By Gary Dickson
My idea of the perfect vacation is a white sand beach dotted with palm trees and blue waves calmly lapping up onto the shore. Snow-covered mountains to negotiate with my skis or snowboard aren”t bad, either. The bottom line for me is that a vacation has to be filled with fun, leisure and entertainment. It”s an escape from work; that four-letter word that we are lashed to for the bulk of our lifetime.
I certainly would not plan a vacation to a drab and dreary locale that includes a history of pain and tragedy. But, I guess some people enjoy those types of trips. This year Ukraine is opening up Chernobyl as a tourist destination. You remember Chernobyl; the site of the worst nuclear accident in history. Oksana Nor, coordinator of the state-run project said, “All those interested will be able to visit the Chernobyl zone.”
On April 26, 1986 reactor No. 4 at Chernobyl exploded with a fury equal to 200 of the atomic bombs used on Hiroshima. Reports indicated that at least 30 plant workers were instantly killed. About 200,000 people had to be relocated. The blast contaminated 125,000 square miles of Ukraine, Russia and Belarus, all part of the Soviet Union at the time. Areas of Western Europe and Turkey received contaminated rains. In some mountainous areas of Switzerland it is still forbidden to eat the wild mushrooms. Some trace amounts of radioactive fallout even reached the shores of the United States.
In the aftermath, thousands of fatal illnesses have been blamed on the event. In the general area 2,000 children developed thyroid cancer in the years after the explosion. None of this gives me the motivation to call up a travel agent and book flights to Ukraine and lodging in Chernobyl, but I am certain there will be curiosity-seeking travelers who will be ready to fork over their credit card to be among the first to vacation inside the former hot zone.
As would be expected, Nor said that the interest for the Chernobyl vacation experience is coming mostly from foreigners. I wouldn”t expect too many citizens of Ukraine, Russia or Belarus to be chomping at the bit to soak up any more radiation.
There will be one exclusion zone that isn”t ready for visitors, but aside from that Chernobyl will be open to all comers. Nor said, “We want to show that Ukraine is no longer a nuclear hazard.” She went on to say that the Emergency Situations Ministry from the Ukraine government prepared specific routes through Chernobyl that “pose no health risk.” Personally, I question the clean bill-of-health talk. The report I read also reported that, “Ukrainian experts say a person can stay in the zone for four to five days without any harm to his health.” I like the kind of vacation location in which you are sad to see the departure day arrive, not the type where you don”t want to overstay for fear of having your hair fall out.
Toward the end of the article another “extreme tour” vacation was touted. This one involved the opportunity to travel to one of Russia”s infamous prison camps. That would be the gulags made famous by Josef Stalin. The writer indicated that, “Tourists may spend their ?holiday” in the Soviet prison camp and feel the experience of being a prisoner.”
Are they so hard up for tourists and have such a lack of enjoyable vacation destinations for foreigners to visit Eastern Europe that they have to resort to marketing vacations to hell in an effort to pull a few dollars from other countries? You can carry a Geiger counter or sit in a rat-infested prison cell if you want, but for me, I just want to be able to stroll from the beach to the buffet as the sun slips into the sea on the horizon.
Gary Dickson is the publisher of the Record-Bee. Call him at 263-5636, ext. 24. E-mail him at gdickson@record-bee.com.
