Dear all,
Could you kindly let us know if it is safe for living or travelling in Kiev?
We will visit Kiev very soon. And we're quite concerned about the safety issue in Kiev.
Please advise.
Thanks
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Dear all,
Could you kindly let us know if it is safe for living or travelling in Kiev?
We will visit Kiev very soon. And we're quite concerned about the safety issue in Kiev.
Please advise.
Thanks
1604,
I spent a total of twenty days in Kiev. I walked the park areas along and across the river during the days, and generally all over the central region of the city. I never felt unsafe. I never had an uncomfortable situation. This is not the city it was seven or more years ago.
[QUOTE=Jak]109,
A mistake in my first post seems to have snowballed into confusion.
A Ukrainian guy with a masters degree in engineering from a U.S. university, with no experience, thought he could get $200 to $500 per month in Kiev. He thought he could get $5,000 per month in the U.S.
That's pretty interesting about your buddy in Kiev. I wonder if the same type of date would go over as well with a 40+ year old Western guy.[/QUOTE]According to my information from local people in CZ there in Prague wit montly EUR 500 are very happy IF they get a job!!! outside from Prague even less. SK and Poland is less therefore the firls are willing to get a ticket abrod.
I was there 2 years ago and I feel very safe, even by night.
i've never had a problem in kiev at all, not even something that could have potentially been a problem. i've walked all over the city center late at night, occasionally a police car will slow down and then speed off - which i'm sure has a lot to do with the safety of the city center at night. i've been to the other side of the river during the day but never had any reason to spend time over there at night. the only problem i've had is that i lost my cool with a beggar once after a particular annoying date - the best course of action is to always completely ignore their existence.
i've heard stories of other's having problems. but they general put themselves in a situation where trouble finding them isn't all that hard.
and i could do without the general public drunkeness.
but remember it is the capital of a country where the standard of living is very low. so kiev attracts the scammers, beggars and others who you generally don't want to interact with.
but to answer your question, as far as i know there is no safety issue in kiev.
[quote=member #1604]dear all,
could you kindly let us know if it is safe for living or travelling in kiev?
we will visit kiev very soon. and we're quite concerned about the safety issue in kiev.
please advise.
thanks[/quote]
I'm planning on being in city of Vinnitsa mid sept. Does anyone know of any escort service in that city? Appreciate any info from anyone
There is no need to be worried! Except of the changes in Visa rules there is nothing changed since the Orange revolution. And as a tourist in Ukraine you hardly notice the political situation in Ukraine. I travel to Ukraine every month for more then 4 years. I never noticed any difference! So don’t worry!
I don't think life could get any 'worst' due to corruption in the Ukraine, which is to say I don't think it could possibly get any 'worst' then the corruption that existed before.
A lot of people were jaded about the Orange Revolution while it was going on saying that it is simply replacing eastern style corruption with western. A lot of people also miss the stability of the SU.
Look for the Russian economy to lay and turd and take Ukrainia down with it.
Good side for us - cheap prices again.
[QUOTE=Member #1604]From news, it seems the political status is getting worse due "corruption". How is daily life then? I'm very worried about it. Is it possible to happen another so-called "orange revolution"??[/QUOTE]
[QUOTE=Cruiser D]I don't think life could get any 'worst' due to corruption in the Ukraine, which is to say I don't think it could possibly get any 'worst' then the corruption that existed before.
A lot of people were jaded about the Orange Revolution while it was going on saying that it is simply replacing eastern style corruption with western. A lot of people also miss the stability of the SU.
Look for the Russian economy to lay and turd and take Ukrainia down with it.
Good side for us - cheap prices again.[/QUOTE]
Hi, when you say "cheap prices" please advice how much is the current rate now for Pros in Kiev? Thanks
Current rates for pros
If you call the numbers mentioned in “Whats on” or “Kiev Post” the price are between $ 70 and $ 100 for one hour, between $ 100 and $ 150 for two hours. When you call GIA it will be $ 100 for one hour and $ 120 for two hours. The prices of the other Agencies like Gia are mostly $ 150 for two hours.
The current price in River Palace and ModaBar is between $ 150 and $ 200 for about two hours. But the girls will give you mostly a higher price if you ask for it. So you have to do a good talk :-) The pros hanging around in the other night clubs like 112, Arena, Opium and Pati Pa ask usually more. Their starting price will be about $ 200 for an hour. I think the cheapest is still going to Rest Town. Suck and Fuck for $ 40 or $ 50. But after maximum 40 minutes you’re outside again. So not really relaxing. But it’s your choice. The price for a night starts mostly at $ 300 and goes up. But if you are lucky a girl who you took for two hours will stay the whole night because she has nothing else to do :-)
Just keep in mind that when you pay $70 for the hour to the agency,
that the dyevochka only gets to keep $15 or $20 for her "work",
the rest goes to the mamachka.
