Category: Caucuses – Armenia

The drive from Dilijan to Garni was uneventful except for the paranoia about speeding after being flashed again.  It’s a nightmare as there are so few speed signs, it’s very difficult to know exactly what the legal speed limit is.  Especially as locals overtake at twice the speed of sound.  

We thought we would check out the Garni Temple before heading to our BnB but the queue for buying the tickets to enter the gardens was at least 50m.  All the tours from Yerevan which was only 40 minutes away. We decided to come back later tine 

Next stop was our BnB called 3G in Goght. It was amazing with some many chill areas and a deep, cool pool with surrounded by plenty of loungers.  The owner, Sandra has moved from Holland 12 years earlier and ran the place with the 2 other local ladies.  She was very social and made us feel feet welcome.  It was incredible what she had done with it over the years – starting with a run done building ad turning it into a multi-level space with rooms, glamping, camping and camper vans.  The first thing we is to grab our togs (first time on tour) and jump into the pool.  We spent a few hours chilling by the pool before jumping back in the car and driving back into Garni. We decided to have a look the Symphony of the Stones.  Pleasingly the car park was empty when we arrived. 

The Symphony of Stones” or “Basalt Organ” was up there with all time impressive natural monuments I have seen for a long time of Armenia.  It is made up of thousands of columnar basalts stuck together up to 50 meters high. In its appearance it resembles an organ musical instrument, hence the name.  The columns were the result of powerful lava from an eruption 127000 years ago.   Due to slow cooling, the lower parts of the lava flows took the form of pentahedral and hexagonal columns.  It was quite scary standing underneath some of the overhanging columns as it looked like they could break off and drop at any moment.   

Next we headed up to the Garni Temple.  The Temple is a classical colonnaded structural and is considered an eastern outpost of the Greco-Roman world and the only largely preserved Hellenistic building in the former USSR.   It is conventionally identified as a pagan temple to the sun god Mihrbuilt by King Tiridates  in the first century AD. A competing hypothesis sees it as a second century tomb. It collapsed in the 1679 earthquake, but much of its fragments remained on the site. Renewed interest in the 19th century led to excavations in the early and mid-20th century. It was reconstructed in 1969–75, using the anastylosis  technique. It was pretty impressive, as were the gardens surrounding it and the view up and down the Garni Gorge and the Azat River.  We finished off our evening of culture with dinner at the 7 Qar restaurant with sweeping views of the Temple.  As a started we had a plate of pickles – peaches, grapes, cucumber and even cauliflower amongst others. 

Deryn decided that she wanted to walk back from the Geghard Monastery so we drove up there nice and early to avoid the heat. We had the Monastery mostly to ourselves which was magic.   It really was special and my favourites of the 10s of monasteries that we had seen on our trip.  

While the main chapel was built in 1215, the monastery complex was founded in the 4th century by Gregory the Illuminator at the site of a spring inside a cave. The monastery had thus been originally named Ayrivank, meaning “the Monastery of the Cave”. The name commonly used for the monastery today, Geghard, or more fully meaning “the Monastery of the Spear”, originates from the spear which wounded Christ on the crucifix, allegedly brought to Armenia by Jude.  The effort and skill in building the monastery into the cliffs really was incredible.   The natural setting was as impressive.  No wonder the site has a World Heritage listing.  By the time we were ready to go, the tourist busses were pulling up and disgorging hordes of Japanese tourists.  I decided to head into Garni for a haircut and pick up Deryn on her returning walk. 

The haircut in a 1-chair barber cost me a pricey $8. I found Deryn at a roadside cafe where there were a couple of ladies making lavash in the traditional clay oven.  Looks simple but watching some tourists have a go showed just how difficult it was.  We had a cup of Armenian coffee and some lovely apple pasties that we made in the clay over.  It was then back 3G and more chilling by the pool.  As it was my birthday we got stuck into the bottle of orange white wine we had bought in Georgia.  Eventually.  Our BnB had a shared fridge and a fridge mistakenly opened another guests wine.  He wasn’t happy. We ordered take in which was equivalent quality but half the price of the restaurant food. 

