Saturday, April 9, 2016

A hitchhike adventure from Tbilisi to Ananuri

I haven't really been travelling around Georgia yet, mostly due to not being sure if there would be wifi for me to work.(Georgia isn't as well connected as western countries.)
But sitting at home is really starting to get to me, so I surfed the web and found a portable 3G router where you can put a simcard in and it is also a powerbank to charge the tablet. It sounded perfect for me, so I decided to buy it so that I can travel around as much as I want without having to worry whether or not I will be able to work. Now I can work from anywhere around the world as long as there is a mobile connection. (All I have to do is put a simcard in it and the tablet connects right away with the device.)
So today it was time to test it and I decided to hitchhike to Ananuri, which is about an hour drive. I've been wanting to go to that place since forever, so now it was time to do it.

Ananuri Fortress Complex

I woke up early this morning, so I could catch an early morning bus to the edge of the city to start hitchhiking from there. Hitchhiking inside the city is nearly impossible and since the citybusses are so cheap (0.50 lari/0.17 euro), the best option was to get as far away from the city center as possible. So I took the bus to the last busstop along the highway out of Tbilisi and started to hitchhike.
A few cars stopped straight away, but they didn't go in my direction, so I let them go.
The 3rd car who stopped didn't go where I was going neither, but they were able to drop me off at the beginning of the road towards Zhinvali (where I was heading). Two lovely Georgian guys who spoke pretty good English to my surprise. We had a nice chat and we exchanged facebook and when they dropped me off they made sure that I had another ride before they left. So they stopped a car for me and off I was again! This guy didn't speak any English, so the ride itself was mostly in silence. He had to be in a town close to Zhinvali, so I only had to hitch another 5km after he dropped me off.
This time an expensive private taxi stopped for me and I told the driver I didn't have any money. He shrugged and told me it was fine. He dropped me off right at the fortress.

The fortress itself is beautiful! Unfortunately the river/reservoir behind it was completely dried out. Normally there is a lot of water with a turqouise color, so I guess I have to come back some time in summer. There is a newer part which is operating as a church and there is the old fortress which is more a ruin than anything else. But I love ruins and decaying buildings, so I went to explore with much excitement.

The old fortress

Other part of the old fortress

Other side of the old fortress

The wall plus watchtower of the old fortress

One of the towers had a stairs going up, so naturally I wanted to explore and see what's on the top. It had several chambers and the stairs itself was really narrow.

Narrow stairs

One of the chambers

At the top there was a lovely room with a small window with the greatest views!

From the top of the tower

After exploring the old fortress and tower, I went to the church to have a look inside.

The church from the outside

The church on the inside

Church

It wasn't very big so after a few minutes I went out again to explore more of the region around the fortress. Just down the hill there was an old abandoned church which looked lovely in it's decay. It didn't get a lot of attention from the tourists who where at the fortress as well, I guess not everyone is drawn to buildings like this. For me it's incredibly beautiful!

Abandoned church

The inside of the abandoned church

After exploring all the corners of this church, it was time to test the device I bought and I looked for a nice spot in the sun to work for 2 hours. I found a lovely spot on the riverbank and connect my tablet to the device. It worked beautifully and fast! I'm really happy I bought it, now I can really work from anywhere. So I sat there for two hours and did my work.
When I was finished I went for a little walk towards the town of Ananuri.

View from my "office"

Same view, but this time with the old bridge as well

One of the roads in town. The dog you see there is a stray dog who liked me very much I think, because he kept coming for cuddles and walked with me the rest of the way.

After exploring the little town, it was time to slowly hitch my way back to Tbilisi. I walked up to the main road and waited for a car to come. Not much traffic is passing today, so I thought it might be a while before getting picked up, But fortunately I saw a car coming after just 1 minute and he stopped for me. It was a Russian guy on his way to Tbilisi. He didn't speak any English and I didn't speak any Russian or Georgian, so we tried to communicate with pointing and gestures. He knew a few English words, so we managed to have a little conversation. When we were almost in Tbilisi he asked if I wanted to have sex. This is actually the first time this happens to me while hitchhiking, so I was a little flabbergasted. I politely told him no and fortunately he didn't ask again. He was a but ashamed for asking I think, so we just laughed it away. He bought me some food and a drink and drove me all the way to Vake where I live. He dropped me off at the main road and from there it was only a 3 minute walk home.

So I've got my intake of exploration vitamins again, which is good because the coming days the weather is gonna be pretty bad. Next time I will take the same road as today, but all the way to Kazbegi (Russian border). I will pass Gudauri as well (skiresort), so if there is still snow, I will probably snowboard for a few hours as well.

