High Quality
Open the downloaded document, and select print from the file menu (PDF reader required).
Life
environment philosophy heroes
When the Alps cAll you not, nor the Allures of the pArisiAnmArkets enchAnt you, but the AbAndoned buildings in pripyAtintrigue you And horrifying tAles of heinous crimes get yourpulse rAcing, then you Are in for A vAcAtion thAt could chAngeyou forever…
Anu GulmohAr
throWs light on dArk tourism.
holidAys
travel
science paranormal sports
hell!
from
L
if
the sunday indian
50
23 may 2010
l i f e
“W
e havenot hadany tours tothe eruption site at Eyjaalla- jökull as the surrounding areahas been closed. We did, how-ever, take almost 700 personsin dierent tours to see theeruption in Fimmvorduhals, aew weeks beore the eruptionin Eyjaallajökull. One tourwas a coach tour that droveinto a valley next to the erup-tion so passengers could viewrom a sae distance. Anothertour o ours drove the passen-gers up to Myrdalsjokull gla-cier and rom there they wenton snowmobiles to see theeruption up close. Te thirdone was a super jeep tourdriving in as close as one kmrom the eruption site. Ourcustomers were rom all overthe world… UK, USA, Scan-dinavia. Many Icelanderswent there as well. o see a volcanic eruption is once in alietime experience or mostpeople. You get to see theorces o nature in actionwhich is just indescribable,”said Gudrun Torisdottir,Sales Manager, Iceland Excur-sions – Gray Line Iceland(
www.grayline.is
). Te disas-trous impact o the volcanoeruption – rom orcing Ice-landers to ee their homes at2am to travellers stranded ordays at various airports – hascaptured the world’s attention.In addition to voicing theiroutrage, the multitudes werealso seen struggling to pro-nounce Eyjaallajökull (AY-uh-yat-luh-YOE-kuutl-uh).Iceland has been grapplingwith a severe nancial crunchand the oreign money brought in by the touristeruption ollowing the erup-tion o the volcano gave somewelcome relie to the coun-try’s government. It alsoposed a challenge o handling visitors 24x7 and rescuingseveral o those getting tooclose to the zone and not tak-ing sucient precautions.Cut to Gopinatham, asmall village in Karnataka,which is (in)amous or beinghome to Veerappan, the orestbrigand, responsible or thereign o terror. He murdered184 people, smuggled sandal-wood worth Rs 103 crore andpoached about 200 elephantsor twenty long years on 6,000sq km o orests. While theorests have nally been reedo this bandit, his exploits stillarouse much interest amongthe people. Te governmenthas come up with a plan tolaunch tours based on the lieand trails o the notorioussmuggler/poacher. Tiswould include a trekkingscheme called Mystery rails,which would include legendsand myths around Veerappanand re-trace his hideouts andescape routes. K ViswanathaReddy, ourism Director,does not take kindly to the‘terror tourism’ tag though. “It(the tour) will denitely haveuniversal attention thoughnot universal appeal. It will besuccessul because it is in anegative note,” said Reddy.When presented with theconcept o the tour, Sue StClair, a Canadian, said, “Yes, Iwould be interested in under-taking such a tour.” Sue is asel-conessed dark tourist.What is a dark tourist youask? Dark tourism is ‘the acto travel to sites associatedwith death, suering and theseemingly macabre’ [Stone,P.R (2006) ‘A Dark ourismSpectrum’, 146], or peoplewho travel not just or thesun, sand and shopping, butor a chance to glimpse at themacabre and gulp down eachand every horriying detail.While German exterminationcamp at Auschwitz, Poland, isperhaps the best known siteor dark tourism, Sue listedher avourite dark spots to us,“Te ower o London (grisly history), Jack Te Ripperwalking tours (London, Eng-land), Underground Cata-combs (Paris, France), Dracu-la ours in Romania, all havea very dark history, and areenjoyable.” Te volcano inIceland isn’t her idea o Ibizathough. “I would not want tobe breathing in that ash norrisking being too close to it,and possibly being injured orworse. I preer dark history,”she reiterated.Hinterland ravels (
www.hinterlandtravel.com
) is a UK-based company which hasbeen organising tours to Iraqor 30 years. Owner & Man-
“PArt of me hAs AlwAys wonderedwhAt A PlAce would be like if PeoPlesuddenly vAnished”
aging Director Geo Hannsaid, “In Iraq, although weconcentrate on archaeologicaland historical sites, we also visit the Shia pilgrimage orShrine cities o Karbala andNaja. We look at some recenthistory sites such as Saddam’sPalaces… Inevitably, we dopass through or stop at placeswhere atrocities have beencommitted. We mentionthese, but do not make it anintegral part o any o ourtours. For example, whenexploring Kurdistan, we visitHalabja and the prison inSulaimaniyah.”On April 26, 1986, Cherno-byl's Reactor No. 4 explodedand caused the worst nuclearpower plant accident in histo-ry. As radioactive plume lledthe atmosphere, millions edrom Chernobyl and neigh-bouring towns. Still unt orhuman habitation, there are,however, tourist companiesthat will take you into the 30
Add a Comment