We got a late check out for the following day as we didn’t have to drop the rental off until 4pm.  Another restful day chilling by the pool.  

The drive back to our rental drop off point was easy until the last 15 minutes where we ended up chasing our tail down tiny dead end alleyways until we finally gave up and told the rental guy car to come find us. We shared our location on WhatsApp and waited. 

5 minutes later a young lady turned up.  We were literally 100m from our destination.  We grabbed a Bolt to the station and killed a couple of hours wandering around the station area including checking out a lovely art museum cafe.  The area was a mix of affluent and poor but had a lovely family vibe. 

We boarded our train at 9 but as the aircon wasn’t on I hung around outside.  Our 2 bedded cabin was very comfortable – once the aircon came on.  

The border crossing was a bit of a pain at 330 am.  Leaving Armenia we Okish but entering Georgia was a pain as we had to leave the train and stand in a queue.  It was bucketing down as well.  It took a couple of hours to process all the passengers at the checkpoint.   45 min out of Tblisi the train stopped for 2 hours.  No explanation.  It was OK tho as we got a couple of hours of extra sleep and helped kill the time before our flight to Bishkek. 

We arrived at a very odd central station in Tblisi.  Georgia certainly is a lot more tatty than Armenia.  We grabbed a quick coffee and pasty at the food hall before getting a taxi to a nearby sulpher bath to spend an hour soaking in boiling water.  Dits grabbed a salt scrub as well.  It was then off to the airport and the next leg of our adventure 

The drive from Gorin to Seven was through similar beautiful passes that we drove through on our way down.  Dits had diligently found some interesting places to visit on the way, the first being Carahunge, Armenia’s Stonehenge, although a lot older with estimated ages ranging from 5000 to 30,000 BC. There are 220 odd stones (some weighing 10 tonnes) and with over 80 having perfectly round holes drilled through that align with the stars leading to the belief that they were used for astronomical observations.   Just how the ancients drilled these holes before the Bronze Age is unknown.   The site was beautiful. 

Next stop was the lovely Shaki waterfall.  It was at the end of a 5-minute walk along a bubbling river.  We got there again before the masses so had time to chill with a cup of very strong Armenian coffee.  We are getting used to the sludge that is always at the bottom of the cup!

Next stop was Orbellian’s Caravanserai at the pinnacle of the Murtuni-Getap Highway.  A Caravanserai is effectively a luxury hotel for the ancient traders on the old Silk Road.  We picked up a French couple hitch-hiking (both carpenters), so it was nice to chat to some people.  They were going to Seven so were very happy to get a life the whole way rather than their usual village hops.  The Caravanserai was impressive though luxury it certainly wasn’t. It was a huge stone barn effectively with holes in the roof to let the light in.  It was also freezing. I am sure it would be very different filled with travellers and fires. The views were spectacular.

We dropped our hitchhikers in Martuni and then continued on to Hayvarank Monastery, built between the 9th and 13th century. It’s incredible how blasé you become after seeing to many of these historical marvels. What it incredible is how so many of them survived Armenia’s tempestuous history.  There was a wedding there with a stuffed fox strapped to the bonnet of the car which is a thing in Armenia.  It’s meant to bring the bride and groom god luck.   Not so lucky if you are a fox. 

Our accomodation in Seven was the impressively named Luxury Collection Hotel. It was located behind a high fence with an automatic gate.  We had got it incredibly cheap – $54 down from $185. It looked very Persian with lots of bling.  The owners were incredibly nice and upgraded us to a lovely big room to long as we gave them a 10 rating on Booking.com.  No problem!  We were recommended a restaurant on the shores of the lake so off we headed for dinner.  Seven has weird motorway system – once you navigate the pot holed roads to get to them – as you have to head many kilometres in the opposite direction before being able to head in the direction you want. Very odd.   The meal was amazing, as was the restaurant.  Being a day trip from Yerevan was obvious in the quality of the customers. 

