Marshrutka

My boss who is also an expat (he is Argentinean who lives in Switzerland), has been in Moscow since February. He is an amazing guy, but has not really tried too many things in Moscow. Being a workaholic, his life during weekdays revolves around office and hotel. More than six months in Moscow and he travels back home (to Swiss) EVERY weekend. He says, “So far I have missed only once and that was because of the volcanic ash!” Reminds me of the time when I used to travel back home to Mumbai from Pune (two Indian cities which approximately 4 hrs by car)…there is only a “small” difference, I used to travel by “bus” and he does by “airbus” :)

With two of us now, we are a team and we can support the fellow non-Russian speaker - recipe for being a bit more adventurous. We decided to try those shared cab kind of vans which according to him he always saw outside office but never thought of trying. Once we were on board - we saw something amazing. Everyone started passing money to one random fellow passenger - we realized that he was the self nominated money manager for the driver. It is amazing how the system works - no one says a word, one person (I think the one who is sitting in the first row - center) becomes the money manager by default....he not only makes sure the has collected money from everyone on driver's behalf but also handles issue of managing change for people who are not carrying exact fare. All by default pass the money to him/her.

I guess this small “collaborative” spirit, taking and sharing responsibility is one of the left over traces of the past socialism in Russia. It probably is tough to explain in words, but it was amazing to watch how the whole process works – super efficient!



Side note:
One of the means of transport available in Moscow is Marshrutka or public mini-vans. It seats around 12-15 people and can drop you at the destination for a bargain as compared to traditional cab.