hauteboy

My wife and I spent three weeks on a RTW trip in July this year, visiting Mongolia, Moscow and the Caucasus (Azerbaijan, Armenia and Georgia). Some friend of ours were planning on spending two weeks in Moscow and the Caucasus and had invited us along. I had an extra week of vacation, and as we like to squeeze as much into our trips as possible, we were looking for an addon trip prior/following meeting up with our friends. One option was spending a week in Mongolia for the Naadam festival, the other was finishing the trip in Iran. We finally decided on Mongolia. My wife also had never been to China, and wanted to spend some time there before going to Mongolia, why not? She would fly onto Beijing a week before, spending a few days there and in Xian before meeting up in Mongolia.

PHOTOS:
http://homepage.mac.com/musick/China/PhotoAlbum42.html
http://homepage.mac.com/musick/Mongo...toAlbum55.html
http://homepage.mac.com/musick/Cauca...toAlbum61.html

The first trick was trying to find out how to get to all these places. My wife and I had made our plans rather late in the game, during the height of summer season, and we had a hard time finding award availability. Korean Airlines is the only alliance member airline that flies into UlaanBaatar, and paid tickets are very expensive. However, there wasn't availability on SkyTeam from the USA to Seoul, or from Europe to the USA on Oneworld on the days we needed. We finally sorted out the tickets, using a combination of paid tickets and awards. We really wanted to do the Trans-Siberian from Mongolia to Moscow, but wouldn't have enough time, instead we would be flying from UlaanBaatar directly to Moscow on Aeroflot. I purchased the Aeroflot tickets before leaving the USA. One-way biz class tickets were only $520, at less than $100 more than Economy on this route, it was a no-brainer. I purchased my wife's internal China flights through yoee.com, for about half the price other online engines were quoting. We also arranged our Russian visas ($160 each with introduction/service fee!) beforehand, through visahq.com.

Oneworld Biz Award - 115k miles
AA aus-ord-ngo biz
BA tbs-lhr-bru biz
IB/AA bru-mad-ord-aus biz (will be using in early '06)

Delta Intra-Asia Award - 25k miles
KE ngo-icn-uln econ
KE uln-icn-ngo econ (unused)

Paid tickets:
SU uln-svo $560 biz
SU svo-bak $140 econ
AA bru-jfk-dfw-aus $623 econ (upgraded w/ VIPs)

My wife's itinerary was the following:
03JUL AUS-SJC AA biz (AA award)
03JUL SJC-NRT AA biz (AA award)
04JUL NRT-PEK NW econ (DL award)
08JUL PEK-XIY MU econ (paid)
10JUL XIY-PEK CZ econ (paid)
10JUL PEK-ICN KE econ (DL award)
10JUL ICN-ULN KE econ (DL award)
...

My itinerary was:
09JUL AUS-ORD AA biz (AA award)
09JUL ORD-NGO AA biz (AA award)
10JUL NGO-ICN KE econ (DL award)
10JUL ICN-ULN KE econ (DL award)
16JUL ULN-SVO SU biz (paid)
19JUL SVO-BAK SU econ (paid)
30JUL TBS-LHR BA econ*(AA award)
30JUL LHR-BRU BA biz (AA award)
31JUL BRU-JFK AA biz (paid/VIP)
31JUL JFK-DFW AA biz (paid/VIP)
31JUL DFW-AUS AA biz (paid/VIP)

July 9, 2005
Flight: Austin to Chicago, American (M80) First 4A, flown: 973, earned: 0
Flight: Chicago to Nagoya, American (777) Business 10A, flown: 6436, earned: 0

The trip started out pretty normal. Arriving at the Austin airport I breezed through checkin. American wasn't able to issue my onward boarding passes on Korean like they had been able to with my wife's flight to Beijing on Northwest a week earlier. The flight to Chicago was smooth and on arrival I headed to the Flagship Lounge until the flight departed to Nagoya. I had boarded the plane and everything seemed ready to go when the copilot came on the PA and said the pilot had an emergency and they were trying to find another pilot. My heart skipped a beat at that; as I had only a 60 minute connect in Nagoya. I knew that had been tight connection, but all the flights from Chicago had been arriving on time, and NGO was a small airport so I had been confident I'd make the connection with no problems. We ended up sitting on the ground for 90 minutes after scheduled departure before finally they located a pilot. Meanwhile, I was frantically trying to get in touch with my wife who was in Xian China. I wasn't able to get through to her cell, it was the middle of the night there. We took off around 2:10 PM with an ETA of 5 PM the next day, 20 minutes after my Korean flight departed!


They ran out of the Japanese meal right before they got to my seat, so I chose the salmon instead. I wasn't able to sleep very well during the flight, worried about my connection.

July 10, 2005
Hotel: Centrair Hotel (Nagoya, Japan)
(http://www.centrair.co.jp)
We weren't able to make up all the lost time in flight, and as we were landing I saw the Korean Air flight taxiing to the runway. That was the last flight of the day, which meant I'd miss my connecting flight onto Mongolia. The transfer desk rescheduled me for the early morning flight to Seoul. I found an internet kiosk and checked to see if my wife was online. I literally had missed her by minutes as she had just been in the Korean airlines lounge! I was unsuccessful in getting ahold of my wife via cell; Japan and Korea must be the two countries that don't have GSM service as neither of our phones appeared to work. The Korean desks were closed, and I wasn't successful in trying to communicate with the Korean Air phone to try to have her paged. I hoped that she would continue onto Mongolia when I didn't show up in Seoul in a few hours! Having no other choices, I checked into the Centrair Hotel, located a short walk from the main terminal. The room was decent but small. The bathroom had a shower and a computerized toilet seat/bidet.

