Russia, with love

So, this trip, it was to be Moscow, Ekaterinberg and St Petersburg

Ekat is a small town with not too many top notch hotels to stay in, largely populated with middle class or lower class
(Economically speaking), with very warm hearted people, and not too many choices to spoil one!

If you are looking to be spoilt, then you need to get to Moscow, and see how the rich and famous and the infamous live:-) I had heard about the mafia there and in this trip I saw and interacted with one too

I felt that while the Russians liked me cos I was from the land of Mithun Chakraborty and Raj Kapoor, there is this undeniable distrust of foreigners. They don’t open up easily, they need to spend a good amount of time tracking you, to know you are trustworthy

Luckily for me given the folks I had to deal with had seen me around a couple of trips, twas a wee bit easier to bond with them.
My faithful driver Sergey could not utter more than a "yes", "no", 'sorry' & "thank you" in English, could still communicate with me and reach me the right places uncannily!
He was a thorough gentleman, who during work trips, would point out things of historic value to me and that’s how I saw the Red Aquare and the Kremlin:-)and discovered Moscow by day

One evening the boys decided they had to go clubbing and no amount of me pleading out, got me off the hook, so I had to tag along with this male group to the clubs

We started by getting to some posh club the second night there in Moscow. While the locals had to grin and were waved in, I was whisked through a dimly lit corridor where I had to submit my passport through a dark slit window, and then suddenly the thick doors closed behind me, then through some mic/speakers I was told to walk through the next set of automated steel doors with bullet proof glass, and wait. And then suddenly some air whooshed and my passport landed with a thud at another dark window - not a single person right thru this process interacted with me, was a bit scary and in my head I was thinking all weird thoughts, that Jodie Foster movie, where somebody puts some dope into her bag and how she is caught and put behind bars in Bangkok (Bangkok Hilton?) and how no matter how she pleaded not guilty nobody gave a rats ass for
her! While I was standing there looking blindly around me, wondering where is my passport, where the hell have I landed myself in when the steel doors opened and 2 leather clad drop dead gorgeous looking blondes came my way with my passport! I was bemused, and stoopidly relieved

They now escort me through another set of doors into this fabulous bar area where the pole dancers are doing their number and the guys are busy looking! As I reached towards them, they got busy telling me about this club, the owner and the guests at the club that night. Apparently this was a club owned by one top notch mafia man
in Moscow, backed by some politician. And here comes this leather clad 6'5" tall man to greet us and is introduced to us as Tony!
Tony waves amd guides us to a table which has a full view of the podium where the dancers are teasing the men, and I look around bemused

Now the guys are busy with their drinks and the women and I am wondering what I am doing in this place, when my phn rings and I dart to the quietest corner of this room and away from all that tease! Call over and when I get back to join the group, to see some of the women who have perched atop few of these guys. ha-ha

I decide to amble around -Tony gracefully has one of the hostesses accompany me to 'show me around', so I move away from this central bar room and into a area that can be best described as a vast courtyard but beautifully lit and very gracefully done up

We walk into one room and my guided tour has begun, the hostess opens the lace curtains and signals me through - wo! A threesome!

Flushed in the cheeks I walk out , she walks ahead of me into another room, gay men had their act going on here in this room and there was a crowd gathered in that room watching them. And the next room had slave girls and slave boys, and the next room had a full fledged orgy! And soon I couldn’t stomach this anymore, I excused myself, I have no idea how I got outside the club at 2am! It was snowing hard and I called Sergey who promptly brought the car around and dropped me back to the hotel! Merci gnite and the safe haven of my room finally!

I wasn’t afraid of where I was, I was repulsed to see this cold display of sex and flesh. I was hugely embarrassed to be with male clients; maybe it would have been different if I had gone to this club with friends. I don' know ( still wondering!):-)

That night was put down to "another experience". A
4 wheel drive bullet proof Mercedes had picked us up, only to realize early in the evening that it was sent by Tony the mafia dude, everything that looks sexy is far far from being sexy up
close!:-)