Was working in SIN in the early 90s and got to see the mighty AN-124 in action. This was a time of change for the Soviet Union and for the most part its people were still treated like back in the good old days of the Iron Curtain (eg risk of them claiming asylum was not accepted by Russia as well as the visiting country!). Their crew would stay with the aircraft and even perform maintenance tasks like removing and servicing components until it was time to depart, I would imagine these would have been the techies/loadies and the crew would be safe in their bunks getting some rest. We would go to the aircraft and there would be some trading .. our fine Casio watches for a mechanical Russian watch for instance. There usually had a goodish supply of Russian aluminium badges/medals with military designs and for the very brave...liquor! They would ask for USD but would eventually setlle for SGD.
The loadies were required to operate the interior cranes and to sequence the load according to the load-masters instructions, it was good to watch how well they worked together.. not much uneccessary shouting and drama.. just whistles and a few calls. Very proffessional The loadmaster worked from a wooden table and chair that they carried along with them.
Anilv