Gujarati Club News: __gurlzgroup__ Byelorussia__left Russia and Ukraine far behind

Let's make a reservation – it's hard to confirm, but some facts are rather eloquent.

Despite Belarus' territorial proximity to Russia, for some reason, many ex-USSR citizens still believe Byelorussia to be a poverty-ridden, agrarian country that has not gone far from some Moldova or Tajikistan in its development. In fact living standards in this country are practically the same as in Russia or Ukraine. And in such aspects as cleanness and order Belarus will leave any CIS country far behind.

It seems that Byelorussians really like neatness (no matter willingly or at the order of "Batka").

However it is assumed that in the matter of service level Belarus has not gone far from the USSR (unfortunately, it is true with regard to many spheres). To the point, here is used a system of payment for hotel rooms that is not very cordial in respect of foreigners – one price for Byelorussians, double price for CIS citizens and threefold price for the quests from far abroad. Such practice seems unfair to foreigners but to Byelorussians, vice-versa, it is some kind of care demonstration from the government. Anyway, even the double price is fantastically low, though cheap hotels have not changed much in their interior design since the stagnant years. Sometimes it seems you are back in the USSR again..

But is it that bad? Maybe taking all the best from the USSR and multiplying it by all the advantages of the modern European life we can achieve something really good? That is why even in the outskirts and small side streets that could be crossed in a few steps, even if there is not a hint of a car, and even if the street can be viewed for a kilometer in both ways, everyone crosses the street only seeing the green light.

Even back streets are clean, though it would seem - why waste the efforts, nobody will see it anyway. Nevertheless, they sweep here really too often and the main streets are cleaned several times a day all in all. Actually the citizens themselves do not tend to litter under their feet. The usual scene in Belarus: the one is going along the street, throws a slip of paper into a can, misses, comes back, picks it up and throws it into the can again. As a result – the ideal Minsk cleanness that has already become legendary and couldn't be even dreamt about in the neighbouring countries.

In the Belarussian form trains conductors sweep cars several times during a trip and neatly cover bedclothes piled on some vacant rack with a curtain.

Should we really mention the disadvantages too! Perhaps the most evident one is the local money. Due to its very low quotation you need to take a thick sheaf of bills going to the shop.