[iknowexactly]

(03-28-2013 02:09 PM)presidentcarter Wrote:  

^^^ I get your point on the bully culture in the FSU, but is it really much safer in 3rd tier Colombia, Brazil, or even parts of Asia?

Excellent question I have little to offer in response to; maybe other have more experience and can compare?

I started a "overseas security" thread and don't think it got much traction.

I think it would be a good idea to outline the types of risks and countermeasures in each country, not to fear-monger and discourage travel, but just so people are aware in these places.

The one idea I have is that overt robbery-out-of-the blue seems less common in FSU than what I've heard about in South America. It's these stupid vanity things like the refusal to give them a cigarette. I see it as related to the inferiority stuff.

Overt cock-blocking seems rare in FSU, but my take now post-assault is there's a lot of sullen bitterness among the men about their bitches wanting to get out/marry up, many men can't offer financial security. The only thing keeping them in check is their vanity, when they get a chance to gang up, the more primitive ones like it.

It is said that if you know your enemies and know yourself, you will not be imperiled in a hundred battles; if you do not know your enemies but do know yourself, you will win one and lose one; if you do not know your enemies nor yourself, you will be imperiled in every single battle.

- Sun Tzu

[presidentcarter]

Also Vorkuta, could you elaborate more on necessity of conversational Russian in Moscow?

[thegmanifesto]

(03-28-2013 01:40 PM)Vorkuta Wrote:  

My mate woke up and said 'go to your hotel and wait for me,I will call my friends'. I flagged a car down and thought that was it. However an hour later my mate turns up with my bag and phone and camera. Fuck knows how he did it but it's a small city so the grapevine works fast.

That is insane.

I wonder how he pulled that off?

Sounds like a good guy to know in that town.

(03-28-2013 01:49 PM)iknowexactly Wrote:  

I got assaulted by a landlord in Ukraine. Most of the others I knew well in Ukraine suffered something similar from either police or landlords. Although probably both of us did not follow adequate security practices, it is not in the moral sense your "fault". The moral fault is with scum who attack people for nothing.

If you say no harm was done to you by strangers pushing you down and kicking you, I hope it's true and wish you the best. I am suspicious however, that you are putting a brave face on something that is a pretty ugly experience ( which may be a good way to handle it) . You mention yourself your adrenaline was running high. I don't mind that stuff if I'm riding a mountain bike but in dealing with other people? It seems a pretty unfavorable social environment to me.

Yes, chicks are hot in EE/RU, but there's a scummy, bullying element to the culture. Look how even a guy like Putin who has immense power still acts like a paranoid, sullen bully.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10000872...22382.html

Or the creepy stuff with the Bolshoi ballet where people at the top of the culture, who should be far beyond gangster behavior ( and I view "gangster" behavior as people who group together to bully others in criminal activity, and I don't idealize it.) did stuff like acid attacks to settle disputes.

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/03/06/world/...d=all&_r=0

People are white-knighting for EE/RU culture just 'cause they've got the hottest chicks. There's a lot wrong with these places, which is probably why their working class living standard is decades behind the West. The majority of the people are welcoming, but some of the locals I got to know well asked to borrow significant amounts of money.

I can tell you one example I saw-- traveling by train West out of Ukraine into Poland. The Ukrainian tracks were pretty plain with little activity. As soon as we passed into Poland, there were hundreds of miles of construction along the tracks with huge amounts of people working on a new high-speed rail line adjacent to the current tracks. The difference was like night and day.

The problem with some very significant minority of EE/RU people: They don't want to work.

So you get Oligarchs who hide their money in Cyprus, because they know investing in their own country is not a good risk, and a lot of jealous, spiteful people who feel cheated.

Underneath bullying is desperately hidden feelings of inferiority, fear and cowardice. Why this is true is a whole separate anthropological issue.

Good post.

Thanks for the insight.

---

Yeah, I am surprised that you didn't suffer any damage in that attack.

I have been on the south end of a few 3 on 1 beatdowns and I couldn't walk the next day.

[iknowexactly]

(03-28-2013 07:45 AM)Vorkuta Wrote:  

Overall a great trip. I saw the kinds of places I had always wanted to and now know never to return. ........{hot 30 somethings comments } Russian language will be my pension scheme of quality pussy.

Great writing and story.

