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The West Australian (Perth)
August 17, 2013 Saturday
First Edition
Ancient lands of many faces
Over 27 days next year, Travel Directors' The Treasures of Persia and
the Caucasus tour will journey through Iran, Armenia and Georgia.
Starting in Shiraz, travellers head first through Isfahan, Tehran and
Tabriz, then cross the border from Maghri in Iran to Goris in Armenia.
>From there, they will head on to Yerevan, the capital of Armenia,
which is where I am now. And from there on through Armenia and into
Georgia. These are a handful of highlights, from the pages of my
notebook . . . ;
ARMENIA;
GEORGIA
In the city, Yerevan.
Mt Ararat dominates the Armenian capital's long-distance landscape,
just as architecture in volcanic stone coloured from pink to charcoal
does its urban one, and Christianity that of its emotions.
Armenia was the world's first Christian country and Mt Ararat is where
Noah's Ark is said to have come to rest, though it is now in Turkey.
And thereby hangs a pivotal moment, for the border shifted about 1915,
at the time of the genocide of Armenians at the hands of the Turks.
Visits to Armenian Christian Apostolic Churches provide some of the
framework of our days extraordinary places such as the Cathedral of
Holy Etchmiadzin, built in AD301 and the church of St Hripsime, in
AD618.
Geghard Monastery sits in the mountains, with chapels hewn from rock.
But this is also the home of apricot trees, of grapevines and of
Ararat brandy and in an interesting visit to the factory, on a day
when Mt Ararat appears snow-capped above it, we hear that 5000 farmers
send their white grapes here, for the seven million bottles produced
and exported to 28 countries last year.
I quickly get to really like Yerevan. I walk out late one cool evening
and sit at a cafe off a park, enjoying the coffee and the community of
it. Young people, couples, families all stroll the streets. It's a
relaxed scene, and too early for the jazz clubs that kick in later.
Armenians like being up late but don't expect to easily find coffee
and breakfast at 7am.
On the road. From Yerevan to Dilijan.
We are on the road, leaving the city behind and driving the grassed
and grazed landscape. It is early summer and the country is green but
I can imagine the harsh winters here. Very cold. Lots of snow. The
road takes us up to 2000m. Ladas with loads, men doing roadworks with
pickaxes, women collecting rubbish on the roadside. Cattle and garlic
sellers with full buckets of the stuff.
We arrive high at Lake Sevan, once the scene of a 10th century battle
between Arabs and Armenians but now a favourite haunt for swimmers in
a landlocked country. The Monastery of Sevan, on the hill, dates to
AD874, overlooking the souvenir stalls and restaurants below, serving
trout cooked over coals, local cheeses, Armenian salad of tomato,
cucumber and onions with herbs, and flat shoti bread.
Eat me, drink me. Dilijan and beyond.
And then on, into Georgia, past wide, deceptively fast-flowing rivers,
we are soon in flatter land where the temperature is often easily over
40C in summer. And in these valleys, grapes have flourished for
thousands of years, and so too has winemaking, hand in hand with
Christianity. In fact, we will see a number of ancient wineries in old
monasteries.
Terracotta on a hill. Signagi.
>From the roadside, it could be a scene from Italy. Pretty Signagi, in
the east Georgia winegrowing region of Kakheti, perches on the
shoulder of a hill, overlooking the productive, agricultural plain but
the horizon gives its location away. For there is the great face of
the Caucasus Mountains (part of the geographic girth that has bound
Russia to the north), and this is most definitely Georgia.
The medieval town of Signagi has a high, village feel, with its paved
roads, cafes and intimate atmosphere. The hotel is comfortable and
personable, and we sit under trees and dine on fresh cheeses and
bread, local sparkling mineral water that tastes of the rock itself,
and Turkish coffee smooth as melted chocolate.
(I could stay longer.)
The food of life. To Gremi, Alaverdi, Telavi.
This is a culture based in agriculture, close to the food it produces.
As we graze our way through this landscape, I feel never far away from
the source of the food. The sheep cheeses are slightly salty, moist
and fresh. The salad produce hasn't been gassed and trucked.
Strawberries taste like, well, strawberries the deep, fragrant,
pungent taste of fruit fed by the earth and ripened by the sun, and
not forced to rush. Cherries by the bucket, for a few bucks, that glow
like rubies.
