I getting bored with all the invitations from the Kharkov girls, same general language, you know the drill. It is not so much as the "agency" language( some use exactly the same verses, and I already sent in a complaint to the administrator on that) that bothers me, and the cookie cutter language, but they usually have a low level of English skills if at all. No personal email, no home internet, no travel documents and they just want you to jump in an airplane and come to Kharkov after a few emails.
Gosh why Not? Sounds like a plan!
Sigh.....
and the agency they use to correspond with will be happy to charge you another couple thousand for there services, taxi, driver, apartment, oh and interpreter.
Quite correct - so much so that I dont even look at any ladies on this site if they are from Kharkov. $40 fees just to arrange a meeting, an insistence that they arrange the apartments etc etc. Been to Kharkov to meet with ladies off this site. They even tried to charge me $40 an hour for translation costs when there. Stuff that I said, so needless to say that trip was a waste of time!!
Kharkov - pah!
One can shop around for an apartment on the internet. I can see if what these agencies are offering are reasonable in price in comparison.
My gf went through an agency. Through the letters with AOB, which I had to pay for, she began to argue with me to take the $125 a day for the apartment in Kiev with a firm that "she trusts". I doubt if it was her at all. I think it was the agency. I almost did not meet her because of that.
I took my time to answer her letter. When I did, I insisted that I was not going to pay that much for an apartment. The day of my departure, I got a letter from her saying she was on her way to Kiev to meet me and we were going to get a cheap apartment. The agency gave the same apartment for $100 a day.
Personally I wouldn't bother with an apartment in any of the cities, I have always stayed in a hotel, now if you was going to visit a girl in her local town that is a fair way from any city then yes consider renting somewhere, but then you have the nightmare of registering, and it is a nightmare outside of Kiev. If you stay in Ukraine more than 3 days you have to register where your staying take your passport and get a bit of paper stamped, the "fee" can vary depends on the region and if it looks like you have money :-) Hotels do this automatically for you. Its the same in Russia, Moldova and so on, you could of course neglect to register, but if you get caught be prepared to spend the night in a cell and pay a higher fee. Don't think you will get caught? well its 50/50 the police there are aware of the Agencies preferred flats and know there is a fair chance you wont have registered and then rub there hands with glee getting you to buy our way out of trouble.
For the guys complaining about spending $500 to stay in a hotel or apartment for 5 nights, why? I don't understand what your complaining about if you cant afford to spend that kind of money then you certainly cant afford the beautiful women you will find on a lot of these dating sites. Now i am not saying that all the girls are just interested in money, but look at it from her perspective, to hear you complaining about how expensive the apartment/hotel is, is not going to set a good first impression about you, she will automatically assume you are tight or have no money to support her and any future family. And knowing her prospective partner can support her and the family is important to the girls.
My advice would always be to stay in a hotel on the first visit to see a girl, you can do your own research for hotels and find something for your budget. If you both get on really well then yes on future visits consider an apartment, but again do some research first don't take the agency one oh and be prepared to spend at least half a day getting registered in that city.
As for girls in Kharkov, I know a fair few girls there and some are really great and good friends, but equally there are a fair few that are professional daters, they will invite you there after a couple of emails, expect you to stay where they suggest, hire an interpretor and get you to take them to the best restaurants/nightclubs in town, now there are girls like that in every city and fairly easy to spot.
Then comes the last complaint I see so often, translation fee's.. well I have little sympathy here, if you chose a girl that rates her English as Basic or none then more fool you. Sure you can pay for an interpretor and get on well but what happens when the interpretor goes home? what happens in the future? Are you going to marry this girl and have an interpretor trail you everywhere, maybe you want her interpretor there on your wedding night too :-) Be realistic try learning a little Russian it will impress her even if you mash your words and end up saying something insulting she will find it funny and you can have a great laugh about it, if the girl can speak Intermediate English then you will be able to understand each other 80% of the time and have a great laugh the rest of the time.
I have never paid that fee, nor have I ever registered other than at Boryspil Airport upon my arrival. In fact, I only carried my passport only half the time. Only in this forum did I read about carrying your passport all the time. It wasn't at the Ukrainian Embassy website, that I have read. Boryspil is the only hotel I have stayed in, and that's walking distance from the airport. Perhaps, this is just a way for them to get fees or bribes?
Of all the things I had to remember on one of my visits, I forgot to get the lady's address and phone number. I could have gotten it from the emails on the internet, but I did not have it at the customs checkpoint at the airport. I just told them Zaporozhye, and I forgot it. They let me through without any fines or bribes.
Well I never carry my passport around in Either Russia or Ukraine, and haven't had too many problems in recent years (last 4 years), only been stopped once by the police and asked for some Identity papers in Odessa and that was purely because some Americans and gotten a bit out of hand in a nearby Bar and I kind of looked like one of them, but a simple explanation that I had just left the hotel they were questioning me outside of and I was let on my way.
I have a couple of friends that are Police officers there and they say it is better just to leave it at your hotel than carry it around, personally I agree with them, going through the hassle of a lost passport is way more trouble than telling the Police officer its at my hotel/apartment and if you want we can go get it.
