BridgetAG wrote:
] ] I travel a lot and one of my favorite destination lead
] ] through poisoned with radiation, so called Chernobyl
] ] "dead zone" It is 130kms from my home. Why favourite?
] ] because one can ride there for hours and not meet any
] ] single car and not to see any single soul. People left
] ] and nature is blooming, there are beautiful places,
] ] woods, lakes. There is no newly built roads, but those
] ] which left from 80th in fairly good condition
]
] This is absolutely stunning, spellbinding.

OK... who wants to fly to Ukraine with me and video tape a documentary of this place? YES - I'm 100% serious. Email me. -LB

Rattle wrote:
] ] If I tell someone that I am heading in "dead zone"... you
] ] know, what I hear.. In best case- "are you nuts?"
]
] I'd like to see this place for so many reasons. I grew up in
] the shadow of a nuclear power plant. An area I just spoke a
] volume of love for is threatened by the same fate. Just by
] virtue of being there..
]
] In terms of risk mechanics, this type of thing is something I
] see every reason to seek understanding of. These cities were
] frozen in time at the fall of the USSR planned
] economy. These cities are poisoned in a most fearsome
] way, that I fear enemies desire to unleash.
]
] In terms of culture, I fear the reactions I
] would have exposing myself to this. I can't see being able
] too view anything and not be reminded of death, pain,
] fear, and despair.
]
] In search of trade craft, I'd jump in with two feet, a
] radiation counter, logging gear, and whatever else required.
] The idea of exploring something like that is exactly the type
] of thing that completely terrifies me in all the right ways.
]
] As this proves, both hatred and accidents can unleash
] such fates. Terrorists, entropy, and irresponsibility are all
] attack vectors. There are a number of episodes of history,
] that have always invoked really strong reactions from me.
] This is one of them.

Wow the pictures are so incredible, breath taking :)

I am an American that has been living in Ukraine for just over five years. A year ago two friends of mine that worked for the Kiev Post (local English language newspaper) told me that they were doing a story about tourist trips to Chernobyl and asked if I would like to join them. Of course, I wasn’t about to pass up an opportunity like this.

To give you a little more background before I get to the details of this trip, I learned about the Chernobyl disaster from my uncle, a nuclear engineer, who was one of the first US officials to visit Chernobyl after the accident. The stories he told of how the accident actually occurred (testing emergency shut down systems) and how the Soviets extinguished the fire and put the sarcophagus over the reactor were truly amazing. To say that I was interested in Chernobyl when I arrived in Ukraine would be an understatement.

There are a number of travel agencies in Kiev that will book a tour to Chernobyl. The cost, if I remember correctly, is about $60 and includes transportation to the exclusion zone, a guide and a presentation at the visitor's facility adjacent to the reactor. The tour itself was well worth the $60. Our guide took us through small villages that had been evacuated, showed us where some villages had literally been buried due to the large amounts of radioactivity and then took us to the city of Pripyat.

In Pripyat, we climbed to the top of the tallest apartment building in the city and looked out over this abandoned city. Eerie would be the one word that describes the feeling one gets when looking at this city. It was like an episode from the original Star Trek.

Imagine that one day you are told that you were being evacuated from your city and that you would be limited to one suitcase per person and that you would be able to return in a week or so. The busses start showing up and off you go never to return. Anything that was left behind - pets, televisions, radios, etc. - you would never see again.

A lot of the pictures that were posted were from places that I saw on our tour. The trip was truly incredible. In fact, it has to be one of the highlights of my time in Ukraine. I noticed that some of you were interested in making this trip. If you are serious, please send me an email and I can help you arrange the trip and find you cheap accommodations in Kiev.

Cheers,

Dodd
doddster98@yahoo.com