STRIP -tease!

Most cities have them but very few flaunt them. feBusiness Traveller takes a walk through the erotic side of five cities famous for their naughty strips. Topless bars, strip clubs, casinos and lots of other wild entertainment make them a major tourist attraction

Las Vegas

Las Vegas is very aptly known as Sin City, the city that breathes vice. In its dazzling casinos gambling continues 24x7 with stakes varying from as little as 50 cents to unimaginable amounts that sometimes move into thousands of dollars. Hand in hand with this goes adult entertainment in the form of glamorous floorshows.

With a plethora of magnificent theme hotels like Ceasar's Palace, Monte Carlo, New York New York, Ex Calibur, Luxor, oozing with opulence, the introduction to gambling comes in the form of slot machines located all over the hotels. Most casinos have a huge number of table games varying from poker, baccarat, crap etc; where thousands of dollars can be won or lost within the hour.

At most of the hotels, a brief is available on the various types of table games in order to prepare the would-be client on how to lose money and not cry about it! Every room also has an entertainment programme guide indicating the host of activities being offered in Las Vegas. In the adult chapter of this guide; this information ranges from topless strip clubs to nightclubs.

At almost every corner, you find agents promoting girls from various ethnic backgrounds -- Americans African Americans, Hispanics, etc. The services for various acts of a long legged blonde starts from US$ 100, going up to US$ 250 for half an hour of her intimate company. Prostitution has been legalised in the nearby counties and there are over 30 legalised brothels employing almost 300 prostitutes.

CAN CAN ROOM is one of the best of the topless strip joints in Las Vegas. The cover charges are a cool US$ 20 per head for a general show but varies to approximately US$ 150 for a half hour private performance. Some of the other strip clubs have mind boggling names like Crazy Horse, Girls of Glitter etc.

A must-watch in Las Vegas is the world famous Follies Berger Show at Tropicana Resort & Casino. The entry cost is US$ 150, but is money well spent. The extravaganza begins with about 40 topless beauties endowed with extraordinary figures and gait, holding the audience spellbound for three hours with dazzling costumes and topless numbers in the classic Parisian cabaret tradition.

-Group Captain (retd) Hemant Khatu

Hamburg:

Nightlife in the city can be classy, heady, or downright bawdy, depending on where one goes. The (in)famous Reeperbahn in St Pauli, often called the world's most sinful mile, is a mix of red-light action, cabarets and theatre, with the nightlife not really starting off till midnight, which allows time to take in the extravagant musicals.

The street literally defies the imagination with hundreds of bars, cafes, and nightclubs vying for space with little theatres, studious and sex shops.

Ask for titillating activity, and it's all there. There are live shows that would make a walrus blush, go-go dancing that goes on and on, steamy films, and erotic massages. The standard routine is for the girls to come up to you, sit on your lap and tell you how sexy you are. They then try to entice you onto the dance floor.

Try 'Cats' at the Operettenhaus before moving on to the disco 'Docks', Schmidts Theatre or the new Erotic Art Museum with over 500 works of art from the old masters to the new wave. Several pubs, discos, and restaurants are to be found on the Reeperbahn, the Hans-Albere-Platz and the Grosse Freiheit.

In this relatively small area one finds young people sipping beer outside 'La Paloma', 'Chicago' or 'Mary Lou's', while only a few yards away women take men up to their rooms.

It's quite an interesting mix, what with Hamburg's only Baroque Catholic church and the world-famous sex theatre 'Salambo' opening their doors every night to a slew of visitors.

- Inder Raj Ahluwalia

Amsterdam

The city's known the world over for its vibrant nightlife that's continuously making waves. But while good discos and nightclubs can be found in several places, the naughty part of the fun has settled down in a few select pockets, the most famous of them being Ledseplein.

Come nightfall and this district becomes a veritable melting pot of visitors from the world over, out for a little nookie, or just there for the ambience that is ever present with the canals and bridges that line the area, making it a pleasant place to take a midnight stroll. There are bars, discos, nightclubs, and massage parlours. And there are professional women who peddle sex out on the pavement, in the bars, and in their own little cabins with large windows. These 'display' women are a well-known feature of the area.

The sex bit apart, the nightclubs feature good music, and serve decent snacks. The most popular activity is a stage show where semi-nude women and men dance to loud music, do pantomimes, and then start stripping further (if that's really possible). Don't be surprised if a girl comes up to you, jams a mask on your face and then tells you she thinks you're handsome.

