TRAVEL FEATURE - M o l d o v a
DEREK MANSFIELD
OVERPRICED
SEXUAL
FAVOURS
“When I was 21, still at university,
I was arrested and taken to jail.
I was charged with trafficking
minors for sex. I did not see a
lawyer for two days. My cellmate, a
Russian woman, had been arrested
and charged for smuggling uranium
into Moldova”
My couch surfing host, a red
lipped, heavily lipsticked, wild
blonde and startlingly blue-eyed
young woman of 28, fluent in five
languages, comes from Moldova,
and is, between sips of a green -
gold wine, speaking into my voice
recorder.
Earlier, before this conversation
took place, and as I approached the
border from Romania, I realised I
didn’t know much about Moldova.
Previously part of the Soviet Union,
I had assumed the nation would
speak Russian; in fact, Romanian,
which lilts like Italian, is the official
language. I mention this for interest
for I am fluent in English only.
Corruption is and was endemic in
Eastern Europe and I learned very
quickly it is alive and well in this
country too.
I handed my passport and bike
documents to a non-descript customs
official. Fifteen minutes later an
overfed woman wearing a drab navyblue
uniform that proved she was
slimmer when she joined the service,
returned with the document. “No
Green Card. Big trouble”.
Few English travellers have Green
card insurance as British insurance
companies do not sell it. When I
travel, I buy the worthless insurance
at the border to avoid fines and bribes
to be paid if stopped by traffic police.
I told her this, but she said “Return
to Bucharest. Buy it there.” And
walked away. Moments later, just
long enough for me to think, another
uniformed official arrived. He was
mid-30s, blonde, handsome with a
crease in his trousers and a shine on
his shoes. He repeated my problem
TRAVERSE 47