Red Corner: Visa-less Ukraine Good for Business

by Neil Woodburn on

Case in Point.

We’ve posted recently about the difficulty, hassles, and ridiculous expense of obtaining a Russian visa. The process hasn’t really changed much since the Cold War and, in my opinion, deters many potential tourists from visiting Russia. Until recently, visitors to Ukraine had to follow the same antiquated procedure to obtain a visa. But last August, the government dropped the ridiculous requirements and basically threw open their doors to Europeans and Americans.

I’ve been waiting to hear the impact this decision has made and whether, as predicted, it would increase the number of tourists, and more importantly, the amount of euros and dollars they are pumping into the country’s moribund economy during their visit. Well, it took a few months, but the New York Times just ran a short piece on how the newly opened border is indeed positively affecting the Ukrainian border town of Uzhgorod. New cafes and restaurants are opening, hotels are being renovated, and local tourist agencies are giddy with huge increases in business as tourists flow across the borders from Slovakia and Hungary.

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: the best thing an economically struggling country can ever do is to open its borders to tourism.

Now if only the Russians will take note and follow the lead of their Ukrainian neighbors.

Red Corner: Biking through Chernobyl Redux

by Neil Woodburn on

Yesterday’s post about Elena’s motorcycle tour through the ghost towns of Chernobyl has, once again, revived the controversy on whether her photo log was faked or not. I’ve received a couple of emails mentioning this, and recall that it was a big issue when the site was making news a year or so ago.

Frankly I don’t care.

I would normally be rather angry to fall for a bogus website, but I think the naysayers here are missing the point. If Elena did indeed fake her motorcycle tour through Chernobyl, she was nonetheless able to raise a tremendous amount of awareness about the dangers of nuclear energy, the agony of those who suffered and died because of the tragedy, and the plight of those still suffering as a result. Even if it all was a big pack of lies, Elena’s website has carried a very powerful message to countless people who probably haven’t thought about Chernobyl since 1984.

For those of you still on the fence regarding the legitimacy of Elena’s claims, take a moment to check out a couple of recent books whose authenticity no one has questioned. The most powerful, Zones of Exclusion: Pripyat and Chernobyl is a collection of 190 color photographs taken by Robert Polidori that are far more sobering than what appears on Elena’s website (although most are similar in vein). Described as a “coffee table book,” it’s hardly the cheerful conversation piece I’d want sitting in my living room, despite its high artistic quality.

A more recent book that is getting a lot of good press is Wormwood Forest by Mary Mycio. Mycio focuses much more on the effects of the disaster on the natural surroundings of Chernobyl. She discusses the ghost towns, the squatters, environmental damage, and how she came to the sobering statistic of the number of humans affected by the disaster: 5.85 million. Although I haven’t had the chance to read the book yet, it seems to be the most up-to-date, all-inclusive profile of the disaster and its impact on the world today.

I’ll certainly read it thoroughly, however, before hitching a ride on Elena’s Kawasaki–whether she has one or not.

Red Corner: Biking Through the Ghost Towns of Chernobyl

by Neil Woodburn on

If yesterday’s post about touring Chernobyl whetted your appetite for nuclear adventure, take a moment to check out the following site.

Kiddofspeed.com chronicles the adventures of Elena, a Ukrainian woman with a Kawasaki Ninja motorcycle and a passion for riding it through Chernobyl’s Death Zone-a place where “nature is blooming” and “one can ride with no stoplights, no police, no danger to hit some cage or some dog..”

Elena takes the time to educate the reader about the tragedy which occurred at Chernobyl and the dangers of radiation. She then presents a virtual tour of what is left at ground zero and the surrounding areas which were evacuated shortly after the disaster and remain a ghost town today.

It is difficult to describe the power and emotion the site evokes. Each photo is a terrifying snapshot of post-apocalypse that no Hollywood movie has been quite able to capture; the eeriness of empty buildings, villages with no people, the long stretches of lonely roads, schools so quickly evacuated that notes are still posted on the walls, family photographs askew on apartment floors, calendars frozen on the date of the explosion, silence everywhere, and overgrown fields where wild herds of horses gallop freely.

Elena also takes care to describe the various radiation levels she comes across on her journeys and how quickly her Geiger counter can jump by merely stepping a few feet in the wrong direction.

Although this site has been around for a while, and challenged by critics who claim it is fake, Elena’s careful documentation leaves no doubt in my mind that her expose of this terrifying nightmare is indeed the real McCoy. Check it out. It will be the most extraordinarily sobering thing you do all day.

Red Corner: Crazy Kazakh Capital

by Neil Woodburn on

It is not so often that the capital of a country is up and moved, but if you’ve ever been to Almaty you’d understand the desire to do so.

Almaty is a boring, nondescript town that was the capital of Kazakhstan during Soviet times. But, when communism fell and Nursultan Nazarbayev, a strong-armed dictator, took control of the country, he decided to move the capital to an even more boring and nondescript town by the name of Astana. It was a strange thing to do at the time but years later, the decision became very clear: it offered Nazarbayev a blank canvas upon which to build a utopian capital.

Kazakhstan is one of those rare ex-Soviet republics that is actually rolling in the dough, thanks to some rather large oil deposits. Although the combination of oil and dictatorship rarely results in any good (and indeed the general population remains very poor in Kazakhstan) Nazarbayev is spending the money to build an overzealous, Albert Speerian capital.

Based upon a Kisho Kurokawa master plan, the new city is becoming awash with a fantastic array of crazy monuments, religious shrines, hospitals, apartment complexes and enormous government buildings.

These aren’t just slipshod architectural efforts, either. Some of the world’s greatest architects are pitching in to help, including Norman Foster whose funky Palace of Peace pyramid will be completed later this year.

I’m not sure what the city’s final look will resemble, but judging by similar megalomaniac efforts in similarly oil-rich countries, I’m just know I’m going to feel a whole lot worse every time I fill up my gas tank.

Red Corner: Harsh, but Intriguing Turkmenistan

by Neil Woodburn on

All this talk of Central Asia has gotten me all excited about revisiting this strange corner of the planet. I spent a few months in the area but only a couple of hours passing through the least visited country of this rarely visited region: Turkmenistan. The main highway through Central Asia initially disregarded frontiers since all of the Central Asian republics were within the Soviet Union. So, my only glance of Turkmenistan was through the dusty windows of a bus as we detoured briefly (and illegally for me, without having a visa) into the country before heading back into Uzbekistan.

With the hope of going back to experience more of this country, I found a recent and fascinating article in the Independent (London) that paints a bleak, but realistic account of the challenges and rewards facing travelers who venture into this part of the world. Journalist Lucy Ash experienced the horror of visiting a local dentist, marveled at the surreal capital of Ashgabat (which she describes as “a cross between Stalinism and Las Vegas”), and relished in the joy of wandering through Merv, a 2,500 year old town that was once a major stopping point on the ancient Silk Road.

For me, the most attractive draw of Turkmenistan would be the opportunity to visit one of the few remaining countries where a Cult of Personality is still actively practiced. President Saparmurat Niyazov, the self-appointed “Turkmenbashi” has littered the country with countless portraits and statues of himself (see photo above). He has renamed towns after his mother and requires those taking driving tests to recite his poetry. Check out this hilarious BBC account of just how crazy this guy is.