Cold Comfort

October 2024

It was finally time to leave the untouristed and authentic Armenian town of Gyumri.

I walked to the tiny bus station, only to discover that there were no marshrutkas going to where I was headed, the small town of Dilijan, nestled in the snow-peaked hills in the east of the country.

So I had to go to a place called Vanadzor first, a town I'd actually passed through a couple of weeks ago, on the trip from Tbilisi in Georgia, to the Armenian capital of Yerevan.

So I got there in a shared taxi. It was cheap, comfy, and the views were great, if a little tinted.

When I arrived I checked out the local bus station.

I found out there was a bus to Dilijan in 3 hours - well, it turned out to be a super cramped van, not a bus at all - so I found somewhere to sit for awhile and have lunch and write.

Georgian Adjarian katchapuri. They're super delicious, quite large, and so filling. The round side pastry bits are stuffed with a tasty salty white cheese as well, adding to the stuff factor. Mmmmm.

I really didn't get the German truck thing at first. So many transport vehicles in Central Asia are German, and have German writing all over them. I did a bit of research and discovered that since Western sanctions on exports to Russia were imposed after Russia invaded Ukraine, Russia has been unable to import transport vehicles and machinery and many other products from countries such as Germany.

So Russia has bypassed the sanctions by using ex-Soviet Central Asian nations to import the goods and services, and then re-export them to Russia. The middle women in Central Asia obviously take their commissions, and some people are making loads of money out of it.

Some of the European goods, eg. relatively new second hand transport vehicles, end up staying in the middle country, as German goods have a reputation for high quality around here.

Vanadzor train station, which is basically a rundown empty hall

The super cramped van to Dilijan

The main square in Dilijan

Getting lost trying to find my guesthouse. An incredibly vicious and angry dog nearly killed me on the way, he looked like he was going to rip me into tiny shreds of Polish flesh, but his owner called him back. Lucky for me. It wasn't looking so good for awhile.

Some of the dogs are really nasty around here, unfortunately.

Getting lost

Nice views though

I wish I had a teenage son to turn into a soldier. Maybe I'll have grandsons one day.

Eventually, after a long backtrack to the other side of the river, I found my guesthouse. It was cold, but at least my room had a fan heater.

And weird paper ceilings and blinds

My modest street

I was really happy, because Astrid and Mahesh, my French friends from Gyumri, were still in town, and we met up for a beer and then a delicious meal and conversation at a great local eating place, and then another beer in a different place, and so on.

I've been partying a lot lately actually.

It was amazing to see those guys again. We have an amazing connection, and I hope to visit them in the Basque region if I'm in that neighbourhood sometime.

Mahesh is an accomplished musician and very successful composer and music producer, he's currently writing music for film, and his latest project, producing and playing the music for a documentary set in Mexico, won the Grand Prix at the recent Lyon Biennale Art Exhibition. That's a really big deal.

Plus he's such a wonderful man. And Astrid's amazing too.

Lucky me, I got to hang out with them again.

Dilijan National Park

It's totally freezing here. No more than 10 degrees during the day, and a few degrees below at night.

I've acquired a few extra layers lately, after doing some shopping in Gyumri.

But it was still cold walking from Dilijan township into the nearby national park, and then on to the shady tracks through the trees.

But first things first.

Coffee and breakfast by a fireplace. I stopped at this tiny place in town, run by a sweet local old lady who made me some eggs and a coffee.

I strolled through town, and eventually reached the road to the national park.

Dodging downpipes

There's some pretty rundown housing about

And some great cars

The road up into the forest

I entered the national park (not that there were any signs or anything) and sat on this swing, wishing I was an Instagrammer.

This was my view, of a clear and freezing cold stream.

I know it was freezing because not long afterwards I needed to get my shoes off to cross it.

The beautiful autumn forest

My destination was the ruins of an ancient monastery, a place called Matosavank, which could be reached by a walking trail called the Medieval Monuments Trail, which left the main road and climbed steeply up, with an altitude change of at least another couple of hundred metres or so.

Beautiful robin in the bush

I eventually made it to the monastery site, completely tucked away in the forest, and thought there was nothing much there at first.

Ancient wall

It wasn't until I looked in here that I realised that everything was sort of built into the hill.

I went around the other side, found the old entrance, and went inside.

It was amazing.

