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having spent three weeks in belarus i
continued my journey to the far east
region
a spark of curiosity has led me to
travel to these less visited regions
i was interested in gently peeling away
the layers of belarus and connect more
deeply with people
by taking the time to observe it allows
me to understand the culture more and
have a greater appreciation of the
different human stories i hear on the
road on today's journey i took a small
van from vteps south through the
countryside to mogilev before continuing
southeast to my next destination gomez
i walked around the city visited another
lenin monument and stumbled upon a
traditional market
i then headed out to a smaller town that
was greatly affected by the chernobyl
disaster and got to experience a
traditional lifting method before being
helped by a bunch of teenagers while
trying to return home i am currently in
the bus station where i will be taking
marshrutka or minivan to the next city
of mohilev the journey itself will
probably be taking a couple of hours
spitali right here to say goodbye
bye-bye
so very kind of him are you crying that
i am leaving
he is like oh don't cry don't cry
[Laughter]
the minivan itself costs 11 rubles about
four ish four dollars
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[Applause]
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foreign
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the temperature isn't as cold or as dry
as fijiabs meaning that it's bearable it
is interesting to be in this particular
region of the country because i think
the
eastern north east south east
is slightly
it feels a bit like neglected in the
sense that if you compare that to the
south west and western region of the
country
there will be a stark difference
muahilif itself is a major rail junction
as well as one of the main economic and
industrial centers of belarus
economy at the region and its social
infrastructure have been significantly
hampered by the consequences of the
chernobyl catastrophe 35 of the
territory was contaminated by the
radioactive particles with a deep and
interesting history these lands have
been shotted many times by fierce
battles
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is located 100 kilometers away from the
closest russian border whereas mint is
actually about 200 kilometers away from
this particular city so we're
technically closer to russia than to the
capital city of belarus itself and i
think it is interesting because this
feels a bit like eastern frontier of the
country being located in the eastern
part of the country actually
has an advantages due to its
geographical location
meaning that it becomes the center of
trading routes because it directly
connects to the east west south and
north
look at this cool
mall with these stairs and over here we
have sellers
selling socks
so i'm assuming there's a residential
area as well
we are almost
at the very heart of mohilov city this
is
gum
and over here it says that
it's built
in the 1947.
i think this is quite charming can you
see the contrast between this new
building
this old building
especially over here what i like about
traveling independently is that you get
to experience
things
first hand before coming to belarus i
had a lot of fears in the sense that i'm
scared things will be
bad due to the media but i knew that
every time you travel when the media is
not involved or the news is not involved
people are generally pretty much the
same all around this is the start of
lenin's
or lenin's avenue on the first floor
it's filled with lots of shops
right here look at this grande
building
this is the cinema i think
we're going to the underground to cross
this street over there
welcome to
the lenin square
huge building over there
this is the lenin statue
this is a cathedral church in mohilov
can you see the dome
that reminds me a bit
of the ones in saint petersburg in
russia and i guess it does make sense
the
decoration and the looks are similar
because we're so close to russia this is
the entrance
to the church
look what i found
a market
so this sellers
must be coming from
the village
within the region itself
coming to the city center to sell some
of the stuff they have gathered from
their own villages
so lively because today is saturday and
people are coming to the market
fascinating isn't it look
for us asian people
market is basically the core activity
pretty much the replica of
what a normal supermarket would look
like and i still always find market
is fascinating there's a transaction
there's this energy inter change between
sellers
and the buyers
and you get to see local people as it is
as the way they are
look at this massive watermelon
lots of grapes
so colorful
fresh vegetables
pumpkin
berries
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knowing the southeast of belarus was
badly affected by chernobyl radiation i
decided to see the region move myself by
taking ammar shrutka to the city of
gomil followed by a taxi to visit the
small town of vietgar for the day
odin
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three
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my bus supposedly departs at 3 00 p.m
on this platform number eight and
usually
uh bus or train would be so on time here
in belarus
but i haven't seen
any buses or minivan or marsh ruthka
here so i don't quite know
we'll see
homemade
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greetings you must be proud of me
because
i'm currently in vietnam a small town 20
kilometers away out of homie which is
another region that i've just arrived
yesterday afternoon the reason why i'm
so intrigued to be in this smaller town
is that
this region itself wholemeal
not only it has been
the most affected region in belarus due
to chernobyl
because so far we only know about
chernobyl in ukraine
but the south eastern part of belarus as
well as the eastern part of belarus is
actually
badly affected vetka as a small town was
founded by the old believer priests who
migrated from central russia and at the
time that it was founded vetka actually
was still part of the lithuanian
territory so this particular town is
definitely very old can you see this
moral
mural over here
showcasing
belarusian woman
babushka here you can see
the map that says
vedka the name of this town
while exploring the town a lady
approached me asking whether i'd be
interested in trying traditional hand
weaving despite the language barrier i
agreed and followed her to the museum
where she would
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so i think i'm going to try
how to weave the
crosner
[Laughter]
um
oh
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thank you
what a lovely lady she was and i think
she was she is working for the museum
and just so lovely to showcase it to me
what the art of weaving and such weaving
is not exclusive to belarus as a culture
because in indonesia we do have that in
northeast parts of india we do have that
probably some parts of serbia and this
also reminds us how we have a lot of
similarities that probably we don't
realize we don't
you know know about before so
yes suddenly
the sky is bright again
gomel oblast or region
took the biggest hit during
the chernobyl incident as a country
belarus and the whole country itself
there were over 135
000 people in which two of third two
thirds
of them
are were from gomel
and they had to leave the country they
had to be evacuated from many towns
villages
and i think
this particular town itself
is one of those who has been rebuilt
we do have
probably the only church
or the sky is turning gray makes it even
more atmospheric
this particular color of green
as well as this type of mint blue
seems to be the uniform color
of all houses i've seen here so far now
my next task is to ask people if they
can help me out in figuring out how to
get back to girl mail let's see
sometimes i need to read people by their
expression if i can ask them questions
destroys here
do you speak english
50 50.
uh
bus to
gomel do you know oh no it's vietnam
viet i know i know this is viet cada yes
uh if i want to go back
go mail
where to go
stands here uh okay okay taxes
okay
you need to go to the station to work
together okay okay
this way
um
they can't seem to explain the direction
in english
and even though i trust them
they decide they've decided to walk with
me all the way to the bus station
to help me up
what a lovely gesture hey indonesia
do you know indonesia
country yeah yeah
very far so your name
bagdana bagdana no no
christina
[Laughter]
thank you
why
no it doesn't look like a sheep goat
male and then uh
rodne
and then means
have you been to means did you go
yes yes yes do you like it
yes
very modern this is best
the best city
yeah did you take bus or train
bus or train choo choo choo choo choo
choo
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uh it's okay uh
western uh train station i'll go to
train station
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space
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i think they're trying to make sure that
i will get off
in google safely that's so very kind
because i think they are trying to say
that i don't speak the local language
but this is pretty much about it of
today's video
the journey to far east part of belarus
a glimpse into a smaller town city as
well as many different things that i try
to showcase it to you as the way it is
and i guess sometimes we have this
prejudice upon different areas we have
this fair because we've never been we
don't know about this particular area we
don't speak the language we don't know
the people but overall in general things
are pretty much the same all around the
world that people are just trying to
live their best life really
and i hope this video has showcased it
to you a different side of belarus that
you may have never seen or you may have
never heard before
much like i did before this yeah let me
know what you think down in the comment
section below i will see you again next
time on the last video from this country
bye
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