We planned to get away early in the morning to check out the beautifully located Sevanavank Monastery.  However, we could not get out because of the locked gate, so we had to make some noise to try wake up the hotel owner.  He then insisted we come inside for a coffee and some sweets. However we still made it to the monastery before the crowds.  The monastery is located on a little peninsula and actually it was originally built on an island 3kms from the mainland, but the Soviets drained the lake by 20 metres in the 70’s for hydro and irrigation purposes. The monastery was built by Princess Mariam in 874.  She was not allowed to enter the island as it was men only.   The view was incredible.  Lake Seven is 1900m above sea level, is one of the largest freshwater lakes in Eurasia and comprises 1/6th of Armenian territory.  It also remains about 13 degs all year round so keeps the surrounding area nice and cool in the hear of summer. Hence a popular place for Yerevan locals escaping the heat. 

Next destination was the forest and hiking trails of Dilijan.  We were advised by our hotel host to stop at this supermarket on the northern tip of the lake.  It was incredible.  The food looked amazing.  It was packed because it was a Saturday am, but unfortunately we had already had breakfast.  We committed to stop there on our way back to Garni.  The trip to Dilijan was uneventful bar getting flashed by a speed camera just before entering a very long tunnel.  It’s a real nightmare driving in Armenia as there are very few speed signs.  It’s all a bit of a guess.  Dilijan was beautiful, as was our room in Verin Tun on its outskirts.  However, the mattresses had certainly seen better days.   

It was raining when we arrived, at times really heavy, but nonetheless we decided to head out for a walk and check out the Drunken Forest – a forest where the trees are all on a lean. We drove into the old town and the hiked up the hill.  We had to stop for cover during a particularly heavy downpour but apart form that it was fine.  After being on roads to the summit we found the Transcaucasian Trail – a 1900km (planned 3000) through the Caucuses and followed it on its way back into town.  We then had a wonderful around the very scenic Old Town.  Back home for a shower and back into town to a recommended local restaurant called Kchuch, on the banks of the Aghstev River.  The food was amazing.  Again!

The next day we drove to Parc Lake for the 7.5km hike to Goshavanq Monastery.  We got away early after a massive BnB breakfast so we were the only ones there when we arrived.  It was a beautiful 20 min drive through the wooded mountains.  The trail was part of the aforementioned TC Trail.  The first part of the hike was disappointing as it was a very muddy, rutted road but after 30 minutes we peeled off onto a single track through the forest.  After another hour we reached the alpine meadows and understood why Dilijan is referred to as Armenia’s Switzerland.  We were befriended by some cows so we stayed and had a little chat.  We made a couple of wrong turns but eventually we were rewarded with amazing views of the Goshavanq Monastery and surrounding village.  We passed an Aussie couple that we had bumped into earlier on in the trip on the way down heading the other way – small world. 

The monastery was built in the 12th century by Mkhitar Gosh, a bit of a dood who turned the monastery into a renown place of learning for academics all over the Caucuses. There was a service going happening so it was nice to be able to join in for a while.  The priest and alter boy’s singing was amazing.  After eating our picnic of dried fruit, and a cup of Armenian coffee, it was time for the return leg.  600m of climbing and just over 15kms in total.   Parc Lake was teeming by the time we got back around 2 so we didn’t hang around.  It was back to our BnB for a shower and a bumpy kip before heading to our favourite local restaurant for a few games of cribbage and another amazing meal.  Tomorrow, we head away back towards Yerevan to a place called Garni and some famous tourist attractions. 