This is where I'd originally looked down from.

The monastery was built in 1247, by King Avag, an Armenian ruler who was forced to submit to the raiding Mongols, like pretty much everyone else in the whole of northern, eastern and central Asia, at some point or other.

I couldn't find the rude gravestones. By the way, a khachkar is a carved stone cross.

It's been snowing pretty heavily up in the high hills in the distance. Snow levels are pretty thick now, compared to a couple of days ago.

After hanging out there for awhile the cold finally got the better of me, and I wandered back down.

I found another creek crossing.

Eventually I made it back to town. There's a cute little lake there.

I found another café

All I wanna do is drink hot drinks and stay warm

Strolling through the historic centre of town. It's pretty tiny, and beautiful.

Ararat, the mountain (now in Turkey), besides being the spiritual centre of Armenian culture, is also the brand of a huge liquor company, producing quality flavoured brandies. These are apricot, coffee, honey and cherry flavoured varieties.

I was back in my guesthouse fairly early, the first time I've managed that in ages.

Back to Georgia

Transport options in small town Armenia are very limited. I wish I had my bike here sometimes.

There was no bus to Tbilisi, the capital of Georgia, which is my destination for today. I found a shared taxi back to Vanadzor, and then went to the local bus station and bought a ticket on a local bus to a place called Bagratashen, the border crossing between Armenia and Georgia. But I had to wait a couple of hours till the bus left, so I spent the time in the same café I'd been in a few days earlier.

It was 3 degrees when I left my guest house in Dilijan.

I had the front seat in the shared taxi, it was a beautiful day.

I had a lovely chat with the driver and another passenger, Ermina, who showed me videos of her daughters' weddings, complete with crazy traditional dancing. It was so nice to chat with her.

The views were beautiful too.

Guess what! They have ponchik here, which is a variation of the Polish sweet deep-fried cake called pączki, which is basically a ball of deep-fried dough stuffed with home made jam or cream or purée and then deep fried.

Unbelievably delicious and hot! The Armenian version is different to the Polish, but same idea, and is stuffed with either jam, custard, chocolate or even Nutella.

The custard variety

He pleaded with me not to eat him but I told him to piss off and scoffed him down.

Downtown Vanadzor. No, it's not very big.

The Armenian railway network

After waiting forever for the bus to leave, the bus driver then came to me and said he actually didn't have room for me on the minibus. Pisser! I went to the ticket office for a refund, but then had to pay ten times the price to get a taxi to the border.

Maybe the bus and taxi drivers had a little thing going on.

A tinted taxi window pic.

The views to the border were beautiful.

Another border crossing! It's amazing how my time in Armenia has already ended, after nearly two weeks. The countries are flying by lately.

This was my route though the country. I entered in the northeast, in the van from Tbilisi, and first made my way down to the capital, Yerevan. Whilst there, Won Quy and I also did a day trip out to Garni and Gaghard Monastery.

From Yerevan I headed northwest, to the second largest city in Armenia, Gyumri, and then eventually went across to the mountain town of Dilijan, and then finally back to Vanadzor and the Georgian border.

I had an incredible time in Armenia. It's been one of the most open, free, and friendly countries I've been to on this journey. But of course that always depends on who you meet. I met some amazing people, and when I was in Yerevan I really felt like I should stay there for a longer period sometime.

It's rare that I get such strong feelings.

So it's really made me think .....

Back To Georgia

The border crossing was smooth, just like it was when I crossed here in the other direction a couple of weeks ago.

As I'd actually crossed on foot, I needed to find a ride on the other side, as it was already getting late in the day. Luckily a couple of guys travelling with a Chinese tourist agreed to take me to Tbilisi, and we had a smooth (and very fast) ride to the Georgian capital.

The young driver was a nut case, but that's par for the course around here, as I've mentioned enough by now.

The young Chinese woman, who's English name is Wendy, is originally from Hangzhou, but now lives and works in Shanghai. We chatted the whole way to Tbilisi - about China, about travel, and about her life, which I found super interesting for many reasons, one of which is her attitude to relationships, marriage and having children, none of which she's really into.

She's another example of a woman who feels free enough to do whatever she wants, without what she regards as the shackles of life in a relationship. There's a huge population of women around the world who seem to be living that lifestyle now, who are empowered enough to make those decisions for themselves, despite pressure from their parents (or society as a whole) to get married, have kids, and lead a more mainstream life.

