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Sent from Chisinau, Moldova on Aug 13, 2005 

How to do (and NOT)  Moldova & self-declared Republics of
Transdniestr & Gagauzia

I began typing this at the airport in Kiev--there is a cafe
there: at the entry walk straight ahead. Then I added some
more in TIGHINA, Transdniestr--pronounced like
Transnistriya--that is a self-declared republic to the east
of Moldova, about an hour of bus ride from
Chisinau (pronounced Kish-i-new).  However, something
happened to the connection there and I lost all I typed. 
Now I am continuing from an Internet cafe in Chisinau.  Let
me declare right away that Moldova is visibly NOT a Slavic
country, the people here warmer.  They are mainly Romanian,
Moldovan being a dialect of Romanian, a language of Roman
roots, though under Soviets they were forced to write their
language in Cyrillic alphabet.  So the ambiance is
different too, and seemingly more people here speak
English, and judging from the reception one gets from the
attendants at train and bus ticket counters, these are
downright amiable people.  (In Slavic countries, the
attendants behaved as if I insulted them by approaching
them in English. Invariably they were surly.)  I will take
the 5:10pm sleeper train to Bucharest tomorrow night.  Now
the details.

1. Moldova   Everyone but Eastern Block citizens need a
visa to Moldova.  To get it, except for USA, Canada and
European Union citizens, you also need an Invitation
Letter.  According to Lonely Planet, visas by USA, etc.
citizens can also be obtained at the airport upon arrival
in Chisinau.  I tried to obtain a visa from the Moldovan
Embassy in Kiev, arriving there at 8:45am, waiting to
2:30pm, the last 4 hours under a deluge--apparently the
Moldovan Embassy does not have waiting room; everyone
waited outside--until they stopped taking applications. 
Not wanting to experience this again the next day, I
decided to continue with my trip and handle this later from
Odessa, where I am now.  Briefly, I will stay in Odesa
tonight at a $25 Hotel YUNIST that Eugenia Travel arranged
for me, take the Eugenia shuttle to the hotel, be picked up
by the same ($25 in toto) in the morn to the airport, fly
to Kiev (for $70, as there are no flights from Odesa to
Chisinau), and take the 1:15pm flight Kiev to Chisinau (for
$93)--every Mon, Wed, Fri., and Sun) AND get my VISA upon
arrival at the airport.  The agency is making sure I can do
that.  Then I am off.

2. From Kiev, NOT Odesa, to Moldova.  My beautifully worked
out plans of reaching Moldova from Odesa with the help of
Eugenia Travel fell thru.  First, don't come to these parts
(Ukraine, etc.) in the middle of the summer.  Too crowded,
too hectic, too chaotic.  This on top of language
difficulties.  You will get stranded at some place, as I
was in Odesa. So, after spending 13 hours on the train from
the Crimea to Odesa, and not having slept a wink on my
3rd-class seat surrounded by soldiers, I came to Eugenia
Travel .  They said they'll arrange a cheap hotel for me
for $25 for the night, book me on a plane to Kiev in the
morn, connecting to the flight to Chisinau at 1:15pm. 
Elated I finished my ..."Moldova Next" email to you and
came back to Eugenia to find out that the card house had
collapsed:  the hotel was already fully booked, as the
morning (and that evening's) flights to Kiev.  I had 2
options: 1) for $100 take a 11-hour ship to Varna, Bulgaria
(that leaves on Mondays and Fridays), or find a way to Kiev
and get on the flight to Chisinau.  Varna sounded
appealing, but then I would need to come back to Moldova
from Bucharest, a longer path, which could have its own
complications.  Let me digress a moment to give you some
useful details.

a) Contrary to what Lonely Planet says, there are NO
flights from Odesa to Moldova.  There is one from Kiev, on
Fridays--as I understood it.  There are buses and a train
from Odesa, BUT if you do not have a visa there is also the
likelihood that you will be tossed out of the train or bus
at the border, and in the middle of the night.  I thought
it is less risky to arrive at the airport and try to get a
transit visa there, or take the next flight out to some
place.  (Actually, I did try to get a visa from the
Moldovan embassy in Kiev, where I was told you can get a
visa in a day, but there were too many applicants and each
applicant took about 45 minutes, there rest of us waiting
outside under heavy rain, because apparently the embassy
does not have a waiting room. Anyway, my turn never came
and I was not about to repeat the experience the next day.)