July 11, 2005
PHOTOS: http://homepage.mac.com/musick/Mongo...toAlbum55.html
Flight: Nagoya to Seoul, Korean 752 (773) Economy 31J, flown: 606, earned: 0
Flight: Seoul to UlaanBaaatar, Korean 867 (333) Economy 33J, flown: 1226, earned: 0
Hotel: AirGarden Hotel (Seoul, Korea)
(http://www.airgardenhotel.com)
Hotel: Mika Hotel (UlaanBaatar, Mongolia)
(http://www.mika.mn/hotel.htm
Visa: N/A
$1 USD = 1120 Mongolian Tugrik
I'd forgotten to bring Melatonin with me, and wasn't able to sleep very well last night. Around 6 AM I got up and wandered around the deserted terminal. The flight to Korea wasn't departing until 10 AM. I was finally able to get through to the tour company in Mongolia; the guide was with my wife at the opening ceremonies and assured her that I was Ok! I was relieved to hear that she had made it to Mongolia OK when I didn't show up. When the Korean Air desks finally opened, I discovered the transit desk hadn't actually made a reservation for me, luckily the flight wasn't full. They also wanted to charge me the $50 for making a change to the award reservation; I explained that the reason I missed the flight was because of my AA flight arriving late. They had been on separate reservations, so usually that would be tough noogies, but they accepted my explanation and did not charge the fee! The Nagoya airport is brand new, only opening earlier this year. It is in a T-shape, split between the domestic and international terminal. There was not much to see/do once going through security and I wasn't able to check out any of the lounges while there. The flight to Seoul was on a Triple-7 in economy. This was my first time on Korean Airlines and I'll say the service and food was good. The flight was a quick 2 hrs. I had nearly 8 hrs to kill before my flight to Mongolia; I had thought about doing a city tour but when we arrived in Seoul it was raining heavily. I decided to grab a day room at the transit hotel; it took awhile to find as the Seoul airport is huge. The hotel offers day-use depending on length of time, for 6 hrs it was about $50. The transit hotel was located on the 2nd level at the end of the terminal, and was perfect for finally getting some rest. I awoke around 5:45 PM and grabbed some dinner and headed to the gate. The flight to Mongolia looked full, lots of tourists and Mongolians with huge shopping bags. The flight to Mongolia was on an Airbus 333. We departed quite late and didn't arrive at the ULN airport until nearly 1 AM, over an hour and a half late. Immigration was surprisingly easy; they had several lines open for foreigners and locals and I was one of the first ones in the foreigner lines. A visa is not required for Americans for stays under 90 days. The tour guide Nara was waiting for me as I exited the baggage area. We drove about 20 minutes into town towards the hotel. People were out in the streets celebrating Nadaam and fireworks were going off right above our hotel. The tour company had booked us into the Mika hotel, which is near the Japanese embassy. My wife was waiting anxiously for me by that point! We talked for awhile, she described all the events that I had missed today, she had seen the horse races and opening ceremonies of the games. She said that when she arrived at the Mongolia airport, the tour company did not have our names on the list; just the tour company name. I had told her the name of our tour guide, but she hadn't remembered. She had gone up to the Korean desk to find out where I was, and luckily the tour guide had come looking for her.. I'm not sure what we would have done if she had gone off to another hotel; I guess at least our phones worked in Mongolia and we would have been able to get in touch that way. Eek.. we will make better plans next time! She had met some other Americans at the opening ceremonies that said they had experienced something similar; the best plan if they were separated was to continue along with the travel plans. The Mika hotel room was huge, with a decent sized bathroom with hot water. There was no A/C however and we slept with the windows open.

July 12, 2005
Hotel: Mika Hotel (UlaanBaatar, Mongolia)
(http://www.mika.mn/hotel.htm)
I was totally wiped out this morning, but we had to have an early start to go see the Nadaam ceremonies. We had a simple breakfast of toast, jam, yogurt and tea at the hotel before our guide arrived. Several other tourists were joining us today in the minibus for the 2nd day of ceremonies. Naadam is a combination Olympics/national holiday in Mongolia, always starting on July 11th. Mainly an excuse to party down, the games demonstrate the three 'manly' sports of wrestling, horce racing and archery. I had missed the horse racing yesterday afternoon, but the archery and wrestling competitions were continuing, in the Naadam stadium on the south side of town. This was my first time to see the city by daylight; it surprised me being a lot more modern than I expected. It was an interesting mix, new Korean and Japanese cars jostled on the roads with older Russian vehicles. The Mongolians have strongly embraced capitalism and the West since the downfall of communism in the early 1990s but thankfully there wasn't yet a McDonalds or Starbucks to be seen. The stadium itself was surrounded with dozens vendors and their gers (yurts), the traditional Mongolian nomadic house. Once inside the stadium, which is plastered with ads for Coca-Cola and local businesses (all in Cyrillic, the Mongolians use Cyrillic with a few additional letters), we sat down to watch the wrestling. Unfortunately we really needed binoculars; even with the best 'tourist' seats, the wrestlers looked tiny out in the middle of the field. The wrestlers would face off against each other; both of them dancing about wearing gaudy blue or red speedos with a frontless shirt/vest. The reason for this is to prevent women from entering the wrestling, at one time a woman entered in disguise and won the event! We soon headed over to the archery competition. There were a half dozen Mongolians wearing their traditional silk costume (del) and conical hats standing in a line shooting towards theline of judges with the targets literally at their feet. Quite a spectacle, the judges would point to a target, and the archer would send the arrow (blunt ended) screaming towards it! The archers were all ages and both men and women are allowed to enter this event. It was quite warm by this time and looking around for shade we noticed a tent where there was the sound of chanting. This was the ankle bone shooting competition, a team event, which consisted of flicking a bone or plastic chip towards a sheep ankle bone target. Team members sat on one side, the opponent's team on the other side of the target, both chanting and singing. Several of the wooden tracks used to flick the chip were quite elaborate; some had level bubbles built into them! After the ankle bone shooting, the tour guide took us to a local restaurant for lunch. Next we were off to see a folkloric dance and song show. The wind had started to pick up by this time and gritty dust was blowing through town, coming off the Gobi heralding the approach of a storm. The storm broke just as we arrived at the theater, and what a storm it was.. rain was coming down so hard you couldn't see across the parking lot! As soon as it started, it was over, and the sun came out again. The show was fantastic, with fabulous costumes and songs including throatsingers. We headed back to the Naadam stadium for the closing ceremonies. This is where all the awards were given out for the events. The winning horses were brought out just below us, and policemen lined up around the stadium to keep the audience from jumping out of the stands; apparently touching a winning horse is considered good luck! Mongolian horses are small, barely 5 feet tall, but they are very strong and sturdy. The horse races are around 25kms, and some years some horses are literally raced to death. All of the announcements were in Mongolian, so it was a little hard to follow what was going on! The tour guide took us to a Mexican/Indian restaurant for dinner, seemingly an odd combination for Mongolia, it turned out to be excellent! Chinggis beer is quite good.

July 13, 2005
Hotel: Steppe Nomads Camp (Mongolia)
(http://www.selenatravel.com/trips/st...omads_camp.htm)
Our new guide greeted us this morning. His name was Baggy and would be our guide for the next few days, it would just be my wife and I so we ended up with a private tour! We would be going out to one of the tourist ger camps for a few days to get the feel of traditional Mongolian life. On the way out of town we stopped at Gandan Monastery, one of the few to remain open during the communist era. This is still a functioning monastery with yellow and red-robed monks chanting prayers. The camp was a few hours drive east of the capital. The roads were in excellent condition (newly paved by the Japanese), and once we left town the barren landscape of treeless grassy hills continued to the horizon. We soon turned offroad to the camp, and ended up getting lost several times as the plain was crisscrossed with tracks, none of them were labeled. It was our guide's first time out to this camp, so he wasn't familiar with the route. We finally found the right route after asking some locals, the setting of the camp was absolutely amazing right next to the Kherlen river surrounded by tall hills. A herd of horses was drinking down by the river. There were a half dozen gers setup with a permanent cabin which held the restaurant and bathrooms. No electricity, no cell phone signal, heaven. The Steppe Nomads camp is setup within a wildlife reserve, run by local families. The camp had an expedition to search for the Argali (bighorn) sheep that afternoon, I set out with some other tourists in 4x4s across the plain and up the mountain. We caught a glimpse of some of the sheep as we arrived, but they soon disappeared into the rocks. We clambered up the peak and managed to spot a few more. It was getting dark by this point as we headed down the hill and back to camp. We slept in the ger that night, inside was a simple arrangement of two beds and a wood burning stove. The ger had a center post with 81 spokes radiating outward to meet up with the lattice walls. The entire frame was then covered with heavy felt and a canvas covering. The front door (which always faces south) was painted bright orange with designs.

