GEORGIA – 10TH Anniversary Special

Feb 2018 - We completed a golden decade – perhaps the best phase of our life; at least in this I bet she won’t differ.  Such special occasion deserve much more than a romantic candle light dinner, doesn’t it. We mutually agreed to celebrate it peacefully in March when schools are off and am out of my year end pressure at work.  Seychelles – exotic beaches– my choice;  SNOW – Georgia- her choice. Universal rule - Her choice only matters!.

March 19-26 we finalized our itinerary post few enquires with Sridhar, who was there last year same time around. I had seen his video of paragliding down snow filled mountains. I was excited too about the snow.

Two days in Tblisi

We had carried enough winter clothing for the snow. Shiva’s friend Shefali had given a big snow boots for vidur and a thick onesie jacket for vedha. We had an air bag of winter clothes alone. A comfortable 3 hour journey to Georgia. Landed there at 3.30pm. Visa on arrival for Indians – one of the few places in the world where we enjoy this privilege.  I had booked a four star (hotel Aivani) at the heart of old town right next to sulphur bath area. All attractions were a stroll away. Around  5 we had our tea at the room and stepped out for a saunter around the old town. It was balmy, sunny and perfect for walking. A hundred meters down, we spotted ‘Taj Mahal’ – an Indian joint which Anu had mentioned to shiva – gave us great confidence to manage the food for next three days.  We walked up to freedom square and turned back to our hotel.  Apart the nice cool climate, nothing exited us about the place. Shanty and cramped houses, dilapidated buildings, mendicants on the sidewalk – made me be on the qui vive.  Out there, English language is spoken only in Mars!.  We quickly understood there is nothing much to do more than a day.

Next we went up narikala fortress which was right behind our hotel. The cable car (marketed as aerial tramway) starts from top of the fortress. Shiva neophilia ended up with a family picture in Georgian costume from top of fortress with background of Mkvari river and the city.  I did the zip line just above the botanical garden. Vedha was thrilled with cable car ride.

 

We spent some time at the bridge of peace, had lunch at taj mahal and back to room for some rest. Bridge of peace is another ordinary pedestrian bridge with nice glass ceiling over the bridge but nothing worth the hype given in websites. I went into to explore the sulphur bath. A public bath costed $1 and private one cost $40. Either I was not comprehending her well or there must genuinely be such a big difference in the experience of private and public bath. I had to step down the stairs in a sparsely lit underground structure, with pungent smell of sulphur making you feel queasy.  I quickly stepped out for some fresh air. Kiddos were glad to see me return so soon.  We took a cab to Rustalveli avenue. Its another hyped out avenue with supposedly posh branded stores on both sides of the street.  We strolled back to the garden next to aerial tramway – a good 1 walk. Kids played for an hour in the park. Some souvenir shopping as well filled up our rest of the day.

Day Trip from Tblisi

One of our friends had given the contact number of one of the few English speaking chauffer to shiva. His name was Ilya. I spoke to him before the trip and felt very comfortable and confident. He was much more reasonably priced compared to tour prices from the hotel.  We went to Jvari monastery to start with. Nice hill top church with a magnificent view down at the confluence of two rivers coming from two different directions in two colours - one in brown and other in blue. It was frigorific at the top. We did not carry gloves and hence could not stand longer in the bone chilling wind. He drove us to Msketa town. Msketa is small town which used to the old capital of Georgia before king George found Tblisi. Tbilisi mean warm place in Georgian language. Having ilya drive us around was delightfully as he kept explaining a lot of such facts on our way.  He turned out to be cicerone, not a mere chauffer. We tried out the famous ‘kacha puri’ of Gerogia - variety of cheese bread.

We proceeded to uplistike. It was hill with lots of small caves in it with Mkvari gushing right below the mountain. It was cold, scenic and an unique place to visit. Vidur loved it; cavorted up and down the caves in the hill.

Ilya dropped us back at around 6. He even recommended which category of the ubiquitous Georgian wine to go for and from where to buy it.  We did some more shopping, bought a red wine for our friend in motor city.

