Armenia 2012

This story is about our travels through Armenia as part of our trip to the Caucasus countries in October, 2012.   

Not many people visit Armenia, in fact few even know where it is.  Does anyone know the name of the capital, Yerevan, a city of more than one million that has been continuously occupied since the 6th century BC?

Armenia is one of the Caucasus countries along with its neighbors Azerbaijan and Georgia.  It’s the smallest of the three, with a population of just over three million, and was part of the Soviet Union until it became independent in 1991.  Mother Nature was not kind to this country and unlike most of its neighbors it doesn’t have petroleum or other resources but rather depends mostly on agriculture and remittances from the roughly eight million Armenians living abroad.

I’m writing this several months after our Caucasus journey and in retrospect realize that this country, with its capital city of Yerevan, was the most interesting and enjoyable of our five-week trip.  Why?  It was the most different of the countries we visited, easy to navigate by car, very inexpensive, a country which sees few foreigners, friendly and hospitable people, totally safe, etc.  It’s foreign but familiar at the same time.

We rented our four wheel drive SUV in Tbilisi, Georgia and spent a day in the Georgian wine country.  Because the weather forecast called for rain, we decided to head south and go directly into Armenia.  

Border crossings from Georgia into Armenia are few and far between.  While Armenia also borders both Turkey and Azerbaijan, those crossings have been closed for years because these countries don’t particularly like each other and over the years a great deal of blood has been shed.  Armenia also borders Iran but clearly that wasn’t an option for us.  The only way to get into Armenia by road is through Georgia, and there are only two crossings.  

The road to Armenia took us through the Georgian capital of Tbilisi, and without GPS (the one the rental company gave us didn’t work) we quickly got lost and had to hire a taxi which we followed to the highway.  It’s a different driving experience when you realize that if you’re lost you can’t just stop and ask for directions.  I explain to taxi drivers that I want to follow them to a certain place and will pay them- and I have 3 by 5 cards in Russian explaining what I’m doing.  It works remarkably well and taxis are cheap as dirt.  I call this “taxi navigation”.

It’s only about 50 miles from Tbilisi to the Armenian border and as you approach Armenia you begin to see differences in the landscape, housing, people, and the road itself.  One word describes the differences- poor.  

Crossing most borders with an American passport is a simple affair.  Every time I enter a new country I usually get the impression that an American passport is respected and the holder is an honored guest perhaps, even with special privileges.  People in many countries may dislike the American government but it seems they like Americans as people.  We are routinely waved through with no hassles and usually lots of smiles.  Border officials in countries such as Armenia rarely see independent Americans traveling by car; the few Americans who do go there are either in large groups traveling by bus or young backpackers.

Most of the vehicle traffic between Georgia and Armenia is large trucks, most going to or coming from Iran. These burly truck drivers are lined up waving their papers, each trying to get attention from the customs people.  Lots of languages being spoken none of which were English.  One customs official must have seen the somewhat bewildered look on my face- and the US passport in my hand. He used his few English words to quickly stamp our entry documents, sold us the mandatory insurance at one dollar for each day in the country and we were on our way.  I did give him a small “tip” of a few dollars which is probably why we got such fast service.

It was late afternoon and was beginning to rain as we left the border station and headed south into this new country – not exactly sure of our destination and where we could spend the night.  We had no local currency and there were no banks or exchange offices open - credit cards are pretty much unknown in Armenia.  No worries- we had plenty of gas, a map, some Georgian and US currency, our good friend “Lonely Planet”- and, most importantly, our lust for adventure.

Armenia is a very poor country and the roads bear witness to this fact.  Our map showed that we were in the province of Lori headed toward Debed Canyon and the town of Vanadzor.  Our Armenian adventure was beginning.  

Since there was little daylight left we needed to find a hotel.  Misti looked in Lonely Planet, our only information source since we didn’t have internet on our iPad- and she found the hotel Avan Dzoraget which was described as a five star luxury hotel with rooms at about 60,000 dram- or about $150 US - an extravagant amount in this poor country.  I found it hard to believe that such a place could exist given the poverty we were seeing around us- literally hovels with earthen roofs and destroyed factories abandoned years ago by the Soviets.  The idea of a five star hotel in this environment was appealing to me- especially since the night before we had stayed in a hostel in the Georgian wine country for $25 with one of the worst beds I’ve ever slept on.  

We arrived at the hotel just as it was getting dark and from a distance it looked wonderful.  I was already savoring a martini and a great Armenian meal- and a comfortable king sized bed- regardless of the cost.  Wrong!  Turned out the entire hotel had been booked for a wedding and we weren’t able to persuade them that we’d take even a small closet if one were available.  

At that point I thought we might have to spend the night sleeping in the car.  I had the feeling there was nothing close by that would be at all suitable. It was dark and raining, and I was tired of driving.  The woman in the hotel told us in good English that there was a motel about fifteen kilometers down the road.  We set out with low expectations thinking we’d spend the night on a straw mattress in a barn.  Not so.  We soon saw a neon sign saying “Motel”, pulled in, and using lots of sign language and some words from our Russian phrase book I was able to convince the two women who ran the place that we needed a room for the night and could pay them with Georgian money.  They agreed and showed us to a lovely, clean room which was a thousand times nicer than I expected.  It was a dark and gloomy rainy night and there wasn’t another soul in this small motel. It was a little eerie, but we were ecstatic that we had a warm, dry and comfortable place to spend the night.