Obviously it's easier in some countries than in others, but it's more and more common in China, Japan, South Korea and other richer countries now, especially in the cities.

For example, 20% of Shanghai women between 20-39 say they have no intention of ever having kids, and the total fertility rate in China is the lowest of all the large economies. Japan's fertility rate is also one of the lowest in the world, and it's predicted that only 42% of Japanese 20 year olds will ever give birth. And all the other wealthy nations aren't far behind in their fertility rates.

Before I knew it, I was back in Tbilisi.

Back in black.

Europe or Russia?

There's a massive election here in two days time, and there was a huge political rally for the ruling Georgia Dream Party as I wandered home.

Each of the white vans along the river bussed in supporters of the party. The line of vans headed off way way into the distance.

The founder of the Georgia Dream Party, Bidzina Ivanishvili, is the richest man in Georgia, with an estimated net worth of USD 7.6b (which is equivalent to about a quarter of Georgia's total GDP), and his huge resources (and the fact that his party is the current government) allow them to completely dominate election advertising.

Their posters are everywhere.

Ivanishvili made his fortune in Russia, but left the country when Putin came to power. However, he has maintained his many business links there, and has been accused of completely undermining Western sanctions on Russia imposed since the Ukraine invasion, by engaging in huge trade deals with Russian companies and financial institutions, which, of course, has made him a fortune.

Although once very pro-Europe, under Ivanishvili's influence the Georgia Dream Party has veered towards Russia and turned right, stifling press freedom in the country, and recently passing an anti "foreign agents" bill and an anti LGBTQ bill. These actions have resulted in the EU pausing Georgia's EU candidate status. The party has now openly become pro-Russia, avoiding criticism of Russia's invasion of Ukraine, and claiming that the only way to guarantee Georgia's security is to maintain close relations with Russia.

Ironically, Georgia has already been invaded by Russia, in 2008.

Since Georgia's independence from Russia in 1991 the breakaway Georgian states of South Ossetia and Abkhazia were problematic in a governance sense, with both regions having strong pro-Russian separatist militias. With Russian military support, parts of these regions eventually came under the de facto control of the separatists.

With Putin in power in Russia, in 2008 the separatists began bombing Georgian towns and villages outside South Ossetia and Abkhazia, in order to force the Georgian army to respond. When they did, Putin invaded Georgia with a huge Russian force, and the Georgian army was forced to withdraw. Russia then declared both regions independent.

Around 200,000 people were displaced by the war.

More brownie points for Putin.

He never rests.

These days the two regions are still controlled by the separatists, but they only maintain their independence through de facto Russian control. So, in effect, Russia currently controls 20% of Georgian territory.

Street Art

Tbilisi is amazing in the streetart department. It's everywhere, on buildings, walls, in underpasses and subways, on posters and pavements, and in so many random places.

I took the metro into town, to go for a wander.

Georgian Orthodox church.

Some stations in the metro are a long long way down.

Old wooden escalator steps.

Irakli Charkviani, a famous and very innovative Georgian musician, poet and prose writer.

Around Liberty Square

Heartbreak can lead to release

This guy needed to be saved, but the couple were so busy with their Insta accounts they had no time for such things.

Never stop blowing bubbles

Doin' the chacha. Chacha is locally made liquor, made from grapes.

Guess which word I added

This, my friends, is a squished bed bug. He and his bedbuddy totally bit me to smithereens over a couple of nights, before I discovered them. They're pretty big, by the way, they were almost as big as my little fingernail, and my bites were itchy for days.

I hate them, and I don't care if they're also Goddess's creatures.

Cycle Buddies

Yes! The time has nearly arrived!

My amazing friends Brad and Rich will be arriving in Tbilisi soon, treadlies in tow, for our Georgian journey. We plan to ride somewhere or other, we're not exactly sure where yet, but they have nearly two weeks to hang out here.

I'm so looking forward to spending time with them. We last saw each other in early July in Brighton, England, and had a blast. We all get along so well, even though I've hardly hung out with them over the past few decades.

I feel so lucky.

Beautiful friends are coming all the way out here to journey with me for awhile.

It'll be anunforgettable, and totally random, adventure.

I can already feel it in me juices❤️

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