Guduari – The SNOW

Shiva had given so much hype about the snow to vedha,  that she started demanding for snow right from the time we landed in Tblisi. Guduari is a 2 hour drive from Tbilisi. Most tourists do day trips from Tblisi. Since snow was the centrepiece of our itinerary, I had booked an one night stay at Marco Polo hotel in Guduari. By far Marco Polo was the best property in Guduari. The hotel had facilities like bowling, tennis, table tennis, snooker tables, table football, pool and sauna. The backyard of hotel opens into Snow. Half way through our ascent to Marco polo, it started snowing.  Snow is an exotic thing for anyone who hails from south India- really; unfortunately even Dubai doesn’t offer any remote chance of snow.  We checked in early, around 12ish. I could see nimiety of excitement in the eyes of Kiddos and Shiva. They were just rhapsodic. We just could not wait to put our gear on and get out there. We finished our lunch, put on layers of clothes, gloves, goggles, boots, etc and ventured out around 2ish. It was -1 C. We were at loss of thought in over excitement, once we were in mountains of ankle deep in snow. There were lifts going up the mountain – and they were open lifts. It takes you further up to various points for activities like skiing, paragliding, etc. All of them close by 4pm.

 

The first lift was absolute fun. Despite all the planning on outfit, one thing that we missed – kids gloves were woollen cloth. After a few minutes of frolic, Vidur’s gloves got wet making it impossible for to sustain in those frigid conditions. I gave mine my lad; shoved my hands into my jacket. We took the next open lift which takes up to the next summit up – another mistake. The moment we reached the top, vidur started complaining of eye irritation, panicked and started crying. The little one started crying looking at the elder one. Next 5 minutes we were sweating bullets until we reached the first summit down. I was holding both as tight as possible. Right out of lift, there was a restaurant. I rushed inside carrying Vedha for some warmness. Thankfully both were clear after 5 mins of heater inside the restaurant. We had hot chocolate and tea to warm it up further. It was already 3:45, when it struck us that last lift down to hotel will close by 4pm. We got into the lift like a bat out of the hell.   We refreshed ourselves and ventured again - this time to the kids play area, which was also covered in snow. Shiva and vidur tried to make a snow man. By 6ish, I watsapped the menu to the taj mahal guy for door delivery of Indian food to marco polo.  Vidur and I played table football until then. He just loved those 30 minutes. 

The next day, it was snowing heavily since morning. We had a sumptuous breakfast and ventured out again. Unfortunately (or not) paragliding was cancelled due to snowfall. Kiddos and Shiva had a gambol in snow again while I tried my legs over skiing for an hour.  we came all the way expecting snow, but snowfall was icing on the cake. Even Shiva and I have never experience snow fall.

By around 1pm, we were ready for our next destination – Borjomi, which is located right next karungalli national forest.  Though, the snow part of the trip was getting over, shiva and I had still a bit of excitement left, because as our next destination was a five start hotel – Rixos!.  Rixos arranged pick up guduari – a Prado.

Borjomi National Forest

We reached Rixos, Borjomi at around half past 5. Luxurious property, spacious rooms, sprawling outdoors to walk inside the property, Mkvari gushing right behind the hotel, spanking kids play area, a huge swimming pool, Turkish hamam, fresh air, a view of mountains from room balcony closely embracing the hotel – paradisiacal!.

 

Plan A was to do day trip to lime stone cave (Prometheus caves) and water canyon (in Martivili) which is around 3 hours’ drive one way from Borjomi. It did not take much longer to switch to plan B – do Borjomi central park and enjoy Rixos. 

Next day, after gourmandizing at the breakfast table, we took a taxi to Borjomi central park. We also visited green monastery which is a small church somewhere in the middle of forest. Nothing great about it other the rugged wilderness surrounding that.

The central park was huge - sprawls more than 3-4 kms inside. Mkvari was gushing right through the park. There were lot of kids play activities inside the park, but were closed due to winter season. Temperature was 9-10 C – perfect for a long walk. The park is popular for natural mineral water from mountains. I filled in mineral water in 500ml water bottle. We couldn’t take more than sip. I still have this at home – a delicacy.

After a leisure saunter inside the park and soveniur shopping outside the park, we came back to hotel and enjoyed a pizza lunch. The second half of the day was spent in pool, steam, sauna and room made ‘podi rice, chips and curd’ dinner. Kids had a ball again with me over table football and pool.

Last day was just a drop off to the airport and back to safely to Dubai. Thanks to GOD for another good trip. Thanks to all our friends for giving us valuable tips. Thanks to kiddos for being excellent in managing varying weather conditions, long car rides and managing food.