Gorgeous Georgia - Part I

“I would rather own a little and see the world than own the world and see a little of it!”

Travelling to new places is adventurous and of course, addictive. I have always loved travelling. So, a sudden plan to go on a trip to Tbilisi, Georgia, is like getting paid for tasting sugarcane. We readily went ahead to decide for a short trip, only enough to accommodate 4 days in our routine schedules. Travel is one thing where you act the moment you think of it. I set out to check on the places to visit around Tbilisi, the flight schedules, accommodation etc on Google. After obtaining some knowledge on the place, we were checking on options whether to plan our travel on our own or look out for packages from a tour agent. Considering the travel plans at very short notice, hardly 15 days before the planned date, we contacted a few travel agents. Out of the responses, we were happy with the itinerary provided by Al Mulla Travels and booked our trip through them.

Tbilisi International Airport (Pic courtesy: Internet)

Visa to Georgia, for Indian citizens with GCC residency is totally free. One must just carry his residence ID to get entry to Georgia. However, travel insurance is compulsory to visit the place.

We got our booking ready – flight tickets, hotel voucher, travel insurance and we were all set to go.

The day of our tour arrived – 17^th July 2019. We boarded the Qatar Airways flight which reached Tbilisi via transit at Doha.

Tbilisi Airport – A very small airport and the immigration process hardly took any time. We picked up our baggage and came out to find Mr. Beqa, our driver waiting for us with our name in a placard. We bought local sim card, as guided by our travel agent and proceeded towards the hotel. Enroute, we felt the city quite very familiar with similarities with suburban Chennai. The very first look of the city revealed that it is quite a poor country unlike many countries in Europe.

Holiday Inn

We reached our hotel Holiday Inn and checked in. A wonderful cozy place to relax; they also had other facilities like gym, swimming pool, lounge bar, casino and a restaurant. We didn’t have any tour plan in the itinerary on that day. So, we decided to chill out for a while in the swimming pool. After some time, the alarm bell rang from the stomach. Yes, we realized we hadn’t had lunch. It was 3.30 pm already. So, we quickly took a shower and went around looking for an Indian restaurant.

We located ‘Indian Express’ restaurant in 1.2 km radius from our hotel.

Indian Express Restaurant

We took a walk on the streets and found that Pekini Avenue was a hub for shopping. Happily watching the stores and shops from outside, we headed to Alexander Kazbegi Avenue where the restaurant was located. The weather was just right for a relaxed walk. Indian Express restaurant had wonderful North Indian dishes which we relished. A restaurant run by a Gujarati and his wife being the Chef. We had a good talk with them while we enjoyed our food. We noticed that all supermarkets & restaurants had wine and alcohol as well. With all the tiredness in travel we headed back to the hotel and relaxed with a nap.

Since we had already heard of night life of Tbilisi, we started our tour in the night. We took a taxi to Bridge of Peace to start with. The Bridge of peace had a bow shape and illuminated with numerous LEDs with a wonderful sight.

Bridge of Peace

It is a pedestrian bridge across the Mtkvari river and connects both the banks of the river. There was Shangri La Casino across the road. We took a walk on the bridge of peace and we found several people persuading for a boat ride. We decided to go on a boat ride. Initially it was only the two of us and the boat driver and he was playing music on his speaker. We connected to the speaker via Bluetooth and played Tamil cine songs. After say, around 10 minutes, we had more foreigners onboard. To our surprise, they enjoyed our songs – mass maranam, guleba, aaluma doluma, rowdy baby etc – and started dancing. We too joined and had a good dance on the boat. The boat driver also joined the dance and wah, what a fun time even with strangers. When the boat ride ended in half an hour, we had happy memories to take along.

After the boat ride, we walked our way to Rike park. There is a cable car operating from Rike Park and takes you to the Narikala Fortress up on the hill, across the Mtkvari river over the rooftops and buildings of Old town in just less than 2 minutes. The cost of travel is also very nominal and here they use something called as ‘Metro card’ for journey in cable cars, metro rails and buses. We travelled in the cable car and it was a splendid view from the top. We reached Narikala Fortress; however since it was already late in the night, we didn’t attempt to enter the fortress.

View from Hill top

We just strolled around upto the statute of Mother of Georgia. Despite being late in the night, there were several tourists like us, who were taking a walk around and enjoying the beautiful sight of the city in the night from the top of the hill. Again, we came down in cable car and walked thru the Meteki bridge and reached Meteki square. This area is the city center of Old Tbilisi. Several shops, pubs and bars were open and full of activity. There are few Indian and Pakistani restaurants too at this place. We selected Taj Mahal Restaurant for our dinner. Quite an okay food. After dinner, we headed back to our hotel in a taxi to rest.

