I slept in today and finally got going around noon. I spent the afternoon at the Pushkin Museum which has a good collection of impressionist painters (but lesser known works) and supposedly the Trojan Gold (but as far as I could tell mostly repatriated to Istanbul). There is a lot of statuary on display too, but it is virtually all plaster casts. All in all, a highly disappointing museum. Locals were paying 50 rubles or less for entry, but foreigners were 160 rubles. The dual rate system is very prevalent in Moscow.

I ended up at a little russian cafe for lunch. I ordered a cucumber and tomato salad, and got back some slices of cucumber, leaf lettuce, and tomatos all covered in a mound of chopped fresh dill. No dressing at all. Different. I ordered a sandwich and got two slices of french bread, one with a block of havarti cheese and the other with one slice of ham. Russian cusine so far has been mostly cabbage and potatoes and fish. Anyway, don't come here for the native food, although there appear to be plenty of ethnic restaurants around. And of course, McDonalds are everywhere -- yuck!

I figured out the russian metro today. You buy a ticket for 5 rubles. It appears to be the same price as the bus. I found a map that had the station names in both latin and cyrillic letters. The signs in the subway are only in cyrillic and they do not always match the map. The only major problem that I had was figuring out which side of the platform was going which direction, but found a local to tell me where to go.

I took the subway to Kusnetsky Most to find an internet cafe. They announce the stops as you reach the station over the pa system. It took about ten minutes just to find the way out of the station. When I exited, I found myself in an area of little shops with cds in the window. The first thing I noticed was copies of MS XP for 80 rubles (about 2.50). The CD cover art looks just like the official versions. They had everything from Photoshop to Oracle displayed in the windows.

There were also little shops selling cds full of mp3s, dvds, and video cds for similar prices. For example, you could purchase a cd with the entire recordings to date for virtually every major US artist. I bought a few to check the quality of the recordings when I get back.

After wandering around the area, I finally found the internet cafe in a rundown building a block away. Most of the building facades seem to look fine, but when you go inside, you see dirty stairs, chipped plaster, and no paint. Moscow puts on a modern image, but really is an older, industrial city with pollution problems.

I exchanged some more money a place nearby (31.05 rate) and had some dinner of lamb chops at an ethnic russian restaurant. Then I caught a cab back to the hotel to get ready to go out for the evening.

As I reviewed my notes from the Exile magazine website, I picked a new club to go investigate. It was called 911 and located in the Hotel Orlenok. It was supposed to have topless on level one, nude on level two, and sauna on level 3. It was a fair ways on the other side of red square.

When I arrived, it was only about 8PM. I talked to the girls at the entrance, and they said that only the saunas were open with just about 6 girls. The two girls standing by the entrance were pretty good looking, so I decided to stay figuring nothing else in the city would be open until after 9PM anyway. I found another club in the basement that was full of asian girls, but did not feel welcome to stay. There appears to be a lot of korean visitors to this hotel.

I killed some time downstairs in a bar called TriMix obviously started by some technical scuba divers. Then I played some on the slots, but never hit one winner at all, so gave up. Finally at 9PM I went into the club. The cover charge was 1500 rubles (wow almost $50US!), but I wasn't going to leave without checking it out. The rate gave me full view of all the floors. Nothing was happening on level one, so the door girl led me to level two.

I picked a seat on the couch and watched the girls dance. There were about 20 girls and all were passable, with more than half doable in my book. Most were 21 to 25 or so in age. I was handed a menu and my eyes almost popped out of my head. At the beginning of the menu were bottles of wine and champagne for 80,000 rubles. I finally found some drinks at the back that were more reasonably priced and ordered a tequilla sunrise for 360 rubles ($12US). I got some change in 100 ruble notes to use as tips for the dancers. I knew that I wasn't going to buy any girl drinks here and get stuck for a huge bill.

These girls were good dancers and had to be inventive as there was no pole to cling to. Each girl would dance only one song, going topless half-way through, and totally nude either just before or as the song ended. Then they would come over and start to lap dance while I gave them a tip. They wore a garter belt around one leg or double wrapped around a wrist.

I had a good time watching the dancers, but went through 1500 rubles in a hour in tips. This was getting expensive. When the lineup started to repeat, I decided to get out. Some of the girls had started to ask about going to the sauna, but given the prices I wasn't in the mood to try to negotiate.

I asked for my drink bill and gave the waitress a 500 ruble note. She brought back the bill and the note, and showed me a bill for 720 rubles for two drinks. After paying a cover charge, I wasn't going to be happy about getting scammed for a 2 drink minimum that no one had mentioned. I finally put a second 500 ruble note and told her to bring me my change.