10 days ago the exchange office in the hotel lobby offered 5.05 Hrivnas for 1 US Dollar and 6.13 Hrivnas for 1 Euro.
One month ago it was 5.15 hrivnas for 1 US Dollar and 6.22 Hrivnas for 1 Euros.
So you can expect to receive +/- 500 Hrivnas for 100 US Dollar and +/- 600 Hrivnas for 100 Euros.
I don´t know the rates in banks as I didn´t use bank services.
You can always get cash at the ATM´s available in Kiev streets and hotels as well as cash advance with credit cards at some currency exchange office but I don´t the fee charged for the service.
Downtown Kiev it will be difficult to find a hotel room for 80 USD. As far as I know Hotel Dnipro costs 90 USD for one night. It’s situated at the beginning of the main street Kreshatik. Near the airport there is Hotel Borispol. I think that the prices starts from 60 USD and up but I’m not sure.
By the way, there is no danger at all to walk in the evening or night on the street in Kiev downtown. I wonder where all these stories come from. There is no risk if you behave normal. Of course when you walk around with your money in your hand and draw every body’s attention to it, you can wait until something happen. But I guess that will happen in the smallest town any ware on this world too.
So don’t worry, especially on Friday, Saturday and Sunday night there are many people walking on the street going from one nightclub/bar/etc. to another.
Have fun
Just FYI, this is the article from the Kiev Post recently... interesting reading...:
"Ukraine arrives as new sex tourists' destination
by Yulianna Vilkos, Kyiv Post Staff Writer
Sep 29 2005, 01:12
Ukraine's young women are increasingly attracting the attention of international sex tourists, who exchange information through Internet sites.
This is the first in a three-part series about Ukraine's status as a sex tourism destination. This part focuses on the men who come to Ukraine seeking women. Part Two, which the Post will publish next week, will cover the women involved.
A short, swarthy man hits the dance floor at Arena, an upscale night club in the center of Kyiv, on a summer night. He moves to the rhythm of the music and smiles encouragingly as he watches female hips gyrate a hand's breadth away.
He spots a pair barely covered by low-rise jeans and moves into position behind the dancing girl. His hands reach out for her hips, and his excitement is now clearly visible. The man presses his body toward the dancer until the girl finally turns around and pushes him away.
But Ibraham, a 35-year-old Argentinean, isn't complaining. During the first five days of his Kyiv trip, he's already slept with three girls - quite an experience, he says.
"My friends back home told me girls here are beautiful and that you can have one for $50-100 per hour, which is a good price for such beauties," says Ibraham. He smells strongly of a sweet scent when he bends over to make himself heard above the deafening music. "And I found it all true; there's so many girls here that you could never have back home," he grins, turning his eyes back to the dance floor.
Meanwhile, a bunch of middle-aged guys crowd the club's two bars – Americans, Europeans, Turks, Asians. Some are sipping their drinks while scanning the crowd; the luckier ones are struggling to make themselves understood in pantomime conversations with long-legged Ukrainian blondes.
Arena's art-director Vitaliy Lytvynenko says it's all normal for a club like Arena, which is centrally located and has a lot of beautiful girls.
"We usually have tough face and dress control, but we do not ask girls at the entrance if they've come to pick up a foreigner or not, or vice versa," Lytvynenko said. "People usually go to night club in search of some kind of relationship," he added.
Sex rising
Ukraine may be far behind Thailand on the list of sex tourists' favorite destinations, but it's moving up. One Internet sex-site administrator says interest in Ukraine has grown along with the country's international profile. It doesn't hurt that U.S. and EU citizens no longer need visas to come here. Oleskandr Melnykov, head of the Kyiv police department bureau responsible for fighting [url=http://isgprohibitedwords.info?CodeWord=CodeWord908][CodeWord908][/url], says he worries that the sex business here will only continue to thrive.
His worries are not groundless. According to the State Border Service's statistics, a million more foreigners entered the country during June, July and August of this year than during the same span in 2004. Only a fraction of these are here as sex tourists, of course, but the increased numbers have their effect.
And statistics aside, posts in the Ukrainian sections of Web sites dedicated to sex tourism speak for themselves.
"I am now hooked up on these women," confesses a participant on the Web forum internationalsexguide.com after his summer trip to Kyiv. "The only problem is how to find excuses to spend every vacation in Ukraine."
