Tourists to be allowed to tidy pigsties for 3.5 thousands

Tourists from all over the world come to the agricultural complex of the “Pershamaiski” co-operative to milk a cow for 5 thousand roubles, to tidy pigsties for 3500 and to plough for 5830.
The idea of the agricultural entertainment for tourists occurred to the administration of “Pershamaiski” at the end of 2000. The farm had no money to construct new cattle-sheds. So the café serving traditional Belarusian dishes and the cattle-sheds were set up in derelict buildings. The head of the tourist agricultural complex Iryna Matsyanka told ERB about it.

Іryna Matsyanka: “We did not construct anything, we just repaired derelict buildings. They were considered fit for animals but in fact they were dilapidated. They had not been used for a long time but we repaired them”.

She said that they found landscape designers and architects in the village. The tourist complex consists of two parts at the moment: the café “Tavern near Slabodsk” and “The Peasant Farm” where horses, pigs, cows and goats are kept.

The café’s peculiarity is the possibility to cook country food in the oven on your own. You can start from the very beginning: cut and chop the fire-wood, fire, gather vegetables in the kitchen garden. But you will have to pay for it.

Іryna Matsyanka: “You have to cut fire-wood at first. It costs 2170. Then you need to chop it. It costs 2120. Then you can fire and prepare pancakes or potatoes in a pot. It costs 5 thousands”.

Thus, you will pay 10 thousands for eating potatoes prepared in an oven.

There are other entertainments waiting for tourists on “The Peasant Farm” – milking a cow or a goat, tidying a pigsty and ploughing. The head of the tourist complex says that all the activities are also tariffed.

Іryna Matsyanka: “There are enclosures on the farm. You can see a cow with a calf in one. You can milk the cow. You can see a pig with a piglet. We also have a horse and a goat there. Milking a goat and tasting the milk costs 5 thousands. Tourists can also look at the pigs and clean the pigsty if they like. It costs 3500 per hour”.

According to her, there is no end of people wishing to work on a farm like peasants and to have a rest afterwards. While Belarusian tourists prefer relaxing in the local sports centre, foreigners are happy cleaning pigsties and learning to milk cows.

Іryna Matsyanka: “The Peasant Farm” interests foreign tourists more”.

You can also ride a horse or a sleigh in “Pershamaiski”. Riding a horse costs 11700 per hour. Sleigh – 11600. An hour of ploughing costs 5830.

The head of the village traveling agency regrets about nothaving their own hotel yet. She says there are a lot of people wishing to stay overnight by they have room for only 12 guests. So they have to refuse groups of 25 or 30 people that have started visiting them quite often lately.

There is one more problem – nobody has cancelled the milk yield and hay-crop plan. So they cannot devote more time to the tourist business and to enlarge the staff. However, a business plan for further development of agricultural tourism in “Pershamaiski” is ready. It only has to be approved by the District Executive Committee.