It was exciting to be on the road after nearly ending up without a rental car. It would have been a nightmare had Alina not managed to find one for us.  It was a lovely new car so driving was a pleasure.  First stop was Khor Virab – apart from stopping to photo one of the numerous storks that had made nest on top of lampposts.  The temple was first built in 642 to commemorate St Gregory the Illuminator who spend 13 years in a pit on the site after admitting to being a Christian to King Trdat.   Trdat fell ill and was advised by his wife to release Gregory, his illness was cured.  He then converted to Christianity and made Armenia the first Christian nation in the world in 301.   The view of Mt Ararat in the background was stunning – although cloud cover made it less than perfect.  

After that it was a beautiful drive through some spectacular canyons to the deserted Norovank Monastery built in the 13th century. The sheer red cliffs surrounding it made for an awesome setting.  After enjoying the isolation and scenery we headed back down the canyon to some nearby caves called Areni-1 Caves.  The caves were amazing – there was evidence that they were making wine there back in 3500 to 4000 BC.  There was still a lot of qvevri buried in the ground.  Again there was very few people there whjch enabled Deryn and I to have the place to ourselves – apart from the flocks of swallows which is hardly surprising given its also called the Birds Cave. 

From there it was off to the weirdly named Yeghegnadzor and our B&B called Home.  It was beautiful and our host Saba was an incredibly helpful host with a lovely twinkle in his eye.   His recommendation for dinner was the Gastro Yard Arman Hakhverdyan was superb. Best meal we have had on our travels to date.  For 5000 GEL each we had multiple courses, 2 wines, a brandy and a lovely vodka was well as a gift of a bottle of brandy with our photo on the label.  The walk to and from the restaurant was lovely – seemed like every car was a Lada. Very unlike Yerevan where there was a lot of Chinese EVs. 

Saba provided a lovely breakfast – again at 9am as no one gets up before then – and it was on our way to our next destination on the Yerevan Meghri Highway through a spectacular pass.  We spotted the isolated Vorotnavak Church off the to the side of the road. The benefit of getting away early is that there are no crowds.  Again we had the place to ourselves to wonder around.  

Next stop was the Tatev Monastery and the famous Wings of Tatev. A 5.2 km cable car that runs between Halidzor and Tatev Monastery.  We decided to do the cable car first and then check out the monastery.  The cable car was OK although a bit pricey at $40 each – $20 each way.  The monastery was built in the 9th century and in the 14 and 15th centuries it was most important Armenian universities.  It has spectacular views over the Vorotan River.   We decided to drive to the bottom of the canyon and walk to the Dragon’s Bridge – a cave that looked like a bridge. We ended up going what we thought was the wrong way so backed up and walked the other way up the river until we got to a point where the river was too deep to cross. Deryn bum was still hurting from the fall in Kutaisi fall.  It all got too hard so we flagged it and retuned to the car and continued our journey.  We found out later that the first route we took was the correct one.  Damn, as the cave sounded impressive.  

Our next stop was the town of Goris.  While driving there we notice a small stone rotunda perched on the edge of the Alaverdi. We enjoyed the little walk to the rotunda and then the incredible view.  

The drive to Goris was easy. The roads so had been pretty good although once we got into Goris the roads were terrible – it looked like the potholes were being prepared for fixing with these big rectangles all over the roads.  We pulled up outside our BnB called Aregak. It was run by Mareta who sounded like a real character.  The BnB was in an apartment block so it was a bit difficult to find but Mareta eventually came out and gave both of us a big bear hug.  We had booked a 4 bed room but Mareta tried to convince us to move into the room with a double bed.  The problem was that the bed took up the whole room.  After thinking about it for a while I said no.  That resulted in a big hug from Mareta.  She then made us some coffee and biscuits.  She noticed that I had dropped a crumb onto my sweatshirt so she picked it off for me.  When I chuckled she grabbed me by my head and smothered me with her bosom.  Very odd. 