Experienced sex tourists, like William, a 34-year-old Australian of Asian extraction and a member of the forum, rank the quality and prices of Ukraine's intimate services lower than those of Southeast Asia. But even though William's sex experience in Ukraine was not the best – the "girls spoke little English," he said, the sex was "mechanical," and there was some prejudice toward Asians – he still regrets that he is not subject to the liberalized new visa regime for EU and U.S. citizens.
"I have only visited Ukraine once, and the women are possibly the best-looking Caucasians in the world," William said.
From his first trip to Kyiv this August, William has also learned that "Ukrainian women are more agreeable, dress more revealingly, and are cheaper than Western women."
"Guys from the West can get away with saying and doing things we could never get away with from women in our native countries," he said.
The sex forum is apparently also frequented by ex-pats who live in Kyiv.
A 50-year-old American who has lived in Kyiv for three years and wished to remain anonymous says he contributes to the forum to help travelers get "a true picture of the Ukrainian sex scene."
"There is such a concentration of prime stunning and beautiful talent here, all ready and willing, that you can meet most anywhere, from club and bar pick-ups to prostitutes, for a night or week of pleasure, that massage parlors are just not on my radar screen," the ex-pat told the Web community.
That same ex-pat told the Post that Ukraine is not yet a major destination for sex tourists because it's expensive to get here, sex providers generally don't speak good English, and the tourist infrastructure is still primitive.
Since only a few local ladies speak decent English, linguistically capable ex-pats, like him, "have an obvious advantage in that the choice of ladies increases significantly and the communication of specific needs and desires becomes much easier."
He admits that he sometimes likes to sample "local professionals" and recently had a great time with a Kyiv-based porn actress.
Meanwhile, another traveler, who describes himself as an American businessman in his thirties based in Moscow, fears increased competition from Europeans and other traveling sex tourists. Until now, he says, most people using sex services in Ukraine were foreign men coming here on business trips and local ex-pats.
"But with no visa requirement, just wait for the Italians to invade Ukraine. If you thought Americans were bad, you haven't seen anything yet," he says.
Turkish invasion
If Italians are not here in overwhelming numbers yet, Turkish men have enjoyed vacations in Ukraine for a while.
Suha, 31, boarded a plane from Istanbul to Kyiv this summer, curious to check if all the stories about the beauty and availability of Ukrainian women are true.
"I have a lot of friends who come to Ukraine for girls," confesses Suha. "In fact, all Turkish men come here for the summer."
Suha, who owns an electronics business in Istanbul, is not a newcomer to sex tourism. He is single and is enjoying his freedom by checking out sex scenes in different locations around the world during the holidays. Luckily for him, his business allows him to take as many days off as he likes.
"Usually, I take a month of a holiday a year, and I go to Amsterdam, China, Thailand. I do it mostly in summer time, as I like seeing women's bodies, and not just their eyes," says Suha.
In Amsterdam, girls like group sex, and in China, they do a fabulous massage, Suha says.
Back home in conservative Turkey, Suha says, you can get in trouble when engaging in even an innocent chat with a girl.
"But Ukrainian girls are so much easier to talk to," Suha says.
Turkish women are not the only ones singled out for criticism by sex tourists.
Worldsexarchives.com - another online resource with extensive information on world prostitution - claims that Western women are at least partially to blame for the phenomenon of sex tourism.
"Women in Western countries are spoiled bitches," the site's introduction reads. "Do you know why [an] American woman smiles on her wedding day?" The answer is that "she knows she will not have to" perform any more acts of oral sex.
"But there are many places in the world where women will treat you like a king for a minor fraction of what your Western girlfriend costs," the site goes on.
Not all of us
Some of Kyiv's younger ex-pats, like Briton Joe Field, 31, say they've been innocent victims of the negative perceptions associated with foreign men seeking sex.
"If you look foreign, you are more interesting to girls anywhere in Europe, not just in Ukraine," says Field.
But in Ukraine, Field says, it all comes down to money.
"In Denmark, if a 60-year-old American approached a young girl with a proposition of sex or even marriage, he would hear 'fuck you' in response," says Field. "An 18-year-old Danish girl does not need him or his money in order to have everything she needs or to become everything she wants to become."
But just yesterday, Field recalls, he saw an elderly American in an Internet cafe looking at the photos of young Ukrainian beauties.
"There was a Ukrainian girl sitting next to him, and he would ask her all these cheesy, stupid questions, which he used as an excuse to talk, even though his aim was absolutely clear," said Field. "The girl was very nice to him, and it was unpleasant to see that he thought there was nothing wrong with his behavior," Field said. "
Skank,
Thanks for the report, very interesting. I look forward to part 2 and 3.
I hope the heyhay for Ukraine isn't over yet.