Hitting the motherload
(almost no mongering, but really interesting and useful)

One of my chief mongering rules is to always get women at the source, never monger with Russian women in Prague, never monger with Colombian women in Venezuela, or with Ukrainian women in Russia - if possible, go the source. Sometimes, this rule is tough to adhere to, since in some areas, such as Mexico, women don't work in their home town. But, at least a monger should never monger with imported women, stay within their country, at least. Even in Moscow, one finds that the women generally come from some other city. So, the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow in Russia is to find where those women come from. Volgograd (the City Formerly Known as Stalingrad) represents one of those pots of gold. Volgograd is unique in all of the places I have been in that there is an enormous surplus of young beautiful women. I don't mean that the ration is 2:1 women/men, but it would seem that in the 18 to 40 age group, the ratio is more like 5:1. Even more striking is that Volgograd women seem to ignore local men if they are known not to have money, so the bar scene is very unusual. But let me start from the top.

If you have ever scene the movie "Enemy at the Gates" you know that Volgograd is on the Volga river. In winter, the place is a disaster, its cold and there is no place to go. In late spring and summer, however, the place turns into Fort Lauderdale, the river bank is covered with tent bars, and there is dancing, drinking and the like all night long. Because of the enormous surplus of women, the party scene consists of groups of women moving from tent to tent looking for men (actually, they are looking for eligible men). During the first part of the evening, the men who are not considered eligible don't even show up, since they know there is no point, leaving bars devoid of men. Because of the lack of men, after a point, women will settle into a bar and start drinking and dancing to wait for men to show up. This can take some time, so by the time the men do appear, the women are wasted. In the meantime, there's an interesting dynamic, as some women take the male role until the actual men show up, not from a sexual perspective, but simply from an organizational standpoint, Of couse when the men finally do appear, most are ineligible, but they know the women are wasted, so their problems are solved. Of course, even with the eligible men in the bar, there is still an excess of women in the bars.

And, there are a lot of bars and women - think of Pattaya with Britney Spears or Darryl Hannah in place of the Thai girls and you get the idea. Just sitting in a bar, you will be confronted with dozens of single beautiful
young ladies, all of whom are looking for men with money. The women aren't just in the bars, they are everywhere - if you are walking through a park at midnight and run into someone off in the bushes having a smoke, in Volgograd that person would be a young woman, not a man. This does have an effect on the mongering, since the demand just isn't there - local men don't have to pay, and there just aren't that many ourists. You can secure a woman at the Volgograd Hotel for $25 through room service, but if you take a walk you lose the desire to monger when the supply of women is unlimited. Why are so many women? Volgograd is like Sinaloa - the men head off to Moscow, the women are more likely to stay behind unless their husband calls for them to come to Moscow. Unlike Sinaloa, these women don't have 5 kids, and haven't already goen to pieces like Mexican women once they get married. So, as you walk to streets of Volograd, its like a giant Adelitas, except that the women aren't fat. The bummer is that you can't take the girls back to your hotel room without some planning, since the hotel security will stop them. Since I had just 24 hours in Volgograd, this wasn't possible. However, I could have taken a girl to a sauna and had some fun, but time was even too short for that, I had a plane trip to Moscow, London and Washington coming up.

One interesting angle is that the mating ritual for the women is to dance in the many tent bars down by the river. They dance all night, hoping that men will see them and ask them out. The problem is that Russian women can't dance. At all. Its really pathetic. They wave their arms in the air in an attempt to dance, but your grandmother could do a better job.

To sum up, Volgograd is worth a trip just to see the women, and to experience a situation where single women are everywhere. BTW, except for my hotel room, Volgograd was dirt cheap. Drinking all night cost me $20, and buses and trolleys cost 10 cents. Dinner at the hotel restaurant, the fanciest in town, cost $18, and I was eating fresh shrimp from the Caspian Sea.

Hmmmm .... it looks like the flight that I took from Moscow to Volgograd was one of the two planes that are reported to have crashed today in Russia. What I didn't mention in my trip report about Volgograd was that I picked up a flight attendant on the flight, she was deadheading on that flight, but she was from Volgograd, and likely to have been on the flight today that crashed.

The plane was a Tupolov 134, one of the workhorses in the Russian airline industry, but it sounds like someone put a bomb aboard. Since lightening doesn't strike twice in the same place, I doubt that if the final determination is that a bomb brought the plane down, that there would be significant danger in flying that route in the future, assuming the airline survives.

I am an everyoung "Old School" mongerer from when before said term was used. That is to say, I first went to Rio & B.A.-for the women-back in 70s (which according to the age most assume I am means I was there when I was 3 y.o.).

My question is this: I am planning a trip to East Europe at about mid December to early January. Would it be a loser to go to Volgograd at that time of year?

It would not be pleasant. Besides, there isn't a great mongering scene there, due to lack of men.

Actually, mongering was always my "Plan B". My then highly successful "A" plan was hooking up with chicks (aka as "freebees")in the discos. (I have always been regarded as a good dancer.) I apologize that my question was inartfully worded. My question should have been: "Due to the lack of men", is Volgograd happening for picking up women in the nightclubs-at that time of year-since there is not likely to be a "mating ritual" with women dancing in tent bars because of the weather?
If not what regions do you recommend? I am meeting Internet "friends" in Moldova and Bulgaria and am interested in freelancing while I am that part of the world

Volgograd would be a great place to meet single women. The only issue is where to stay, since you can't bring them to your hotel, and they can't invite you home.

BTW, if you don't speak Russian, you are screwed.

Would Volgograd be a good bet for the somewhat older (50-something) mongers looking for free stuff (with $$ to treat them well, of course), or do you have to be young and handsome?

No, you would be OK, if you speak the language.

Thanks for the info. I'll start learning Russian as soon as I become fluent enough in Portuguese. Or would having a translator/guide work?

Very interesting! but please post so pictures if you can. I would love to see some of those russian women. I dont mean pics of naked women, but rather pics of everyday life in russia.

If you can, it would be appreciated. Thank you.