We asked for a recommendation for dinner.  She said she knew just the place and rather just tell us where it was she walked us there holding Deryn’s hand the whole way.  Our take on the situation l was that the quality of the rooms of her BnB were poor so she compensated by being this person.  It didn’t feel put on though. Dinner was great as always.  

The next day we decided to do the hike to the Old Bells of Goris and through some well known cave dwellings. Apparently the caves were inhabited from the 5th century through to the 1950’s.  We had a lovely breakfast in the garden of the BnB – basically Mareta’s allotment.  It was a lovely breakfast.  We then headed out for hike. It was a beautiful day.  We had a bit of trouble finding the trial to the top of the hills but eventually made it.  The was a sign at the peak – and some cows – the the options of the the Old Goris Loop (and the cave dwellings) and Old Bells of Goris.  Well the loop will obviously bring is back here and then we can do the Bells walk.  Well the loop took us past some caves and back to where we started out this morning.  Well then had to re-climb the 300m back to the top of the hill.  We went off piste and found some dwellings but hardly impressive.  It was hard work and by the time we found the path to the Bells were were pretty worn out. But soldier on we did.  We met a local cow herdsman who chatted away in Armenian. After about an hour we got to the Bells which was again hardly inspiring.   We tried to hitch a ride for the 6kms back to town but failed.  Thankfully there was a fountain there so we could refill our empty water bottles.  I then convinced Deryn to retrace our steps back to our BnB.  It wasn’t that tough as it was mostly downhill We hobbled into town and grabbed a couple of kebabs from a very impressive local supermarket.  And then it was back to the hug palace for a well earned sleep after a 12km of hiking and nearly 800m of climbing. 

We headed back to the same restaurant as the previous night for another enjoyable meal and few games of cribbage.   That evening back in the BnB we met an older English lady who had spent a fair bit of time in NZ in the 80’s.  Working as a farmers in Gore. She told us a story about how she nearly died while hitching and being picked up in a truck that rolled. She was not wearing a seatbelt and was thrown from the truck. She was in hospital for 4 months.  She has travelled widely all without ever owning a phone!!

We talked Mareta into an 830 breakfast the next morning so we could head way early for our trip to Seven. Breakfast was great and after some hugs it was off back north. 

Our driver turned up on the dot of 7:30, and within 90 minutes, we were at the Armenian border.  Our driver told us we had to take our luggage through the Georgian emigration as well as the Armenian side. We were there early, so it took less than 5 minutes to clear Georgian customs but at least 10 minutes to walk the 500 metres between the border posts.  Armenian immigration was a doddle, and we were outside looking for our driver in 5 minutes.  The problem was he was still waiting for us to get back in the car in Georgia— a bit of a communication breakdown.  Thankfully, Deryn had got roaming on her phone, so we were able to WhatsApp him.  We ended up waiting about 20 minutes for him to clear Armenian customs as things had got busier.   We used the time to grab some local currency— 1 AUD was about 260 Armenian Drams. 

The roads in Armenia seemed pretty good compared to Georgia, and also what we had read in a blog.  We stopped at the Haghart Monastery Complex. Like Georgia the day before, it was not a good idea to visit the  famous monastery on the weekend at a location with 90 minutes of the capital.  The place was packed.  The complex was located in a beautiful mountainous forest and was built between the 10th and 13th centuries— it was beautiful, and it made sense it was so popular. 

From there, it was about 90 minutes until we were dropped off at our hotel, Ithaca, right in the heart of Yerevan.  The hotel clerk was lovely and, after showing us to our room— a tiny but clean double room— he made us each a cup of the dark, tasty Armenian coffee. 