[iknowexactly]

(03-28-2013 02:34 PM)thegmanifesto Wrote:  

(03-28-2013 01:40 PM)Vorkuta Wrote:  

My mate woke up and said 'go to your hotel and wait for me,I will call my friends'. I flagged a car down and thought that was it. However an hour later my mate turns up with my bag and phone and camera. Fuck knows how he did it but it's a small city so the grapevine works fast.

That is insane.

I wonder how he pulled that off?

Sounds like a good guy to know in that town.

A similar thing happened to me in Ukraine, when my landlord pushed/slapped me around and forced me out of an apartment and didn't let me take some of my valuables. (Note: my rent was not yet due, they basically stole a week from me)

I had a friend who was related to a lawyer. Someone, or their conscience, got to them and they returned some, but not all of the items.

It was battery and robbery, but these people were so dumb I don't even think they knew that. They thought it was their apartment so they could just do whatever they wanted.

Their friends might have told them "You can't sell the stuff, and he might go to the cops, you might as well give it back". They, however, had more to lose than the stairway thugs that assaulted the OP.

[The Fantasist]

(03-28-2013 02:29 PM)presidentcarter Wrote:  

Also Vorkuta, could you elaborate more on necessity of conversational Russian in Moscow?

Hm,difficult to answer because I always approach in Russian and usually continue in that language. However here is an example; I went to a club with a mate called 'Propoganda'. We chatted to two girls and one said she was an English teacher yet when I said let's talk in English she was shy to talk it and could not understand what I said properly. So even if levels are there they are shy to speak it often. I suppose the answer is I genuinely don't know because like I said I was speaking Russian all the time.

I think Gadabout could chime in here since he was in Moscow with zero (?) Russian.

(03-28-2013 02:35 PM)iknowexactly Wrote:  

(03-28-2013 07:45 AM)Vorkuta Wrote:  

Overall a great trip. I saw the kinds of places I had always wanted to and now know never to return. ........{hot 30 somethings comments } Russian language will be my pension scheme of quality pussy.

Great writing and story.

Thank you.

[Spike]

It was great reading something about Russian again. Thanks for sharing!

[DVY]

Haha, great story Vorkuta.

You def. touched a cultural nerve right there. The majority of the Russian people live in complete shit, much like they did during the time of the Tsar or communism.

Basically, as a Russian man if you dont have dough/influence- you are worth less than the air you breathe.

As for your foreigner status, this is almost a slight negative w/Russian men. 1st, jealously at some "fucker" whos invading your space. 2nd, your likely better off than him and you "deserve to get jacked".

My dad whos fluent in Russian will not walk the streets of Moscow or St. Petersburg w/out an armed bodyguard/chaffeur (likely ex-KGB). This costs about 100-150/day, but decreases incidents of robbery and police extortion.

[Belgrano]

Vorkuta, amazing story and an interesting destination! No homo, but you are one of my favourite posters on the forum.
Я хочу вернуться в Россию, но к сожалению мне надо остаться в Вене, чтобы учиться в университете. В следующий раз я хочу путешествовать на юг, часть между Чёрным морем и Каспийским морем. У тебя есть советы?

[Partizan]

(03-28-2013 10:36 AM)slubu Wrote:  

Vorkuta, great report man. Timing couldn't have been better. I'm planning a month in Kiev, a month in Moscow, then a month in a second-tier city in Russia. Any suggestions? I will be with a friend so I will have a wing the whole time. I'm thinking Novbovorisk, Samara maybe? So many cities I have no idea how to choose. This will be in August too, if that helps with university students being away, etc.

I presume you are traveling from June to August. If you are on the hunt for students forget about it. The university academic year runs from September to May with exams first two weeks in June. From end of June until first week of September, the studenkas will be away either in the village, along the coast on vacation/work or the more affluent ones will be in the States on the J1 visas. I wouldn't spend that August in Samara. I would go to the coast, try Sochi or Crimea where you will get more action and bang for your buck. Moscow in July will suck too given the oppressive weather and humidity not to mention the smog.

If you are looking to hit provincial Russia, September is the best time to do it. The weather is good and the students are back. If I were you, I would do the following, July - Kiev, August - Sochi, September - provincial city. I highly recommend Ekaterinburg. Its nicely located on the Urals which makes great hiking, not to mention being easy to get to (Trans Siberian) and its within the Golden Triangle (Perm, Kazan, Samara, Ufa, Chelyabinsk).

