Hopefully UNESCO will ultimately come through: that designation is important to tourists looking for lesser-known destinations.
During my Peace Corps service, I saw views like that on my daily walks in another village, along the Nistru. The only cave dwellings in that river bluff, however, were the bee-eater bird colonies (as far as I knew!) Maybe Old Orhei has those as well. Birding might be added as a tourist attraction along with cave monasteries, Golden Horde citadels, the rich, serene landscape and Moldovan hospitality.
You know Connie I have a place in the village right across the river from your old site. My view is basically the reverse of yours these days. Small world Moldova!
You're very right, it's a beautiful place. There are TONs of great places in Moldova like Orhei Vechi but since it is the most well known it is sad that there can't be even a basic tourism development strategy. UNESCO will only come once someone here (other than historians) decided to care about it and not put down asphalt in the middle of historic sites.
I could see Grigoriopol (with binox) from my bluff -- it looked so Soviet with its large, maybe decrepit concrete buildings. You probably know if Peace Corps Moldova has any volunteers doing tourism development. Mark Gilchrist is doing that in Kyrgystan as a Reponse volunteer.
Most Moldovans who have hosted a PCV or other volunteer will know quite a lot about what it would take to host eco-tourism guests.
I'm actually not sure if any PCVs have an assignment like that right now. I feel like it would be a dream assignment to work with a community that has tourism potential but needs help putting everything together!
Hopefully UNESCO will ultimately come through: that designation is important to tourists looking for lesser-known destinations.
During my Peace Corps service, I saw views like that on my daily walks in another village, along the Nistru. The only cave dwellings in that river bluff, however, were the bee-eater bird colonies (as far as I knew!) Maybe Old Orhei has those as well. Birding might be added as a tourist attraction along with cave monasteries, Golden Horde citadels, the rich, serene landscape and Moldovan hospitality.
You know Connie I have a place in the village right across the river from your old site. My view is basically the reverse of yours these days. Small world Moldova!
You're very right, it's a beautiful place. There are TONs of great places in Moldova like Orhei Vechi but since it is the most well known it is sad that there can't be even a basic tourism development strategy. UNESCO will only come once someone here (other than historians) decided to care about it and not put down asphalt in the middle of historic sites.
I could see Grigoriopol (with binox) from my bluff -- it looked so Soviet with its large, maybe decrepit concrete buildings. You probably know if Peace Corps Moldova has any volunteers doing tourism development. Mark Gilchrist is doing that in Kyrgystan as a Reponse volunteer.
Most Moldovans who have hosted a PCV or other volunteer will know quite a lot about what it would take to host eco-tourism guests.
I'm actually not sure if any PCVs have an assignment like that right now. I feel like it would be a dream assignment to work with a community that has tourism potential but needs help putting everything together!
Where is this place ? How about a map , never heard of Moldova ,, it looks like it's someplace in Europe..maybe ? How would you get there ? Amazing.
Out of curiosity, how did you find this substack if you have never heard of Moldova?
Here's a map link to Orhei Vechi
https://maps.app.goo.gl/RUmn9eiRWELUf6K2A