{"id":134,"date":"2019-09-14T08:25:22","date_gmt":"2019-09-14T08:25:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/fromlondontomongolia.com\/?p=134"},"modified":"2019-09-14T08:33:04","modified_gmt":"2019-09-14T08:33:04","slug":"134","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/fromlondontomongolia.com\/index.php\/2019\/09\/14\/134\/","title":{"rendered":"Into Georgia"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>By Robin Ewing<br>July 2013<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>One new Renault clutch and quite a few\ndollars later, we crossed the border into Georgia. Immediately gone were the\nshiny, silver domes of the small roadside Turkish mosques, the headscarves and the\noccasional black flowing <em>abaya<\/em>. Instead,\neveryone looked like they were going to the beach. Blonde women in short\ndresses and shirtless men in flip-flops with towels thrown over their shoulders\nstrolled through traffic. A man with a cardboard box wrapped around his chest\nstood on the side of the road. It felt like Europe again.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"768\" src=\"https:\/\/fromlondontomongolia.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/IMG_6485-1024x768.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-135\" srcset=\"https:\/\/fromlondontomongolia.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/IMG_6485-980x735.jpg 980w, https:\/\/fromlondontomongolia.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/IMG_6485-480x360.jpg 480w\" sizes=\"(min-width: 0px) and (max-width: 480px) 480px, (min-width: 481px) and (max-width: 980px) 980px, (min-width: 981px) 1024px, 100vw\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>We were hard pressed to find alcohol in\nTurkey, but at the Georgian gas station, there was an entire wall of vodka and\nthe largest beer I\u2019ve ever seen. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"768\" height=\"1024\" src=\"https:\/\/fromlondontomongolia.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/IMG_6513-e1568449761534-768x1024.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-137\"\/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Perhaps giant beer explains the driving. It\nseems to escalate in each country, making the one before it seem tame. &nbsp;In Georgia, the highways are two lanes but\nGeorgians have collectively decided to make them three. The imaginary middle\nlane is for passing at excessive speeds from both sides. The entire country is\none big game of Chicken. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Want to get an idea of what it\u2019s like to drive in Georgia? Watch this video<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed-youtube wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"BMW M5 &quot;NeedForDrive.com&quot; LAST ILLEGAL Street Racing and Drift, Driver - Giorgi Tevzadze\" width=\"1080\" height=\"608\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/gpAzXqIcWzc?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>What that video doesn\u2019t show are all the\ncows, dogs and people milling about. After dark, entire villages come out and\nloiter in the road. If I were crazy enough to walk down a Georgian highway, I\ncertainly wouldn\u2019t do it at night, wearing all black, in the middle of the road\nwhile looking at the ground. But apparently, I\u2019m in the minority. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"768\" src=\"https:\/\/fromlondontomongolia.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/IMG_6490-1024x768.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-139\" srcset=\"https:\/\/fromlondontomongolia.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/IMG_6490-980x735.jpg 980w, https:\/\/fromlondontomongolia.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/IMG_6490-480x360.jpg 480w\" sizes=\"(min-width: 0px) and (max-width: 480px) 480px, (min-width: 481px) and (max-width: 980px) 980px, (min-width: 981px) 1024px, 100vw\" \/><figcaption>If you nudge the cow with your car, it moves out of the road.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Just before midnight, we\u2019d had enough. We\nstopped at a roadside hotel with sprawling vacant halls and a second floor\nreception with one kind woman who spoke only Russian to us.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Hungry, we wandered out to the only\nrestaurant to be seen, on the highway across from a gas station. A lively woman\nnamed Marta jumped up, grabbed us by the arms and swept us around the empty room,\npointing out all the food she could make while chattering away in Russian. Then\nshe poured me a pale glass of homemade Georgian wine from an unmarked plastic\nbottle. It tasted like watery, two-month old apple juice. Wardlaw said it\ntasted like Chardonnay.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>We sat outside and the picnic table filled\nup with fresh tomato and cucumber salad, fresh Georgian cheese, pan-fried bread\nwith melted goat cheese and a sizzling pot of chicken and onions. Whenever we\nasked for beer, another woman disappeared into the dark to return a few minutes\nlater with a bag of bottles. It was one of the best meals we\u2019ve had yet.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"768\" src=\"https:\/\/fromlondontomongolia.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/IMG_6505-1024x768.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-101\" srcset=\"https:\/\/fromlondontomongolia.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/IMG_6505-980x735.jpg 980w, https:\/\/fromlondontomongolia.