Labyrinthine Cave City, 1990s Georgia Insight and Potatoes from Newcastle

---

Today we headed west, a 600km round trip in a minibus with a bit too much aircon for my liking. But Glyn liked it.
It was only a small group; a UK guy, a Germany lady, a couple from Russia and one Israeli guy. Our guide, Zuka is a very bubbly bloke from Tbilisi.Zuka told us all about the conflicts in the Causcasus area and how they differ. For example, the people of Russia, Ukraine, Georgia all mix without a problem as the conflict is political. Whereas the Armenians and Azerbaijanis hate each other, you couldn’t mix them on a tour together. When a foreign footballer went to play in Azerbaijan with his team, he wasn’t allowed in the country simply because he had an Armenian surname, he wasn’t even Armenian!Naturally Zuka talks about wine, you can’t get far in Georgia without someone talking about wine. As well as telling us about the wine making process, he also discussed the social side. Traditionally there would be a lot of toasting going on before anyone could drink. Toasting is a skill and villages would have a head toaster who usually has a huge belly and red face. The younger generation tend not to do so much toasting unless it’s a special occasion.Wine drinking when done properly takes a few days. The first evening is spent with food and wine guzzling. Georgians don’t sip, they gulp. The next day, hangovers are dealt with by eating kinkhali, drinking beer and Chacha. And then you sleep, best not to work the next day.Zuka discussed 1991, when the Soviet Union broke up. Georgians had a Russian currency that overnight became worthless. There was no gas, no food and imports were stopped. You could queue for a day to get bread and then someone with a gun would steal it from you.They had democracy but the opposition to the government was supported by Russians and the country fell into civil war. People would knock on your door and ask which side you supported, but it was hard to know who was asking. The wrong answer could get you shot. The large squares of Tbilisi were piling up with corpses. The police were completely corrupt and would beat people up or set them up on false charges.Crime was so high that if you had a car, you’d bring the tyres in at night or they’d get stolen. Students were considered lame and would get assaulted for carrying books.In 2003 there was the Rose Revolution, which was peaceful and successful. The new regime retired all the brutal ex soviet police and for three years they had no corruption. In 2006/7, fifteen new prisons were built to house all the corrupted and criminal. After this clean up, tourism in Georgia began, so it’s all very new.The main issues they face these days are a result of the generation gap, which is a common problem in ex Soviet countries. The older people speak Georgian and Russian whereas the younger ones speak Georgian and English. The older ones remember better times before the collapse of the Soviet Union, younger people only see it as a bad thing. People used to get married around the age of 18 but now it’s more like 28.The government tries to pass laws to please everyone, so weed was legalised. But, it’s illegal to sell or grow it and this just causes more trouble.In the 90s, religion was really popular and the churches were packed, but now it’s just a handful of older people. Zuka remembers going to see Harry Potter as a small child and the film was stopped part way through due to it coming from Satan. Why this was decided part way through the film, I do not know.The main industries are tourism, wine and mineral water, so they were totally stuffed during the pandemic.Our first proper stop was at a place called Akhaltsikhe which translates as New Castle. It’s famous for its potatoes and so potatoes from Newcastle are a big thing here. Glyn put on his Geordie accent and started banging on about potatoes. The joke needed to be explained to all.There’s a huge fortress (or castle) that was originally built in the 9th century, but most of it has been reconstructed. It’s very obvious as it’s in prime condition, plus the original stonework is a lot darker. It has a castle, citadel and ramparts. Because over the centuries, various cultures invaded, you can see a variety of styles in the architecture. We climbed up the unusually well kept stairs to the top of the fortress to view the panorama of the small city and dry mountains.About 2 and a half weeks ago, there was a massive forest fire in the area, they don’t have many helicopters, so Turkey sent some to help out and put it out. Many people had to be evacuated. The summer has been particularly hot rising to 42 degrees in the shade. But unusually they had 8 days of snow in March. Other factoid: bars and restaurants in the summer don’t get busy until 9pm and stay open until 3-4 am. It turns out that being ripped off by taxis in Georgia is pretty standard. Ithappened to the other Brit and he paid up to avoid trouble, I don’t feel so bad now. Zuka has had endless people that have been ripped off, some not even realising and giving tips! One classic occasion he heard of was a guy paid a taxi driver $300 to take him to Batumi, which is a resort on the Black Sea and about 6 hours drive. The driver took the cash and drove him around the local reservoir, a 30 minute drive and left him there.We passed a huge old Russian style building that I thought was abandoned but actually is home to Georgian war refugees from the 1990s. It’s a tatty but imposing building that once was a sanitarium, which surprised me as how could there be need for such a large one in a sparsely populated country area?Zuka also talked about the Georgian language and how it is complicated to learn, he’s only ever heard one