Tag: Caucasus

  • Batumi: Highrises and Construction

    Batumi: Highrises and Construction

    I’d heard several times that Batumi is the Dubai of Georgia. And a couple of other times the Las Vegas of the Black Sea. My jaw sure drop to the ground as we turned a corner in full view of the peninsula that the resort city of Batumi sat, a skyline like nothing else in…

  • Kutaisi: Chill, Coffee, Politics, Mafia

    Kutaisi: Chill, Coffee, Politics, Mafia

    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…

  • Borjomi: Healing Waters

    Borjomi: Healing Waters

    I was staying in a guesthouse, with my large impressive room off the side of the main house. The owner greeted us as the taxi pulled up, and showed us his garden overlooking the town, the quaint guest kitchen where grandma would make us breakfast, He next offered a taste of his home made wine.…

  • Journey West: Road Trip to Borjomi

    Journey West: Road Trip to Borjomi

    On the advice of the manager of Browns Bar, I made the trip to Borjomi a day trip to include heading south to Rabati Castle in Akhaltsikhe, and the cave city further south of Vardzia. I found a lot of recommendations for a private taxi service through GoTrip. I used a similar service in Uzbekistan…

  • Tbilisi Part Two: Wind, Wine, and a Cable Car

    Tbilisi Part Two: Wind, Wine, and a Cable Car

    Previously I found myself at a whisky expo, but it’s isn’t t whisky Georgia is famous for in the booze category, that would be wine. Humourously Georgia also boasts to be the oldest wine maker in the world, despite Armenia actually having physical evidence they are. I would learn from several Georgian locals that Armenian’s…

  • Beyond Tbilisi: Take Me to Church

    Beyond Tbilisi: Take Me to Church

    Both Georgia and Armenia have no shortage on churches and monasteries, dating back centuries or even a millennia. So from my base in Tbilisi, there were two I wanted to visit outside the city. Church hunting began with Svetitskhoveli Cathedral. It’s a really beautiful cathedral, I don’t normally think that of Christian churches as they…

  • Beyond Tbilisi: Cave Homes, Stalin’s Home

    Beyond Tbilisi: Cave Homes, Stalin’s Home

    The Cave Town, known as Uplistsikhe, is the oldest urban settlement in Georgia. Dating all the way back to 2,000BCE, humans have been living in these cave complexes up until the 14th Century when the highly friendly Mongols came knocking. For over 3,000 years this impressive area had ritual caves, wine making caves, and even…

  • Tbilisi Part One: Russia meets the EU, and an Unexpected Whisky Expo

    Tbilisi Part One: Russia meets the EU, and an Unexpected Whisky Expo

    If you’re consider driving in Georgia, all I can say is don’t. The whole of Australia is baffled by Melbourne’s unnatural road rules to turn from the opposite lane, but here in Georgia, it’s so much more mentally taxing here in Tbilisi, there’s kind of lanes for traffic, but they turn into on coming traffic…

  • Gyumri: Trendy, brandy, where’s my bus?

    Gyumri: Trendy, brandy, where’s my bus?

    Gyumri is the 2nd largest city in Armenia. The enormous plaza and town hall, in fact most of the city, had to be rebuilt after a devastating earthquake levelled much of the city in 1988, kill up to 50,000 people. The founding date of the original city, Kumayri dates back to an incredible 8th century…

  • Dilijan: Trees and Coffee

    Dilijan: Trees and Coffee

    The bus station for Dilijan was 30mins away, on the northern outskirts of Yerevan. Okay, let’s see if Yandex drivers are good for long trips, and would take me the 2 hours all the way. I asked the reception at the hotel his thoughts, and he simply shrugged like it was nothing to worry about.…