Review of Vietnam Airlines flight from Hanoi to Moscow in Economy

Decided to visit Moscow and St Petersburg this Dec. SQ has direct flights to DME from SIN. But with a few searches I found VN offering an absolutely value for money fare from SIN-HAN-DME-SGN-SIN with no extra charges for layover transit. So I took the opportunity to make a 4 day transit stop in Hanoi prior to the Moscow flight and a 2 day stop in Ho Chi Minh on the return.
This FR will be on the HAN-DME flight. Most pax in economy were Vietnamese long term residence of Moscow. Think they form the Vietnamese business community with their larges boxes during check-in. Think there were bout less than 20 Russians / Caucasian looking pax. We were the only non-Vietnamese and non-Russian. On the return DME-SGN, it was almost 90% Russians escaping the snow for the tropics.
The A330-200 that will fly HAN-DME

Boarding was quite orderly

My seat 33K

Cabin view around 33K

The middle seats had their seat cushions removed by the crew as not to allow pax to use the last 4 rows. Load was about 60% in Economy.

Wet wipes given after all pax were on board.

IFE was only operational after first meal service. Many pax (including me) thought it was not functioning. Anyways, about 50% were actually down. Not good for a 10 hour flight!
Anyways VN Lotus Star movies, tv and music selections were not that exciting. But good for re-runs and catch up if you miss any movies. This IFE system is the older version with VN crew in their old red uniform.

Thinking my IFE was down I claimed 33AB. But it was not functioning too.

Good to see VN giving out hard-copy menu cards. These were collected before landing.

The return sector

Drink service before lunch. Good range of juices, soft drinks, Vietnamese beer and wines.

Lunch - Tamarind chicken with rice. Sounds exotic but rather ho-hum.

Before landing - Beef and rice sounded boring. This was equally unexciting, but edible.

Some pics during the flight

Approaching Moscow DME