Armenia - Thailand

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Thursday, September 1, 2011 - Yerevan, Armenia

After 17 days and 6,800 kms on dirt roads through the mountains, combined with our final night celebration party, I'm exhausted!!! I was up at 6am, took Shelly to the Airport, and went back to bed until 11am, then joined the remaining Team members in the lobby. As you probably know, this whole Challenge was to benefit the Armenia Mission - an NGO that helps refugees from the war, earthquake victems, and the poor and homeless. Attila (our Leader) organized a visit to a refugee school in North Yerevan. We jumped into our cars and convoyed to the school.

We entered to school armed with toys, clothes, school supplies and checks. There were about 30 children aged 5 - 15. They were very quiet and didn't quit know what to expect. Mic, from Australia, broke the ice by putting Australian Flag stickers on each of the kids. The Canadian Cougars, handed out toys and
candies. The Hungarians opened there boxes of clothing, and others presented checks to the School Master. The mood changed quickly. We sang English songs (Head and shoulders, knees and toes) to the children, and they sang Armenian songs to us. Some of the choldren did individual song or dance performances. What a feeling!! This is what life is really all about!!

We had a final dinner that night at KafKaz, a popular Armenian restaurant, and enjoyed local dishes and beer (although after last nights celebration, no one was really inot drinking and partying). We re-hashed many stories about the Challenge and discussions about next years plans for this crazy bunch of
adventurers from around the world.

Friday, September 2, 2011

This past April, I did an off-road motorcycle trip in California. I was telling one of my new friends, Paul Terzani from CA, about my plans for the Caucasion Challenge. I mentioned that the race ended in Armenia, and that I was planning on doing some charity work in Armenia, but wasn't sure how to go about it. He immediately told me that one of his best friends, Jeff Ward, who was married to an Armenia girl, Diane, whose father- Steve Lazarian - ran the Armenia Gospel Mission. Following the trip, Paul introduced us by email. I phoned Steve and asked him about his activities. He told me all about his organization and all the wonderful things they were doing. He said that he was a semi-retired businessman with Armenian roots and goes to Armenia twice a year to oversee the operations. He also mentioned that he is 88 years old!! I decided right away that this was the organisation that I wanted to work with.

He sent me more info by email and introdced me to the Directors in Armenia. I told them that I would donate my car to them after the trip and that I would like to spend about 2 weeks doing volunteer work with his organization.

Upon my arrival in Yerevan, I called my contact with the Armenian Gospel Mission, Syuzanne ("Suzy") Voskanya, the Medical Director. Suzy and I met this morning for a coffee and she gave me her background as well as the bcakground of the Mission. Suzy speaks excellent English. She is a Medical Doctor, and also has a Masters in Tourism. She offered to be my personal guide and to assist in arranging volunteer work for me. Following our meeting, we went to the mobile store to get a local SIM card, found a hotel
for a few days in the city, and had a late lunch at Diamond Pizza.

Saturday, September 3, 2011

Suzy came by the Hotel at 12:30 to take me to the Genocide Museum in Yerevan. The museum documents the atrocities that occurred during the period 1895 - 1922. It is claimed that over 1 million Armenians were killed by the Ottoman army. The museum is surrounded by beautiful monuments honouring the victems.

Next stop, the barber. Suzy took me to get a shave and a haircut at her friends salon. His name is Hiras, and spoke good English (which is rare over here). Following the haircut, he pulled out his guitar, and him and Suzy performed some beautiful Christian songs (he played the guitar, and they both sang), while one
of the other hairdressers served cake, fruit and tea. This could be a new concept in barber shops - maybe I'll franchise it!

Suzy had a 5pm meeting with the ICCC - the International Christian Chamber of Commerce. I was invited since I was introduced and considered by everyone to be a businessman. The meeting was conducted in Armenian, but a few people spoke English. Suzy translated the important parts for me. It
was very interesting, but we left after an hour or so as the meeting was mostly about administrative matters.

Sunday, September 4, 2011

Suzy arranged for me to be picked up at 9:30am to be taken to her church for Sunday service. The Service was not held in a church, but rather on the 4th floor of an old factory. The space had been donated by one of the parisheners. The service lasted over two hours and altrenated between sermons from the pastors and male church members, and performances by the choir (led by Suzy). Following the service, I was introduced to the pastors and gratiously welcomed as a guest into their community.

We boarded one of the beat up old buses and went back to Suzy's apartment for lunch in Massive 9, the name of her goverment housing project. She lives in a very small 3 bedroom apartment with 11 people in total - her mom, her younger brother, her married brother and his wife and six kids. Suzy invited her friend Tony over to join us. Tony is an American from California who spent time in the armed forces, after which he settled in Armenia and works as an IT specialist. He is also into fitness as a trainer.