July 14, 2005
Hotel: Steppe Nomads Camp (Mongolia)
(http://www.selenatravel.com/trips/st...omads_camp.htm)[/b]
Our guide took us out in the reserve this morning to search for more wildlife; swans and other birds which were usually found in some nearby lakes. The scenery was surreal; still no trees anywhere to be seen. Only 3% of the country is forested, mainly in the northern and western areas. We returned to camp for lunch, and our guide showed us how to play games with sheep anklebones. There are 4 different sides to each bone, labled camel, sheep, goat and horse. There was no end of games you could play, one was similar to jacks, another was a race around a track, etc. Baggy also taught us Mongolian animal onomatopoeia; sheep say maa, roosters say cockerycoo, cows say mboo. Baggy and I then practiced archery for awhile, I finally was able to hit the target consistently at about 50 yards. That afternoon we rode horses several miles to a local family's ger. Mongolians are very big on hospitality; we were welcomed inside their ger and they placed out cups of airag (fermented mare's milk) and some milk sweets. The airag wasn't nearly as bad as I was expecting, tasting very much like a weak buttermilk. The milk sweets were good too, almost like a clotted cream, if you ignored the flies. I had to remember not to use my left hand to eat. The Mongolian's diet consists entirely of milk and meat; very few vegetables, yet they all live to their 80s or 90s! The father showed us several of his former horse racing trophies and the grandmother came in wearing an American flag on her head!

July 15, 2005
Hotel: Mika Hotel (UlaanBaatar, Mongolia)
(http://www.mika.mn/hotel.htm)
We left the ger camp this morning to head back to the capital. Today was our last full day in Mongolia, but we still had plenty on the schedule. We visited the Winter Palace of the Bogd Khan, the last king of Mongolia. The Palace was mainly traditional Chinese-style Buddist temple, but there was also a Russian-style building donated by the Tsar Nicolas that contained a museum. We then visited the Natural History museum which had several dinosaur skeletons that had been discovered in the Gobi desert. We then went to an overlook to view the city. The blocks of Soviet apartments were more apparent here; with the giant steam pipes running all over the city used for heating the buildings. For dinner we went to a Mongolian BBQ restaurant. Now Mongolian BBQ isn't really Mongolian (our guide had never had it before), and this restaurant was actually a US chain (http://www.bdsmongolianbarbeque.com)!

July 16, 2005
Flight: UlaanBaatar to Moscow, Aeroflot 564 (Tu204) Business 2A, flown: 2884, earned: 5778 (SU)
Hotel: Holiday Inn Lesnaya (Moscow, Russia) $135
(http://www.ichotelsgroup.com/h/d/6c/1/en/hd/mowlu?irs=y)
Visa: $160 from VisaHQ
$1 USD = 28 Russian Rouble
Baggy arrived at 6:30 this morning to take us to the airport for our 8:05 flight to Moscow. Checkin was a bit chaotic but we soon received our boarding passes and paid the departure tax ($12). We hugged our tourguide goodbye, and gave him a $60 tip, our remaining Mongolian currency. We were so sad to leave, we wanted to take him home with us! Once past immigration, there was a small business class lounge with snacks and an internet terminal. Once they started boarding the flight to Moscow, we held back until most of the line had gone through security. We boarded the Aeroflot Tupelov 204 via a jetbridge. The Tu204 is very similar to a 757, twin engine with winglets. Business class was 5 rows of 2-2. The seats were high square backed seats, similar to the old AA woolly mammoth seats. The cabin was clean and decorated in dark blue and grey, with orange accents. Our flight took off on time for the 7 hr flight to Moscow. Service was very good onboard. An appetizer of coldcuts and olives was served, followed by a chicken sandwich for lunch. I slept the rest of the flight before we started our descent into Sheremetyevo (SVO) airport. We arrived almost 40 minutes early, and even after disembarking via stairs and shuttled to the terminal it was only 10:30 AM. We were the first ones in line at immigration and were through in minutes, I was quite surprised. This was my first time to Russia so did not know what to expect. I was glad we were early as the Delta flight from JFK arrived right after ours and the immigration line was huge. However once through we had to wait almost an hour for our luggage to come through! I had pre-arranged a car service to take us to our hotel for $30, that included waiting time if the flight was late. The driver was still waiting for us when we finally retrieved our bags, and after stopping at the ATM we drove off in an old LADA. We were staying at the Holiday Inn Lesnaya, a new hotel a few blocks from the Belorusskaya station and right around the corner from the Marriott Tverskaya. We had scored a $90 (2 for 1) rate, which is great for Moscow. Unfortunately, everything else at the hotel was very expensive. It was past lunchtime by now, we walked down the street to a local restaurant where lunch ended up costing $80! We tried to find a laundry that could wash our clothes quickly; apparently there aren't any. We had to use the hotel service which was $85, even after washing most of our stuff in the sink! We then walked down the street to a kiosk to stock our fridge with drinks. We were exhausted by this point (Mongolia was 5 hrs ahead of Moscow), and we ended up crashing at 6 PM!

July 17, 2005
Hotel: Holiday Inn Lesnaya (Moscow, Russia) $90
(http://www.ichotelsgroup.com/h/d/6c/1/en/hd/mowlu?irs=y)
Breakfast at the hotel this morning was $18 each; we both snuck out a couple of bananas and bottled water for later. As our friends weren't arriving until the afternoon (and would probably be dog tired even then), we decided to go for some sightseeing. We caught the metro from Belorusskaya to the Kremlin, from where we walked to the Cathedral of Christ the Savior; a huge golden domed church that is the largest church in Russia. It was rebuilt in the 1990s after being torn down by Stalin. Next we visited the Pushkin Museum. It was quite impressive, with lots of Egyptian, Persian and Roman artifacts. The weather was gorgeous so we wandered around the streets for awhile before ending up in Old Arbat street, which is now a pedestrian mall of shopping and entertainment. The Hard Rock Cafe is here, and McDonalds too. We had lunch, then back to the hotel to meet our friends. They had arrived, but D's luggage was missing, he was headed back to the airport to sort it out. S. was tired as he had flown in from Houston. My wife and I headed out for some more sightseeing, this time to the Tetryakov museum, we had just enough time to see it before closing. The Tetryakov was well worth the visit, with amazing paintings by the old Russian masters. The lifelike color and textures of some of the paintings were simply amazing.

continued...

Gardyloo

Thank you sir. May I have another?

Kiwi Flyer

Great start. Please sir may I have some more?

obscure2k

That is one very interesting trip report. Thanks for sharing.

hauteboy

July 18, 2005
Hotel: Holiday Inn Lesnaya (Moscow, Russia) $90
(http://www.ichotelsgroup.com/h/d/6c/1/en/hd/mowlu?irs=y)
Today was another day of full-on sightseeing. Our friends finally emerged from their rooms and we caught the metro to the Bolshoi. Many of the subway stations in Moscow are extremely deep, and the older ones are extremely elaborate, with mirrors, chandeliers and marble everywhere. And not a spot of graffiti to be seen. The weather today was pretty crummy, overcast and a little chilly. Dean had been to Moscow before in the 1980's so he was surprised to see all the changes that had occurred. There were huge billboards all over the square, and a big jumbotron screen right next to a Karl Marx statue. Red Square was a short walk away. We were too early to see Lenin's Tomb (opens at 10 AM) so we wandered over to St. Basils, then over to Kitai Gorod (Old City) past the huge Rossiya hotel. Not much was left other than a few mideval churches. We walked back to the Kremlin along the Moscow river, then to the Kremlin entrance itself as the museum was now open. We were already too late to get tickets for the Armory, they sell out quickly to tour groups. We had to check our bags at the entrance, and paid the additional camera fee. You must go through metal detectors when entering the Kremlin. We walked around for a bit, trying to avoid the huge tour groups that were there, and were moderately successful. I was surprised at the number of churches that were still remaining. The Kremlin ticket now allows you to go inside all of them; the art and paintings from the 15th and 16th centuries were in excellent condition (I'm not sure if these were restored). Dean had not been allowed in the churches when he was here in the 80s. In fact there was only one new building in the whole complex; a hideous block of concrete. The Tsar bell (never rung) and the Tsar cannon (never fired) are also here in the Kremlin complex. We returned to the Arbat area for lunch, then back to the hotel for a bit of rest.

