"Hey guys, hi to all, newbie here.

I checked out a prive, Bananas, in Den Haag on Friday nite (1st June). It was a pleasant surprise, much better than I expected from reading the posts and The Device. Bananas is easy to find from either Den Haag HS or Den Haag Centraal, only about 5 or 10 minutes walk along main streets.

At about 7:30 pm, there were 12 girls, plus me alone (and a bartender and the madam of course). Everyone was in a small-ish bar, smaller than the typical North American living-room. The girls were quite good looking, I think all but one was do-able and about half were real good lookers. Most of the girls seemed to be late 20s to late 30s. Plenty of choices. The girls were dressed like for a party -- too skimpy for street attire, but way more ocver-up than the girls in Amsterdam kamer-windows.

Apparently the house rules require the girls to pretty much keep to themselves until the punter makes the first move -- they all sat around, avoiding much eye contact. The madam came over and explained the set-up to me. (She said I could sit in the bar all nite, no cover charge and no obligation except for whatever drinks I ordered. Room rental rates were posted in the bar, 70 euros for an hour and similar rates for other time periods -- the girl's time of course is in addition. The madam estimated most girls at 70 or 80 euros on an hourly basis, so 150 in total. She also mentioned that drinks were free while in the room.) Drinks in the bar are 5 euros for beer or wine, 7.50 for mixed drinks. Definitely no hassle and no pressure.

So, I walked to other tables and chatted with 3 or 4 of the girls. I said how surprised I was that the place was almost deserted on a Friday night, and the girls said it is always like that, from opening at noon until around 8:30. One of the girls was a Lithuanian named Karina who I talked to in the bar for quite a while. She has very long blonde hair, probably mid-30s or maybe late 30s, about 166 cm (5'5") and very trim figure, said she was in Netherlands for about 10 years. (Karina might or might not be in The Device. There is an entry from 2002 or '03 for a Karina in Den Haag, but the description is not a very convincing match. Either this is a different girl or she has changed.)

What else can I say? The experience with Katrina was just fine, very relaxing and unrushed. We got along very well, as I speak a bit of Russian we tried that when we were chatting. She has a very friendly attitude right from the start, and she's a pretty good conversationalist herself. Toward the end of an hour I also had the impression that she is looking for a career move out of the business, as she kept up a line of questions about me and my personal life and whether I ever considered getting re-married, etc. But, there was no pressure in this, she seemed genuinely interested, at least in part.

Overall: a real nice time, I expect I'll go back in a couple of months when I'm back in the area. Definitely recommended to anyone who wants an alternative to the window-shopping in kamers."