If you love post-apocalyptic movies, you'll love Chechnya! The place is in a state of total anarchy. It's Kevin Costner's dream come true. After sneaking through the border patrols at the Russian provinces outer northern edges, or with the help of guerilla fighters, sneaking through the rugged Caucasus mountains at the southern border, you will travel through empty miles of desolate highway. The only people you encounter along the way live in powerless shanty towns. Most of the time they huddle around one another. Often they sob quietly. Sporadically spotted across the highways are bombed out military vehicles. Occasionally people will have taken up residence in them. The Russian military can also be seen driving in convoys here and there. Sometimes they are brutally beating civilians. It's just like Mad Max!

But the real fun doesn't start until you get to the capital city of Grozny. Grozny isn't much more than piles of burnt rubble. Old abandoned Industrial complexes house many of the remaining citizens. They mass together for protection. The remaining elderly citizens mainly habitate the squalid and dank basements of bombed out houses. Regular civilians have much to fear in Grozny. The military has little to no regard for their basic right to live. Fighting in Grozny has died down now, but recently a civil war was raging between the Russian military and the bearded Chechen rebels. To see the guerilla fighting these days you must travel south to Chechnya's beautiful mountain territory. But there is more than enough to keep you busy in Grozny. If you are a man, you must try to forage for food by day without being killed by roguish bandits, the tyrannical upper classes or the military. If you are a woman, avoiding the marauding gangs of drunken men adds an extra dynamic to the local scene.

Chechnya has a lot to offer. The American dollar goes pretty far in the Russian market, but if you really want hard currency bring along blue jeans and sneakers. In Grozny people are even willing to deal in bits of scrap metal and hay. Bottled water is pure gold.

No plans for the reconstruction of Chechnya's infrastructure are on the horizon, so it will make an ideal adventure for some time to come. The civil war also has no end in sight.



Recommended: Yes