You should check out my Ekaterinburg datasheet. Everything there in a nutshell. If you need any more info, just hit me up.

http://www.rooshvforum.network/thread-19441....aterinburg

[The Fantasist]

(03-28-2013 03:29 PM)Celtic_Austrian Wrote:  

Vorkuta, amazing story and an interesting destination! No homo, but you are one of my favourite posters on the forum.
Я хочу вернуться в Россию, но к сожалению мне надо остаться в Вене, чтобы учиться в университете. В следующий раз я хочу путешествовать на юг, часть между Чёрным морем и Каспийским морем. У тебя есть советы?

Good language skills right there. I'm impressed. ( Также не гомосексуальной )

Yes I have travelled a little down that way: Ossetia,Ingushetia and Chechnya. Advice? I think most of it is in my mini data sheet from the area. Go to post 38. Shoot me a pm if you have any other questions on the area and I'll do my best to answer.
http://www.rooshvforum.network/thread-20886-...#pid378997

[bojangles]

Cant wait for your blog Vorkuta, looking forward to reading more about your FSU experiences.

[Vicious]

Many impressions here. Was it all worth it?

[presidentcarter]

(03-28-2013 04:06 PM)Vicious Wrote:  

Many impressions here. Was it all worth it?

Quite possibly. He did get his "shore a whore" flag afterall.

[Partizan]

(03-28-2013 04:06 PM)Vicious Wrote:  

Many impressions here. Was it all worth it?

Russia is worth it if you put the time and resources into it as Vorkuta has patently shown. His work in that country is invaluable to each and every single one of us. He is a trailblazer and if you wish to get a better understanding of what Churchill once described as "an enigma trapped within a riddle", then you cant go wrong and read his posts on the matter. They are a gold mine and its one of the many reasons why RVF is miles ahead of any of its many imposters.

[slubu]

(03-28-2013 03:47 PM)Partizan Wrote:  

(03-28-2013 10:36 AM)slubu Wrote:  

Vorkuta, great report man. Timing couldn't have been better. I'm planning a month in Kiev, a month in Moscow, then a month in a second-tier city in Russia. Any suggestions? I will be with a friend so I will have a wing the whole time. I'm thinking Novbovorisk, Samara maybe? So many cities I have no idea how to choose. This will be in August too, if that helps with university students being away, etc.

I presume you are traveling from June to August. If you are on the hunt for students forget about it. The university academic year runs from September to May with exams first two weeks in June. From end of June until first week of September, the studenkas will be away either in the village, along the coast on vacation/work or the more affluent ones will be in the States on the J1 visas. I wouldn't spend that August in Samara. I would go to the coast, try Sochi or Crimea where you will get more action and bang for your buck. Moscow in July will suck too given the oppressive weather and humidity not to mention the smog.

If you are looking to hit provincial Russia, September is the best time to do it. The weather is good and the students are back. If I were you, I would do the following, July - Kiev, August - Sochi, September - provincial city. I highly recommend Ekaterinburg. Its nicely located on the Urals which makes great hiking, not to mention being easy to get to (Trans Siberian) and its within the Golden Triangle (Perm, Kazan, Samara, Ufa, Chelyabinsk).

You should check out my Ekaterinburg datasheet. Everything there in a nutshell. If you need any more info, just hit me up.

http://www.rooshvforum.network/thread-19441....aterinburg

Awesome, thanks man. Will definitely be hitting you up.

[speakeasy]

I must say I love reading these stories about the FSU. It's like reading about the Wild West or something.

[presidentcarter]

(03-28-2013 04:49 PM)slubu Wrote:  

Awesome, thanks man. Will definitely be hitting you up.

slubu I heard we look alike and we're both interested in Russia. Let's tag team that shit it'll be like The Adventures of Mary-Kate & Ashley.

[Northern]

Russian pickup forum if anyone interested:
http://www.pickupforum.ru/

[Lothario]

(03-28-2013 04:58 PM)presidentcarter Wrote:  

(03-28-2013 04:49 PM)slubu Wrote:  

Awesome, thanks man. Will definitely be hitting you up.

slubu I heard we look alike and we're both interested in Russia. Let's tag team that shit it'll be like The Adventures of Mary-Kate & Ashley.