After lunch he took us to his fitness club, where we worked out for 2 hours. Another American Armenian, Chris, joined us for dinner a a local Lenanese restaurant.

Monday September 5, 2011

This morning I moved from a luxury downtown hotel ($100 per night), to a much more reasonable modern hotel ($40 per night) in the burbs. The Nork Residence hotel is 2 years old, has a pool, jacuzzi, restaurant, and provides free transportation downtown. It is also walking distance to a local market and shops. After settling in we went to get the Lada cleaned up - 2,000 Armenian Dram (about $5 Cdn) for hand wash, inside and out and new mats. It looked like new when finished. It was still sufferering mechanically from the Challenge, so we took it to a mechanic friend of Suzy's. While he worked on the car in the garage attached to their house, we had tea and bisquits with his parents Grisha and Roseanna.

They were very interested in my background, and made me feel very welcome in their house. They are Apostolic Christians, as are about 90%!o(MISSING)f the people in Armenia. They talked a lot about God and how he has brought peace and happiness to their lives, and they asked God to be with me in my travels.

Tuesday - Friday September 6 - 9, 2011

I spent most of this week doing sight seeing in and around Yerevan. The highlights included:

National Art Gallery in Yerevan, which has one of the largest collections of European masters in the former USSR.

A walking tour of the downtown area, including the relatively new St. Grigor Cathedral, built in 2001 to celebrate 1700 years of Christianity in Armenia. Armenia was the first country in the world to officially adopt Christianity as their national religion.

The Manuscripts Museum

St Griogor Central Cathedral and head of the Apolistic Church of Armenia

I also managed to fit in some social activities, including working out at the Star Gym, dinner at the Caucasian Captive with Ruth, an Armenian friend of Suzy's from Montreal Saturday was a highlight, as I had an opportunity to join a group of Doctors and nurses from the Armenia Christian Medical Association (ACMA) to visit a seniors home in the poorer part of town. I was the official videographer documenting the visit. Little did I know that I would also have to be a referee, as a fight broke out between 2 residents over who got to see the doctor first.

Sunday was back to church service, followed by a booking with a real estate agent to see properties for sale in the area. I have this idea about buying a small parcel of land from locals, building a guest house, and giving the land back to the locals for farming. I didnt really see anything interesting, but I did get a
sense of property values in the area.

Monday I had a cooking lesson. We made an Armenian specialty, Dolma, which is ground beef with spices, wrapped in Grape leaves or cabbage, or stuffed in tomatoes, peppers, and eggplant. It was delicious!

The next few days were spent visiting some temples and churches outside of Yerevan. Specifically, Garni, Gorhardt and Khor Bat. Suzy is 37 years old and had never driven a car, so i took her on a back country road and gave her a driving lesson in the mighty Lada Niva. Believe me, if you can drive this
Lada, you can drive anything.

Since the Volunteer work I had planned did not work out, I decided to leave Armenia earlier than planned. I started looking into flights from Yerevan to Christchurch, NZ only to find that it would take about 40 hours, with all the connections. Many of the flights go through Bangkok, Thailand, which is about half way. So I talked to my daughter Michelle to get her opinion about this little diversion.

Michelle and her husband Travis spent a year travelling through South-East Asia, and loved Thailand. We put an itinery together that took me from Yerevan to Bangkok, through Moscow. I spent 1 night in the downtown area, at a hostel that Michelle had stayed at, and the next day I flew to Phuket to spend some R & R time before going to New Zealand.

My flight to Thailand involved a 3 hour flight to Moscow, a two hour layover, and then a nine hour flight to Bangkok. At the Airport in Armenia, when checking in, I asked the attendant if I could buy an upgrade to business class. Very often when asking at the last minute there are cheap updgrades available if business class has not been sold out. The girl said that I would have to go to the Purchase Ticket area. However, her supervisor was standing beside her and he said that he could arrange the upgrade. He called me over and asked for $100US cash, told me there would be no receipt, don't flash the money around, and that I wouldn't be allowed in the business class lounge, but that I would get a business class seat with full service onboard. I went for it, and everything went perfectly!

Based on Michelle's suggestion, I spent one night in Bangkok to get a feel of the city and to see a few of the sights. The next day I took the one hour flight to the beautiful island of Phuket. I spent 9 days there at a very nice hotel, the Access resort, where every room had direct access to the pool. I did a little bit of sight-seeing, going to the beach, and hanging out at the Aussie Bar in Karon Beach. Most of the people I met were from Australia or New Zealand, since it is relatively easy to get there with plenty of direct flights (about 13 hours!). Two couples I met I got along with very well and we hung out together. Max and Jen were a young couple from Australia on their honeymoon, and Mike and Nikki White from Central Otago on South Island in New Zealand.

At the end of my stay in Phuket, after a well deserved rest, I flew to Bangkok, then to Auckland NZ and then to Christchurch. In total it took about 24 hours.

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