July 19, 2005
Flight: Moscow to Baku, Aeroflot 147 (Tu154) Economy 11A, flown: 1215, earned: 1215 (SU)
Seat map: http://www.aeroflot.com/eng/company....=741&p_no=2026
Hotel: Velotrek Hotel (Baku, Azerbaijan) $30
Visa on arrival: $40
$1 USD = 4700 Azeri Manat
We decided to head to the airport early this morning for our 10:30 AM flight to Baku. We hailed a cab from the hotel, but we were only able to talk him down to 1200 roubles (the books say 900 is best). This seemed a bit excessive as we were already on the road to the airport, but all 4 of us crammed into the LADA as it was raining and we didn't feel like walking to Beloruskaya station to take the metro+bus option. The flight to Baku left from SVO-2, the international terminal. There are checkin desks at both sides of the terminal; we went to the wrong side initially before finding the correct checkin desk for Baku. Once we passed through immigration into the secure area, we still had several hours before our flight departed. There's not much to do once inside SVO; there are some duty free shops and a few cafes, but it is pretty grim. We did not have lounge access, so we sat around in a cafe spending the last of our roubles. We soon boarded the flight to Baku, an old Tu-154 Soviet trijet similar to the 727. This was an older aircraft than the Tu204 we had flown in on a few days ago, but the cabin and seats still seemed in good condition. Business class was huge at 7 rows of 2-2 and nearly empty. All 4 of us were in economy in the bulkhead row. The flight to Baku was about three hours. About 3/4 through the flight, there was a commotion at the back of the plane, and the flight attendants were calling for a doctor. Apparently someone had had a stroke or heart attack, but we continued onto Baku where there was an ambulance waiting. The view approaching the airport was pretty desolate; the area around Baku is mostly desertlike scrub dotted with oil derricks. The Absheron peninsula is one of the most polluted places on earth, from inefficient Soviet extraction to the petrochemical plants that were once located here. Most of the oil production is now offshore, funded by Western companies. We had planned on getting our visas on arrival at the airport; there is a window before immigration where you must pay $40 and provide two passport photos, after that immigration itself was a breeze. We got some money out from the ATM and were deciding which hotel to check out when a taxi driver approached us and said he'd take us to the Absheron hotel for $20.. seemed a bit much and we'd heard the Absheron was a dump anyway. We took the taxi but when we said we'd rather go to the Velotrek hotel instead, he got upset.. but he did take us there. We were in fear for our lives as he was driving 110Mph weaving in and out of traffic, this seems to be normal for here! There isn't a lot of hotel choice in Baku; there is either $200+ a night Hyatt or Radisson (for the oil execs), or $5 a night fleapits, with not much inbetween. The hotel Velotrek seemed a good compromise at $30/nt, it was rated a 3* (but only 2* if that), but the location was good near the minibus depot and a metro stop. There were food kiosks, bakeries, etc nearby as well. An Azerbaijan youth soccer team was staying there so we were lucky they had rooms. The room itself was extremely basic, with two twin beds with flimsy sheets and a TV (I wish I had brought my sleeing sack). No A/C and it was in the 90s, but a fresh breeze blew in from the window. Our first order of business was to check on train tickets to Tbilisi in a few days, so we took the metro (5 cents!) down to the train station. Azerbaijan uses the Latin alphabet and the language itself is very similar to Turkish, so we were able to read the metro signs! There are only two lines in Baku, with more planned. We bought first class tickets to for $26, still quite a bargain (the price had just gone up from $20). It was about 5 PM as we wandered around Baku towards the harbor. We found a nice place to eat, obviously for ex-pats and oil workers as there was about a dozen BP execs sitting in the bar. We wandered to the park around the harbor where several teenagers were canoodling. There were pictures everywhere of the Azeri president and the Turkish president, apparently they are good 'friends'.

July 20, 2005
Hotel: Velotrek Hotel (Baku, Azerbaijan) $30
The plan today was to visit the petroglyphs at Qobustan, a village about 50km south of Baku. We wandered outside the hotel into the taxi melee to find someone to drive us there. The Lonely Planet book had said it was only a $20 trip, but noone would back down from $50. Most people didn't seem to know where it was we were going either. We finally chose a Saddam Hussein looking guy, who said he had been in the Afghanistan war (Russian side). He didn't speak English, but a friend of his did, so we arranged things through him via cell phone. The driver was quite excitable and was talking and waving his arms most of the trip. The drive to Qobustan took about an hour; past a beach resort with oil rigs just offshore. The driver had to ask for directions several times to find the place with the petroglyphs, but finally we arrived. The petroglyphs here were about 20,000 years old, when the level of the Caspian sea was much higher. There is a small museum there and we hired a guide to show us around the carvings. Our taxi driver tagged along too, as he'd never seen them before. The carvings were quite impressive, showing bulls, pigs, dancing people, boats, etc, and looked like they had been carved yesterday. The next places we visited were the Roman Graffiti and Mud Volcanoes; our driver did not know the way to these either so we took one of the guides from the museum with us. Don't ask us how we managed to fit 6 people in a LADA (D and I are both over 6') but it wasn't very comfortable! The Roman Graffiti was carved by a Roman centurion, this is the easternmost record of Roman occupation. The mud volcanoes were another 20 minute drive away. On the way, our driver started getting upset and saying he wanted more money; D had to argue with his friend on the cell about how we'd already agreed on price. We found the mud volcanoes with the help of the guide, they were certainly very remote and eerie. The whole Caucasus area is geologically active; the mud volcanoes are formed by cool mud bubbling up from 2km below the surface. They formed fairy chimneys from a few inches to 20 ft high cones, many of them were bubbling and gurgling. There were some Italian tourists here when we arrived. After leaving the volcanoes and dropping the guide back in Qobustan, we returned to Baku. We had the driver drop us off in the Old Town of Baku (World Heritage site), which is still surrounded by the city wall. We had lunch in the Caravanserai restaurant, an old Silk Road hotel. We had an excellent and cheap meal, the 4 of us easily ate for under $20. This was one thing we discovered about the Caucasus; you can eat very well and have plenty of change left over. We next went to the Maiden's tower, an oddly shaped tower. We climbed up inside to the top, which had a great view out over the old town and the harbor. There were several carpet merchants around the square, but they did not seem to be into high pressure sales, we weren't hassled at all. We wandered through the narrow winding streets for awhile until we arrived at the Palace of the Shirvan Shahs. This was the castle where the rulers had once lived, and showed alot of Persian influence; Iran is only a few hundred miles to the south of here. After returning to the hotel, we decided to go to Fire Mountain (Yanar Dag) at sunset. Yanar Dag is where natural gas comes out of the hillside in a 30-foot wide wall of flame, it is popular to go at sunset when the flames stand out. Our new taxi driver didn't seem to know where it was either, and it was almost dark by the time we found it after going through several villages. The owners at Yanar Dag have setup an area for tea, they do not charge admission but it is customary to pay a few dollars for tea and sweets. The flames themselves were impressive, and we'd certainly never seen anything like it before. All we needed were the marshmallows!

