Getting ripped off on our day off

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Day 10 Georgia. Monday 19th Sep

Getting ripped off on our day off



There’s usually something that goes wrong on our holidays whether it be delayed flights, luggage going missing, me getting ill, being overcharged….simething.

We had no trips booked today so Claire declared it a national holiday, for the two of us anyway. I was promised some relaxation time so this really was a special day!

The first plan was to visit the ethnographic museum which is a bit out of town. We’d been to something similar in Romania and enjoyed it. Getting a bus involved getting another travel card and putting enough money on it for each of us for a bus, then working out the bus and where to get off…. It looked a bit complicated so it seemed worth it to pay a few extra lari and get a taxi there.

Claire looked up how much it should be (about 11 lari- £3) and it said to make sure to negotaite a price beforehand. I’ve been in so many countries where you have to tell them to switch on the meter that, when a taxi driver said he would use his meter, we got in.

First off, he didn’t know where the museum was, then he drove using Google maps with the phone in his hand, occasionally texting at the same time and we couldn’t see a meter. The traffic was bad but we were still there in about 30 minutes. He then told us the price….175 lari, about £54!!! We argued but he showed us some calculation that was apparently based on time….and we think he was trying to say because it was a tourist taxi…

There are a lot of things you can do in this situation, tnere are a lot of things you wish you’d done after the event. He was very apologetic, he offered to wait for one hour and take us back for free, he seemed genuine as if this was how much he had to charge. In the end he took 150 lari, about £46. Still far too much I know. Yes we have regrets.

We got out. He drove off. The museum was closed today.

There was a Hungarian lady there who had walked all the way up the hill to find it closed too. Claire felt bad because she hadn’t checked what days it was open but these things happen. I once dragged my young daughter for two days across India to get to a national park to see tigers to find that the park wasn’t open at that time of year. S*** happens.

Note: In Georgia ALWAYS negotiate the price of a taxi beforehand. Claire later read that someone took a 25 minute taxi ride from the airport once and was charged 350 lari….

Not too far up the road was the next part of today’s plan-Turtle Lake where our holiday day was to happen. We sat and had food and a drink at the top of the lake-the vegan warm chickpea salad being particularly tasty (and only 4 lari!!).

We then walked round the lake and saw no turtles of course. I’m not sure if there are any still in there. There were a few bars, restaurants, stalls and stuff around the lake as this is a popular place for Tblisians. It was pretty quiet today but would probably liven up later. I say quiet….one empty bar on the lakeside still thought it would be okay to pump out really crap dance music that could be heard all round the lake. It isn’t okay. It’s the daytime. Turn it off. You should be locked up for disturbing the peace.

We found a sort of rope thing that we could both lie on and pulled it into the shade. We then, wait for it….lay down and, gulp, relaxed!! Apart from getting angry at the garbage music (all English/American) it was most convivial. I read my book, Claire listened to hers and we stayed out of the sun as the temperature crept up to 32 degrees.

It was getting on for 5pm so we decided to head back…but how to get there… Definitely not a taxi! I looked on Happy Cow and found a nice-looking vegan restaurant across the river. It was only a 70 minute walk and Google maps said it was mostly flat. It should say mostly flat for Georgia as it was definitely a lot of steep downhill traversing which isn’t too good for arthritic knees.

We went off-road down some dusty tracks and were some heading down some steep roads back into town. The restaurant , well cafe really, was near the busiest part of Tbilisi (not traffic-wise, that’s atrocious everywhere) and just down a side street. A lot of the side streets have interesting little places and you wonder how they survive.

The front of Shpana was very pink with the name in funky letters but no sign really of what was inside. Down some steps was a cool little place with hard seats and a few tables to sit at. It was quite garishly decorated and it looked like someone had gone crazy with some silly string. The people working there were envious of my Viagra Boys T-shirt and the fact that we had been to see them recently. My sort of people!

The food was mainly Asian with some Western and some Georgian options. I had friend peanut rice, some pancake things to follow and some delicious milkshakes while Claire had katsu curry and wine. Everything was really nice, not too expensive, all vegan of course and the toilet was clean! I left them a good review on Happy Cow.

We decided to head back over the Peace Bridge, the stylish glass one and it is pretty impressive at night too with lots of lights. Some lads were dancing, well waving their arms in the air anyway and it was nowhere near as impressive as the dancing we saw in Gori the other day. It would be like comparing Mr Blobby with Diversity, but they looked like they were having a good time and they certainly weren’t hurting anyone.

Claire wanted to hunt down our taxi driver from earlier so we took the long route back to our guesthouse. She didn’t find him and my step count is almost 19000…..on my day off!! My move goal is almost doubled and I’ve done 93 minutes exercise so yeah, a typical Glyn and Claire holiday day!

Note: 19000 steps for me takes me a long way, for Claire it is about 30 yards. Height differences eh!

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Comments

[Home and Away]

Taxis are the most likely place to be scammed...
as was I at the Arlanda airport in Sweden.

[Wadey1966]

I try and avoid taxis even at home….but they still get me once in a while…