NAGORNO-KARABAKH

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Mohammad and Juan went out to see the celebrations in the city center of Yerevan, I opted out and decided to pack and get ready for my trip tomorrow, just after midnight the boys came back with 2 liters of beer so I got up and drank with them while finishing up the left over crayfish from dinner, this is our 3rd consecutive crayfish night! If anything, I will remember Armenia for the crayfish! Eventually went to bed and woke up at 8am and got ready to leave , Mohammad gave me instructions on where to take the minvans to Stepanekert, Nagorno-Karabakh, although the LP said its in Kilikia Avtokayan, Mohammad insisted I can catch it in the bus station he is directing me to, so I sheepishly followed his instructions. I got there and all the drivers pointed me to the other station! They hired me a taxi and sent me to Kilikia bus stop, I should have not listened to Mohammad,arriving at the station my driver though I could not understand him helped me find the right van to Stepanakert,nice old man, the bus driver then took 5,000 drams from me and I got on and in 2 minutes we are off.

The van stopped 3 or 4 more times, once to pick up another passenger and 3 times to buy box full of tomatoes from the side of the road. A brief lunch stop, but I just bought fruits from a vendor next door to the restaurant. We are now halfway approaching the town of Goris we let off one woman at the junction then the next stop was at the checkpoint, I was the only tourist so I was told to come with the driver, the police registered me in this paper sheet that took 10 minutes as he does not seem to know what to do, what to write, he then gave me my passport back and an instruction, visa in Stepanakert ok?

The road is winding and I started to get dizzy, the scenery is nice but nothing spectacular, mostly dry brown grass, we keep climbing up and eventually arrived to Stepanakert the capital of Nagorno Karabakh an Armenian enclave within Azerbaijan. Immediately I was surrounded by taxi drivers as I get out of the van, I said no and started walking to find the Ministry of Foreign Affairs office, took me awhile to get my bearings and the people are staring at me as if they haven't seen a tourist here, I hear some shy hellos from young people, at the MFA I filled in the form and got my visa, I listed down places I wanted to go but the officer crossed out one, Kelbajar, you can't go there it's dangerous, he announced, but he approved all the rest I listed down.I paid 3,000 drams for a 21 day visa and then walked to find the GH I wanted to stay, Ella and Hamlet GH it is near the MFA but its on a nook you walk all the way down past Soviet style apartment blocks.

I went inside but could not find anybody, then an old woman came out and took me to the room, I met Till, a nice German dude, he just arrived today also from Goris and we decided to travel together here to save money, I went to find food in town and use ATM and then I found the center which was very simple, a nice park with fountain and the football stadium on the other side down the hill, I found a store to buy food to cook for dinner as we have a kitchen in the GH, I pay 5,000 drams a night each room is big with 3 to 4 beds on each but we have our own rooms to ourselves. We cooked dinner of pasta and eggplant sauce, I bought some things in the small shops but no one speaks English it was charade time trying to explain I want cooking oil, it is not cheap here as well, all the commodities are expensive as they bring it from Armenia.

Nice dinner and good conversation with Till, the owner registered us while having dinner he took our passports and was amazed on mine as he thumbs through it. Tomorrow we visit some monastery in the mountains. 7:30am Till and I got up and I cooked breakfast and we headed to the bus station about 10 minute walk from the Hamlet GH. We bought our ticket at the booth, the woman asked for our passports, tickets to Vank costs 500 drams, it leaves at 9am, as we got out to the waiting area, a burly man invites us to come closer, he inspects our ticket and pointed to the marsrotni, this is our driver it turns out. We got on and immediately he plays music videos of Armenian artists and he danced and sang with it, happy man, hopefully not too happy as the roads are winding and needs full attention from the driver, 1 hour later we made it in one piece, the clouds that started the day is slowly burned by the sun and rays of sunshine appeared in the hills, we are happy, no rain.

The town of Vank is relatively small and weird, as you enter town there is a mural wall of old Azeri license plates, Till suspected that, I did not believe him at first then an old woman whom I took a picture of confirmed it for me, Azerbaijan she said pointing to the license plates behind her stuck on the wall.