July 21, 2005
Overnight train to Tbilisi $26
Since we had been so busy yesterday, we took things slowly this morning. We met an Australian woman staying at our hotel who had recently come from Tbilisi, and she recommended a hotel. After breakfast at the bakery down the street we left our laundry with the lady at the hotel. We only had one other sight we had wanted to see, the Fire Temple in nearby Suraxani. We went by the station again to check on the local train, but weren't able to find one, so we hopped in a cab again. Suraxani is located east of Baku, about halfway to the airport. The only attraction is the Zoroastrian Fire Temple, still in use by worshippers. The natural flames have been replaced with piped in gas these days. There were several displays at the temple explaining the history of fire worship and locations of other fire temples throughout the Middle East and India. It was blazing hot by this point, when we wandered across the train tracks. A blighted wasteland lay before us, abandoned oil derricks stretching to the horizon, rusting piles of metal amid pools of garbage and oil.. the amazing thing was there were people living amid all this. We returned to Baku, found an internet place, then went back to the hotel to collect our bags and laundry. We were soon off to the train station for the overnight train to Tbilisi. We arrived early and they were not yet allowing people on the train. It was quite warm even though it was almost 8 PM. I wandered up to the front of the train, past other passengers with mounds of luggage, glass bottles, and live chickens. The engine was an old Soviet style workhorse. Finally they allowed us onboard at 8PM for the 8:25 depature; but once inside the cabins were sweltering hot and smelled like a sweaty sock. We had bought first class tickets ($23). Each cabin held two people, with blankets provided, and was in good condition. The train actually departed ontime, and finally with the corridor windows opened the cabins started cooling down. There was one other tourist in our car, an Israeli. The train was scheduled to arrive in Tbilisi around 10:30 AM the next morning.

July 22, 2005
Hotel: Kopala Hotel (Tbilisi, Georgia) $100
(http://www.kopala.ge)
Visa: N/A
$1 USD = 1.80 Georgian Lari
I slept most of the train trip, and awoke early the next morning as we arrived at the Azeri border post. The conductor came and collected our passports, and finally reappeared almost an hour later when the train started moving. Same thing a few miles later at the Georgia border; we were there over an hour. Georgia had just lifted visa requirements for Americans, so we did not have to pay anything at the border. We finally arrived into Tbilisi around 12:30, several hours late. As we were leaving the railway station several street kids latched onto us, one clung desparately to my shirt as we yelled at them and tried running across the street.. I had to pinch him to let go of me! Many of the Caucasus countries have a refugee problem. Georgia has many refugees from Abkazhia, a breakaway province. Armenia and Azerbaijan still have many refugees from the war in Nagorno-Karabakh. Our wallets and money were safe, but it was a bit disturbing. We found an ATM across the street, then got in a taxi ($2) for the Hotel Lile that the Aussie woman had mentioned. We finally found it after some difficulty; the street it was on was torn up and the taxi couldn't drive all the way. The hotel is actually in a good location, just across the square from a metro stop, and within walking distance of the old town and fort. They only had one room available; D+S decided to stay there while we would go around the corner to another hotel, the Kopala, which we had passed on the way in. The Kopala turned out to be a very clean and nice hotel with a great view overlooking the town, quite luxurious after the rat hotel and the sweaty train. Georgie Bush had just visited Georgia the month previously; there was a poster of him shaking hands with the Georgian president just outside our hotel. It was almost 2 PM by that point and none of us had eaten a real meal since the day before. We found a restaurant just down the street that was still open, hoping to try out the great Georgian food and wine the guide book was boasting about. Well, the food was Ok, but the (house) wine was pure donkey piss. I also had a Georgian 'lemonade', not really lemonade at all but a flavored soda, they come in different flavors like lemongrass, blackcurrant and pear, they are very delicious! I ordered a khachapuri, the traditional Georgian salty cheese pie; this one was a heart attack on a plate, a flaky crust dripping with butter, cheese and egg. Afterwards, my wife went back to the hotel to rest her heel, while D, S, and I walked over to the hot springs and up the hill to Narkhala Fort, overlooking the rest of Tbilisi below. Tbilisi gets its name from the hot springs, it means 'warm' in Georgian. Nearby was the huge statue of Mother Georgia, a tall silver woman with a cup of wine in one hand, and a sword in another.

July 23, 2005
Hotel: Stephan Tsminda Hotel (Kazbegi, Georgia) $30
The plan for today was to take the Georgian Military Highway up to the town of Kazbegi, just 10 miles from the Russian border. The Didube bus station was 7 stops away on the metro (11 cents!). The Didube station is in the western part of town, with minibuses departing to all parts of Georgia. The challenge is most of the destinations are written in Georgian script; very little if any Cyrillic. We decided to take a taxi to the nearby town of Mtskheta, the Georgian capital until the 6th century. It is the spiritual heart of Georgia, with several churches that are listed UNESCO World Heritage sites. Svetitskhoveli cathedral is located in town, the Jvari monastery is located up on the cliffs on the other side of the river. We only visited the cathedral, getting to Jvari was going to involve some backtracking. We then asked the taxi driver how much it would cost to go all the way to Kazbegi, it was only $30. Along the way we stopped at Ananuri, a church/fortress perched atop a hill at the end of a lake; the setting was just stunning. The road was in good condition as we went further into the mountains up a series of switchbacks until we reached the ski resort Guduari, from where the road deteriorated to potholed gravel. The views as we crossed over the pass were stunning. The road passed through several avalanche galleries, tunnels built to protect the road in the winter, although usually the road is closed up until early May. There was still some snow left in patches along the road, even in July. The drive from Tbilisi including all our stops took about 6 hours. The taxi driver dropped us off at the main square in Kazbegi, right in front of the Stepan Tsminda hotel, the best in town. At $30 a night it was a great deal, with an awesome view of the mountains, and very clean, neat rooms. It was about 2PM by this time, and we were starving.. we were finally able to find someone at the hotel to fix lunch. There's not much else available in Kazbegi, although it is a popular spot for trekkers, and we saw a few other backpackers here. My wife decided to have a nap, but Dean, Scott and I had gotten our second wind and decided to go up to the Tsminda Sameba Church, which is located on a mountain high above the town. The clouds were starting to clear and we hoped that the view would be good. It is either an hour walk up, or a 20 minute drive in a 4x4. We also wanted to go to the Russian border 10km away; so we opted for the 4x4, a local offered to take the three of us for $30. We hopped into the Niva, then bounced our way up the dirt road to the top of the hill. The fields were full of wildflowers and we passed several hikers on the way. We arrived at the top to gorgeous sunny sky; the view across to the church as we came to the plateau was incredible; with huge peaks soaring up behind on the other side of the valley. These peaks were the border between Georgia and Russia, although the Chechen border was only 10 miles away, Kazbegi is relatively safe with a large military presence. We walked over to the church and wandered around inside for awhile. There was a priest sitting at the edge of the cliff chatting on a cell phone. We climbed back into the Niva and set off down the mountain, then headed north towards the Russian border and Tamar's castle. The cliff walls were closing in and the road was dug into the cliff faces with evidence of previous landslides. We arrived at the Georgian border and that was as far as we could go; the Russian border is closed to foreigners here. The ruins of Tamar's castle were on a cliff high above, the raging river but the light was really bad so our pictures did not turn out. The Georgian soldiers were yelling at us for having our cameras out, so we left quickly. When we returned to town, we walked over to one of the few restaurants in town for a meal of shashlik (kebab).