Cheers and see you all next time!


Tuesday, April 5, 2016

Enjoying two days in the beautiful canyons of Birtvisi!

I needed to get out of the city, period. I was starting to lose myself and become more grumpy with the day, so I needed some medicine called nature!
Irakli texted me and asked me if I wanted to go to Birtvisi to camp and that was my chance for a much needed break away from the concrete jungle I hate so much.
So yesterday we went and stayed until today.

Yesterday we took the metro to get out of the city and the bus to get to Birtvisi. It's a 1 hour drive from Tbilisi and super easy to get to. Once we arrived we started the 1 hour hike to get to the camping spot. The walk there is incredibly beautiful, canyons on both sides and lots and lots of nature. And best of all, no city noises and smells! I forgot what clean air smelled like, living in Tbilisi for quite a while now which is an insanely dirty city.
I instantly forgot the city and just enjoyed the sun, the smells, the scenery and the sounds. One with the planet and living in the now.

The road towards the canyons

View along the way

Gotta keep on hiking!

The hike itself is not too difficult, but you need to be able to climb a bit here and there and used to walking uphill. After about half an hour we reached the first camping spot, but I knew straight away that I didn't want to camp there and Irakli luckily also didn't want to camp there. He had another place in mind, on top of one of the pillars/rocks, about half an hour walk further.
While hiking our way up there, we crossed an incredible beautiful place inside the canyon with a tower from an old castle and a lovely stream of fresh springwater making it's way from one end to the other. Completely secluded between massive rocks, it gave the ultimate feeling of being in a movie scene.


The little watchtower

The scenery behind the secluded area

More scenery

After a short rest there, we decided to go further. From now we had to climb a lot. The place where Irakli wanted to camp was at the castle. You can't really see the castle, except for some walls, doorways and some towers here and there. The castle itself is build inside the rocks/pillars, so it was a great destination back in the day! Nobody can get there easily and you will be spotted very soon.
I was also surprised to see how much edible plants, trees, nuts and mushrooms there were. You seriously don't need to bring any food, you can survive for months on foraging. Also the water from the springs is so delicious and clean. We drank only water from the springs and we ate some of the plants growing there as well. I seriously think about moving here for a few weeks. No need for grocery shopping. You can live there without a problem, even if you don't have a tent, because there are lots of caves.

Beautiful flowers

On the way while climbing up

One of the entrances of the castle, you can see the wall between the rocks and the door

After the door was quite a steep climb up, climbing up was easy, but down the next day was a bit tricky.

After the steep climb up, we reached our camping spot and it couldn't have been better. Irakli really knows the best places! See for yourself:

Panorama view

Other cliffs and rocks in the distance

This was the top of the pillar/rock. The area you see was all there is. Steep cliffs on all sides. So it was a bit tricky in the night if you needed to pee. One step too far and down you go!



We arrived just before sunset, so we had the time to enjoy the scenery and watch the sun set. After that we made a campfire and enjoyed the silence before going to bed. In the night we also saw quite some stars, so that made the first day complete.

The next morning we woke up pretty early and we sat and enjoyed the scenery while waking up.

Waking up to this is the best thing in the world

Early morning view from the tent

Having some breakfast while enjoying the scenery

After a quick breakfast, we packed out stuff and set out once more. First back to the little secluded santuary for a more extended breakfast and than off to explore some parts of the canyons even Irakli hasn't been yet. We came across two other people who were camping and we had a little chat and they offered us their leftover food and we gladly took it. After that we decided to follow the small river and do some "canyoning" along the way. Hike, climb, jump the river and get wet feet. We both got so excited from exploring unknow territory, that we never really took a break anymore. We just kept on going! 

Eventually after a few hours we got back to the village where we started. We saw a little castle ruin and we decided to check it out before hitchhiking back to Tbilisi.
When we got there, a lovely family was enjoying a beer and some food and immediately invited us to have a drink with them and some food. This is so typical in Georgia, you don't have to worry about starving to death, they will feed you until you explode. We had a nice little chat and enjoyed the sun over a glass of beer.

Enjoying a beer and the sun with our newly made friends!

When we wanted to say our goodbyes, one of the guys offered us that he could call a friend who could take us to Tbilisi for free. Turns out his friend is a driver of one of the mini busses that travels between there and Tbilisi. So we got a busride back for free thanks to our new friends!
So, 20 minutes later we were on the bus back to Tbilisi.

I'm seriously start to love Georgia more and more. The people are incredible, so hospitable and the nature is stunning. It does however remind me how much I hate cities and I will definately not stay in Tbilisi until the end of the summer. I haven't decided yet when I will leave Tbilisi, but I will make up my mind soon enough I think! 

