Disappointed By Tourist Facilities In Russia

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31162, 12 September 1966, Page 14

Disappointed By Tourist Facilities In Russia

Russians did not know how to handle or accommodate visitors, with the result that most of the 3000 delegates to the thirteenth World Poultry Science Association’s congress at Kiev were frustrated by unnecessary delays and bad organisation, said Mr W. A. Williams, a member of a °Toup of Canterbury poultryfarmers who attended the congress. Mr Williams said yesterday that there was a bad omen when the party landed at Moscow from Paris. An old bus took them to the wrong hotel. Nobody could sneak English, and at the third hotel, some hours later, the driver announced that thev had arrived at the correct place. It was 5 p.m. when they landed, and by the time the party, which included Mr Williams and Mrs Williams, of North Brighton. Mr and Mrs T. L. Scurr, of Rangiora, and Mr E. F. Porter and his daughter of Timaru, was ready for dinner, it was 10.30 p.m. But the dining-room, which was supposed to be open until 11 p.m. was closed. “We could get nothing to eat until breakfast, which consisted of soup and dry bread,” said Mr Williams. “This was all we had had since leaving Paris at noon the previous day.”

Mr Williams said that most of the delegates to the congress were to fly to Kiev the next morning. Sunday. Nobody was worried because all the necessary bookings nad been made, or so they were told. “When we arrived, it was announced that our aircraft was on the tarmac. We got as far as the gangway when the door was closed in front of us and the plane took off. I was furious,” fie said. The party, and delegates from other countries in the same position, were told that another aircraft would take them to Kiev at 1 p.m. It was obvious that there was more than one plane-load of passengers wanting to get to Kiev, and Mr and Mrs Williams’s determined bid to get aboard was successful. Others had to wait until 6 p.m. for an aircraft. Mr Williams said the booking of second-class accommodation at Kiev was a mistake. The hotel at which they stayed was so primitive it was unbelievable. “Russia is certainly a land of contrasts,” Mr Williams said. “Some buildings and all the airports are as modern as any others in the world. But away from these places living conditions seemed low. I even saw a man drawing water from a well in a city suburb.”