After that it was off to get some local ESIMs and check out the local area.  Yerevan had a much more energetic and happy vibe to Tbilisi.  It could have been because it was a beautiful sunny day – not an uncommon experience as apparently it happens 318 days of the year.  We decided to do a ‘free’ walking tour at 5pm. We were a little bit phased when he told us it would take 3 hours – getting close to our bedtime it thankfully we had wisely (as in two wise nomads!) grabbed a dinner before joining the tour.  The food was lovely – Deryn was impressed that the salads were as good as the Georgian ones. And as cheap, if not cheaper 

The walk was good although the host was a little prickly.   He was a ‘former’ artist who set up the free walking tour concept in Yerevan and now everyone was copying in, Lara’s are only driven by pheasants in the country and Azerbaijan deserves to be wiped off the map.  While Armenians smile a lot more than Georgians they are certainly a race that have been bashed around by the superpowers – Otterman Empire, Russians and the Persians. Like Georgia they have experienced recent wars.  Incredibly resilient people.  The guide was telling us that the Americans are investing a lot into Armenia because of their quality education.  He was also positive about Trump because of his trump highway – TRIPP. Trump Route for Peace and Prosperity – proposed 43-kilometer transport corridor in Armenia’s southern Syunik province intended to link mainland Azerbaijan with its Nakhchivan exclave.  The elections are being held on the upcoming Sunday and once again it’s a battle between the pro-West party (the incumbent and favourite) and the pro-Russian party. 

We had a local dog follow us for most of the tour – to the dismay of the tour guide who did not like dogs.  The tour was 3 hours with no rest – would have been nice to stop somewhere for a drink. We tipped the guide 10,000 GEL (A$40) and had a well earned cup of tea before collapsing into bed after a long day.

The next morning we had the usual challenge of finding a place for breakfast – the Armenians are certainly not morning people with most places not opening before 9 or even 10. We walked through town to the Opera House.  It’s an incredible building – it’s amazing a city smaller than Auckland sees it worthwhile to spend that sort of money on an opera house.  From there it was through a park filled with incredible statues – including some springboks and a kiwi. It was then a climb of over 840 steps to the top of the Cascade Centre.  The views of Mt Ararat and the incredibly conical volcano Mt Kucucagri towering over the city was amazing. It’s a tragedy that Mt Ararat which is such a symbol of Armenia was gifted to the Turks in 1921 by the Russians – post the Armenian Genocide. 

We took the extra time to climb up to the brutalist Soviet monument built in 1967 as a memorial to the 50th Anniversary to the October Revolution.  It was pretty average and the views hardly better than from the stairs below. 

We then wandered through the numerous beautiful parks looking for the Cognac Factory.  We eventually found it but unfortunately the tour wasn’t until 2 pm which made it a too hard.  We meandered back to our hotel stopping at a nearby cafe for some lunch.   I hung around to write the blog while Dits headed back to the hotel to do some more trip planning.   I bought myself a tea shirt at the huge market near our hotel – I was getting a bit sick of the wearing the same 3 shirts.  Dits wandered off to do a bit of market wondering; I joined her 45 minutes later.  Dits bought some lovely silver earrings and me another tea shirt.  We when checked out the Blue Mosque, an 18th century Iranian Shia mosque.  It is an active mosque used by Iranians living in Yerevan. 

We decided to try pick our rental car up earlier than the 10am we had booked.  When we turned up the rental company we were dealt a blow.  Aus and NZ drivers licences need a paper copy of an international drivers license as well – unlike virtually every other country on the planer where just the local drivers licences will do.  We cajoled and pleased but to no avail.  We went and sat in a cafe to try figure out wha the hell to do.  Stay in Yerevan and do day trips; hire a driver on a multi -day basis …. I decided to reach out to Simon who had married Alina, an Armenian.  He was on holiday in Moscow so Alina contacted her many cousins in Armenia to see if we could borrow a car. After several hours they finally tracked down a car.  Brilliant!!   We had to wait another  couple of hours before we got an address and GG’s (local Uber) to the address.  Our car was a new Mazda CR5 for a reasonable US$55 per day.   We had a fair bit of USD and Euro left over from our Sri Lankan holiday from 2 years ago so it felt like it was free.  4.5 hours late but we were back on track