b) So faced with this situation, I decided I would try to
get back to Kiev, where I had more options.  I paid 10 Gr
($2) to a taxi to Odesa train station:  all trains were
fully booked.  I paid another taxi 25 Gr ($5) to race to
the bus station.  The Autolux buses--the best--were all
booked, and at public ticket counter I was told no more bus
tickets to Kiev that day--someone translated.  Since the
flight to Chisinau was only on Fridays, this being
Thursday, I would be stranded or be forced to get out to
some place I had not planned.

c) Feeling stranded, I got pissed.  I found a girl at
Autolux counter who spoke English.  I brought her with me
to the bus platform No. 1 for the 9:30pm bus to Kiev and
told her to translate that I would pay DOUBLE the ticket
price to anyone who would give me his/her ticket; that is,
$16 for a $8 ticket.  Actually, a guy did just that, and I
had my way out.  It was one of the most uncomfortable
8-hour rides ever, on the last row with 5 people.  After a
second sleepless night, at 5:30am (after 3 15-min stops),
we arrived in Kiev.  Wondering how I would get to the
airport without getting robbed by a taxi driver $50+ for
the 30+ miles to the airport, a taxi driver came to me and
offered to take me there for just $20.  I jumped at the
chance and at 6am I arrived at the airport, to find out
that the flight to Chisinau was fully booked, that I could
be on stand-by, the 1st on the list.  I gave my name and
fought sleep sitting outside.  At 9am I came back to check
if anyone had canceled.  Someone had, and I had mt ticket,
for $93, with taxes $129.

3. Plans for Moldova.  I am to the day on the plan I had
drafted as to where I would be at such and such date,
actually a day early for Moldova.  However, by the time I
get there and find a hotel, unpack, shower, have a Moldovan
feast, and come back back it would be 60+ hours without
sleep.  So the one day early would be to catch up on sleep.
 I decided the next day I would spend getting to know
Chisinau, next day rent a car and do the whole country of
my own, also visiting the 2 republics bordering Moldova:
Transdniestr to the east and Gagauzia to the south.  Then I
would turn in the car and book myself on the night train to
Bucharest, Romania to start the Balkans, entering Romania
thru the Carpathian Mountains and Transylvanian Alps
further south . . .

4. Moldova, Transdniestr, Gagauzia. Moldova is the 2nd
smallest country--after Armenia--that emerged from the
break-up of the USSR.  In early 1990s, the Slavic minority
to the east, with Russian support, declared itself an
independent republic named Transdniestr with its capital in
Tighina, and a second, mostly Turkic-speaking minority did
the same under the name Gagauzia, both minorities in fear
that Moldova would eventually join Romania.  I took a bus
to both sections, to Tighina (1 hour by bus from Central
bus station = autogar) and to the town of COMRAT (2.5 hours
south from Gar Sud West, the southwestern bus station). 
The drive to Comrat was as if traveling in Moldova; there
were no check points.  (I exchanged a little Turkish with
some people there of Turkish origins.) It was different
going to Transdniestr.  BEWARE: Moldova is having serious
problems with this province and so one guard on the
Moldovan side was displeased that I wanted to visit there
that he wanted to give me an exit stamp; another guard
asked me how long I would stay in Tighina. I said just
drink a cup of coffee, walk around a bit and return.  So
they let me out without a stamp--which would have cost me
another visa, since I had left my luggage in Chisinau.

a) Arrival in Chisinau.  The flight from Kiev took 1 hour
15 minutes.  To the right, just before passport check, is
the visa counter.  You can get a 3-day transit visa ($30)
for 3 days--I am not sure if the day of arrival is
included--or a 1-month single-entry regular visa for $60. 
I got the latter, though the former would have
sufficed--but I did not know that I would be done in 2 days
then.  After passport check and customs, there is an
exchange counter that gives you money on credit card, the
rate $=12.55 LEI, all persons so far speaking nice English.
 At the exit, for 2 Leis (12 cents) minibus No.65 takes you
to the Central Bus station, a ride of about 10 minutes.  So
this was already a much warmer welcome than in any of the
Slavic countries, given also the fact that Moldova is even
poorer.

