Back From Kiev

[MarkInTx]

Hey All,

I just got in from Kiev. (I see not much changed on the board while I was away...)

I had a great time. It was Victoria's birthday, so I shot in for an extended weekend.

I'm not going to bother publushing a trip report.

Two reasons:

1) Since this was not a "search trip" I don't think it would be of a lot of interest to the readers.

2) It isn't worth the hassle of dealing with the small-minded sniping and insults that invariably follows.

BTW, in the past three months I have had many letters sent to me privately -- with brief trip reports and pictures from some guys who have gone, met, and become engaged -- and they won't be posting their stories here either.

The bitter are winning.

Oh well... I guess the board gets what it deserves. When malcontents are lauded and honest men are vilified... why should anyone expect anything less than malcontents "ruling the board?"

So... no trip report this time... but a few random thoughts, FWIW:

1. London Heathrow was a disappointment, and a hassle to connect through. It was DEFINITELY better when I simply connected through Gatwick. If anyone has a choice, I would suggest that... Don't let the agent tell you "oh, it's a quick bus-ride from Gatwick to Heathrow..." Unless you consider an hour quick... And, in Gatwick, American Airlines left the same place that Ukraine Air did, which means that I could use the Admiral's club -- not so with Heathrow and British Airways. Also, BA is highly over-rated, IMHO

2. I've been to Kiev twice now. I stand by my assessment: It is NOT the babe capital of the world. Yes, I know, I'm in love... but I still have eyes. I've seen more babes walking around in Dallas, frankly. Those of you who go on a tour for the "eye-candy" are bound to be disappointed.... (If you want that, I'm telling you: go to BRAZIL!) Those guys who advocated going to Kiev and just walking around and meeting women in the streets are out of their minds.

3. "You can wear anything you want as long as it is black" is either old advice, or Russian advice. The folks from Kiev wear every color you can imagine. I saw very few "full black" outfits.

4. All generalities are wrong (except this one). This ESPECIALLY goes for about every stereo-type you have heard about "women from the FSU." My fiance has no superstitions, wears her shoes in the house, never drinks vodka... on and on and on... Every woman is different. Basic cultural values may give a core belief system, but don't think you can predict anything about a human being who lives, breathes, and has been alive for more than 9 months...

4. The Zaporizhzhya restaruant was fantastic! French food that was incredible, an attentive staff, very nice and elegant -- and amazingly affordable (for what they serve). Our new favorite "go out" spot in Kiev.

5. Da Vinci restaruant is crowded, smokey, over-priced, and I didn't think the food was that good. One of my biggest dissappointments in Kiev, frankly (probably because I had heard such good things about it).

I guess that's it...

[UnitedNut]

... in response to Back From Kiev, posted by MarkInTx on Sep 17, 2002

Sounds like you had a good time.  Sorry to see that you and others won't be posting future travel reports.  Get a lot of enjoyment reading those.  Usually very informative and fun.  Best of luck to ya!

[BURKE89]

... in response to Re: Back From Kiev, posted by UnitedNut on Sep 21, 2002

I agree with you U.N. lad. When good men do nothing...
Vaughn

[Alfred]

... in response to Back From Kiev, posted by MarkInTx on Sep 17, 2002

I will agree about DaVinci being overpriced. It wasn't smokey when I went, but I went early in the evening and was seated on the balcony.

[MarkInTx]

... in response to Re: Back From Kiev, posted by Alfred on Sep 18, 2002

And the food wasn't that good. At least not what I had.

I ordered Lasagna -- usually a safe bet in an Italian restaurant... and it was nothing special.

Not a horrible place... but I was expecting so much more...

[Alfred]

... in response to Re: Re: Back From Kiev, posted by MarkInTx on Sep 18, 2002

The fish I had was good.  I thought of it as more of a fish restaurant that an italian restaurant.

It was one of the 3 most expensive meals I have had in Kiev in several trips and the only one I felt was overpriced.

[MarkInTx]

... in response to Re: Re: Re: Back From Kiev, posted by Alfred on Sep 18, 2002

Divinci Fish restaurant is dfferent than the Italian restaurant. (Though both owned by the same company)

Which one were you at?

I was at the one that was next door the Millenium club...

[Alfred]

... in response to Different Place, posted by MarkInTx on Sep 18, 2002

I was at the one near Andrivsky Downhill. Wasn't aware there are two.

[snowwego]

... in response to Back From Kiev, posted by MarkInTx on Sep 17, 2002

glad to see you are back and glad you had a good time with her.

[thesearch]

... in response to Back From Kiev, posted by MarkInTx on Sep 17, 2002

Mark,

I would agree with you, if individuals perceive negative responses will be a result of a trip report, clearly there will be less reports.

I am trying to remember the negative responses in general - ---- Right now the only negatives that come to mind are pertaining to meeting a lady once and going for the K-1 and someone --- jumping forth saying are you crazy!!!! Other than that, can not think of any off hand, but then again, it has been a long day and more difficult day than usual and my brain has been parked for the night so to speak.  

