The dividing line between east and west Georgia is a giant concrete tunnel. Before and after the tunnel enormous concrete overpasses are being built to extent the highway, and all along them the workers offices are adorned in Mandarin . This is China’s Belts and Roads investment in action.

Soon enough the grey concrete gives way to asphalt, and were back on normal road heading towards Kutaisi, still surrounded by the green forested mountains.

Kutaisi is Tbilisi dialled down to 1. The hustle of the capital is absent, and everyone just appears more chill. It’s not all that surprising considering a third of the counties population lives in Tbilisi, so the counties 4th largest city is tiny in comparison.

I had found a fantastic cafe on the very first day, the staff were dancing around making a ruckus, the patrons hung around sipping coffee, sucking down cigarettes, and chatting with other locals. On the weekend this part of Kutaisi became packed, the cafe was clearly a local favourite and I loved having my two Turkish coffee’s each morning and reading my book, as the swirl of activity created a relaxed happiness buzz.

A running theme so far in Georgia is restoration work, and Kutaisi didn’t disappoint here, as the central park is currently dug up and being rebuilt. I think I was still able to get some good pics to show off what it would look like. And when I decided to walk up to the cities church, I found the roads also all torn up blocking the path, so I threw that into the too hard basket and went back to the coffee shop.

By far the most interesting conversation I’ve had with a local was in the Aura restaurant over lunch. I had my obligatory Kharcho (yay the walnut version!), this time with chicken replacing beef, and the waiter started chatting as the place was empty except for ourselves.

They say don’t bring up politics, so naturally we talked politics. Mainly the EU vs Russia topic, with the conversion learning towards neither; Georgia should be it’s own country and not be reliant on either super power. Maybe a Caucasian Union of Georgia, Armenia, and Azerbaijan. His cousin then appeared and joined in the discussion, there was a strong sense of Georgian pride from both, and they lamented how many Georgians leave for Europe and don’t return.

Conversation shifted to the youth of the country, the waiter himself only 19. This line of talk lead to the Georgian mafia, where he was saying many teens tend to have a have a crossroads in their life to be a normal working citizen, or join in with the mafia and a life of crime.

He had an almost unnerving knowledge of the Georgian mafia, one would even say a strong respect for them. He chose to go to university to study to be an architect, but he was offered that choice at the age of 15 to take the mafia path for life. Not quite the same as back home where we have a guidance consulter asking what we want to do when we leave school, and generally join the mafia is not on that career list.

It was a fascinating viewpoint, and how the mafia don’t kill civilians, only other gangs. He even had examples how if you cross the mafia, you can call on other mafia to resolve the issue as that’s not your chosen life. The mafia sort things out between each other. He did make the caveat if you really did piss them off, they’d just beat the shit out of you. But hey, never kill you!

So maybe I was seen with some Georgian mafia, as my room in the hotel was ungraded on the first day. From a windowless room (which was still very nice), I found myself moved to a balcony room at no extra cost. Maybe it was just coincidence. Or more likely the balcony room faced the shopping centre with a fountain that had a bizarre mix of music playing until late night.

After a chill and relaxed stay in Kutaisi, the final port of call was literally a port city on the Black Sea. But in the past decade, the city of Batumi, had been transformed into a resort and casino playground at the behest of the countries president. Let’s see how over the top this place has become…