The places normally come to life at about 9 pm, but the action goes on until the early hours of the morning.

If you're looking for some clean fun, hit one of the bars, order a beer, sit back , relax and watch the scene. Chances are you'll be propositioned, but you can say a firm no, or just offer to buy a lady who approaches you a drink. Or indulge in the local version of pub-crawling, visiting two or three establishments just to get a glimpse of the action .

Beware of pickpockets and hustlers. You can end up losing not just your money but also get hurt. It's prudent not to carry too much money and your passport while here.

It's best to avoid talking to anyone on the road, and avoid being enticed to go with them to special bars. These touts can land you in trouble.

If you sense any trouble, don't try to sort things out on your own. Just contact the nearest policeman. They're there for your protection and welfare.

- Inder Raj Ahluwalia

MOSCOW

Moscow joined the capitalist bandwagon only towards the end of the 20th century and in this short span, the Russian capital has become as fiercely fashionable and daring as anything in the West in terms of hedonistic nightlife. Stripshows and women of easy virtue are the norm.

Upmarket clubs like Angely, Garage and Titanik, which exercise a strict face control policy, is frequented by the obscenely wealthy. Titanik, a casino with four tables of American Roulette, eight tables of Black Jack, nine tables of Caribean Poker, transforms into a dance club on weekends. Though entry is only US$ 8, the women inside will make a hole in your pocket even before you realise it! Thursday evenings are reserved for erotic shows for (no, you didn't guess it) women!

Less exclusive options are the Butylka, Crossroads, 16 Tonnes. At Butylka (The Bottle), there is no cover charge except during the live band show when the entry fee is as low as US$ 2. Entertainment commences after 11 pm with the specials being the striptease shows for men and women! This joint is open from 6 pm to 6 am. Homosexuals can feel right at home at The 3 Monkeys . Any guys looking for a one night stand? Well head towards Golodnaia Utka (Hungry Duck). It is a straightforward nightclub notable for its liberal attitude to sexual relationships. The entry is as low as US$ 1.

Moscow is infamous as the hub of the Eastern European sex trade, which has supplied women for prostitution to countries like Germany, Poland, Japan and Macau. In the earlier days, women ccrowded sidewalks on Tverskaya Street, the capital's main thoroughfare but the police have pushed these women further North towards the Dynamo stadium. These women can be categorised into various groups -- elite pros, massage parlour girls, night club performers, hotel chambermaids or street walkers. Most of these women arrive in Moscow from neighbouring regions or from the former Soviet Republic. The driving force is easy money; a woman working in the departmental stores earns about US$ 100 a month, whereas by offering sexual favours she earns close to US$ 1000 a month. As of date 120 brothels exist and at last count 1,50,000 women were employed. A word of caution - if you are planning to make the rounds of Moscow streets beware that the street beauties are controlled by the Chechen and Daghestani groups. So do not get into any arguments with the girls!

-Group Captain (retd) Hemant Khatu

Bangkok

Between nine and midnight, nightlife undergoes the natural progression from lively to livelier to liveliest, tapering off in the wee hours of the morning. Because the city never completely sleeps, the night owl's in for a treat.

The place to be for some fun is Patpong, which throbs with action and excitement until the wee hours of the morning. While originally, it was one short street, it's now spread out and spills over to Patpong 11 and Patpong 111.

The establishments here run a gamut of activities from raunchy to reasonably refined. Most have gimmicks to attract customers. What you get here is a bewildering variety of activities, but the major focus is on the strip bars and go-go bars, that feature topless go-go dancing, dim lighting, loud music, and floor shows. Some show old movies and have dart-throwing contests, some put on 'special shows' that don't leave much to the imagination.

Patpong 11 also has several good massage parlours. Massage parlours remain a major attraction in the city, ranging from rather suspicious looking establishments in dark, narrow streets to glass and marble palaces that the sybaritic Romans might have envied. And they do really offer massages, either pure and simple or with such local embellishments as the method called ‘B-course’, in which the masseuse uses her entire body as well as her hands. In the larger parlours, the girls are on display behind a one-way glass window and customers select the one they want by her number. You then proceed to a private room with a massage table and bathtub with hot water. The massage normally lasts an hour, and tipping is considered polite.

If you happen to see delectable young ladies loitering around the sidewalks, there's a fair chance that they aren't ladies at all, but what the Thais call kra-toeys, or transvestites. So keep your eyes wide open!

- Inder Raj Ahluwalia