Travel Notes

Kamchatka Disaster

On June 4, a massive slide of boulders, gravel, snow and ice choked the Geyser River which runs through the world-famous Valley of the Geysers in Kamchatka’s Kronotsky Nature Preserve. Within hours, most of the valley’s geysers were submerged under waters that steadily rose behind the blockage (see before and after photos, at right).

The Valley of the Geysers, part of the Volcanoes of Kamchatka UNESCO World Heritage Site, is one of only four places where geysers punch holes through Earth’s crust, spewing boiling water and steam skyward. The three other sites are in Yellowstone National Park, Iceland and New Zealand. The Valley of the Geysers is nestled in a canyon of a mountain river, where more than 20 large geysers and 200 thermal springs, vapor-steam jets, and mud-pots belch, boil and gush in an area of only about seven square kilometers. (Russian Life ran a two-part article on Kamchatka’s geysers and bear habitat in its July/Aug 2006 and Nov/Dec 2006 issues.) 

Photographers and rangers at the site felt the ground shake as an entire side of a snow-covered mountain collapsed, dumping millions of cubic meters of debris into the narrow valley, for more than a kilometer downstream. At the time of the disaster, 19 tourists were exploring the valley after being flown in by helicopter for a three-hour excursion to one of Kamchatka’s literal tourist hotspots. It was a miracle no one was killed, eye-witnesses said, as the landslide came to a grinding halt within a meter of the helicopter and buildings where people were located. An earthquake the night before may have triggered the slide.

Worries that the geysers would be forever submerged proved unfounded when, three days after the slide, the natural dam holding back the lake collapsed, uncovering most, but not all, of the valley’s geysers. Two helicopter landing pads and a few structures for visitors were destroyed by the landslide.  

The Valley of the Geysers was first discovered in 1941 by Tatyana Ivanovna Ustinova, a geologist working for Kronotsky Nature Preserve. While she and her guide were exploring the valley, they were sprayed suddenly by a jet of hot water gushing from underground. 

Air Safety Plummets

According to the IATA, the CIS countries are the world’s most dangerous place to fly. Last year, there were 8.6 incidents per one million flights in the FSU (excluding Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia) – 13 times the world average and twice the rate of Africa, which rated as the second most dangerous place to fly. Russia experienced 10 plane crashes in 2006, resulting in 318 deaths. 

To Serve and Extort

In April, the Association of Tour Guide, Interpreters and Tourism Managers sent an official letter to the Kremlin, the government and the Moscow Central Police Depart-ment, requesting a crackdown on shakedowns. Specifically, the Assoc-iation said tourists are being extorted by police who stop them and demand to see their documents, which are being held at their hotel for visa registration (a process which has become increasingly onerous due to new legislation). The police officers demand payment of a fine for failure to produce identification, an Association spokesperson said.

Rail Splitting

Russian Railways has announced that it will introduce a new gender booking option for long-distance routes. Coupés on such runs will be classified as male, female, or mixed, and passengers will be able to choose their accommodations. The choice will be indicated on the passenger’s ticket, with a Ж, М, or С. 

Past attempts to introduce gender-coupes have come to naught, most recently in 2005 on trains between Makhachkala and Moscow, between Moscow and Minsk and on trains from Kazan, Cheboksary and Izhevsk. In Ukraine, however, the service has been quite popular on the Kharkov-Kiev route since its introduction in 2002. 

Russian Railways has been testing the service since January and the trial “was supported by passengers,” RR said. Logistics, however, can be trying.

“In order for this service to be effective, it must be implemented throughout the entire Russian rail network,” a RR spokesperson said. “The service is rather complex. Let us say a car has five free spots, but all in women’s coupés, and some men come up and purchase tickets at the last minute. What is to be done? You have to add another train car.”

While a polling of trains in the Kuybyshev region showed a 51% to 49% female-to-male ratio, RIA Novosti reported that the Moscow-Minsk route has an 85% male to 15% female ratio.