I was touring the South Caucasus for 9 days, although it feels like I’ve been gone for 9 months. Insane schedule. Note to self: try not to kill everyone, and yourself, with next year’s educational fair tour schedule. I flew to Baku a week ago Friday (on a red-eye flight that completely defines “red-eye flight”, departing from Kyiv at 2:40 in the frakin’ morning, arriving in Baku at 7:00 am. Ugh.), had 2 days of meetings, then a great EducationUSA Fair on Sunday. We left Sunday evening for Tbilisi, had an awesome fair on Monday and left straight for the airport after it. Tuesday was the ed fair in Yerevan, and Wednesday was another ungodly early flight (although slightly less sadistic, at 6:30 am) back to Tbilisi for 2 days of de-briefing and some trainings. Friday was a full day of meetings, starting at the U.S. Embassy and ending at a really cool international school, then straight to the airport for a 6:00 pm flight back to Kyiv. I handed over my passport to the young woman at the registration desk and waited. And waited. And waited. She fussed around, called over somebody else, he fussed around. They finally asked for my e-ticket, which I had brilliantly packed away in my checked luggage- D’oh! So I dug it out, handed it over, and the guy says to me “These are different names.” I had somebody else’s passport. Turns out the Marine Guard at the Embassy gave my passport to another visitor when she left, and gave me her’s. My colleague and I were so engaged in our conversation as she walked me out, I didn’t even think to check the documents that were handed to me by the guard. Double D’oh!
Frantic calls back and forth with the Embassy, attempts to track down this other lady in Tbilisi, etc. etc. The airport people were really nice, very sympathetic, waited until the absolute last minute before telling me the plane was boarded and had to take off without me. They let me leave my big and heavy bags in their office, I re-booked on the same flight the next day, and headed back into town for the night. The upside is that I got a free day in Tbilisi, one of my favorite places. I checked back into my hotel (which conveniently only had the “deluxe” room available, so I got to spend the night in a slightly larger room with a fabulous terrace overlooking Old Town Tbilisi), and headed to the baths, one of my favorite places to visit in Tbilisi. There is nothing quite like a soak in the hot mineral bath, with a scrub-down and massage by a nearly naked 42-year old stranger. The Tbilisi bath workers cringe if you call it a Turkish bath (“It’s a Georgian bath!”), but the experience is not unlike what you can get in Istanbul, although a lot less tourists. You can also get your own room in the Tbilisi bath, which is what I always opt for, which is actually more like a suite. The first room has some chairs and a couch, certainly nothing I would imagine sitting on since I can’t help but imagine who (or what) else has sat there. But you undress and leave your clothes in this room. There is also a small bathroom, I mean water closet, I mean little room with a toilet. The bathroom, or bathing room, or whatever you want to call it, has a small pool into which the steamy mineral water constantly flows. It’s got a slightly sulphuric smell, but it’s not so stinky as to be overwhelming. The entire room is wet. There’s steam on the walls, water sloshes out of the pool onto the floor constantly and flows into the drains. There are a couple of shower heads along one wall, and a big marble slab along another. There are a couple steps down into the pool, and I’m guessing it’s about 5 feet deep, so comfortable to stand it, or sit on the steps. You soak for 10 minutes or so, and then the lady comes to scrub you down (or man, if you’re of that gender, or in mixed company). She comes in fully clothed, but quickly strips down to a little bikini-bottom, which I think is one of the most efficient work uniforms I’ve ever seen. You lay on the marble slab and she gets to work on you with a special wool mit, scrubbing so much gunk of you, you can’t believe you’ve been living in that skin all this time (Cost of scrub: 5 lari/$2.25, a bit more if you don’t bring your own soap and have to buy it from her). She’ll wash your hair, if you want. For 10 lari (about $5.50), she’ll give you a decent full body massage for about 10 minutes. (In my experience, though, it’s worth going with mixed company to the Tbilisi baths so you can get the male masseuse, who will give you the most acrobatic and amazing massage of your life.) All told, I spent 56 lari (about $30) for an hour in a private bath room, with a scrub and massage, including tip. The only downside to the evening were the frequent interruptions as people tried to get the passport disaster sorted out. But it worked out, and an Embassy driver showed up at my hotel around 10:00pm with my very own. Hurrah! Saturday was a beautiful day, sunny and clear, not too hot and not too cool. I strolled all around the Old Town, along the river bank, and a little bit through some off-the-beaten path areas. The hotel had a lovely roof-top terrace, with a great view of the city.
More photos are on Flickr. And more to come about Baku and Yerevan. I’ve got about 5 posts in various stages of completing, just can’t seem to get any writing done lately.
Anka in Kyiv 