Hope you enjoyed it and don't forget to think about Georgia when you're planning your next holidays! Cheers!







Paragliding at Tbilisi Sea!

Two weeks ago I went paragliding with a friend. So I'm sorry for not putting this post up earlier. I've been crazy busy with work and becoming grumpy from living in a city.
Luckily two weeks ago I had a little escape from it all. It has been on my bucketlist for years to go paragliding, so when my friend asked me if I wanted to join, I immediately said yes ofcourse!

Tbilisi Sea is an area just outside Tbilisi, where the concrete jungle rapidly changes into hills and small villages. And ofcourse the lake!
We had to drive over small dirtroads to get to the meeting point and that turned out to be quite a challenge. But we managed in the end and we parked the car. Now all that was left, was walking up the steep hill. Another challenge, but after 20 minutes we were at the top and heavily panting from exhaustion.

Everyone was already getting ready to jump off the hill (or run off the hill actually) and soon one of the guys walked up to me and asked if I wanted to go. Yes please!
So they strapped me in, launched the kite and before I knew it we were running off the hill and up in the air.
It kind of had the same feeling as kitesurfing in a way, except that with kitesurfing you're not actually flying. It was only a 2 minutes flight, but it was incredible! It's a feeling which is hard to describe, you have to experience it yourself. 
I didn't have to fly the kite, so I could just look around and enjoy the scenery.





Hope you enjoyed it! 

Tuesday, March 8, 2016

A hike up the mountain in Tbilisi and getting lost in the middle of the night

I've been in Tbilisi for a few days now and I like it so far. I'm not a big fan of cities as you all know, but fortunately I live in the right area and the mountain is right behind my apartment, so I have a place to escape the hustle and bustle of the city life.
Two days ago I decided to climb the mountain to visit Turtle lake. I met up with a traveller and we both went up to check out the lake and scenery.

I woke up early in the morning so I could work a few hours before killing my muscles with the climb. At 12PM I was finished with work and went for a cup of tea with Ani before going to the mountain.
We had a little chat about our lives and plans and then it was already time to meet up with Niko.
We crossed Vake park and started to climb the stairs. It's a pretty good excercise since it has a looooot of steps to get to the top with the statue. But the view is already great.

View from the stairs in Vake Park

The statue on top of the stairs

When we were on top of the stairs we decided to go ofroad instead of following the path up. Going straight up was faster and ofcourse more of an adventure. You know me!
I do have to admit that it was kind of tough and I realized how much the smoking killed my endurance. Time to cut it down a lot and start training on this mountain more often! After a few minutes of climbing, we got to the main road that leads to Turtle lake and we went to have a look there.
The lake itself is not very special and super dirty with trash everywhere. Unfortunately this was something we saw on the mountain as well. There was literally trash everywhere. So far for wanting to feel like I'm "into the wild". We walked around a bit until we decided to climb the mountain behind Turtle lake. I was already killing my muscles anyway, so why not right? We just started to follow a small path when we encountered a canal. I think it used to be a canal to transport water from one side of the mountain to the other. But ofcourse I wanted to explore, luckily Niko was in for some exploring as well, so off we went!

Inside the canal

My legs and back started to hurt like crazy from crouching all the time and not being able to stand up, so we went back out to continue our hike up. There was a great steep rocky part going up, so we just climbed up there instead of following the path. Much more adventurous and we got the most incredible views over the lake from there. After a while we finally got to the top and the view on both sides was simply amazing! Steep cliffs, several other mountains and we had a great view over most of Tbilisi. Not many people were around, just an occasional mountainbiker and 2 guys with crossmotorbikes. Niko wanted to make a timelaps, so we sat down and enjoyed the scenery for a while.

Having a rest at the cliff after climbing up

View from the top

View over the lake and Tbilisi

View on the other side of the mountain

Enjoying a moment in silence

When Niko's camera was finally done with the timelaps, we made our way down again because I had to work again. This time we decided to take the path, because some parts of the way we climbed up were too steep for descending safely without gear. Especially because of all the lose rocks everywhere. Better safe than sorry! On the way down we passed a lonely tree standing proudly as if watching over Tbilisi.

Poor lonely tree

Going down was definately a lot faster than going up, but just as enjoyable non the less. Once we were back in Vake Park, we said our goodbyes and I went back home to finish off work and then get a rest and sleep.

