Thread: Holidays to Chernobyl - Отпуск в Чернобыль?!

I just read that Chernobyl is becoming a popular "tourist destination"!

My initial reaction was that this is incredibly tasteless, insensitive and generally perverse. It's a terrible tragedy, why go there and gloat on it? What is wrong with people!?

Has anyone got a view on this?

The visitors are people from Western Europe (primarily) and the USA. Apparently a day tour to the village that was near the nuclear plant costs USD 1000.

The nuclear plant needs emergency repair works to its cement casing... and children are still dying from throat cancer and leaukemia in that area.

Or is it good to bring attention to the problems in the area, and positive to get the tourist money in, even if the tourists are nuts...?

I don't see anything like a blasphemy or disrespect in visiting Chernobyl as a tourist. It is already a history. I don't have contemporary statistics about cancer. AFAIK now radiation is low and the normal "incubation" period of radiation cancer is 3-4 years. My grandmother died because of cancer in a 3 years after the accident, it was a burst of cancer at that time all over the Ukraine. Some problems still exist (like nobody knows exactly what is going on under the sarcophagus). But the peak was too long ago to be an actual disaster.

One can remember museum in Auschwitz. Or how Roosevelt proposed Stalin to keep ruined Stalingrad as a museum area. It's a memory and warning.

Villages around Chernobyl were evacuated in a hurry and everything was left as it was, like if people suddenly disappeared, and than everything decayed with time. It makes a feeling of Apocalypse. There is even a popular PC game on the virtual reconstruction of that town (Припять). Now that area is quarantined.

http://www.tema.ru/travel/chernobyl/

Originally Posted by Hanna

Has anyone got a view on this?

...more money than brains. I wonder who's pocketing that grand to visit a village for a day. I saw a show on Chernobyl awile back and it seems like the place is still pretty dangerous.

I see your point of view too, it-ogo.

It's true that it's a bit of the world frozen in time.... and now beginning to decline. I saw a documentary about it about a year back. Agree that it is fascinating in some respects.

But actually going yourself, is different.

Seems like being a tour guide in Chernobyl would be very lucrative work. If someone takes a group of five to this village near Chernobyl, he'd make 5000 dollar in a day. Not bad! I can see that there'd be lots of people who'd want to support this as a tourist destination.


The comparison with Auschwitz is a good one.

Personally I never understood people who want to visit concentration camps either! The people who deny the holocaust ought to go... But that's mostly extremists anyway.

I will never forget chatting to a girl in Israel about this, many years ago. She was working nights stapling products in a shop (really hard work) in addition to going to school during the days. The reason was that she needed to save money to go to Poland (Aushwitz) with her youth group. She wasn't going anywhere else in Europe, just there... That, to her would then represent Europe! No doubt she already knew Auschwitz, so it just seemed like rolling in tragedy and misery. Of course it wasn't my business how she spent her holidays, but it stuck on my mind.

By the way, you should not say "gloat on it" like I did. I don't think that's the right way to use that expression. Just "gloat" is how it should be used, I think. The rest is implicit. I sometimes forget that I ought to write in my best English here, not allow myself to slip into pidgin English...

Have you seen any of the video of Pripyat? I find it fascinating!

Do a search, you can find plenty.

$1,000 for a day there? no.

I don't see anything horrible in visiting Chernobyl, though I do find comments like "Wow! It was just like in "STALKER"!" very immature and insensitive.

The "tourist" interest to this region became more pronounced in the last 2-3 years. Even on Ukrainian forums you can see local youngsters asking "How can I visit Chernobyl?". As far as I know it's MUCH cheaper than you think. Obe day tour (including transfer from and back to Kiev) costs about 100-150 dollars.

Originally Posted by Hanna

My initial reaction was that this is incredibly tasteless, insensitive and generally perverse. It's a terrible tragedy, why go there and gloat on it? What is wrong with people!?

One more comparison. Christianity (at least Catholic and Orthodox) is based on worshiping martyr's relics. Now read your previous paragraph.

(And maybe you'll understand that Israeli girl a bit better.)

There were several threads already at this forum about Pripyat' and Chernobyl'. In case if someone haven't seen the photos I'll post several here (this photos of Pripyat' shows how it looked before and after the catastrophe):

Russia is difficult country in all moves you go. And our sight at many things have big difference from other cultures. In fact, this is our fault in Chernobyl catastrophe, and our contempt to important life subjects is extremely contagious to people in our neiborhoods.
The impressivest photo is with siluet of little girl on the wall... it's terrible.
Самая впечатляющая фотография -- с силуэтом девочки на стене... ужас просто. Я играл в "Сталкер", игра ужасна не монстрами, а пониманием того, что это действительно может быть.

Yeah, having seen all these photographs I remembered some very difficult moments in the game around these places. And the elevators reminded me of the X8 lab. )))

The movie theater and some of the highrise buildings definitely look familiar... The hotel looked a bit differently in the game, I think, or perhaps I saw it from a different angle. Where is the Ferris wheel, though?

it's like it's frozen in time.

Originally Posted by translationsnmru

...Where is the Ferris wheel, though?

The Dead Ferris Wheel of Chernobyl | Flickr - Photo Sharing!

Nuclear Winter in Chernobyl

Pripyat must have been in a really good shape when the accident happened. I looks like a really well-planned town. Surrounded by nice nature and with good public facilities: from the playgrounds to the swimming pool etc. Perhaps it was created just for supporting the nuclear plant but nevertheless it's not bad at all.

I was a kid when the accident happened, but I remember it well because the cloud came in straight over Sweden due to the winds on the day. There was a really big drama in media and some very mild radioactive pollution. Of course, nothing compared to what happened in Ukraine and Belarus.

Did anyone have any relatives or friends who were affected by the accident?

Originally Posted by it-ogo

One more comparison. Christianity (at least Catholic and Orthodox) is based on worshiping martyr's relics. Now read your previous paragraph.
(And maybe you'll understand that Israeli girl a bit better.)

Haha but I am not Catholic or Orthodox! Saint worship is an abolishion according to Lutheranism. .

Originally Posted by Hanna

Haha but I am not Catholic or Orthodox! Saint worship is an abolishion according to Lutheranism. .

So, Lutheranism is something like Islam. I see...

I meant that you probably know about this phenomenon from history anyways.

Originally Posted by Lampada

The Dead Ferris Wheel of Chernobyl | Flickr - Photo Sharing!

Nuclear Winter in Chernobyl

Лампада, спасибо за ссылки! Я с большим интересом прочла впечатления этого американца.
Кстати, я посмотрела вот этот документальный фильм о Чернобыле, сделан Discovery каналом. Он также достаточно интересен, хотя и не знаю насколько все информации точны.
Я вспоминаю когда я была маленькой, когда мы слышали от телевизора новость о чернобыльской аварии, что я очень сильно испугалась.. Я всё-таки каждый раз в шоке, когда читаю или слышу что-нибудь об этом.

And if Chernobyl is not enough, there is more on offer!

Originally Posted by RIA NOVOSTI

Russia also offers extreme tours, such as ones to the most infamous prison camps, Josef Stalin's Gulags. Tourists may spend their "holiday" in the Soviet prison camp and feel the experience of being a prisoner.

People are strange!! I wonder how much the tourists are going to charged for this "pleasure"? And who would do such a thing.... Reading "Ivan Denisovich" is quite enough in my view.