The first time I visited Moscow in 2003, Red Square was closed. Apparently, it was relatively common that for terrorist-related reasons or other random government excuses, Red Square would be declared out of bounds to pedestrian traffic. There was only one way to step foot on Red Square at the time, and that was to visit Lenin's Mausoleum. The brown-colored marble building is situated to one side of Red Square, close to the wall of the Kremlin and opposite the GUM department store.

Naturally, I wanted to take a peek at the great Lenin anyway. I'd already got a taste for seeing long-dead leaders after visiting Ho Chi Minh's mausoleum in Vietnam. The procedure to visit Lenin was complicated by the fact that you couldn't take any bags or cameras at all into the mausoleum, and at the time the left-luggage office was tucked away around the back of the Kremlin, at a then exorbitant price of around $7 per bag. We had arrived as early as possible in the morning, and were about a hundred yards back from the front of the line.

Lenin's Mausoleum was, and still is, open only from 10.00am to 1.00pm, each day except Monday and Friday. By the time the queue inched forward, I got inside about eleven o'clock. The visit is very controlled, and there are many guards to ensure you keep walking slowly past the body - no pausing for contemplation allowed. Like most preserved bodies, I thought Lenin looked a little waxy and fake, but I'm no expert. Apparently Lenin's body gets taken away for a few weeks every year for preservation work, as they're hoping to keep his body on show for another 50 or so more years, despite his wish that he be buried in St Petersburg next to his mother.

After I'd walked past Lenin and paid my respects, I was permitted to briefly explore the other graves and burial stones which have been placed behind and around the mausoleum. Stalin, Brezhnev and other well-known communists are among the stones here, which makes for an interesting (and slightly eerie) walk.

At the moment, Red Square is open to all, so you can look at these graves freely. But visiting Lenin's Mausoleum is still a matter of leaving your bags somewhere, lining up with tourists and locals alike, and marching past the body at the appropriate pace. It definitely makes for an interesting morning in Moscow, even if you're not usually a fan of dead people.