Caucasus : Tbilisi

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Tbilisi, capital of Georgia, has the population of just less than 2 million, and one of the most positive surprised to start my first trip in Caucasus. Despite The Georgian decided to leave CIS earlier and struggled to be part of "Western World" and destroyed the former Soviet way of corruption, Gerogia was still a totally different world compared to those I have ever visited.

The whole journey took almost 3 weeks: 11 days in Georgia, 5 days in Iran and few days were gone to on and off of the plane. The travelling pace in Georgia was pretty slow, and the sights weren't the most important thing to see, however, road trip, especially once we left Tbilisi, means forever : The 104kms German made mashrutka ride took us almost 7 hours to reached.

We arrived Tbilisi on THY A320 from Instabul, the capital of Turkey, in the perfect afternoon at 4:00pm, the airport was modern, compact, and quiet, so we get through our visa and passport check really fast.

Getting from airport to downtown Tbilisi was easy, there is frequent No.37 mashrutka running every 45 miniutes just outside the arrival hall, and the ticket was incredibly cheap.

After around 30 minutes, the mashrutka stopped at Freedom Square where they terminated. Freedom Square is located between the Old Town and Commercial Areas, and also where my hostel located.

Talking about mashrutka, it is an interesting typical Soviet transportation.

Mashrutka can be found everywhere in from Georgia to most parts in Central Asia, Russia, Nepal, Lebanon, China even my home Hong Kong, called as 16 Seated Mini Van, and very well managed. There is no space for any luggage, all signs are in Georgian, and if you are lucky enuogh, there might be sign in Russian. The good thing of taking mashrutka is that they are two times faster than trains and stop only where the people requested, they don't stop if they are full, but they only leave when they are completely full.

There are not so much main attraction to visit in Tbilisi but it is a very good introduction to see Caucasus.

Anyway I enjoyed my time in the Georgia and found it much easier to travel around than I expected especially when I don't speak Russian.

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Comments

[Tommy]

hi,traveller
I heard that traffic in Tbilisi is very dangerouse,is that right? Have u ever been to Black sea coast?