By Nikola Marinko · On the way to WWTP Darhan, Mongolia, while based in Georgia · Updated October 2026 · 6 min read

Nobody plans a day in Moscow like this one. I was based in Georgia with Ludwig Pfeiffer when my boss asked whether I could fly out the following week to help our team on a wastewater treatment plant in Darhan, 230 km north of Ulaanbaatar. The routing had a layover in Moscow long enough to leave the airport, so I took the train in from Sheremetyevo and tried to see the whole city in one day.

The day starts at Red Square, with the Kremlin on one side and St. Basil's Cathedral and its coloured domes on the other. It moves through the Kremlin Armory and the State Tretyakov Gallery, the streets and the food, and ends in a bar where ordering the strongest vodka on the menu turned out to be a mistake. The Bolshoi Theatre gets a mention too, because it deserves one. What surprised me most was the street life, classic Russia wrapped in a very modern rush.

The honest conclusion is that Moscow does not do quick visits, and the city won. It is still one of my favourite accidents of this job: the projects decide where you go, and the flight connections decide what you see on the way. The Mongolia page picks up where the plane landed.

Mongolia · Tbilisi · Istanbul · All 12 projects · Field stories

Moscow in 24 Hours - A Layover on the Way to a Plant in Mongolia

FIELD STORY