Of course, this can work (meet and marry in a single breath) as has been observed ---- at least for the short run. But also, there are guys who simply can not afford to go over more than once or twice yet they want to cash in on the abundance of wonderful women from the FSU. For others it is not about money but free time. If neither are available people are going to compensate.

If they are willing to take the risk, so what. First of all no one here has any stats on the success rate of  these types of marriages that are almost mail order (pick her photo out of a catalogue and get married)  to the guys who use the Internet as an introduction service only  and who take their time meeting many women and making several trips to the final lady that is going to be the one.

But Mark, I have one question for you. You mentioned that if you want to see "eye candy" go to Brazil. Tell me a little about that. I have a friend who is Brazilian who keeps trying to get me to visit Brazil with him. He raves about the women. I did not really know what to think about this - maybe national pride in saying this came across my mind.

I will tell you that I did visit a few sites offering South American women interested in meeting men but, I did not see near the numbers of beautiful women that can be found on the Russian sites. I somehow do not think that it is just a mater of taste - but I could be wrong.

[MarkInTx]

... in response to Re: Kiev and Back, posted by thesearch on Sep 17, 2002

I'm not interested in rehashing the rest of it...

But as for Brazil...

Go to www.brazilgirls.com

Take a look. You will see women that will make a grown man weep. BTW, brace yourself, almost every woman has a picture in a bikini on there (or better yet, her Sambo costume.) No, they are not scammers. They are simply much more easy going about such things in Brazil.

I was in Sao Paulo, which is probably not even the best place for girl watching.

I was there on business, with another guy from my company, and after the second day, we made a pact: Whenever one of us simply trailed off in the middle of a sentence, he was allowed 10 seconds of staring before continuing.

And I AM referring to women walking the streets. The women in the clubs were more amazing still.

Of course, you probably need to speak portuguese to do really well there.

The women are not cultured, and not as educated, which is hardly the same thing as saying "not as smart." The women are smart, they just haven't been educated as much, nor did they grow up wacthign ballets and operas.

But beauty? Aye, they are gorgeous.

And they are not all "Latino" looking, either. I had a date with a drop dead gorgeous blonde while I was there.

Also, they are reputed to being "the friendliest people on earth." You can take hat however you will...

I filed a trip report on the latin board back when I was in Sao Paulo. I think that there are challenges, but Brazil remains a great untapped country. The woman are VERY interested in American men, the scam rates are exceedingly low, and they seem like wonderful women.

I was there searching, as I said, when Victoria found me... Or, I very well might have found my wife there...

If you are interested in the full trip report, I probably have a copy of it somewhere. It was much different, of course, from my trip report to Kiev, since I didn't find "the one" there...

[Stevo]

... in response to Brazil, posted by MarkInTx on Sep 17, 2002

I briefly scanned brazilgirls.com, and I came away very unimpressed.  Maybe I didn't spend enough time looking, but I really didn't find more than 1 in 20 (that's being generous) that I would call attractive.  Whereas whenever I peruse sites like Anastasia, I find that the ratio of attractive girls (for me) is more like 7 out of 10.

Now that may be misleading if they are all scammers and are therefore 'unavailable', but at least the ratio is high enough to make it worthwhile to even look for a woman there.  The brazilgirls site was like looking for a needle in a haystack (for me).

Hey! I guess that's why I married an RW!

Stevo

[Oscar]

... in response to Ok, this isn't directed at you in any wa..., posted by Stevo on Sep 18, 2002

I had looked at quite a few of the latin sites but I found very few women very attractive..  Maybe you have to be there, I don't know.  But I relate exactly to what you say on this..

Oscar

[MarkInTx]

... in response to Ok, this isn't directed at you in any wa..., posted by Stevo on Sep 18, 2002

Well, there are something like 1000 women on the Brazilgrils site... so it takes awhile. (I also went and looked and the first ten pages or so didn't thrill me either... I would agree with your assessment...)

Back when I was watching it daily, some days, there would be a page with 8 women of which 5 were very hot... somedays nothing.

But, to me that was about the same I experienced on Russian sites. When I would look through Scannas new books there were maybe 8 out of fifty that usually interested me -- though some weeks were better than others.

And... if you remove the scammers from some of the Russian sites, you have very little left at the end of the day...

But, yes, everyone has their own tastes.

The best looking women I saw in Brazil weren't on the site, anyway... they were in the clubs and the streets.

And if you didn't come up to them... they would come up to you.

[Oscar]

... in response to Re: Ok, this isn't directed at you in an..., posted by MarkInTx on Sep 18, 2002

Just like in the FSU where many are not very religious, 99% of the women from South America are going to be Catholic.  If you don't happen to be Catholic, I am wondering if this could present much of a problem??

Oscar