General Info

yeah, I thought 1000 was absurd, but that is what the Lonely Planet SPb guide says. I just double checked. Hope the rest of their info is more accurate.

Anyway, your comment about currency choice raises the next question. What is the best currency from a monger bargaining perspective? I normally would just get the Rubles in order to have a single currency on hand for all activities. This of course assumes that negotiating with girls in clubs like Magrib can be conducted in terms of Rubles, which according to my oand cheatsheet is 3000 Rublels to 100 US.

So, if the negotiating target for an all nighter with a hot girl in SPb is 150 US, does it make just as much sense to target 4500 R? i.e. she says 6000 and I counter with "Nyet, nyet, 4500".

Basically, which currency (R / $ or E) and negotiating strategy works to a monger advantage or is it a wash as long as one is converting properly.

In Moscow, most people will work with USD and/or rubles. Tochkas have been quoting in rubles, but most girls will quote in USD at clubs.

However, I've been told that in Spb almost everything is quoted in Euros... So a more reasonable negotiating strategy would be... If quoted in Euros, offer dollars. This represents a 20% discount, "skidka" pa Russki.

I understand your plan to carry one currency, but I for one, will carry rubles, big bils in one pocket and smaller bills in the other pocket so that if I happen to misread the denomination I will cut my losses unless I'm too drunk to know which hand is which. :)

Put you USD/Euros someplace that you will only reach for them if you know exactly what you are doing... Even then don't carry more than you may need. Since I will NEVER pay upfront, you are pretty safe leaving most of your money locked up in your room. (Tochkas are the exception to this rule and you must pay in advance)

Spb is a much more dangerous city for tourists than Moscow so you must realize that anytime you go out you may lose everything that you are carrying with you.

[QUOTE=Rovnak]thanks for clarification.

In other words for the two numbers I sited, both are mobile, and both require the 8 prefix, but one provider put the 8 in there and the other omitted it, thus the confusion.

So for the one listed as (911)208-31-97. You really need to dial 8-911-208-31-97.

Another question. ATMs. I just read in a tour book that some/all ATMs have a withdrawal limit of only 1000 R.

That seems absurdly low. What is the general experience?[/QUOTE]The best ATM that I have found in SPB is in the Nevskii Palace Hotel all the way in the rear of the lobby area across from the hair salon, next to the bar. It is the Moscow Commerce Bank or something similar and will give up to 12,000 RR per withdrawal.

CAT,

RE currency and negotiating. You are the experts, I am newbie, so I am not inferring anything. I am just bringing some data to the table so you can interpret it for me.

For example, here is an example from the high end (ridiculously high end according to this board I believe).

There are two web sites that list similar girls in SPb. One qoutes prices in Rubles and the other in Euro.

In general, for the same girl, the price quoted in Rubles is significantly lower than the Euro. I leave it to you guys to tell me if this is just an artifact of currency fluctuations and whether the girl will insist on the higher of the two quotes. Or will she ask "where did you see my ad" and base her quote on that?

For example Karina:
on rusdosug
[url]http://www.rusdosug.com/details.php?id=19213&style=0[/url]
Here the Rubles quotes are 5600 р. 8400 р. 16800 р.

while on bestladies:
[url]http://www.bestladies.ru/forms/shablon2.php?id=133#[/url]
The Euro quotes are 1 час - 200 € 2 часа - 300 € ночь - 600 €

That is almost a 20% difference in quotes:
5,600 Russian Rouble = 163.679 Euro

ok, i have to vent. those of you who speak russian will shake your heads and think "he doesn't know what he is getting into!"

i'm in my second day of crash imersion in pimsleur russian i. i'm up to lesson 7, trying to do several lessons a day instead of just one, since i am off work and have time.

the problem is without knowing cyrillic, i can't cross reference the pimsleur audio with something written to validate whether i am hearing the word(s) properly. i used pimsleur very effectively to get up to speed on portuguese but then i already knew basic spanish. but even then i had to cross reference to a dictionary.

anyway, its not so bad except for one very very frustrating word sequence that they keep repeating and for the life of me it just sounds like mumble mumble mumble. its supposed to be "would you like" as in "where would you like to eat?" or "what would you like to eat" or "what would you like to drink?" or "i would like to eat" etc. over and over and i still cannot parse this phrase well.
sometimes part of it sounds like "katz il y ba". boy do i have a long way to go before i'll even be able to order dinner.

