Chernobyl area - Chernobyl - TravBuddy

As part of my travel to Ukraine last summer I found out it was possible to take a tour to the Chernobyl area. A travel agency arranged all the paperwork and a driver and guide.
On an early morning me and some friends were picked up at our apartment in Kiev. The only word the driver spoke was 'Chernobyl', but that was enough info ofcourse. The 130 km drive takes about two hours. Somewhere along the way we pick up the English speaking guide.
It's obvious that Kiev is the economic center of the country, as soon as you leave the city the fancy cars disappear and make place for horse carriages and Ladas. Some 3 quarters on the way is a 'new' road which was built around the contaminated area after the reactor exploded in 1986. Before 1986 the main road north into Belarus went past Chernobyl. The road after this point gets worse and there is only few traffic left. As soon as you think you're really getting nowhere you'll see the checkpoint of the 30 km zone. Papers and passports are checked and we may enter. We stop in the town of Chernobyl, some 18 km from the reactor to see some photos and buy some drinks in the local supermarket. (People still live and work in the area in shifts of 2 weeks). The guide suggests to take a beer and we're off to the 10 km zone. Our paperwork is checked again and we head towards the reactor. All of a sudden you're there, less than 200 metres from the reactor, and even closer to it when you're inside the little infocenter next to the reactor.
After some explanation about the accident en the future options of covering it we get back in the van and go to the town of Pripyat, some 2 km away. We pass by the Red Forest (called that way because it glowed in the dark after the accident). Most workers and their family (about 40.000) lived there. The town was founden n 1970 and was only inhabited for 16 years. We entered the local hotel (beautiful view from the top), town hall, theatre, and school. Time stood stil, school books opened, great signs of Soviet leaders etc. One of the most contaminated areas was the funfair, especially the bumpercars, the radiation meter gets nuts over there. The strange part is that some plants can be very radioactive, and only inches above the radiation is 100 times lower. Plant and ground material is the most dangerous since it absorbs most radiation.
After a few hours we return to Chernobyl for lunch, and a radiation check (which was more show I recon). After that we drive around the city and also see some of the (now radioactive) abandoned vehicles used after the accident. There are only a handful left, the rest has been sold and melted, I really don't believe they checked the radiation of some 2000 vehicles. That's probably what struck me most, the people over there on one hand really want to keep the area as safe as possible, on the other hand they don't really care, selling off radioactive vehicles as scrap metal, asking tourists to wear long sleeves and a cap or hat, but walking around in shorts and t-shirts themselves, etc, etc.
I must say: an experience I'll never forget, although there is really not that much to see, hear and feel in the area.

Afterwards we also visited the Chernobyl museum in Kiev, it's very small, a bit hard to find, but cheap and there is a lot of photo material to give you an impression about the impact of what happened. There were also some guides who were surprised that we in fact visited the area ourselves. ;)