... in response to Caribbean Island Visit??, posted by rickmoe on Sep 26, 2002At one time I was seeking a pleasant meeting place for myself and a lady from Volgograd. The key word here is "pleasant". I seem to remember Jamaica as a non-visa entry locale from Russia -- don't know re: Ukraine though... so don't quote me on this.
I didn't follow through with this plan - instead I went back to see her in Volgograd for 3 more weeks over the Xmas/New Years holidays - froze my Oregonian ass off! Had I have been a bottomless pit, I sure would have opted for Jamaica. I ended up doing 1 more round in Volgograd because while I could get to Jamaica from OR for about $6-800, her ticket from Moscow would have cost me about $3,700 round trip. Plus, this would have been the peak of the tourist season in Jamaica (ie, bend over on hotel rates - middle of the road cost might have been $1,400-2,000 for 2 weeks)-- with some food/entertainment, this looked like about a $7-8,000 price tag for 2 weeks. Even if I scotched as much as possible, I smelled well over 5 bills. Instead I flew to Volgograd for less than $900 round trip, stayed in her apartment for free, bought her family's groceries (she likes to cook) and our entertainment for maybe $400 total over 3 weeks...
My point is that meeting in an outside country w/o idiotic visa requirements sounds great on the surface but the total costs can eat you alive -- 3 of these "2 week dates" could easily run me up a $15k tab. Yeah, I liked the better climate idea (Volograd used to be Stalingrad - it was a major battle and turning point of WWII -- the Germans bombed the city relentlessly for over 6 months -- made total toast of the entire metro area (I'm talking a few hundred thousand Russian people wasted) and finally LOST the contest because that winter it hit 40 below Celsius and the Ruskies had better pocket warmers! -- that's some serious cold.) and I liked the idea of an island full of friendly Jamaicans jibbering away in a language I could mostly understand.
Good luck on your quest for developing a better mousetrap and please don’t mind me because I’m on an obvious rant. It’s an uphill battle, man.