R... it is very important to learn the RU alphabet. Many words that you see on signs will be English words written in Cyrillic. So all you have to do in that case is spell them out and you will know what it says... Even on the menu, dessert, pizza, etc. are just written in Cyrillic.

As far as your girl goes, it is obvious that she priced herself in Euros and then as she was doing her other website, she priced herself in USD converted to rubles. It wasn't too long ago that the ruble was 28:1.

In any case, you come back to the same point that I tried to make earlier. Offer USD when you can... or if that doesn't work, RUR will be better for you than Euros. With the recent fall of the Euro they may be more than willing to take USD or RUR.

Rovnak,

You seem a nice guy, let's relax !

Maybe the ads were posted at different times one in rouble, one in euros.

Which is a certainty is that they do not reevaluate their quotes daily to follow the fluctuations of the rouble against the euro or the dollar!

Try to get a discount ! Anyway I never pay such prices!

Good hunt

Slavicgourmet,

I am not nervous, I am just doing my usual research. When i went to Brazil I did just as much research and it paid off very well. Unfortunately, this board is not as active as the Brazil boards so there is less existing information and therefore I am asking questions which may seem absurd to people who are experienced with Russia. These boards are for exchanging information. Before I went to Brazil I asked a lot of questions. Then when I was there I wrote a lot of reports giving back information. Now my reports are used as a reference on that board.

To your point, "try and get a discount". I can't get a discount without knowing what the standards are in the first place. That was the whole thrust of my line of questions. Trying to establish the norm so that I could negotiate intelligently.

----
CAT,

yeah, i bought a pretty good little book called "Beginners Russian Script" by Daphne West. It is a good intro to cyrillic.

What about using a language converter.

IL... Nice thought.... however, in reality it just doesn't work. It can be a nice toy to play with when you are in your room/apt and building a little rapport before you proceed to drill your bride for the evening, but it becomes stupid to whip out this little thing and start punching letters while the girl looks at you like a fool!

Trust me... I bought the most advanced, dual direction... super disgronifier... max torque... duracell batteries... It still sits in my drawer because it is fun to play with but there is no way you, rather... I, are/am actually going to pull it out at a tochka or a club and ask the momma/girl to speak a little louder into the machine!

I've been experimenting with love.mail.ru contacts again and after clicking on a couple of the cuter 18 year olds and texting them, have received this same canned response:

"Классно что написал! Знаешь, к сожалению переписываться долго я не могу, так как инет не мой. Давай я о себе расскажу, а?. Опыта у меня мало, но я очень хочу все попробовать!!! Мне очень хочется взаимного орального секса, а так же у меня много задумок, которые нам обоим понравятся. Хочу, что бы мне кончил в рот, вошел в мою девственную попку и научил чему-нибудь ещё!!!! Так же хочу, что ты вылизал меня всю. Я студентка 1-ого курса. Учусь в Маи, живу я в общежитии (рядом с метро Сокол). На лето остаюсь жить в общаге. Подрабатываю в ДК МАИ курьером. Знаешь, есть правда одно затруднение, так как я из общаги, то телефона городского у меня нет, а график работы у меня всегда меняется, да и к тому же в интернет я залезаю за счет работы (они на меня очень злятся за это), Ну так вот, единственное средство связи , это мой сотовый. Мне, если честно, безумно неудобно просить тебя об этом, но что делать (очень хочется секса) он отключен (8916-1957834), задолжность -9 долларов :((, не мог бы ты мне помочь и оплатить его или выслть кoд кapточки на e-mail(antilopa333@rambler.ru), и тогда мы с тобой созвонимся. Cама оплатить не могу, денег пока совсем нету ! Главное – телефон включить. Без него в Москве сложно встретиться. Кстати есть ещё одна откровенная фотка, правда её я пришлю если буду уверена, что мы с тобой точно встретимся!!!!"

Essentially this explains the story of a girl of limited sexual experience who needs to gather some... and you are the lucky guy who can give it to her... provided you first send her some money to charge up her phone...