A garrish hotel is in front of us shaped like a boat other than that and a few statues nothing to see here, we saw a sign for the Gandzasar monastery, we started to follow it walking uphill, the roads goes around the mountain and great view of the town below and some forests, the road is lined with blackberries we stop occasionally to see if there are any ripe ones, for snack. Pilgrims in taxis stop for us offering rides to the top but we refused deciding we needed some hiking for the day. We eventually made it up after maybe 1/2 hour, we took a short cut, well not really, we went through the cemetery at the foot of the monastery we lost track of the trail and started climbing walls, there was a decorated horse on top of the stairs, a tourist trap we refused the owner's offer of a horse ride, went straight to the monastery compounds. The church is full of shall I say ancient graffiti, magnificent detailed drawings of crosses and inscriptions. Inside as you enter the church the floor is filled with floor slab tombs of bishops and nobles of the region. Other than that the inside is so simple, nothing extravagant, and there is some blessing service going on, maybe pilgrims.

I stepped out and found Till sat on a bench under a shady tree, we contemplated where to go next then we decided to walk down to Vank, 2.5 km, and along the way picked some more blackberries that we missed earlier. We met 2 tourists on their way up, 2 Polish that was on the same bus with Till from Goris yesterday. At the bottom of the hill in the "town center" we asked around for taxis to do our trip of the Northern Karabakh area, visiting a few interesting sites but we could not understand each other, we could not even haggle as they won't quote us a price, we gave up and left the drivers, they did not chase us seems like not even interested in working today and making money. We tried to hitch hike to Stepanakert but failed, one delivery truck tried to explain something to me as we ask for a ride, I think he was telling us where to wait for cars but it was lost in translation, Till and I getting frustrated, we stood in the shade for awhile until we saw a taxi pulling up, darn it's the same boys as earlier.

This time though we pulled out a map and showed them where we intended to go and this time they are interested in taking us there, price was set at 20,000 drams, we haggled until we got it down to 18,000, we took it, it is difficult to hagggle when 8 other drivers were there in the circle, we did not know who the driver will be until the end. Deal was sealed we headed off we went past the town of Askeran we saw briefly the fortress but the driver said we come back here, so we did not stop yet, except for a tank we saw on the side of the road, took photos and quickly left. On the way to Tigranakert we passed the destroyed abandoned town of Agdam, then to Tigranakert where there is a fortress/museum. It showcases some artefacts taken from archaeological digs around the area, we don't have time to visit all of them unfortunately, there is a military post nearby which you can see clearly from the tower, we were told by locals not to take pictures but I already have, too late. On the way out our driver pointed to a deserted road, to Azerbaijan he announced, we just stared at it until we no longer see it.

As we pass the town of Agdam we told the driver to stop and Till and I explored the area, minding the halo sign that means cleared of landmines, well hoping it's true we walked around for almost 1/2 an hour. All the houses were totally destroyed this is close to the ceasefire line and we can see Azerbaijan from a distance as it sits on the hills, you also see odd burned or decaying tanks dotting the hills. We found a turned over tank which we explored a bit, being boys we like these stuff, Till served in the German army he explained to me where bullets hit the tank. We saw bunkers and 6 foot deep trenches, the area is hot and dry I can't imagine why people fight for this place. As we check out destroyed houses we found occasional pomegranate and fig trees, we saw one pomegranate tree laden with dark red fruits and we wasted no time harvesting them and put it in my bag, we must have taken 9 fruits, to eat for later, we reckon nobody owns it anymore, besides heaps of pomegranate orchard dot the landscape further on near to Askeran. As we were walking freely we had a thought about landmines as we passed odd metal scraps on the ground, luckily we left the area in one piece. LP said it's a risk to explore this place we can get arrested and photo is prohibited but we did not go all the way down the town center, we did not see the mosques mentioned in the guide book, we must have seen just parts of the town up the hill, we were happy enough and retreated carefully.

Back to Askeran we stopped near the walls built in the 18th century it once stretch 1.5 km across the valley, we saw an extension past an almost dried up river on the other side of it. It's 14 kms from Stepanakert, I asked the driver to stop briefly at the Papik Tatik monument which appears on virtually every souvenir stuff sold in town, the tuff statues are of a bearded man and a veiled woman, symbol of this area. we got dropped off at the round about and we walked and shopped for dinner, we saw 3 Brits in the supermarket one wearing the Halo land mine clearing logo shirt, we reckoned they work for them. Yesterday when I got my visa at the MFA office, the man told me there are 30 tourists in town, I don't see them, I have seen less than 10 so far where are they, this area is not frequently visited. Tomorrow we plan on visiting the southern part of Karabakh.