I probabaly told you that presidentcarter, you both have the same height and built but not too much facial resemblence but what do I know I think all the White Boys look the same

Excellent reporting Vorkuta, i will be interested in your take on Latin Girls, I wonder sometimes if the coldness of people/Girls can be disregarded just because they are beautiful. I just did a DR Trip and althought girls are not as pretty as Russian Girls but are very warm and passionate and I like that .......

[MikeCF]

Damn, bro, you are having a legit time. Thanks for the stories!

[Hooligan Harry]

There is small Russian shit town and then there is rural, in the middle of no where small Russian shit town that even God forgot exists. The latter is not the sort of place to pickup chicks. You are talking backward, insular communities. Its Russian hicksville where the people are borderline feral and half of them still think Stalin is in power.

The huge distances in Russia and the shitty network mean large price increases in some places. Russia is not a cheap place, but you will find some cities and towns are much cheaper than others based on location as much as anything else

Places like Kotlas though are really in the middle of no where. There is just fuck all there. So basics and essentials will be cheap, but luxuries will be considered expensive. And because the populations are so small with so little around it, costs to get goods into these locations is very high.

A place like Kazan or Ufa will be cheaper than Moscow by at least 30%, if not more. They will also be cheaper than these smaller towns in the middle of no where, which are often nothing more than outlying posts supported by some local industry or subsistence farming.

With regards to hotels, they are a problem all over Russia. They are expensive and they are crap for what you are paying. Smaller towns though are a huge problem because there is going to be zero choice and the only people coming in will be those with some sort of money. They dont get tourists, almost everyone moving through is on business of some sort. In some cases, they would not see anyone from out of town other than people making deliveries for months on end.

The smaller, industrial, rural holes are rough though. Like unnerving rough at times and I felt more intimidated in some parts of Russia than I have some of the rougher parts of Africa. The industrial shitholes were often Gulags, which means that whats left over there is often the survivors or spawn of former prisoners and people who lived in forced labor camps. There is a reason those towns are there. They were built to keep people in and the people that are there are very, very hard.

With regards to provincial women having no interest in foreign men? Bud, you are in the wrong places lol. If you can speak Russian you are going to have your pick. Again, its important to pick the right sort of towns. Im not sure what took you to the places you went to, but you went to the sort of places where foreigners would be viewed with suspicion too. Half these little towns in the north or in Siberia have stayed the same since Stalin was in power and there has been no major cultural changes since the fall of communism.

I can understand guys wanting to get off the beaten track, but the really out of the way places need to be viewed as a curiosity more than a productive trip of any sort. They are dangerous, miserable and have little going for them.

With regards to language, unless you are pretty proficient, stay away from the provinces. It would be a frustrating experience. This was most of Russia in the mid 90's and the only reason my conversational Russian developed so quickly was because you had zero choice in those days. English is being spoken by more people are a rapid rate these days, but your best bet is really still the cities.

I would not even bother with the smaller cities like Samara or Ufa without some basic Russian.

Hats off to you though Vorkuta. It takes some balls to go to the places you did.

[The Fantasist]

Good post,some empirical knowledge right there.

About why did I choose to go to Vorkuta...I arrived in Moscow with the intention of hitting Pskov and Smolensk before having a week in Belarus visiting universities. That was the purpose of the trip. Then I woke up early on Sunday morning in Moscow after a night out with a hangover and went for a stroll. I ended up in the Yaroslavskaya railway station looked up at the departure board and saw that a train was leaving later in the day for Vorkuta. I went to the ticket window asked how much a ticket was and thought 'fuck it'. It was as random as that. I'd always been interested in the town and thought now or never. It was definitely for the novelty not for expectation of bangs.

Someone asked earlier if it was worth it... We all have our fascinations and interests. Is it worth going to the world cup final to see your team play if they lose? It's the same with Russia for me. Yes it was hard,it was expensive,it was at times dangerous and tested my reserves but in that experience I learnt a lot,about the Russian north and about myself. I had to get it out of my system,to see for myself what those towns were like. I wanted questions answered; Do we have rock star status in shitty 3rd tier towns? I never found it so personally,Harry you seem to have found it however. Now I know what life is like there I can lay my romantic notions of the provinces to bed and sleep better without that constant nagging feeling of wanting to go see for myself. I had naive notions of life there being something akin to a Russian novel then I saw them and saw the truth is there is nothing romantic about broken pavements covered in melting slush,run down boring cities with acrid polluted air,shabbily dressed people,gangs of gopniks and overpriced services.

