Transnistria

Everyone who knows Arun, knows that he likes to visit odd places. His dream includes visiting North Korea, Syria, Kyrgyzstan. He wants to see rogue nations and see if media-representation is adequate- or spin. So of course he wanted to visit Transnistria when we went to Moldova. What is that, you ask? [I asked too] - it's an unrecognized territory that has succeeded from the rest of Moldova. It's on the Dnistr River and houses weapons and ammunition for Russia. It has it's own constitution, flag, national anthem, currency [see picture below/right] and government. They are protected by Russian 'peace-keepers' and the people feel more a part of Soviet society than Moldovan.

We researched crossing the 'border' into Transnistria. Turns out some people have some pretty harrowing stories of being hassled (taken into some back room while the border guards try to solicit bribes) and most people get sized up and wind up spending anywhere from 40-100 euros.

We decided to leave all our dollars in the hotel, and take only Moldovan leis with us. We negotiated a cab to take us there and back for about $30 [a decent amount for Moldovans] and headed out. It was about an hour and half drive to Tiraspol.

What winded up happening is that the border guard sized us up and decided our 'immigration tax' would be $10 each. So, of course, Arun tries to haggle, and the guard refused to budge [it is the holidays, afterall- he probably had some presents to buy] and we got off pretty easily.

Once across, Arun was practically giddy. Yes, there was a big statue of Lenin in front of their Parliament building. [see picture on the right]

Their president- Igor Smirnoff owns many of the country's businesses under the name "Sheriff" so there was Sheriff Supermarkets, Sheriff Gas Stations, Sheriff Fast Food everywhere. [see picture at left]

It was freezing cold, and I decided to take enough pictures to satiate Arun before finally convincing him to head for the car and back to Moldova.

It was a tiny little downtown, with just a handful of 'sights.' Most people gave us strange looks, because how many tourists do they really get?


So, some facts and impressions:

• People seemed about on par with the standard of living in the rest of Moldova.
• The currency was actually stronger in Transnistria than in the rest of Moldova.
• People looked more 'Russian' in their features. Moldovans, in general, look more like Romanians.
• There is no doubt Russian support and protection is the reason Transnistria is around.
• People celebrate the orthodox Christmas (not Dec. 25th) because Christmas trees and lighting were still being put up.
• There is a lot of hype about the city being 'frozen in time during the Soviet rule' but really, it did not feel any different than anywhere in Moldova.

Another Adventure!