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[veiledsentiments]

One does get truly tired of those fellows that sidle over to you and whisper, "Ruski?"

Of course, one mustn't think this is some kind of a statement on our pulchritude because I met a transvestite in Costa Rica, who was about 6'5" and err... husky... both 'her' build and her voice. When she learned that I lived in the Emirates, she told me that she had just been there to visit... and couldn't understand why everyone kept asking her if she was Russian.

But, I do think that Asian women have to be much more careful.

VS

[mousette]

Unfortunately, it is not only Asian women who are propositioned for prostitution, but likely they are bothered more than other women. I have found that many men will make a sly, or not so sly, offer just in case there is a chance. However, a quick nasty look back usually makes the propositioner slink away, shamed. Although the propositions happen, as they do at home too, I have never found it frightening or difficult to deal with. Just mildly annoying. As many have stated, it is safe here for women as long as they can deal with the staring and other annoyances.

[veiledsentiments]

My "favorite" is the local men who will drive their big Mercedes slowly past when you are walking on the sidewalk and try to arrange a date... with their wife and kiddies in the backseat.

That is when it is good to know how to respond to them in Arabic.

VS

[Sheikh N Bake]

Throughout the ME men were completely mesmerized by my wife (and her sister too, when she visited). In Cairo the hotel bellhop was on the verge of a obtaining a fat lip from me. In Dubai...forget it. She told me a lot of stuff only after we'd left so I wouldn't freak out. Actually, attractive young East Asian women drive men wild eveywhere in the world, but in Europe or N. America they are not stereotyped as prostitutes...except possibly by a subgroup of enlisted military who marry bargirls from Bangkok or Manila.

[veiledsentiments]

I don't mean to suggest that your wife isn't attractive SnB, but in Cairo and the Gulf, even middle-aged white women get the nearly the same insane amount of attention. I used to say that I had to move to the Middle East in Middle Age to find out what an amazing example of female pulchritude I was.

VS

[Sheikh N Bake]

VS, I'm sure your pulchitrude is and was universal in appeal

In Malaysia 22 years ago, there was a two-month period in which I didn't have a car and would be standing on hot and humid corners waiting for taxis, which did not appear with regularity. Sexy young Malay women (always when there were at least two of them, of course) driving by would try to pick me up. The first time I was totally bewildered. I didn't know what they wanted. The second time I was totally flattered. Life would be heaven if gender roles reversed and hot women were always propositioning me. Too late now

Now they just preposition me. ("Sir, why you say 'in' Chicago and not 'at'?")

Come to think of it, that even more or less happened to me in a Jeddah shopping mall once when my wife was with me. Two amazingly pulchitrudinous and beautiful Arab women (unveiled, with hair showing) sitting next to us in a lobby were batting eyelashes at me and smiling right in my face about 12 inches from me. My wife was not amused at all and I think the flirty girls were about to get a fat lip just like the Cairo bellhop almost did. I don't mean I was so attractive--it's just one of those things you never forget, not when it happens in the Magic Kingdom.

[Never Ceased To Be Amazed]

[Sheikh N Bake]

By the way, and in the way of an added answer to the OP's first question...you'll find the Dubai shopping malls replete with women who dress more clingingly and revealingly than in Paris or New York.