b) Hostel, etc.  Lonely Planet mentions several cheap
places to stay in Chisinau.  I chose MERIDIAN because it is
located at the Central Market (on Tighina St.), across from
the Central Bus Station.  And unlike the hotels in Slavic
countries, the price is refreshingly cheap.  Since I had
not slept for 63 hours by then, I asked for a single room
(Room 425 without bath, but clean and a sink in the room). 
It goes for 135 Lei (about $11), but I paid also 10 Lei for
registration--you MUST register a part of visa
requirement--and 30 Lei for a bath.  (Door 409 is the
bathroom with bath; in the morning I changed to a dorm room
(Room 417 with 2 beds for 80 Lei), though I could have also
taken Room 421 for a 5-bed dorm for 70 Lei.)  It was like a
zoo when I arrived at the (yellow) hotel building, since it
is on the fringe of the Central Market, with street vendors
selling everything imaginable on sheets on the street, much
like an open Target Department store, exactly like the area
around the hostel at the Cathedral in Mexico City.  (I like
such lively places.)  By the way, the vendors all leave at
around dusk, so the place was quiet.  I got a rare
uninterrupted 8-hour sleep.

c) Environment from Meridian Hotel.  At hotel exit, turn
left and walk 1/2 block to the major street in Chisinau,
Blvd. Stefan cel Mare.  Cross the street you just came from
and at the first small passage on your right, you will find
a good Internet cafe.  Continuing about 1 km in that
direction along Stefan Mare you reach the park and the
Parliament House, perhaps the nicest section of Chisinau. 
A taxi to there will set you back 25 Lei ($2), whereas a
bus (No. 1, 2, 4, 8, 18, 22) costs only 6 cents.  The train
station is in the other direction of Stefan Mare, where you
get off at the tall Cosmos building, go down to an
underpass to cross the street, and continue 150m thru a
park to the station.  The station itself is also
refreshing: clean, not crowded, with English-speaking
tellers at the International counter--at entry, go straight
to the central corridor, turn left and walk all the way to
the end.  For Gar Sud West, minibus 192 (2 Lei = 12 cents)
passes directly in front of the hotel, though it may be
easier to get on the bus at the corner of Tighina and
Stefan Mare, on the other side.  At exit from the hotel,
turn right and cross the street to reach the Central Bus
Station.  To reach the buses going to Tighina and/or
Tiraspol in Transdniestr, enter the bus station from this
side and get off from the exit across, to your left (Gates
13+) you will see the buses, for 18 Lei.  For smokers, a
pack of LM Lights cost 5.75 Lei (45 cents), Marlboro (10
Lei = 60 cents).  And I did enjoy Moldovan cuisine and wine
at the best restaurant in town, as mentioned in Lonely
Planet: La Taifas on Pushkin, having a glass of red house
wine, a nice salad, ciulama (chicken in wine sauce), and
mamaligu (Romanian polenta), for 150 Lei (about $10, plus I
paid 15 Lei tip).

d) Addendum Moldova.  Alas, I missed the 2 spots worth
seeing in Moldova: 1) the underground vine cellar, about
10km north of Chisinau, 2) the cliff-side monastery (about
40km north).  At the Central bus station, I asked for buses
to these places.  They said no buses.  So I went to a
Travel Agency and asked if I could be included in a tour to
these places.  They said since there were very few tourists
in Chisinau--I met or saw none--I would have to pay the
tour price for a minimum of 5 persons myself to have a
day-tour to these places.  Since I had seen tombs on a
cliff in Kaunos, Turkey only last Oct., I skipped these.
 

5. To Bucharest Romania and beyond.  There are cheap buses
to Bucharest (6pm) and Constantia (7:30am).  But given the
distance, I prefer the train which leaves the Station at
5:10pm daily, 1st-class sleeper 483 Lei ($38), 2nd-class
314 Lei ($25).  The train arrives in Bucharest at 8am.  My
plan for Romania is to spend a day getting to know the
city, take a bus north to Brasov to be in the Carpathian
and Transylvanian Alps for a day, and then a bus to
Constantia to be at the Black Sea, possibly to continue to
Varna and/or Burgas, Bulgaria via a ship, then train or bus
west to Sofia.

Sirman