Woken up by torrential rain in the night but other than that slept pretty well. We got to the bus station around 9am and found the minivan to the town of Shushi, winding roads great view of Stepanakert from the ascending zigzag roads, the colors of autumn is starting to show, made it to Shushi, paid 200 drams for the trip about 15 minutes, we are higher now than Stepanakert, it's cloudy and a bit cooler, the bus station, well more of a bus stop is next to this huge soviet block type housing and a few shops and fruit stalls, as expected everyone stares as we alight, we just generally walked down to get to this massive cathedral, it's nice outside and simple inside with a few paintings of saints, Till was enjoying himself with the 5 puppies outside the church, while I listen to a middle age man sing hymns inside the church, he was a tourist like us but decided to show off, anyway he's got a good tenor voice.

Then we walked uphill past construction sites and we found ourselves on the other side of the hill we saw footmarks on trees and walls, and according to Till the sign for the famous trail that was now forbidden to do by the MFA. We enjoyed beautiful view of the valley below, with striking colors of changing leaves, and we saw lots of blackberry bushes so we busied ourselves with some snacks, we got to another point and it's just as scenic. Then downhill to town, we are trying to find the mosque we found the old cinema instead which was a church before and a few monuments here and there, then we gave up and decided to visit the old walls of the city, we followed it for a bit and walked on the walls itself, across it is a field full of walnut trees. We somehow got lost and found ourselves in what look like a prison! So we quickly left the area, and decided to go back to Stepanakert after 3 hours of walking around, we sat at an intersection waiting for the minivan back when I noticed a minaret looking chimney but it was a minaret and we found the old mosque, only this minaret gives you a clue it was a mosque as it was just a regular building so we missed it, we were looking for a dome shaped structure.

All the while we were waiting some women were staring and laughing at us we don't know why they keep pointing at us, we checked if our pant zips are undone, it was not!, They are just amused to see gringos I think. One minivan came it was full so we waited for the next, we got dropped off in the town center and we went straight to MFA office to ask directions for the post office, it was lunch time so it's closed,we asked the security guard and he pointed us further towards the big park. As we walked we wandered about and somehow found the market, it was not busy but many things to buy, the locals happily obliged for some photos, we then found a nice restaurant serving grilled meats so we sat down it was a tad bit expensive for our budget, 3,200 drams for grilled pork and some salads and bread but it was good so we did not mind. Back to the market we shopped for dinner tonight then walked back to the main drag and after asking numerous people we finally found the post office, only they don't sell postcards, we can't find any here in this town so we just bought stamps as souvenirs.

Then we went to the internet and as we are there it started to rain hard and we got soaked a bit walking back to our GH, we were so hungry so we cooked dinner at 6pm, as we prepare for dinner one of the owner I think he could be the Hamlet on the Ella and Hamlet GH, was rude, he asks us for payment but with a rude gesture, we did not like this dodgy guy, we think he is greedy, he tries to make conversations as we cook, we ignored them, the woman, Ella is much nicer though does not speak English well. This place is indeed good though, there's a kitchen and rooms are nice big space with tv and clean just put up with the rude owner and you'll be fine. While having dinner 4 local Armenian tourists arrived, no hi no nothing they just put their stuff in the kitchen and left, I tell you the Armenians pale in comparison to Central Asia when it comes to friendliness and hospitality, I just don't get it, they are proud people I get it but a little bit aloof for me.

Armenia is not visually stunning like the Central Asian countries and the south is supposed to be the most scenic part, but Nagorno is as far south east we can go, and the scenery here is better than what I saw near Yerevan, an American Peace corp volunteer offered to hike with me in the south but sadly our schedules did not allow me to pay a visit to his village, in my last few days I hope to see some spectacular sceneries, we shall see.

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Photos

Vank
Wall full of Azeri license plates

Askeran
our driver

Comments

[Yathi]

Nice Pics
Seems like a pretty little town. Nice pictures BTW.