July 24, 2005
Hotel: Hotel Lile (Tbilisi, Georgia) $40
Woke up this morning to an absolutely clear sky; the view out the window of our hotel was stunning with the Tsminda church high above and the snowcapped peak of Mt. Kazbek behind it. We hoped to catch one of the early marshrutkas to Tbilisi around 8 AM; we were lucky to catch one that actually left 20 minutes early. The fare was 8 GEL ($4.50) for the 4 hr ride back to Tbilisi. Originally, we had been planning on going all the way through to Armenia today, but decided to spend an extra afternoon in Tbilisi and catch the early morning shuttle to Alaverdi. We took the metro back to Hotel Lile, which now had two rooms available (out of only three rooms in the hotel!). My wife and I would be returning to Tbilisi in 4 or 5 days and decided to consolidate our bags. We would be staying at the Sheraton for our final night, after walking over they allowed us to store the other bag until we returned. All four of us then wandered around Old Tbilisi for awhile, then caught a taxi out to the Ortachala bus station to check on buses to Yerevan the next morning. On the way out to the station we noticed a nice looking restaurant that was full of people, we decided to stop there for dinner on the way back. We had a good meal of garlic chicken and khinkali, a huge meat dumpling.

July 25, 2005
Hotel: SIL Hotel (Yerevan, Armenia) $75
(http://www.sil.am/?section=hotel)
Visa at border: $30
$1 USD = 440 Armenian Dram
Haghpat Monastery (http://www.armeniapedia.org/index.ph...hpat_Monastery)
Sanahin Monastery (http://www.armeniapedia.org/index.ph...ahin_Monastery)
Lake Sevan (http://www.armeniapedia.org/index.php?title=Lake_Sevan)
We arrived at the Ortachala bus station this morning around 7:30 AM. The minibus to Yerevan was scheduled to depart at 8AM ($12.50). We were only planning on going as far as Alaverdi, in Armenia, to visit the UNESCO World Heritage sites of Sanahin and Haghput. We arrived at the border around 9:30; the driver asked if we had visas for Armenia, he then let us go through the border post ahead of the others when we motioned that we would be buying them on the Armenian side. We walked across the bridge into Armenia, there was a small building where we paid our $30 for the visa, then back to the guard hut where they waved us in. All told it took about 45 minutes for immigration on both sides. Armenia was also an hour ahead of Georgia; meaning it was now 11:15. The town of Alaverdi lay another 20 miles past the border; in the lovely Debed river canyon. We passed the entrance to Haghpat Monastery, then came to the town of Alaverdi, a really impoverished Soviet industrial city, with a somewhat functional copper mine. Unfortunately the driver dropped us off in the edge of town, there was nothing there no taxis, buses or anything. We started walking towards the center of town when a big Volga taxi passed us by, we flagged him down and he agreed to take us to the monasteries for $12. We needed to go into town to change money and grab some snacks, he took us to the bank and market. The Volga was cool looking, something like a cross between an old 60's style Lincoln and the batmobile. The drive back to Haghpat took about 20 minutes, climbing up to where the monastery stood on the edge of the canyon. On the way up the hill we noticed many public springs, it is an Armenian tradition to dedicate a spring in honor of a deceased family member. The view from the monastery was stunning; the weather was perfect. Both monasteries were built around 1000 AD, and the style of the churches was slightly different from those we saw in Georgia. Armenia was the first country to adopt Christianity as the state religion in the 4th century AD, there are many other ancient churches throughout the country. They have their own church, similar to Eastern Orthodox. We were the only tourists there, at supposedly one of the most popular sites in Armenia! We wandered around the grounds and inside the church for awhile before heading back to Alaverdi and the Sanahin monastery, but this wasn't quite as impressive a setting as it was surrounded by trees and crumbling Soviet apartments. Our driver had offered to take us all the way to Yerevan for $50, it seemed a good deal for over 120 miles! We stopped at a small roadside barbecue place for lunch, and had some of the best kebab so far; already we were liking Armenia for the scenery, roads, and now food! After passing Vanadzor we stopped for fuel, this is when we realized that most of the vehicles in Armenia run on methane. The Volga had two huge gas cylinders in the trunk, we stepped back from the car alarmingly when the valves started hissing loudly! The drive to Yerevan took another couple hours, including a few minutes stop along the edge of Lake Sevan, where there are several popular lakeside resorts. The drive from Lake Sevan to Yerevan was very quick; it was expressway all the way. Our driver did not know Yerevan, so he dropped us at the edge of town where we caught a taxi to one of the hotels listed in the Lonely Planet. We arrived at the hotel, which was located in a dodgy part of town, only to find it was full. The taxi driver then took us to the SIL Hotel, then conveniently overcharged us for the privilege! The SIL was a bit more expensive than we had hoped ($90), and so we tried to find another hotel, but every place we called was completely full! The SIL desk came down to $75, which we decided to accept if only for one night. It did turn out to be a good location, just two blocks from a metro station, and about a 10 minute walk to Republic Square. We found an excellent restaurant nearby with delicious kebab. The bill for all 4 of us, with beer, water, kebab and steak was barely $20! Afterwards, we walked over to Republic Square, where we sat for awhile watching the local pace of life go by. There quite a cafe culture here, with hundreds of cafes. Yerevan almost has a Latin feel, with all the cute girls, cafes, and hip hop videos playing in the cafes. We stopped in one of the cafes off the square for an ice cream and an Armenian brandy, while watching all the people pass by. Yerevan was one of the first cities we'd seen in the Caucasus with families out, a lot more progressive with men walking with their children, teenagers hanging out, etc. It seemed a very safe and comfortable place. Everyone was very well dressed and wearing stylish clothes. Armenia has alot of money coming in from the diaspora, and it shows.

