Maybe I need to go back to JFK? Then again, maybe not.
[QUOTE=Latexian2]
Bez, you may be a high roller.
Roundtrip airfare from the east coast to Moscow was as low as $350.
Roundtrip train fare to Samara is around $80.
One night in the Volga hotel in Samara starts at 670 RUR.
So one week in Samara from the US is as low as $1000.
[/QUOTE]
Well, that may be before now, but what airline today is selling RT to Moscow for $350 total? And is that for ONLY mid-week flights?
When I started mongering, I would fly from Florida to JFK, but even in 2000, it still cost almost $800 to fly RT to Kiev on Uzbekistan Air, if I wanted to return on a weekend, so I could get back to work on Monday.
You ever changed terminals in nasty hot JFK, collecting your suitcases on arrival, then loading them on the hotter terminal bus and riding around with a dozen or so international types for 30 minutes, then slogging through the even hotter 'foreign airlines' terminal with all your stuff?
7 hours, from the time you leave your own apartment, to drive through traffic to the airport, then wait 2 hours, then 3 hours on the plane, just so you can go through all that hassle at JFK, and THEN get on a 9 hour flight?
Then try flying direct to west Europe form Florida, where they check your bags through for you to your final destination. You get your long flight out of the way first, then the second flight is easy, just 3 hours. Its a big difference in conveniance, but I wouldn't call it "high flying."
As for "starting prices" at the Hotel Volga in Samara, I'm strictly an apartment rental type, so no thanks. I've stayed in a russian hotel, and it does nothing to impress the dyevochkas. Plus, its simply not feasible to ask my mamachka to bring three girls for me to choose one at any hour of the day or night up to my hotel room, but at my apartment, its no problem 24/7.
So if you wish to be Mr. Oridinary Joe Blow economical and get the cheapest hotel room available, sure its a great way to save your money, but for 2000 a day, I get a new flat right on main street. Worth every kopek. Especially for the time it saves me, to grab something to eat quickly at home, then get back to the important business of mongering, which is the whole point anyway. Restaurants are just not my thing, takes too much time and money, except for once in a while to break up the monotony.
And as far as the $80 train to Samara, if you think I would sit on a train for 20 hours, you are REALLY dreaming! My time is much well better spent mongering, than sitting around for 20 hours on a fucking russian piece of shit train.
All of the above, are strictly personal opinions.
Arrested in a Moscow sting; spied on in Baku
I was in Moscow in 1990 just before the 'Eltsin revolution, and the political and social atmosphere was electric, like a storm brewing. My girlfriend and I were on an Intourist package tour in Moscow for five days on the way to a European holiday. One day we broke away from the boring guided tour for several hours so we could mix with the locals a bit. When we returned to the hotel that night, we were reprimanded by the tour guide and told we must stay with the group or there could be trouble. They knew exactly where we had gone that afternoon - apparently an "observer" tailed us all the time we split from the group, including on buses and the metro.
Next day we broke away from the group again, and wandered to the Arbat where my girlfriend was getting her charcoal portrait drawn by an artist, and I wandered around checking the touristy stuff. For some reason I agreed to change some US money for rubles with a young black-market guy who took me to a side-alley. The moment we exchanged the cash, he looked up scared, ran like hell, and I was suddenly grabbed on each shoulder by two guys in jeans and colorful flowery Hawaiian shirts. WTF! They showed me their ID badges: "Militsiya", and told me I was under arrest for dealing in the black market.
They told me in broken English to come to the police station with them. Fuckity-fuck! I told them I should let my GF know I was about to be sent to a Siberian gulag, so we wandered up to her, and I told her I had just been arrested for black-marketeering. She saw me with two chubby Hawaiian-shirted guys, and assumed I was playing one of my usual practical jokes, with a couple of passing tourists. After finally convincing her they were for real, she turned pale and said with fear "OHHH Piper!" [name changed to protect the guilty]. I told her not to worry (yet).
The cops brought us to a small hot damp police station in a basement of a building on the Arbat, took my photo, my fingerprints and my details, and made us sweat a bit. All I could say was "Ya nyeh criminale!" They told me to be quiet and offered us a warm pepsi. We sweated it out an hour or so while joking around with a few of the other undercover cops arriving with their freshly caught arrest victims. Then my cops finally said I could go, and told me to leave Moscow within 24 hours and never return. A bit heavy, I thought. (We were due to leave for France the next day anyway).
We returned to our Intourist hotel five minutes after being released, and the hotel receptionist smiled at me and said. "Ah you have police problyem, dah? Next time you stay with group, dah?! Haha!". News travels fast.
I'll be back in Moscow next month for the first time in 18 years. I wonder if they'll arrest me at the airport? :)
____
Spies R us, in Baku.
That was in 1990. Today (literally today), I had a visit to my office by a new client from the FSU nation of Azerbaijan. He asked me how my trip to Baku was recently. Shocked, I asked him how he knew about my trip to Baku. He explained there are special police in Azerbaijan who keep a close eye on foreigners arriving at Baku. I said - "Ah, like the KGB huh?"
He replied deadpan: "Not [b][i]like[/i][/b] KGB. [i][b]Is[/i][/b] KGB".
$12,000 should keep you knee deep in student pussy for a month.
[QUOTE=Captain]
May I know your opinion on how much money is required to have a good sexual vacation and cover all these 3 sexual destinations in a one month stay, namely :
Kazan, Vladivostok, Rostov-o-don.
I speak 0 Russian.Will it spoil my chances to enjoy myself??
[/QUOTE]
But you'll be much better off just choosing one city, NOT all 3.
That way, you start developing lines for mongering, through contacts who, once they learn you are generous, will spread the word and they will start working to find you as much as you can handle. By the third week, things will really be cooking. By the fourth week, you will need a very long rest.
Unless you are gonna fly to Russia from the US west coast, it makes little sense to go all the way to Vladivostok. Unless maybe if you had 3 months to wander around ....., but then, you'll need a visa listing every destination, and plenty of police registrations, which might attract some attention.
Again, probably better off to choose one city for a month.