I don't want it to sound like I had a shit time though. Nothing could be further from the truth. I'll remember it fondly and it was a great adventure. Amongst the shit there were diamonds,people who blew me away with their hospitality,people who had managed to not be brutalised by the environment they lived in and rise above the redneck-ness of their compatriots. There were crazy escapades galore. It was an awesome trip,I just have no desire to do it again for a very very long time.

[Hooligan Harry]

(03-29-2013 03:31 AM)Vorkuta Wrote:  

Good post,some empirical knowledge right there.

About why did I choose to go to Vorkuta...I arrived in Moscow with the intention of hitting Pskov and Smolensk before having a week in Belarus visiting universities. That was the purpose of the trip. Then I woke up early on Sunday morning in Moscow after a night out with a hangover and went for a stroll. I ended up in the Yaroslavskaya railway station looked up at the departure board and saw that a train was leaving later in the day for Vorkuta. I went to the ticket window asked how much a ticket was and thought 'fuck it'. It was as random as that. I'd always been interested in the town and thought now or never. It was definitely for the novelty not for expectation of bangs.

Someone asked earlier if it was worth it... We all have our fascinations and interests. Is it worth going to the world cup final to see your team play if they lose? It's the same with Russia for me. Yes it was hard,it was expensive,it was at times dangerous and tested my reserves but in that experience I learnt a lot,about the Russian north and about myself. I had to get it out of my system,to see for myself what those towns were like. I wanted questions answered; Do we have rock star status in shitty 3rd tier towns? I never found it so personally,Harry you seem to have found it however. Now I know what life is like there I can lay my romantic notions of the provinces to bed and sleep better without that constant nagging feeling of wanting to go see for myself. I had naive notions of life there being something akin to a Russian novel then I saw them and saw the truth is there is nothing romantic about broken pavements covered in melting slush,run down boring cities with acrid polluted air,shabbily dressed people,gangs of gopniks and overpriced services.

I don't want it to sound like I had a shit time though. Nothing could be further from the truth. I'll remember it fondly and it was a great adventure. Amongst the shit there were diamonds,people who blew me away with their hospitality,people who had managed to not be brutalised by the environment they lived in and rise above the redneck-ness of their compatriots. There were crazy escapades galore. It was an awesome trip,I just have no desire to do it again for a very very long time.

Hahaha, nah I can relate to that. I used to often drive in Russia if I could rope someone into coming along because individual travel was too dangerous in some parts. Just to explore the smaller towns and area around the main cities we would fly into. Chasing gas and oil meant I was often in very remote places too, so often went through a lot of towns in transit.

I was once holed up in Irkutsk, which in the late 90's was one of the few cities that had frequent direct flights. One of the guys I was working with decided to join me as we took a car and headed east past Chita. To this day I still remember that trip more than most, because of this guy. He was a Canadian, but spent the entire 3 days just begging and pleading to get the hell out of dodge and get to the next town, hoping things would be better. When you got to the next town, you realised that the last one was better. Its funny now, but it was unnerving when we did it.

Words cant really describe it and there were people who had never seen a foreigner, let alone even heard english spoken. Some of the most fucked up places I have ever seen and it was like being on another planet.

So yeah, I agree. Not great places to pick up women, but certainly an interesting experience.

If I have learned one thing though, its that you avoid the former gulags or small towns that used to service the gulags.

[The Fantasist]

(03-29-2013 04:08 AM)Hooligan Harry Wrote:  

If I have learned one thing though, its that you avoid the former gulags or small towns that used to service the gulags.

Bang on the money about Gulag towns.

I was in the city of Ulyanovsk a couple years back and had a blast,the women were so responsive and my foreignness absolutely worked in my favour. The people were open and inquisitive and interested in getting to know me. Women were keen to meet the 'Anglichanin' in the town. I presumed it would be like that everywhere however the atmosphere in the Gulag towns was utterly different. Naively perhaps I felt that because the Gulag system had ended decades ago that everything would be back to normal. I was wrong. The town's history still weighs heavy on the mentality of the residents,you can feel it in the atmosphere that something just doesn't feel 'right'. Without being overly dramatic,it was oppressive. It wasn't until I left the northern region and reached Vologda that things felt normal again and people smiled on the streets again and didn't eye me suspiciously.

As I said,no regrets,I saw places few outsiders have, but fuck me,not again,not for a long while.