We asked about having dinner, again paying with Georgian money, and they said they would prepare dinner for us and we could eat in our room.  I suggested that we eat at a small table in their kitchen and they said that was fine.  We selected wine, beer, fish, vegetables and bread - all by pointing and using our wonderful Russian word “etta”- which means “that one”.  A friend of theirs stopped by, who spoke some English, and insisted on our having Armenian brandy as his guest.  In all, a delightful evening with a very tasty meal, lots of brandy, a comfortable room and fun trying to communicate with the two Armenian ladies who wanted their pictures taken.

Next morning the sun was out and we were on our way to somewhere- not sure which direction to take.  One option was Lake Sevan a resort area only an hour away.  The other was to drive directly to Yerevan, the capital, which was the option we chose.  

We were hungry and wanted some coffee but rural Armenia doesn’t have roadside restaurants because the people are so poor.  We went into the first town we came to, which was Vanadzor, and started looking for a restaurant.  Good luck- there aren’t any restaurants or at least we couldn’t find one.  So we went into the large market, used our Russian phrase book and sign language, and got some babushkas (old women) to make a table by putting together some boxes, covering them with newspaper, making us some strange coffee and we found some pastries- all for less than a dollar. The ladies insisted we take their photos and jabbered away in Russian.  A fun experience and a nice way to start the day.

As we drove south to Yerevan we saw mile after mile of abandoned ex-Soviet factories with massive buildings and equipment rusting away.  It would have been a good setting for an “end of the world” movie. Very strange and very creepy: all this man-made ugliness against a background of beautiful mountains and a scenic rushing river.  This was all in the northernmost province of Lori which is closest to Russia by way of Georgia.  I guessed that in Soviet times Armenia was humming with factories producing all sorts of goods which were shipped by rail into the heart of Russia.  It would cost a fortune to dismantle these monstrosities and, as I said, Armenia is a poor country, so the people in the surrounding towns will live their lives with these ugly reminders of their Soviet masters.

On to Yerevan, the capital city of Armenia.  In my usual manner, I didn’t read much in advance about the city. I sometimes like to just go to a place and get the feel for it by being there. Yerevan was a pleasant surprise.  Much larger and more sophisticated than I expected, and a lovely central area with many parks and older buildings that had not been destroyed in World War II.  Apparently the Nazis didn’t make it as far south as Armenia and the Turks focused more on killing people (genocide) than destroying buildings.

The weather was quite pleasant and we spent our time strolling through the inner city.   Interesting museums, monuments, cafes and wide boulevards- sort of reminded me of Paris many years ago- although that might be a bit of a stretch.

A highlight of our stay in Yerevan was a visit to the Genocide Museum, which depicts the slaughter of Armenians, by the Turks, over a thirty year period.  From 1894 through 1923 more than a million Armenians were murdered, decimating the small country whose population at the time was less than three million.  The museum has powerful photos and films of the massacres and we had chills listening to our English-speaking guide describing the events.  A shame the world didn’t learn from this experience because Hitler, Mao and Stalin went on to repeat genocide in their own countries not that many years later.

After leaving Yerevan, headed south, we passed Mt. Ararat where Noah built his ark in roughly 425 AD.  The mountain is immense, at 17,000 feet, and is considered to be the largest single mass volume mountain in the world.  While Mt. Ararat had been part of Armenia for more than 2,500 years, the treaty of Tehran, in 1932, changed boundaries so the mountain is now considered to be in Eastern Turkey on the border of Iran.  Given Armenia’s long history with Mt. Ararat, the people of this little country aren’t very happy with this change.

We spent the rest of our time in Armenia driving through the country, first southeast where we spent a night in the small town of Goris, then north to the resort area of Lake Sevan and finally spending our last night in the city of Gyumri, the second largest city in the country.  We saw that there is a large contingent of Russian soldiers in Gyumri, protecting little Armenia from giant Turkey. Without Russian protection, powerful Turkey just might resurrect ideas of reclaiming more of Armenia and their program of genocide.

After a week in Armenia we drove to Batumi, a resort city in Georgia on the Black Sea.  We spent three nights in Batumi, then made our way across the border to Trabzon, Turkey where we rented a car and spent our final week driving through Turkey to Antalya.  We flew to Istanbul to meet up with some friends and then flew home.

Thus ended our five-week odyssey that took us through Belarus, Georgia, Azerbaijan, Armenia and Turkey.  We had an intense first-hand exposure to four post-Soviet countries and came away with the impression that while many of these people have no love for Russia, many miss the security of the old Soviet days, and the Russian language and culture linger.  I suspect the Russian bear has plans to bring some of their “children” back into their empire as seems to be the case in Georgia.  If this does happen, it will be interesting to see how the US and other world powers react to any Russian imperialism.  It was a wonderful adventure with many great experiences and I recommend the Caucasus countries to those who would like to explore places which have yet to be discovered by the tourist hordes.

Art Faibisch