The Ultimate Ride - Chernobyl documentary

[Backmarker]

If you have never read Elena's tales, this is a must read. Her site went away for a bit but it's back again. She tells the story of her ride around Chernobyl. The ultimate ghost town. Very interesting. http://www.kiddofspeed.com/

[z_bassman]

I remember reading that long ago. There was some talk about whether that was real or not.

[motowriter]

Urban legend. Tis fiction, pure and simple. Pretty fun one, though.

[Warrior]

I don't know, looks pretty authentic. I've read the article and seen the pictures, would seem like a lot of work to create a hoax.

[z_bassman]

This was all back in 2004, but a quick Google search reveals a numbers of blogs from back then that discussed it. One writes:

Apparently huge chunks of it were fabrications. A posting in Neil Gaiman's blog from a reader in Kiev points out that there were some serious problems with the original photo essay. The writer, Elena, has since massively revised the photo essay to take out some of the more blatant falsehoods.

Another:

The LA Times has a story and an interview with an Ukrainian tour guide claiming that "Elena"'s motorcycle ride through Chernobyl/Pripyat, which attracted quite a bit of attention over the last couple of months, is almost pure fiction. That might serve to dampen a bit the enthusiasm of some people about taking a trip there themselves. Then again, it might not - which is just as well

And another:

I am based in Kyiv and writing a book about Chornobyl for the Joseph Henry
Press. Several sources have sent me links to the "Ghost Town" photo essay
included in the last e-POSHTA mailing. Though it was full of factual
errors, I did find the notion of lone young woman riding her motorcycle
through the evacuated Zone of Alienation to be intriguing and asked about
it when I visited there two days ago.

I am sorry to report that much of Elena's story is not true. She did not
travel around the zone by herself on a motorcycle. Motorcycles are banned
in the zone, as is wandering around alone, without an escort from the zone
administration. She made one trip there with her husband and a friend. They
traveled in a Chornobyl car that picked them up in Kyiv.

She did, however, bring a motorcycle helmet. They organized their trip
through a Kyiv travel agency and the administration of the Chornobyl zone
(and not her father). They were given the same standard excursion that most
Chernobyl tourists receive. When the Web site appeared, Zone Administration
personnel were in an uproar over who approved a motorcycle trip in the
zone. When it turned out that the motorcycle story was an invention, they
were even less pleased about this fantasy Web site.

Because of those problems, Elena and her husband have changed the Web site
and the story considerably in the last few days. Earlier versions of the
narrative lied more blatantly about Elena taking lone motorcycle trips in
the zone. That has been changed to merely suggest that she does so, which
is still misleading.

I would not normally bother to correct someone's silly Chornobyl fantasy.
Indeed, correcting all the factual errors and falsehoods in "Ghost Town"
would consume as much space as the Web site itself. But the motorcycle
story was such an outrageous fiction that I thought the readers of e-Poshta
should know.

Mary Mycio, J.D.

Legal Program Director
IREX U-Media
Shota Rustaveli St. 38b, No. 16
Kyiv 01023, Ukraine

[Toyuzu]

Interesting. I've read that before, and never had any idea it could be a hoax.

[z_bassman]

Well, I don't know if I'd call it a "hoax" or just well written fiction. I favor the second.

[Backmarker]

Well I'll be. It's amazing that someone would go to all that trouble, y'know? Oh well. They got me! I'm a dork!

[FD929]

From what I'm finding, the claim that she did actually go through Chernobyl is true. She did go, she did take pictures. It's appearing that the romanticized solo moto ride is the fabrication. However, pictures speak a thousand words. It would be surreal to stand on top of that building looking over that city and hearing nothing.

Snopes.com surprisingly didn't have anything on it pertaining to this story. I'm going to keep looking around since the story fascinated me.

Here's more.

I'm finding this very interesting. here you can see that her english is not very good, but in the story Renee posted, there are very few spelling and grammar mistakes.

[z_bassman]

Originally Posted by FD929

From what I'm finding, the claim that she did actually go through Chernobyl is true. She did go, she did take pictures. It's appearing that the romanticized solo moto ride is the fabrication. ...

That's what I found too.