Next day, 18^th July 2019, it dawned with our super excitement to visit Kazbegi. We finished our continental breakfast at Holiday Inn. Our guide Mr. Santino arrived along with our driver Mr. Beqa on time to take us on our tour.

After pleasant introductions, we started our tour, first to Zhinvali water Reservoir. It was such a beautiful place.

Zhinvali Water Reservoir

The guide explained how the water level got to be very high this year, as the snow from atop the mountains had melted due to global warming increasing the water level at the reservoir. 

Our next stop was at Aragvi river in the southern slopes of Caucasus Mountains. Two rivers Tetri Aragvi and Shavi Aragvi combine here to form Aragvi river. The tetri aragvi is in normal colour whereas shavi aragvi is black in colour, due to high content of minerals in it. The mixing up of white and black waters was a wonderful view.

Aragvi river - white & black

Then we headed towards Gudauri. On the way we saw a hotel by name Club 2100 and the guide explained that it is located at 2100 meters high from the sea and hence named Club 2100. The mountain route was delightful with scenic beauty around. It is always exciting to see the big cities look small from the top of the mountains. It reminds us, how small we are, considering the size of our earth and of our universe!

At Gudauri, the main attraction would be the ski resorts and winter games, however that happens only when it is snowing – November to March. Since we visited only in July, we had to miss them. We visited the Russian Georgian Friendship Monument at Gudauri. It was built in 1983 to commemorate the friendship between Russia and Georgia. The view from there was breathtaking.

Gudauri - Breathtaking view from top

Paragliding activity was available at this place. However, we did not opt for it there. We spent some good time embracing the fresh air and beautiful sight for eyes and the headed towards Stepantsminda.

Stepantsminda is a small town in the center of Kazbegi municipality. Writer Alexander Kazbegi was born in this town and rose to fame. The guide claimed that Stepantsminda was named as Kazbegi in memory of this writer. But we also heard a story that this writer’s grandfather was nick named Kazi-Beg and was very loyal to Russia and hence the town was named Kazbegi.

The main attraction of Stepantsminda is the Gregeti Trinity Church.

Gregeti Trinity Church

The Church is located at around 2170 metres high from the sea. We took a different vehicle to reach the Church. The Church which was built in 14^th century was also serving as a treasure house to safeguard the treasures of Georgia whenever it faced attack from enemies. From the church, we were able to view the Mount Kazbegi and its shining snow capped peaks. We wished to go there as well, however, the guide informed us that it was around 5000 metres high from the sea and the only way to reach the top is by trekking and it took more than 10 days to reach by experienced trekkers. Unable to move our sight away from its beauty, we just heaved a sigh and continued our journey.

It was time for us to take the return route. We travelled towards Ananuri and on the way we stopped at a place where water with more iron content was available and the rocks on which the water was flowing had a totally different colour and texture. The guide said it was due to the high mineral and iron content that the rocks had a different colour; it looked brownish orange and the rocks looked slippery.

The rocks & water with more iron content

However, when we climbed on them, we found that it had good grip and the slippery look was only deceiving. We tasted the water and it was almost like drinking soda!!

We were hungry already and it was nearing 6 pm. So, we took a break at a Georgian restaurant, the tables were set on natural setting near the river and it was a delight to have food in a scenic location. We wanted to try the Georgian cuisine, though there were only very few options for vegetarians.

Georgian Khachapuri

We tried our hands on Georgian Khachapuri (a pizza type bread with cheese stuffed inside), Cheese momos, brinjal with walnut, and some French fries. Sure, it turned out to be too heavy for us that we had to give away some momos.

On our way back, we visited Ananuri Castle at the banks of Aragvi river. The guide explained how the castle was destroyed as the Dukes of the castle were attacked by rival forces. A few years later, a church was built in the castle complex. We visited the castle and the church. 

Ananuri Castle

We also had a quick walk through the tunnel which was used as escape route for the dukes to lead to the river, whenever there was threat by enemies. The guide showed us an underground prison as well, which has now become a garbage bin.

Wherever we travelled, we saw lots of walnut trees, beehives, grape trees and, we were informed that loads of fruits and vegetables grow in the country.

After a long day, we relaxed back in the hotel. However, our day wasn’t over yet. We rested for a while, and again set out for a night walk and dinner. We googled to find Maharajah Indian restaurant at Akhvlediani Street and had our dinner there. The food was very good. Later, we took a walk to a nearby supermarket and picked up few items and headed back to the hotel.

To be Continued...