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/IMG_6505-480x360.jpg 480w\" sizes=\"(min-width: 0px) and (max-width: 480px) 480px, (min-width: 481px) and (max-width: 980px) 980px, (min-width: 981px) 1024px, 100vw\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"1024\" src=\"https:\/\/fromlondontomongolia.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/IMG_6510-1024x1024.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-141\" srcset=\"https:\/\/fromlondontomongolia.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/IMG_6510-980x980.jpg 980w, https:\/\/fromlondontomongolia.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/IMG_6510-480x480.jpg 480w\" sizes=\"(min-width: 0px) and (max-width: 480px) 480px, (min-width: 481px) and (max-width: 980px) 980px, (min-width: 981px) 1024px, 100vw\" \/><figcaption>Georgian khachapuri: my new favorite food<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>A few extremely drunk men sitting near us finished\ntheir board game and walked over to their tiny car. It didn\u2019t start. They rolled\nit backwards into the street. Still didn\u2019t start. They conferred and then left\nit jutting out into the road, the car door open and the radio blaring, to walk\nover to the station to fill up a water bottle with gasoline. Didn\u2019t work. Then\nanother man stumbled over and messed with the engine and suddenly the car was running\nand another man suddenly appeared, they all jumped in and sputtered off into\nthe dark. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>During our two-hour meal, we heard a dog\nget hit by a car (a woman said it was ok but I think she was lying) and another\nmystery thud that ended with a car up on the sidewalk and a small crowd of\nonlookers. Lesson learned: don\u2019t go anywhere near a Georgian road at night.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"768\" src=\"https:\/\/fromlondontomongolia.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/IMG_6508-1024x768.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-102\" srcset=\"https:\/\/fromlondontomongolia.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/IMG_6508-980x735.jpg 980w, https:\/\/fromlondontomongolia.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/IMG_6508-480x360.jpg 480w\" sizes=\"(min-width: 0px) and (max-width: 480px) 480px, (min-width: 481px) and (max-width: 980px) 980px, (min-width: 981px) 1024px, 100vw\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>The next morning we drove through the Trialeti\nmountains straight across the country. Small stick shacks lined the road and\nwomen in all black waved huge loaves of bread at oncoming cars. Horse-drawn\ncarts passed small stands selling a few lonely ears of roasted corn. As we\nentered Tbilisi, the decaying grandeur of houses with crumbling latticed\nbalconies gave way to the old beauty of the city that has been Georgia\u2019s\ncapital for more than a thousand years. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>It\u2019s frustrating not to have the time to\nstop and explore all these places. We need to be at the Turkmenistan Consulate\nin Baku, Azerbaijan at 9am Friday morning to meet the Bandits, get our visa and\nget on that elusive ferry over the Caspian. Tbilisi has made the list of places\nto return. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Next challenge: crossing Azerbaijan and getting\non the ferry and into wacky Turkmenistan. Updates to follow soon.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By Robin EwingJuly 2013 One new Renault clutch and quite a few dollars later, we crossed the border into Georgia. Immediately gone were the shiny, silver domes of the small roadside Turkish mosques, the headscarves and the occasional black flowing abaya. Instead, everyone looked like they were going to the beach. Blonde women in short [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":135,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"off","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-134","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-blog"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/fromlondontomongolia.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/IMG_6485.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/fromlondontomongolia.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/134","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/fromlondontomongolia.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/fromlondontomongolia.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fromlondontomongolia.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fromlondontomongolia.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=134"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/fromlondontomongolia.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/134\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":143,"href":"https:\/\/fromlondontomongolia.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/134\/revisions\/143"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fromlondontomongolia.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/135"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/fromlondontomongolia.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=134"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fromlondontomongolia.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=134"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fromlondontomongolia.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=134"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}