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Red Corner: Chernobyl Tours
On the
heels of yesterday’s post
about profit-mongers arranging tours of Katrina-destroyed New Orleans, I recalled another, far more insidious tour
that takes place in an even worse disaster zone: Chernobyl.
Yep, that’s right. If you’ve ever wanted to book a trip where the most important item to bring along is a Geiger counter, than head on over to Ukraine. Although Erik already posted about this back in June, I couldn't resist revisiting with a few more thoughts.
TourKiev.com offers full day trips into the “Zone of Estrangement” where lucky tourists can get up close (100 meters) and personal with the infamous reactor #4. The tour also passes through the “dead” town of Pripyat—once home to 48,000 people but now a modern-day ghost town—as well as a couple of small villages populated by a handful of locals who have returned against government wishes, to live out their final days on the contaminated land. Like any quality tour, lunch is also included, and promises to be “ecologically clean.”
I’ve been thinking about this trip for a long time, but frankly it scares the pants off of me. TourKiev.com is full of information about how “safe” the tour is, claiming that visitors are exposed to only the same amount of radiation one experiences on a transatlantic flight. A fascinating article in The Observer written by a journalist who went on the tour, maintains the same.
Whatever your fears, however, take a moment to check out the fascinating photos on the site. Then decide for yourself if the risk of future mutation is worth it.
Filed under: Arts and Culture, Ukraine
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
JohnK Feb 14th 2006 6:17AM
A photographer by the name of Robert Polidori spent 3 days in 2001 photographing Chernobyl and the surrounding towns, and released a book called Zones of Exclusion: Pripyat and Chernobyl. The photos are stunning, from the outside everything looks almost normal, then you realise the trees and grass and everything is totally overgrown. If you're not game for the tour (or even if you are) keep an eye out for that book, it's really amazing stuff.
Rich Lawson Mar 30th 2006 4:22PM
Its been a dream of mine to go to Pripyat for a few years now. I'm very happy to find that there are tours.