If you stay in an apartment you are supposed to register with the OVIR (I think, brain is dead tonight and its 2am) if you stay more than 3 days, the fee is a massive 33 UAH and hotels do this automatically for you.. Most of the time you would simply get away with it, but get stopped by the police, report a robbery or just end up being in the wrong apartment suggested by the agency when some local police want to earn a few extra Euro/Dollars then yep be prepared to spend the night in a cell and go to court in the morning where they will charge you the 33 UAH plus a fine and all the associated hassles.
Border entry is never a problem without an address, I rarely give one and cant remember the last time I was asked for it, but there again I go in and out so often they just look at my passport and wave me through. The only hassle I have had at the airport is when leaving and that is usually because I am carry $30,000 worth of camera gear and the eyes light up right till the point i hand them the slip of paper saying I brought it into the country and now I am taking it back out again :-)
No personal email, no home internet, no travel documents and they just want you to jump in an airplane and come to Kharkov after a few emails. No girl from Kharkov has personal e-mail.. NONE OF THEM! even the older ones... what a shame.. a few of the girls are hottie wifes.
There is no requirement for registration in Ukaine only Russia.
Hotels are very expensive for the quality, apartments are much better value and a lot more private than a hotel. It is always a lot of good restaurants in the cities so what exactly is the advantage of staying in a hotel?
I have done both apartments and hotels and I think it comes down to the reliability of the arrangement process. Our focus is on safe, secure accommodations for a reasonable price, so we can concentrate on the business at hand ( No dry British humor intended). I think we all can agree it depends on the situation, and a general decision here isn't warranted.
so back my original post and expand on that. How do you filter through the agency, to talk to the real girl and get some private dialogue going? I am speaking about girls that have a reasonable level of English of course and potential.
Telephone. Taxi. 24 hour service. Restaurants inhouse or nearby. Hot running water. It might sound funny, but I stayed in an apartment for one day in transit without any of those.
I was worried about going to Zaporozhye from Kiev, so I foolishly booked it through the internet. It was the middle of February, so the water was freezing. I still took a bath. The shower was not working. I then walked one mile one way and another mile the other way. The closest thing to food I found was a small piece of cake in one of the five stores at a small subway stop. They sold flowers and that was their only food item. I then wondered if anyone was going to pick me up as they said they would. But the phone was not working. The maid did come at around 11AM, but she spoke zero English, and knew nothing of my travel arrangements.
If I had to do it again, I would walk to and stay at Boryspil Airport Hotel. They have an inhouse taxi driver named Igor who has taken me shopping a couple of times to downtown Kiev, waited for me for a few hours and then took me home. He probably would have been glad to purchase the tickets for me.
I believe it was ukrainetours.com or something similar. The apartment was itemized at $85. It had a kitchen. I didn't have any use for a kitchen and Boryspil has a single for $65. The taxi and the tain fare was fair. They probably made $10 - $20 profit on that.
I wonder who told you, about registration in Ukraine after 3 days? Your posts are the first time I heard of such a thing!
From a web page of Ukraine's Ministry of Foreign Affairs:
"APPENDIX 3
Category of passports that should be registered in Ukraine's internal affairs organs.
• Foreigners who have arrived in Ukraine for a period of more than 6 month;
• Foreigners who have arrived in Ukraine for education or employment within the contract."
If (any time after 2001) you paid someone for registration during a visit of less than 180 days -- you were defrauded!
For those of you who know Kyiv, the Ministry's headquarters are in the gorgeous curved building with the facade of enormous columns on Mikhailovsky Square. Just to the right of this building is the upper terminal of the funicular railway.
Yes, Russia does require foreigners to register within 3 days. The only exception I know about, is for Ukrainian citizens, who can stay up to 90 days with registration, with no penalty.
Depends on your definition of 'good quality'. I have a bottom of the range professional camera (and I mean rock bottom) - $2,000 plus just for the camera, not including tripod, lighting or boom mic - and it's not HD.
No Secret about the camera, I do commercial photography, so by the time you added up a couple of Nikon pro camera bodies, 5 - 6 lenses and a couple of flash it soon adds up.
The OVIR thing was recently cancelled in Ukraine but does still apply in Russia/Moldova. I should have made sure it was still valid before posting. I was tired after a long flight and that's my excuse I am sticking too it :-)
MisterArt. That is just what they tell you so you communicate via the website/agency, a lot of them do have personal mail addresses usually a mail.ru address. If you search their name on mail.ru you can often find it as they have usually uploaded pictures of themselves to there mail.ru profile :-)
Ivor. nothing special about having friends that are cops, when you have travelled through the FSU as much as I have then you do make quite a few friends.
On the subject of Kharkov invitations, is DM trying to pass itself off as more legit now? I suddenly got 150+ emails from women over 30, makes a refreshing change from the 18 year old's that are logged in sending chat and email invitations all night long.
It has spoilt the game of spot the fugly one on DM as it seems as if they has signed up some ordinary girls now
Who or what is 'nooga'? I guess i am missing something here.. Only signed up on this site a few days ago purely as a friend of mine nagged me senseless to check out this girl he is chatting too in yep... Kharkov who wants him to go meet her, she has a profile here and DM, but that doesn't mean much.
Having said that though since i have recently become single again no harm in looking :-) But there again maybe I am different, if i was interested I would just jump on a flight there and go see if she is genuine or not. If not does it matter? not really I had a few days away and nothing lost really, I certainly wouldn't waste my time emailing back and forth for 6 months.