And, at the 11th century Alaverdi Monastery, sitting rather like a
dreamt-up fairytale castle in the broad landscape, it all comes
together, with its wine, its beehives, its deep, deep belief and the
icons and young Armenians that fill its St George Cathedral. Three
young women sing in the Georgian polyphonic style, their simultaneous,
harmonious, contrapuntal voices rising in the still amplifier of the
church. Vibrating. An old woman joins in.
The many faces of history. Gori.
We arrive in Tbilisi, the capital of Georgia, and then head out on a
day tour to Gori, stopping on the way at the ancient capital of
Mtskheta, inhabited since the second century, and Svetitskhoveli, the
country's royal cathedral of Georgia, which was used for centuries for
the coronation and burial of monarchs. Many believe that the robe of
Jesus Christ was buried here, along with a woman who died in the
ecstasy of holding it, after it was brought here in the first century.
The Lord's Robe or, as the locals like to call it, Christ's T-shirt.
And then on to the Joseph Stalin Museum, where I watch an old man
steadily standing before, and contemplating, the little house where
the Man of Steel leader of the former Soviet Union the man behind the
death of millions was born.
And then to Uplistsikhe, where shelters and rooms were hewn from the
rock from the early Iron Age to late Middle Ages. I look up the rising
face of the rock, past the pagan caves to the church above, a basilica
with a spiritually moving atmosphere. A day of layer upon layer of
human history.
Bubbles. A city alive. Tbilisi.
The Kura River, running through the heart of the Georgian capital of
Tbilisi, is deceptive. At first it looks like the wide, slow rivers
that we might expect of many capital cities. Wide, paved and
tree-lined promenades beside it, fanciful streetlights, pretty
bridges. And then you take a closer look and see that it's actually
fast flowing. There are even whitewater rapids, and standing waves,
where the water turns back on itself.
And so it is with the city of Tbilisi itself. There are narrow paved
streets, ancient homes, domed brick sulfur baths built in the 17th
century and still popular, a comprehensive Museum District, old women
in black dress, men who sit slouched in the sun in wide-kneed
contemplation.
Running in a fast stream over that is the modern city itself, shaking
off the shadow of what it calls 70 years of Soviet occupation which
ended when the USSR dissolved and it was released in 1991. There is
continuing arm wrestling with muscular northern neighbour Russia and
angst over its contemporary politics.
For this is a political, angsty sort of place with tricky neighbours.
After a day of seeing this and that, the city gels for me. I just get
it the juxtapositioning. Past and present, politics and priests, and,
well, dynamic, alive . . . fun.
When I leave the hotel at 5am to fly home, I notice there are still
people in a bar in Akhvlediani Street. The Glasgow, the Dublin Irish
Bar, the Old London, Buffalo Bill's. What's the world coming to?
And on a hill overlooking the Kura River's Metekhi Bridge, where, we
are told, 100,000 people were once tortured during the Persian
invasion, overseeing the new, open internationalism of Tbilisi, is a
statue of King Vakhtang Gorgasali. He was hunting here with a falcon
in the fifth century. It chased a pheasant and they both ended up
falling into a spring which proved to be boiling. Because of the
healing powers of these hot mineral waters, the king ordered a town to
be built here.
In Georgian, the word tbili means warm. And today, it is still
bubbling with life, boiling with politics, and healing itself, as King
Vakhtang Gorgasali looks down upon it all, statuesque.
fact file
Travel Directors' The Treasures of Persia and the Caucasus is a 27-day
tour through Iran, Armenia and Georgia. Starting on May 13, it
includes flights through Dubai with Emirates, connecting to flydubai,
and starts in Shiraz. Travellers then continue to Isfahan, Tehran,
Tabriz and Goris before crossing the border to Armenia. There are days
in the Armenian capital, Yerevan, and insight into the world's first
Christian country. In Georgia, the home of the world's first
winemaking, there are intimate food and wine experiences before
returning from Tbilisi. The tour starts from $14,957 per person, twin
share, including all flights, accommodation, meals, tour leader, local
guides, tips and taxes. Phone 9242 4200, call at 137 Cambridge Street,
West Leederville, or visit traveldirectors.com.au.
Emirates flies three times a day between Perth and Dubai, connecting
to more than 120 destinations. Visit emirates.com/au, travel agents,
or call Emirates' Perth ticket office on 9324 7600. It connects to the
flydubai network which flies to 57 destinations in 33 countries.
flydubai.com.
