they weigh too much (and secretly, we think, because they know they're full of rubbish), the colorful Russian low-cost carrier Sky Express is just starting one up.

We don't know too much about Sky Express, which flies from a Moscow hub to 11 other Russian cities. Given our own experience with non-low-cost Russian airlines, we're not sure we want to know much.

But in case you want to fly on the cheap around Russia, you'll now be able to read Express Magazine as you do it. The big plan is to revolutionize the Russian in-flight magazine market. If they're talking revolutions, perhaps they're in the right place.

Related Stories:
· Sky Express [Official Site]
· Ink Connects with Sky Express [Peanuts]
· This Week at Emirates: Whither the In-Flight Magazine? [Jaunted]

[Photo: Sky Express]]]> amandak 2008-09-24T09:00:33-05:00 http://www.jaunted.com/story/2008/9/12/14545/2715

This week, we're mapping some of the world's greatest train trips.

We'd be crazy if we didn't include the Trans-Siberian Railway on our list of the world's best trains. The Moscow-to-Vladivostok luxury line, the third-longest continual service route in the world, was one of the first to intentionally connect across borders (via the Beijing spur, technically known as the Trans-Manchurian) and to allow its posh clientele the opportunity to see areas of the world that even now are considered dangerous.

As the only route we covered that gets its own Lonely Planet volume, the Trans-Siberian is still influencing the direction of international train travel: Russia, China and Germany announced this year that it would collaborate on a Beijing-to-Hamburg route.

We get a little stir-crazy thinking about being on a train that long but with a little vodka, it just might be bearable.

Related Stories:
· Not a Real Trans-Siberian Trip [Jaunted]
· Travel Films: Transsiberian Is an Ice Cold Thriller [Jaunted]
· Ulan Bataar To The Russian Border [The World Is Not Flat]]]> egw 2008-09-12T15:20:27-05:00 http://www.jaunted.com/story/2008/7/15/15914/3205

Moscow might be a blossoming tourist destination with pricier hotels than nearly anywhere else, but until now getting into the city from any of the airports has been a bit of a nightmare. But things are looking up.

With a tongue-twister of a name, the Savyolovsky Station--Sheremetyevo Airport Rail Link has just opened, whizzing travelers from Sheremetyevo into downtown Moscow in just 35 minutes--half the time it used to take on the bus.

Of course, now you miss out on sitting on that smoggy gray traffic jam known as Leningradskoye Highway, but don't worry, it'll still probably take you ages to get through the immigration line.

Related Stories:
· Moscow Sheremetyevo Gains New Rail Link [Business Traveller]
· Moscow Travel coverage [Jaunted]

[Photo: jystewart]]]> amandak 2008-07-16T09:11:30-05:00 http://www.jaunted.com/story/2008/6/20/132044/282

Here's a tip: When you find yourself assuring reporters that the $42,000 bronze monument you've put on display involves "no kitsch or obscenity," your art project was probably a bad idea. The statue in question is a tribute to the enema that was unveiled at a spa in the Russian city of Zheleznovodsk on Wednesday. The Botticelli-inspired monument depicts three cherubic little angles holding aloft a bronze syringe bulb that's used for anal cleansing.

The sculpture was presented to the public this weekend at a celebration featuring models and a banner bearing the charming Soviet slogan "Let's beat constipation and sloppiness with enemas." The owner of the spa said enemas are "almost a symbol" of the Caucasus, dotted as the region is with retreats offering visitors the opportunity to get local mineral water sprayed up their ass. (Hey, Zheleznovodsk does mean "Iron Waters.")

Maybe when the spa gang realizes how ridiculous this makes them look they can change that butt bulb into an onion?

Related Stories:
· Russian Spa Opens Monument to the Enema [AP, via Yahoo]
· Spas coverage [Jaunted]
· Russia Travel coverage [Jaunted]

[Photo: Reuters]]]> Hunter Walker 2008-06-20T14:00:01-05:00 http://www.jaunted.com/story/2008/6/18/151317/845

A house in the suburbs of Moscow was hit with a nearly sixty pound bag of cement after the Russian Air Force dropped it in an attempt to control the weather. The house-bombing accident occurred while planes were trying to secure good weather in advance of Russia Day celebrations on June 12.

No one was injured by the falling concrete, but the house was badly damaged. Russian Air Force officials told Reuters:

A pack of cement used in creating ... good weather in the capital region ... failed to pulverize completely at high altitude and fell on the roof of a house, making a hole about 80-100 cm (2.5-3 ft)

The accident was apparently the first mishap in over twenty years of Russian weather control activities.

Related Stories:
· In Russia, Sometimes It Rains Cement [Reuters]
· Moscow Travel coverage [Jaunted]

[Photo: IMDb]]]> Hunter Walker 2008-06-19T09:20:01-05:00 http://www.jaunted.com/story/2008/5/21/61220/1941

Russia's new plane, the Sukhoi Superjet, may be running behind schedule, but apparently it does actually fly. The manufacturers arranged the first test flight earlier this week in secret. The CEO said it was all hush-hush because:

The Superjet is our child, and its birth is sacred. A pregnant woman would never invite the press and guests to watch how she delivers her child.

Others suspect the company was afraid something would go wrong. The 75-95 seat planes are being produced to replace the Tu-134s used by some Russian airlines, since they're so noisy they've been banned from EU countries.

Aeroflot already has its hand up for the first Superjet, which now looks like it'll enter service in early 2009, at a cost of $29.9 million. That's one hell of an expensive child.

Related Stories:
· Superjet Makes First Flight in Secret [Moscow Times]
· Airplanes coverage [Jaunted]

[Photo: Jerome K]]]> amandak 2008-05-21T08:45:01-05:00 http://www.jaunted.com/story/2008/4/4/72841/71350

Buy a big drill, and everyone starts thinking you're going to dig a tunnel between two continents. That's what happened to Russian billionaire Roman Abramovich after he handed over $160 million for the biggest drill in the world.

We've been drooling over the idea of a US to Russia road trip ever since rumors began about the Bering Strait tunnel project a year ago. When Abramovich bought a massive drill last week, well, the rumors really started heating up.

But don't go booking your rental cars just yet. Apparently the real story is something closer to doing some infrastructure works around Sochi on the Black Sea, which will host the 2014 Winter Olympics. Nice, but nowhere near as exciting as a tunnel joining Russia and the United States. Perhaps we'll have to dig it ourselves.

Related Stories:
· Rumors Billionaire Will Tunnel to America [news.com.au]
· Billionaire Denies Dream of Transcontinental Tunnel [Russia Today]
· Bering Strait Tunnel Project: OMG! Ultimate Road Trip! [Jaunted]

[Photo: macspite]]]> amandak 2008-04-04T11:00:02-05:00 Search Jaunted string http://www.jaunted.com/search/