July 26, 2005
Hotel: SIL Hotel (Yerevan, Armenia) $75
(http://www.sil.am/?section=hotel)
Khor Virap (http://www.armeniapedia.org/index.ph...irap_Monastery)
Garni Temple (http://www.armeniapedia.org/index.ph...e=Garni_Temple)
Geghard Monastery (http://www.armeniapedia.org/index.ph...hard_Monastery)
Blue Mosque (http://www.armeniapedia.org/index.ph...que_of_Yerevan)
We wasted a lot of time this morning trying to find a bank that would cash D's AmEx travellers checks; no place wanted to take them (even with the AMEX symbol on the door!) We finally found a place that supposedly would cash them. My wife's ankle had been acting up, while he was inside the bank we sat down on the steps outside to give it a rest. A guard came out and motioned that we couldn't sit there. So we walked across the street and sat on the curb. She still kept giving us dirty looks! Still unsuccessful in cashing D's TC's (they wanted the receipt which was back at the hotel), we headed back to Republic Square which had an ATM. We found a taxi driver in a big Volga who said he would take us to Khor Virap, Garni and Geghard Monastery for $60.. a bit much but none of the drivers wanted to budge on price. The road to Khor Virap was in excellent condition, it is the main north-south road out of Yerevan that goes to Iran. Khor Virap is located 30 km southeast of Yerevan, literally within spitting distance of the closed Armenian-Turkish border. It is one of the most popular pilgrimage sites in Armenia, St. Gregory the Illuminator was held captive in an underground cell for several years. Mt. Ararat (which is inside Turkey) provides a stunning backdrop to this monastery. It was the first time we had seen tourists in the Caucasus; but the odd thing was they all were Armenian! We climbed up the hill which had a great view out over the surrounding fields and the border. There was a large cemetery located below the church; in Armenia it is customary to have a photo of the deceased engraved on the headstone, some of them are quite spookily realistic! Next we set off for Garni, a restored Greco-Roman temple. Our driver took a shortcut on the way, though an earthquake prone area, apparently there had been one several months ago and the road was in horrible shape. He kept saying 'No problem, no problem' until we came to a dropoff, and suddenly it was a problem! We all had to get out of the car and walk down the hill while the driver somehow managed to maneuver the car down the slope safely! The road finally got a little better once we rejoined the main road to Garni, but there was still evidence of extensive earthquake damaage to walls and houses. The town of Garni lies about 30 km east of Yerevan. The Garni temple is located on a cliff point overlooking the gorge below. The Greek classic style temple looks to be in great shape as it was restored not too long ago. There were dozens of other tourists here (again, all appeared to be Armenian descent). Our next stop was at the Geghard monastery, an incredible place which consists of a church partially carved into the mountainside. It is allegedly the former resting place of the Holy Lance (which is now in Echmiadzin cathedral). Behind the church there were several bushes with strips of cloth tied to them. This seems to be a common custom in the Caucasus, similar to Buddhist prayer flags. It may indeed have been brought with the Mongols, which had been through this area in the 1200s. After we returned to our hotel, D and I walked over to the Blue Mosque; the only remaining mosque in Yerevan. Arriving just in time as the mosque was closing for the day, but we ran into one of the caretakers as she was leaving, she offered to show us around. Parts of the complex were undergoing renovation, sponsored by Iran.

July 27, 2005
Hotel: EuroStar Hotel (Akhalkalaki, Georgia) $40
Echmiadzin (http://www.armeniapedia.org/index.ph...edral_Compound)
Zvartnots (http://www.armeniapedia.org/index.ph...nots_Cathedral)
This morning we planned on visiting the town of Echmiadzin, the Armenian Vatican, home to the Armenian Orthodox church. We planned to take a minibus there, and taxi back. The minibus depot was about 10 blocks away and so we climbed into a taxi for the short ride. Once we were at the depot, the taxi driver started getting animated, I think he wanted us to take the taxi instead of the minibus; it would have been cheaper to take the minibus of course. We finally decided to take the taxi there and back, as it would only be $12.50 for all 4 of us. The town of Echmiadzin lies about 20 minutes west of Yerevan, past the airport. On the way out of town, we passed several brandy companies, the US Embassy, and row after row of tacky casinos! Echmiadzin was a quiet leafy town, we arrived at the cathedral around 9:30. The cathedral itself isn't very impressive at first look, but once inside was worth the trip. The museum there has many religious artifacts, including allegedly the Holy Lance, that pierced Jesus's side. Once back outside, there were several black robed priests wandering around the grounds, chatting on cell phones. We stopped at the Zvartnots ruins on the way back to Yerevan, the site of a former church that was destroyed in an earthquake. The site is near the airport, with a great view of Mt. Ararat behind it, although it was very hazy today as well. Both Echmiadzin and Zvartnots are UNESCO World Heritage sites. After grabbing some lunch and checking out of the hotel, we left for the minibus depot to Gyumri. The plan was to catch a minibus there, then see about either a minibus or taxi across the border back into Georgia. The minibuses for Gyumri ($2.75) conveniently departed a few blocks from the hotel. The ride took a couple of hours, all on great roads. Gyumri was another run-down Soviet industial city, we only were there long enough to discover the bus for Georgia had already left, buy some food, then hire a taxi ($52) to take us the 45 miles across the border into Georgia. We had to wait quite awhile at the 'gas' station, our Lada taxi again ran on methane. The road was in perfect condition all the way to the border, which was quite remote but located in a gorgeous landscape of rolling meadows filled with wildflowers and buzzing insects. We had no problems at the Armenian post, but they were amused that we had only been in Armenia for two days. As soon as we crossed the border; the road turned to gravel. The Georgians seemed overly curious in our passports, noting stamps from Laos, Brazil, South Africa, etc.. and they asked what we did that allowed us to travel so much. They stamped and waved us through, but our taxi driver had a much more difficult time; he was yelling for about 5 minutes before coming back out to the car and getting something out of the glove compartment. We assume he had to pay a bribe, the Georgians hadn't tried anything with us but they probably assumed they could shake down our driver! The road was a horrendous potholed dirt road for the next 20 miles or so; passing small towns with sod-roof houses and drying dung stacked along the fences (no trees anywhere around here; they use dung for fuel). We finally arrived in Akhalkalaki in the late afternoon, with no idea of where we were going to stay that evening (our guidebook had nothing on the area). We had passed a sign for a hotel on the way into town, but it was some distance, and we hoped there was something more convenient. Our taxi driver dropped is in town, then left; we asked around for a hotel and a guy offered to show us; he ended up taking us back out to the place we had passed! We would have taken anything at this point, but we lucked out.. the place was brand new, built for the UN and other aid workers in the area. They only had one free room, the 'suite' which we could all share. Dinner was served soon after, we were led into the kitchen and had to point out what we all wanted. After dinner the lighting was perfect, we all decided to go for a walk through the fields. We passed an old factory, then across the road and train tracks where we noticed a picturesque red church on a hill across the river. We started walking towards it, but must have walked into someone's backyard, as several people came out to investigate us. At first they were wary, but then when they learned we were Americans, the whole village came out! They all spoke Russian, so we were able to communicate a little. The grandmother and daughter started hamming it up for my wife's camera, we got some wonderful pictures. We were all soon invited into the house for coffee, a great experience! All the village teenage girls had shown up to gawk at us; there were very few boys around, I guess they were all working or in the military. We teased S about finding him a girlfriend! We all traded addresses and it was so hard to leave; everyone followed us halfway back to the hotel! S had bought some vodka at the bar, we all had a few shots before going to sleep.