August 17, 2013 Saturday
First Edition
Ancient lands of many faces
Over 27 days next year, Travel Directors' The Treasures of Persia and
the Caucasus tour will journey through Iran, Armenia and Georgia.
Starting in Shiraz, travellers head first through Isfahan, Tehran and
Tabriz, then cross the border from Maghri in Iran to Goris in Armenia.
>From there, they will head on to Yerevan, the capital of Armenia,
which is where I am now. And from there on through Armenia and into
Georgia. These are a handful of highlights, from the pages of my
notebook . . . ;
ARMENIA;
GEORGIA
In the city, Yerevan.
Mt Ararat dominates the Armenian capital's long-distance landscape,
just as architecture in volcanic stone coloured from pink to charcoal
does its urban one, and Christianity that of its emotions.
Armenia was the world's first Christian country and Mt Ararat is where
Noah's Ark is said to have come to rest, though it is now in Turkey.
And thereby hangs a pivotal moment, for the border shifted about 1915,
at the time of the genocide of Armenians at the hands of the Turks.
Visits to Armenian Christian Apostolic Churches provide some of the
framework of our days extraordinary places such as the Cathedral of
Holy Etchmiadzin, built in AD301 and the church of St Hripsime, in
AD618.
Geghard Monastery sits in the mountains, with chapels hewn from rock.
But this is also the home of apricot trees, of grapevines and of
Ararat brandy and in an interesting visit to the factory, on a day
when Mt Ararat appears snow-capped above it, we hear that 5000 farmers
send their white grapes here, for the seven million bottles produced
and exported to 28 countries last year.
I quickly get to really like Yerevan. I walk out late one cool evening
and sit at a cafe off a park, enjoying the coffee and the community of
it. Young people, couples, families all stroll the streets. It's a
relaxed scene, and too early for the jazz clubs that kick in later.
Armenians like being up late but don't expect to easily find coffee
and breakfast at 7am.
On the road. From Yerevan to Dilijan.
We are on the road, leaving the city behind and driving the grassed
and grazed landscape. It is early summer and the country is green but
I can imagine the harsh winters here. Very cold. Lots of snow. The
road takes us up to 2000m. Ladas with loads, men doing roadworks with
pickaxes, women collecting rubbish on the roadside. Cattle and garlic
sellers with full buckets of the stuff.
We arrive high at Lake Sevan, once the scene of a 10th century battle
between Arabs and Armenians but now a favourite haunt for swimmers in
a landlocked country. The Monastery of Sevan, on the hill, dates to
AD874, overlooking the souvenir stalls and restaurants below, serving
trout cooked over coals, local cheeses, Armenian salad of tomato,
cucumber and onions with herbs, and flat shoti bread.
Eat me, drink me. Dilijan and beyond.
And then on, into Georgia, past wide, deceptively fast-flowing rivers,
we are soon in flatter land where the temperature is often easily over
40C in summer. And in these valleys, grapes have flourished for
thousands of years, and so too has winemaking, hand in hand with
Christianity. In fact, we will see a number of ancient wineries in old
monasteries.
Terracotta on a hill. Signagi.
>From the roadside, it could be a scene from Italy. Pretty Signagi, in
the east Georgia winegrowing region of Kakheti, perches on the
shoulder of a hill, overlooking the productive, agricultural plain but
the horizon gives its location away. For there is the great face of
the Caucasus Mountains (part of the geographic girth that has bound
Russia to the north), and this is most definitely Georgia.
The medieval town of Signagi has a high, village feel, with its paved
roads, cafes and intimate atmosphere. The hotel is comfortable and
personable, and we sit under trees and dine on fresh cheeses and
bread, local sparkling mineral water that tastes of the rock itself,
and Turkish coffee smooth as melted chocolate.
(I could stay longer.)
The food of life. To Gremi, Alaverdi, Telavi.
This is a culture based in agriculture, close to the food it produces.
As we graze our way through this landscape, I feel never far away from
the source of the food. The sheep cheeses are slightly salty, moist
and fresh. The salad produce hasn't been gassed and trucked.
Strawberries taste like, well, strawberries the deep, fragrant,
pungent taste of fruit fed by the earth and ripened by the sun, and
not forced to rush. Cherries by the bucket, for a few bucks, that glow
like rubies.