At this point, I was still the only customer in the joint. I had been planning to go downstairs and find the manager who spoke good english and ask about the sauna deal. Finally I called the waitress over and asked for change. Now she pretended to have lost her english skills. Eventually she said the rest of my change was tip. Not only did I get scammed, but then ripped off to boot.

I got up to leave. I talked to the DJ and told him that I was pissed. Downstairs was totally empty without even a bartender around. I finally just left and went to go to find a taxi.

I had a good time at 911, but given the high cover charge, required tipping, rip off for drinks, I would have to say stay away unless your budget is unlimited.

I was going to go check out the Voodoo Lounge to try to pick up a university chick, but at this point just wanted to score. I told the taxi driver to take me to the Safari Lounge. I got there and paid the 300 ruble cover charge and went downstairs.

The club was hopping and had about 15 customers. There were lots of pretty girls stripping and then doing lap dances (which were better and longer than 911 and some of the girls were just as pretty). They don't get offended either if you wave them off when they come over.

Tonight though, there were only about 10 of the sex girls sitting around. About half had been there the day before, but Christine was not. I ordered a corona for 150 rubles. I really had interest in only one, a short brunnette named Lisa that was wearing brown leather crocodile skin style pants and a black top. She was petite with c cups, but I just couldn't get her to talk. I talked with another girl named Mirena in a zebra strip suit, and she quoted the same 1000 rubles for the room plus $70US for her. I suggested $50US for her and she declined. None of the other girls looked appetizing (except the offlimits dancers), so I decided to cut my losses and leave.

At this point, I was wondering if I was going to hook up at all. I decided to head back to Night Flight and see what the action was like. When I stopped in, Leknid the manager remembered my name and said hello. I paid the 650 rubles cover, got my drink ticket, and walked into the club becoming immediately disappointed. Less people than the night before and many of the same girls. If I was going to pay premium dollar, I wanted top shelf and low-volume semi-pro. I got my glass of white wine and decided to see if more talent would show up. About a half hour later there were about 8 new entries. A couple looked pretty good, but nothing clicked for a natural chemistry.

I was just about to give up when in walks Veronica. She has a tight little body and is 25 years old. Her english is pretty good. She is a university student half-way through a management degree and comes to the club twice a month to pay her bills. She says she has no kids. We get along pretty well and I buy her a whiskey/coke.

We end up leaving at about 1AM after negotiating the $250US for 3 hours. I have an early flight in the morning to St. Petersburg, so this is fine.

Photos: Veronica 1 Veronica 2

At the hotel, she lets me take a few pictures of her clothed. She then takes a shower and comes out in pink bra and panties. I get cleaned up too and we end up in bed. I get a passable covered bj and then she takes off the bra and panties. I almost lose my steam when the tits change shape into b size pears and a giant c section scar is revealed that still looks reasonably new (clearly lying about the kids earlier).

However, Veronica gets on top but she is really dry. I use a little lube and things start to feel better. Eventually we switch to doggie and I spend the next 45 minutes pounding into her. She dries out a couple of times so I just change condoms and lube up again. I finally get the rhythm just right and blow my wad. She calls me "big man in love department" and goes to clean up. I notice that I have a blown a blood vessel in my dick under the skin which looks worse than it feels. It must have been from the condom rubbing when it was really dry. This little purple line seemed to fade mostly away in the next 24 hours.

I send her home and she hits me up for $50US for security. I tell her that I have already given her lots of money and that her arrangements with security are her business. She wants money for a cab and I get her a few more rubles. I hate when well paid girls ask for more after just ok sessions. We had only been together a little more than an hour and I had negotiated for three. I just wasn't interested in another round. She tells me again that she will have trouble with security, but I tell her that she has plenty of money. I show her the door and she leaves.

An ok day, but it could have been better. I'm off to St. Petersburg tomorrow, but just can't sleep so I spend a few hours reading until I have to pack and meet my driver to the airport.

Some notes:

Best bet for the metro is to buy a ticket for 10 rides at 35 rubles. Just hand the lady 35 rubles and hold up 10 fingers.

The metro system is actually quite good, and
I have never found inconsistencies in the maps, it all makes sense after a while.

The Safari Lodge girls charging $70 for short time is new, it sounds like the same crap at AB.

Safari lodge is still cheaper than most of the alternatives so far, and I may make one more trip.

The metro hasn't been too confusing, but with all the signs in cyrillic it is absolutely crucial to have a map with the names shown both ways to count the stops.

It is hard to tell if I am getting a true picture with this trip because of the holiday. Apparently labor related days are May 1, 4, 5, and 9 (when the military parades occur). I think it is affecting both the supply of girls and the supply of customers.

Thanks for the great reports. Keep them coming.

Its Orthodox Easter that is the problem, but its over now.

Photos added of Veronica above