Georgia

Georgia was special to us for a very simple reason: it was the destination that made our first personal international trip possible. From Dubai, the fact that Georgia offered visa on arrival made the decision easy. Pragati and I travelled there from 26 November to 1 December 2015, not knowing that the short trip would leave us with so many memories — some sweet, some sour, and some completely unexpected.

Our first international trip

We flew from Dubai to Tbilisi on Flydubai FZ711 on 26 November 2015. The landing itself was something we remember. As the aircraft touched down, fellow passengers started clapping and cheering. It was new to us — almost as if a successful landing was something worth celebrating.

The welcome at immigration, however, was very different. The border police were extremely rude and the immigration check felt unnecessarily intrusive. It was an unpleasant first impression.

Fortunately, that was not representative of the people we met during the rest of our journey.

Georgians were, by contrast, remarkably warm and friendly. There seemed to be a particular affection for Indians. We discovered that the old Soviet connection had left many people familiar with Indian cinema, especially the films of Raj Kapoor. Some people could sing songs from Mera Naam Joker and other old Hindi films with surprising fluency. It was an unexpected cultural connection, and one of the things that made the trip memorable.

Tbilisi and a hotel change

Our first hotel in Tbilisi was B&B Old Tbilisi, which we had booked through Booking.com. The address was on Kardenakhi Street, well away from the central areas we wanted to explore. As soon as we checked in, we regretted the choice.

I went out for a short walk and noticed a much nicer-looking hotel nearby. I walked in and asked the manager if they had rooms available. They did. We decided to abandon the Booking.com reservation and moved into Mirobelle instead.

It turned out to be an excellent decision. The hotel was right next to the Holy Trinity Church, and we could actually see the church from our room window. There was another small kindness that reminded us of an experience we had earlier in Leh: Mirobelle allowed us to leave our luggage there without charging us for it.

The Holy Trinity Church became one of our first impressions of Tbilisi, and the city itself soon opened up to us through a mixture of walking, sightseeing and spontaneous decisions.

An unexpected train journey to Batumi

One of the best parts of the trip happened almost by accident.

We decided to travel to Batumi by train. It was an impromptu decision, and rather than taking the simplest available option, we bought business-class tickets. The seats were comfortable and, to our surprise, the train had good internet connectivity.

Pragati was into watching the television series Chanakya at the time, and she managed to watch several episodes during the journey using the train’s internet connection.

At the station, just before boarding, we met another Indian couple from Abu Dhabi. We became friendly with them and decided to explore Batumi together.

There was one small problem: we had no hotel booking in Batumi and would be arriving at night. It was a risky decision. Thankfully, the couple were already staying at a hotel, so we checked there as well and managed to get a walk-in room.

We then hired a cab and explored the surrounding area together.

Batumi and the Black Sea

Batumi gave us a very different side of Georgia. We visited the Black Sea, saw Batumi from the viewpoint and drove towards the Sarpi border with Turkey.

We also visited the Gonio-Apsaros Archaeological Museum and travelled into the countryside to see Makhuntseti Waterfall and the old stone arch bridge nearby. The landscape, the roads and the small settlements along the way made the drive itself part of the experience.

We also visited the Adjarian Wine House. Georgian wine became one of the recurring themes of the trip, and we would later buy some to take back to Dubai.

The two days in Batumi were short, but they were packed with places, people and the feeling of having discovered much more than we had planned.

Standing beside the Black Sea was also a small milestone in its own right. Until then, seas were mostly something I knew through maps, photographs and names. Being there made the geography of the world feel much more real.

Back to Tbilisi

After returning to Tbilisi, we continued exploring the city. We took the Rustaveli–Mtatsminda Cable Car and went all the way to the top.

There was another completely unexpected moment waiting for us there. We found an Indian tea and coffee seller at the top. We had a different kind of coffee there — with rum — and it became one of those little travel memories that stays with you precisely because you never expected it.

We also booked a City Sightseeing bus tour. It turned out to be a wonderful way to see more of the country and, just as importantly, meet other travellers. We became friendly with some of the people on the tour and stayed in touch with them long after we returned to Dubai, sharing photographs through Facebook.

The trip also took us beyond Tbilisi to Tsminda Nino’s Monastery, the Bodbe Monastery Complex and Kvareli. In Kvareli, we visited Corporation Kindzmarauli and took part in a wine tasting.

Georgia was clearly proud of its wine tradition, and we enjoyed experiencing it rather than simply buying a bottle from a shop. We bought Georgian wine to take back with us — and it did not last very long after we returned to Dubai.

Food, language and small discoveries

Food was, as usual, one of the minor challenges for us as vegetarians. We managed, as we always did, by finding what we could. Freshly baked breads and cheese were abundant, and we also noticed how plentiful pomegranates were.

Language was a bigger challenge. Many of the local people we met spoke Georgian or Russian, while English was not widely spoken. Somehow, we managed. A combination of the few English words we could find, gestures and what effectively became sign language got us through.

And perhaps that was part of the fun. We were not travelling with the expectation that everything would be easy or familiar. We were figuring things out as we went along.

We also experienced a traditional Georgian sulphur bath in Tbilisi before the trip came to an end.

Looking back

When we left Georgia on Flydubai FZ712 on 1 December, we were carrying much more than the photographs and bottles of wine we had collected.

This was our first personal international trip. We had travelled because getting to Georgia was relatively straightforward, but the country gave us far more than an easy visa arrangement.

There was the uncomfortable beginning at immigration, followed by the warmth of ordinary Georgians. There was the spontaneous train journey to Batumi, the Indian couple from Abu Dhabi, the unexpected hotel booking, the Black Sea, waterfalls, monasteries and wine country. There was the Indian coffee seller on top of the cable-car ride, the friends we made on the sightseeing bus, and the strange but wonderful discovery that people thousands of kilometres away could still remember and sing old Raj Kapoor songs.

More than anything, Georgia opened a door. Before this trip, international travel had been something we imagined and discussed. After it, it became something we knew we could actually do.

It was a short trip, but it opened a door for us.

Georgia was the beginning of our personal international travels — and perhaps that is why, even after all these years, the memories still feel so fresh.