And, at the 11th century Alaverdi Monastery, sitting rather like a
dreamt-up fairytale castle in the broad landscape, it all comes
together, with its wine, its beehives, its deep, deep belief and the
icons and young Armenians that fill its St George Cathedral. Three
young women sing in the Georgian polyphonic style, their simultaneous,
harmonious, contrapuntal voices rising in the still amplifier of the
church. Vibrating. An old woman joins in.
The many faces of history. Gori.
We arrive in Tbilisi, the capital of Georgia, and then head out on a
day tour to Gori, stopping on the way at the ancient capital of
Mtskheta, inhabited since the second century, and Svetitskhoveli, the
country's royal cathedral of Georgia, which was used for centuries for
the coronation and burial of monarchs. Many believe that the robe of
Jesus Christ was buried here, along with a woman who died in the
ecstasy of holding it, after it was brought here in the first century.
The Lord's Robe or, as the locals like to call it, Christ's T-shirt.
And then on to the Joseph Stalin Museum, where I watch an old man
steadily standing before, and contemplating, the little house where
the Man of Steel leader of the former Soviet Union the man behind the
death of millions was born.
And then to Uplistsikhe, where shelters and rooms were hewn from the
rock from the early Iron Age to late Middle Ages. I look up the rising
face of the rock, past the pagan caves to the church above, a basilica
with a spiritually moving atmosphere. A day of layer upon layer of
human history.
Bubbles. A city alive. Tbilisi.
The Kura River, running through the heart of the Georgian capital of
Tbilisi, is deceptive. At first it looks like the wide, slow rivers
that we might expect of many capital cities. Wide, paved and
tree-lined promenades beside it, fanciful streetlights, pretty
bridges. And then you take a closer look and see that it's actually
fast flowing. There are even whitewater rapids, and standing waves,
where the water turns back on itself.
And so it is with the city of Tbilisi itself. There are narrow paved
streets, ancient homes, domed brick sulfur baths built in the 17th
century and still popular, a comprehensive Museum District, old women
in black dress, men who sit slouched in the sun in wide-kneed
contemplation.
Running in a fast stream over that is the modern city itself, shaking
off the shadow of what it calls 70 years of Soviet occupation which
ended when the USSR dissolved and it was released in 1991. There is
continuing arm wrestling with muscular northern neighbour Russia and
angst over its contemporary politics.
For this is a political, angsty sort of place with tricky neighbours.
After a day of seeing this and that, the city gels for me. I just get
it the juxtapositioning. Past and present, politics and priests, and,
well, dynamic, alive . . . fun.
When I leave the hotel at 5am to fly home, I notice there are still
people in a bar in Akhvlediani Street. The Glasgow, the Dublin Irish
Bar, the Old London, Buffalo Bill's. What's the world coming to?
And on a hill overlooking the Kura River's Metekhi Bridge, where, we
are told, 100,000 people were once tortured during the Persian
invasion, overseeing the new, open internationalism of Tbilisi, is a
statue of King Vakhtang Gorgasali. He was hunting here with a falcon
in the fifth century. It chased a pheasant and they both ended up
falling into a spring which proved to be boiling. Because of the
healing powers of these hot mineral waters, the king ordered a town to
be built here.
In Georgian, the word tbili means warm. And today, it is still
bubbling with life, boiling with politics, and healing itself, as King
Vakhtang Gorgasali looks down upon it all, statuesque.
fact file
Travel Directors' The Treasures of Persia and the Caucasus is a 27-day
tour through Iran, Armenia and Georgia. Starting on May 13, it
includes flights through Dubai with Emirates, connecting to flydubai,
and starts in Shiraz. Travellers then continue to Isfahan, Tehran,
Tabriz and Goris before crossing the border to Armenia. There are days
in the Armenian capital, Yerevan, and insight into the world's first
Christian country. In Georgia, the home of the world's first
winemaking, there are intimate food and wine experiences before
returning from Tbilisi. The tour starts from $14,957 per person, twin
share, including all flights, accommodation, meals, tour leader, local
guides, tips and taxes. Phone 9242 4200, call at 137 Cambridge Street,
West Leederville, or visit traveldirectors.com.au.
Emirates flies three times a day between Perth and Dubai, connecting
to more than 120 destinations. Visit emirates.com/au, travel agents,
or call Emirates' Perth ticket office on 9324 7600. It connects to the
flydubai network which flies to 57 destinations in 33 countries.
flydubai.com.