foriegner speak it fluently, a chef from Japan. Words typically have many consonants together with one vowel at the end. Verbs are problematic as they can mean many things and one word can also be a sentence. So the word for ‘follow me’ is practically the same as ‘go’ and then very similar to ‘bring that thing and follow me’. Plus they have three alphabets, although 2 are very old and not much in use except religious writings. Some words have completely different meanings in old text, like the word for ‘bird’ in the old text now has a very offensive meaning that Zuka wouldn’t say out loud. But when in church, the priest says ‘rise like a bird’ as part of the sermon, the children burst into fits of giggles because it means something very different to them!He explained the issues of South Ossetia when I asked. Basically a lot of conflict. The police will take your details if you go, just in case you get kidnapped. For Georgians it’s nigh on impossible to go there. Zuka met a 22 year old lady from there who’d never heard of Georgia even though politically they are part of the same country! Such is the controlled media and propaganda. If you were to go to South Ossetia from Russia then tried to go to Georgia, you wouldn’t be allowed in, or you would get a massive fine. Living around here sounds like hard work! But being a tourist here is great, because it’s such an important industry, we are very looked after and there’s a lot of police.Lunch was at a restaurant called Chiko outside of town, with glass walls and a balcony looking out over the vista. The food was good and the group were interesting to chat with. The Russians said the flight from Moscow used to be 2 hours, but because of the war they have to come via Armenia or Turkey, so it takes longer and a lot more expensive. The Israeli guy was from Jerusalem and a software engineer, Zuka gets lots of those on his tours. And the German lady is yet another lone female traveller, however she’s travelled all over the world by herself and loves not having to worry about others travelling with her.A 25 minute drive took us to Vardzia caves, excavated from the higher slopes of the Erusheti Mountain. They were built in the 12th century for the military to hide from invading Turkish soldiers. Back then the caves were hidden behind rocks and parts of the mountain, so once the Turkish marched past, the Georgians would swoop down from behind and attack them.The excavated area stretches along the cliff for 500 metres and has 19 tiers with lots of tunnels and steps connecting the caves deeper in the mountain. It was later used by religious people as a monastery and became a significant place for art and literature during the Golden Age of King Tamar (who was actually a woman). Naturally it has a church and frescoes. Sometime later, an earthquake removed the face of the mountain, leaving the caves exposed.It was mostly abandoned during the Ottoman takeover of the 16th century and now is a state heritage reserve. It is thought that there’s a lot more caves further along the mountain as historians claimed it had housed around 20,000 soldiers, yet the known area would only fit 2,000. Maybe someone added an extra zero to the texts? There’s no plans for any further excavation as there isn’t the money for it.You can pay an extra 2 laris to get a minibus up to the entrance, which we all did because it was steep and very hot. However, there were more steep paths and steps to climb before we got to the entrance, just so we wouldn’t miss out and we all had to stop to let our heart rates calm down.The caves are a labyrinth carved into the rock and after showing us a few main areas, Zuka gave us the option of the easy way down or the more adventurous. The latter was unanimously chosen. Now some of the tunnels are extremely low, yet many of the uneven steps are very steep. This led me to believe that the original occupants were short with long legs, but my theory was poo-pooed. It was suggested that maybe they were just fitter than us. Whatever.The adventurous route included ladders, unlit tunnels and openings in the walls to give great views across the valley. I found the whole place fascinating and I think it’s been my favourite place in Georgia.The day was cooling down as we walked back to our vehicle, scrumping grapes from the adjacent vineyard. It was around 5.30pm, so time to start the long journey back. We briefly stopped at Khertvisi fortress to take photos from the road as the sun started to set.It was dark when we arrived in Borjomi, our final stop. No one quite knew what we were going to do there, but Glyn reckons we were going to drink sulphur. He wasn’t far from the truth as it was time again for natural mineral water , warm from the ground and supposedly good for minor ailments. If you’ve ever had unflavoured medication for a bladder infection, you’ll have a rough idea what it tastes like. A local was filling up a 2 litre bottle at the fountain! I only managed a few mouthfuls.The spring fountain was in a park that looked like it was lively earlier in the day. Bars were closing and fairground rides were lit up but closed. Borjomi is a lot more relaxed than Tbilisi and has a spa town vibe. Stalls were still open at 8pm, but winding down.It was still a couple of hours before we’d get back, so we bought a sweet bread roll filled with chocolate for me and a massive bun with raisins for Glyn. Mine was nice enough, I wouldn’t go rushing back for one though!It’s been a really good day, with a brilliant guide and interesting, chatty and diverse group. Also, so far, Vardzia has been my favourite destination of the entire holiday. It’s also been the longest trip having left our accommodation at 8.15am and returning around 11.30pm.

---