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Ants & Jo

Taxi for two from Bangkok to Brighton? Ants Bolingbroke-Kent and Jo Huxter aim to cross 12 countries by tuk-tuk, and raise £50,000 for Mind.
Entry: 20

Ants and Jo enjoy some male attention, only to be touched in an unexpected way.

The Crimea, between Sudak and Yalta, the Ukraine

Ants writes ...

We've been in the Ukraine for a mere 48 hours and already I am under its spell. The countryside is beautiful, the people wonderful and the nightclubs highly entertaining.

When we found a hotel, I went in to investigate whilst Jo held the TT fort. When I came out, I found her and TT surrounded by a group of handsome young men, all asking the usual questions, with Jo looking perplexed and not understanding a word. Not taking no for an answer, they carried our bags up to our room, bought us beers and supper and then insisted we come out dancing with them. Both of us could think of nothing worse, we were shattered and pretty grubby and could hardly string a coherent sentence together in English, let alone Russian. But for some reason we found ourselves saying yes....

"Sergei had multiple gold teeth and a bad case of wandering hands and Sasha was apparently married with a daughter but spent the evening looking lasciviously at Jo and dragging her off to dance."

Half an hour later we were washed and downing our first shot of Vodka. An hour later we were at the Santa Barbara nightclub, with two bottles of vodka being planted in front of us and seven excitable Russians toasting England, Russia, three-wheels etc etc. Sasha, Vittya, Sergei, Alexei et al told us they lived in Novosibirsk in Siberia -where it regularly hits minus 40 degrees - and were all metalworkers. Vittya, who had multiple tattoos and bullet wounds and shaved hair dyed leopard print, had spent four years fighting in Grozhny. From what I could understand the experience had affected him deeply. He was only my age and for the umpteenth time on this trip I appreciated what tame, easy lives we live in England. Sergei had multiple gold teeth and a bad case of wandering hands and Sasha was apparently married with a daughter but spent the evening looking lasciviously at Jo and dragging her off to dance. They also taught us an interesting Russian custom, which I still think they made up just for our / their benefit. Apparently its customary for two people to link their arms, drink a short of vodka each then kiss each other passionately on the lips. To demonstrate that they weren't having us on Sergei and Sasha shared a very unmanly kiss on the lips and then told us it was our turn......

At 2 a.m we staggered home, locked the door of our bedroom and passed out. But not before Sasha and Vittya had begged to come in for a 'nightcap' and Sasha had been on his knees begging for 'Diana' (Joanna after too much vodka). What a funny and totally unexpected night.

Yesterday we awoke, feeling a little bleary but full of the joys of the Ukraine, and set off west for the Crimea. At about 6 0'clock, with a storm brewing in the distance, we pulled over at a 'rinok' (market) to get some veggies in case we had to camp. The vendors loaded us up with every vegetable imaginable then refused to take any money. As we were exchanging phone numbers etc Jo said to one man ' Do you have email?', so we could send him pictures. He let out a throaty laugh and said, 'Internet? We have no money, only potatoes, how could we have internet?' They had nothing yet had just given us so much. It was another one of those incidents that leaves you feeling humbled, incredibly grateful and wishing you could give something back.


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