Dinner in a Bowling Alley in Moldova

Chisinau, March 2005

Dear Family and Friends,

Am writing to you from a bowling alley near my hotel in Chisinau, eating salmon steak and mashed potatoes and checking office email. Of the countries in the region, Moldova is becoming one of my favorites—and it is due to places like this restaurant. “Chicago” appears to be a restaurant but in fact is a multiplex bowling alley, with loud music playing disco music from the 70s. Chicago provides free wireless access to the internet—but not enough light for any but the best of my touch typing.

Those of us in the international community who travel to developing countries come to love places like Chicago. It is a place to watch the lives of the new rich. In developing countries, those at the top of the social and economic scales are all-powerful in their communities. There are few of the usual government rules in place and police can easily be influenced by cash, if municipal ordinances against noise and other restrictions have been violated. Apart from cities such as Moscow, the cost of living in developing countries is usually very low. Housekeepers and personal drivers are not expensive to hire and there is no requirement to fill in complex forms or pay social security taxes for household staff. The new rich seem to live a charmed life, particularly those are young and well-educated. They visit places like Chicago, both the city in the US and the restaurant in Moldova.

Here the bowlers are throwing fluorescent balls. They are mainly men, although a few women have forsaken their sexy stiletto heels and pointed toes for flat bowling shoes. The women are young, beautiful and skinny with lots of skin even on a cold near-winter night. But they aren’t prostitutes. Nor are the men the frightening thugs I saw on my first trip to Chisinau in 2004. I have changed hotels and with my new hotel, I have a new neighborhood.

Am now returning to you after checking office emails. I feel the buzz of heavy visual and aural stimulation. Am finding that the new rich also have a seamy side. The nearby table of a dozen 20-somethings of mixed company in genteel clothes has spawned another smaller table, mainly men in track suits and sneakers. After many years of travel in the region, I have come to the conclusion that in the countries of the former Soviet Union, the gyms and sports facilities were somewhat suspect. Even today, when I am obliged to go outside the hotel to find a fitness center, I find that the gyms are the places where thugs train and pump iron to be prepared to engage in less-than-polite conversation. The few women are generally under 25 years of age and act as if they were the girlfriends of the owner.

This bowling alley with its dominant males and alcohol and club music feels somewhat similar. There are no single women and the few who are here are attached to men in dumpy black shirts and slacks. The contrast is striking. The women are so beautiful that any in this bowling alley could be made up as a professional model. It is perhaps an indication of the different levels of economic power here that the women could be so enticing and the men so much less so.

Now dinner has finished and it is time to return to the hotel and prepare for another day of meetings.

Sue