July 28, 2005
Hotel: Hotel Lile (Tbilisi, Georgia) $40
Vardzia
After a decent breakfast, a taxi driver arrived and we set off for Vardzia, the cave city. The landscape soon changed from rolling meadows to more mountainous terrain. The driver had agreed to take us to Vardzia and Akhaltsikhe (~50 miles) for $50. The road was in pretty bad shape for most of the trip, and our driver was flying along. Vardzia is a cave city located about 15 miles off the Akhalkalaki to Akhaltsikhe road, the royal city in the late 1100's consisted of over 700 caves carved into the cliffsides, supporting a population of tens of thousands. The caves are still inhabited by monks to this day. They are a good climb up from the valley below. There is a secret passageway carved through the rock that was used as an escape route, from below it is impossible to detect the entrance until you are right on top of it. Our trip with our friends was coming to a close; we would be splitting up once we arrived in Akhalitsikhe, they would be continuing along to Batumi on the Black Sea coast, then across the north shore of Turkey. My wife and I were heading back to Tbilisi where our flight to London left on Saturday. When we arrived at the bus station in Akhalitsikhe, our driver wanted an extra $10 for the trip! D had to yell at him before he accepted the agreed upon $50. We then said our goodbyes, and caught the $3.50 minibus to Tbilisi. On the way, we passed Borjomi, a Soviet health spa town, and Gori, the hometown of Josef Stalin. I'd hoped to visit Gori tomorrow as we now had an extra day to kill. My wife and I headed back to the Lile Hotel for the night once we arrived back in Tbilisi. They were surprised to see us again and asked where our friends were. We had dinner at the Marriott, it was very expensive compared to what we were used to in the Caucasus, definitely Western prices. The Marriott is in a great location in downtown Tbilisi within walking distance of Rustaveli Square.

July 29, 2005
Hotel: Sheraton Metechi Palace (Tbilisi, Georgia) $0
(http://www.starwoodhotels.com/prefer...propertyID=132)
Gori
Uplistsikhe
I had reserved an award at the Sheraton Metechi Palace in Tbilisi for our final night in Tbilisi. The hotel isn't very convenient for the rest of town, being along the road to the airport about 8 blocks east of the Lile Hotel. My wife and I walked over this morning and claimed our bag that we had left earlier this week. The Sheraton isn't much to look at from the outside (Lonely Planet describes it as a Swedish prison); but the rooms inside were quite comfortable. The breakfast buffet was decent, and afterwards we went for a relaxing swim in the pool (we didn't wait 30 minutes!). Around 11AM I left for Gori, my wife stayed behind to relax at the hotel. The minibus ride ($1.50) was about 90 minutes. On arrival, I found a taxi ($14) to take me out to the Uplistsikhe cave city; similar to Vardzia. Uplistsikhe had been on the old Silk Road; although smaller than Vardzia it was more accessible. I hired a guide to show me around, he gave me a 'discount' as he claimed his English wasn't very good. He explained the features and history of the city, which had also been destroyed by the Mongols. There were storage rooms, pharmacies, wine presses, and pits where they put criminals. Afterwards, we drove back to Gori and the Stalin Museum. The house where he was born is protected under a huge temple like roof, the house itself is very modest. His bulletproof railway carriage is also here, Stalin was reportedly afraid to fly and would only travel by rail. It was getting to late afternoon by this point so I caught the bus back to Tbilisi. My wife and I had dinner on the terrace of the Sheraton watching the sun set on our Caucasus adventure.

July 30, 2005
Flight: Tbilisi to London, British Airways (320) Economy 23A, flown: 2227, earned: 1110 (QF)
Flight: London to Brussels, British Airways (319) Business 3A, flown: 218, earned: 0
Hotel: Crowne Plaza Brussels Airport (Brussels, Belgium) $140
(http://www.ichotelsgroup.com/h/d/6c/1/en/hd/bruzm?irs=y)
Our flight to London departed at 8AM; we left for the airport at around 6:30. Instead of catching an expensive taxi from the Sheraton, we walked across the street where we flagged one down for $5. The airport is about 20 km east of town. We checked in with British Airways only to find that American had not been able to issue the upgrade and even worse, we were stuck in coach in the last row! Even after asking nicely several times, the checkin agents weren't able to get us into Business class, which ended up departing half empty. The Tbilisi airport was very basic; only a few gates and no lounge. Boarding was by stairs onto the BMED 320 aircraft. I was in a foul mood (spoiled brat) for most of the trip as we weren't in biz! The flight arrived almost an hour early in London, even after taxiing across runways we were at the T4 jetbridge over 20 minutes early! Our flight to Brussels wasn't for another 2 hrs, so we went to the T4 First lounge. This was new for us as we had always been able to use the Concorde room on our other trips! The flight to Brussels was a quick hour on the British Airways A319. I had originally reserved a night at the Brussels Conrad, but since our flight left early the next morning had I changed it to the more convenient airport Crowne Plaza. We had to wait ~30 minutes for the shuttle bus at the airport, apparently having just missed the last one. The shuttle also stops at the airport Holiday Inn. The CP is very close to the airport, next to Oracle and other tech companies. It was about 4PM by this time. After checking in and getting recommendations of what to see and where to eat (this was our first time in Brussels), we caught a taxi to the Grand Place to have a look around. The square was packed with tourists, we spent awhile people watching, before heading off to find a restaurant for a dinner of mussels. We were just in time as it started pouring rain literally seconds after we sat down.

July 31, 2005
Flight: Brussels to New York, American (763) Business 3J, flown: 3667, earned: 0
Flight: New York JFK to Dallas, American (757) First 3F, flown:1391, earned: 0
Flight: Dallas to Austin, American (M80) First 3F, flown:183, earned: 0
The hotel had recommended we take the later shuttle to the airport; this in the end almost caused us to miss our flight! We arrived at the airport to a complete zoo, lines everywhere even for the Biz class checkin. We hoped for a bump to the Chicago flight but although both flights were full they weren't oversold. We next had to brave the lines through security, which were a solid wall of people; it was impossible to see where one line was from another. I'd never seen such a mess at security before! It took us over 40 minutes to get through the shoe carnival; we still had time (we thought) at that point and went to the BA Terraces lounge. They said they had already called the AA flight, and we'd only have time for a drink. Quite literally that's what we did, grabbed a soda, then off to the gate. We hadn't realized there was secondary screening for all flights to the US; this involved walking a mile down the terminal, waiting in yet another line to check your boarding pass again, then walking halfway back down the other side of the terminal to the gate! They were already boarding at that point, and we plopped into our seats, exhausted already! The flight departed almost an hour late due to the delays.

Otherwise the flight to New York was uneventful. We watched several DVDs on the players and slept most of the way. We arrived at JFK and were through immigration quickly, then headed to the AC as we had a ~4 hr layover. When we emerged the rest of the airport turned out to be a complete zoo. Our 4:35 flight to DFW was oversold, and they were taking volunteers to go onto the 6 PM flight, but only people who did not have a connection in DFW. I wished we could have volunteered, as it was our flight didn't depart until 6:05 anyway! By the time we arrived in DFW, our connection to AUS had already departed; the next flight was departing from C39 in less than 25 minutes (and we were at A17), somehow we managed to make the flight! That flight departed late as well as it turned out, they were still waiting on other pax to arrive from another late flight.

our route map:

Kiwi Flyer

Wow what a great trip and nice writing too hauteboy

Seat 2A

Thoroughly enjoyable reading, and a fascinating itinerary! Thanks for taking the time to post this. I'm sure I speak for many when I say Bravo! More! More! ^ ^

hauteboy

Thanks! I'm glad you enjoyed the report; it's definitely off the usual FT trail!

MarkW

Thanks! Very enjoyable reading!

Darren

Wonderful photos. Although I am now late for work, it brought back some memories of Beijing.