Wow, this scam is still around? I thought it was already ancient history... which profiles on love.mail.ru are you "corresponding" with because I haven't seen this scam for more than 2 years already honestly speaking, and I toil through this database everyday literally.

[QUOTE=Doctor_Skank]I've been experimenting with love.mail.ru contacts again and after clicking on a couple of the cuter 18 year olds and texting them, have received this same canned response:

"Классно что написал! Знаешь, к сожалению переписываться долго я не могу, так как инет не мой. Давай я о себе расскажу, а?. Опыта у меня мало, но я очень хочу все попробовать!!! Мне очень хочется взаимного орального секса, а так же у меня много задумок, которые нам обоим понравятся. Хочу, что бы мне кончил в рот, вошел в мою девственную попку и научил чему-нибудь ещё!!!! Так же хочу, что ты вылизал меня всю. Я студентка 1-ого курса. Учусь в Маи, живу я в общежитии (рядом с метро Сокол). На лето остаюсь жить в общаге. Подрабатываю в ДК МАИ курьером. Знаешь, есть правда одно затруднение, так как я из общаги, то телефона городского у меня нет, а график работы у меня всегда меняется, да и к тому же в интернет я залезаю за счет работы (они на меня очень злятся за это), Ну так вот, единственное средство связи , это мой сотовый. Мне, если честно, безумно неудобно просить тебя об этом, но что делать (очень хочется секса) он отключен (8916-1957834), задолжность -9 долларов :((, не мог бы ты мне помочь и оплатить его или выслть кoд кapточки на e-mail(antilopa333@rambler.ru), и тогда мы с тобой созвонимся. Cама оплатить не могу, денег пока совсем нету ! Главное – телефон включить. Без него в Москве сложно встретиться. Кстати есть ещё одна откровенная фотка, правда её я пришлю если буду уверена, что мы с тобой точно встретимся!!!!"

Essentially this explains the story of a girl of limited sexual experience who needs to gather some... and you are the lucky guy who can give it to her... provided you first send her some money to charge up her phone...[/QUOTE]

An excellent resource for current club, concert, event and restaurant information, provided you can read and understand basic Russian, is the following site:

[url]www.afisha.ru[/url]

This is also available in a print version, and I don't think there is a single Russian girl under 30 that doesnt read it...

Just got back from Petersburg. Guta Bank ATM's will allow withdrawals of up to 14,000RR or $400 at one time. Check with your bank to see what thier limit is on your card and you should be able to maximize withdrawal without incurring high fees. The ATM at the Nevskii Palace that I mentioned before is Guta Bank.

I can not figure out how to start a new thread. But to all mongers reading this its important. Russia is Beautifull and the women are breath taking. But please dont go there if you can not afford to go. (pinching pennies) I dont mean spending $300.00@hour on a ***** either. It can be expensive just to stay there for 2 weeks. Prices have gone up a lot in the last 4 years. This is my 8th time going there next week. Yes its better and cheaper and less hassels to rent a flat thats for sure. But reading these threads you can live there and rent a flat and get your brains fuck out all for $1500.00 @month. Well I guess it can be done if you speak Russian, but why count pennies. Its that simple save your money and then go, Yes I like torchkas too. But at least 1 time a week I rent a 10+ from the agency. $500.00 @night. Thats my treat. These women are a bargain to begin with. You can not get that quality in the States or Canada for those prices thats for sure. You can get beautifull women in North America but you must be a millionaire to pay there nightly rates. I always rent a guide $125.00 a day meals included plus his hotel he takes me to places all over Russia some places are $10.00 @hour for women. They would charge $100.00 a hour in Moscow/Saint pete. The real treasures are the oblast regions , the hot ones eventually head to Moscow but its nice to get them where they live before they go to the city. Tver Komostra Vladistock Vologda Volograd jerk off places no body goes to it can be dangerous yes but I have a guide. Money does not buy love but it buys a lot of happiness. So if you want to experience Russia save a few extra bucks and have a better time. there was a jerk call Kremlin King arrogant bastard but he always had the mot beutifullist women you got to give him credit for that. No Torchkas for him. I seen his photo, lucky arrogant prick that he is, He is very handsome man and stinking rich so I guess this also helps. We all can not be like Kremlin King, I wish I was except drop the attitude he has.