The next morning I woke up a little too late to start working, so I went into town to try to find some proper food. The other day when I went for grocery shopping, I had a hard time finding products that weren't expired months past their expiration date. So I went again and checked out some local markets with better luck this time. So I was finally able to cook myself a normal, tasty and healthy dish! My legs were killing me from the climb, so having to walk back up to my house (which is on the hill and the road moves upwards) was quite a torture.
In the evening I met up with an American called Gary, who is here for work. We had nice drink in the park with incredible views over the city. It looked quite pretty with all the lights and everything.
I finished the night with way too much vodka, but it was definately a good day!

The day after was quite boring as I had to work a lot. But luck wasn't on my side because it was super quiet. So I kind of gave up and went to the mountain to explore other trails and enjoy the sun. I forgot to bring my camera, so unfortunately no pictures! At night I met up with a Georgian guy named Oto and I went over to his place for a nice drink (the rose wine here is delicious!!!) and some good conversations. He gave me his address and I put it in google maps. After 15 minutes I ended up somewhere with dead ends and google maps kept telling me I had to take a road with a dead end. It was already getting close to 2AM in the middle of the night, in a city I don't know yet, in an area I haven't been yet, so I started to get quite nervous. I saw a gaurd walking around and I went to ask for directions. He didn't speak any English, so with me trying to communicate in English and trying to communicate in Georgian and Russian, I finally gave up and texted Oto. The guard even called Oto for me and it turned out that Oto wasn't even living anywhere close to there. Why google maps send me there, I still don't have a clue. Oto took a cab and came to pick me up, which was a relief for me because I didn't want to end up getting more lost in the middle of the night.
When we arrived we had some really good and deep conversations and I really enjoyed my time. The initial plan was to stay until 3AM max, because I had to work again in the morning. But we got lost in time and I left around 4AM. This time without getting lost, because apparantly he is practically my neighbour.

All in all the first few days were great! Can't wait for the next days to come and meet more awesome people and see more of Tbilisi.

Stay tuned!

Friday, March 4, 2016

A bumpy flight and the first taste of Georgian hospitality!

I'm glad I made it safely here, because I wasn't so sure about that when I was in the plane from Istanbul to Tbilisi. But let's start from the beginning!

An early morning sun shone bright and happy when I woke up last thursday and excitement started to surface when I thought about travelling to Georgia.
The past days in the Netherlands were fine, but I was already there way too long. I was so ready to get out again and get rid of my itchy feet.
My mom and Eric were awesome to drop me off at Schiphol Airport in Amsterdam.
Once there we said our goodbyes and off I went to the gates, ready for a new adventure!

The first flight was from Amsterdam to Istanbul and all the time I was hoping there wouldn't be some kind of terrorist attack at the airport or a Russian/Turkish pilot mistaking the airplane for an ISIS war mothership and shoot it out of the air.
We landed in Istanbul and I had a 5 hour stopover. I decided to stay in the airport, because I needed to be present 2 hours before my connecting flight anyway and all the hassle with immigration services was not something I looked forward to. Especially when I saw how long the queue was.
But ofcourse I was dying for a cigarette, so I started my quest and went on an adventure to find the smoking area's. Which was actually quite an adventure on itself, since there were no signs anywhere telling you where to find smokers Heaven. So I just followed the signs that said terrace, hoping it would bring me to an actual terrace where one can satisfy there smoky needs. Turns out, it was!

While smoking I kept an eye out on the electronic board to see which gate number my flight had. I waited, and waited and waited some more. Still nothing. All the flights on the board, including flights later on in the night than mine, all had gate numbers, except mine.
When it was time to board (according to my ticket), still no number. I started asking several people and employees walking around, information point, but nobody was able to help me. And they were also not friendly at all, so in the end I just felt like; well, fuck you!
Then I noticed a guy who was on the same flight as me from Amsterdam to Istanbul, frantically looking at the board and something in his face told me that he was on the same plane as me.
So I asked and indeed, he's flying to Tbilisi as well. We decided to stick together after we learned that we both stayed in the same area in Tbilisi, so we could share a taxi. (And me not getting ripped off for being a foreigner.) He is from Georgia and was in Amsterdam for holidays.
Still no known gate number and growing frustrations by the second, I needed my cigarette break again and Lasha joined me, apparantly he was a smoker too!
Just as we wanted to enter our smoking Heaven, the gate number popped up on the screen. Finally!
So we quickly poisoned our lungs and went to the gate.
Another miracle happened, because we took off earlier than the announced time, yay for GlobalAtlas!

One and a half hours later we could see the lights of Tbilisi starting to appear and the pilot told everyone to take their seat and fasten their seatbelt. And that's when it happened and what made me think I might not get out alive.
I've experienced quite some turbulence in all my years of flying, including moderate turbulence. After having experienced moderate turbulence once which made the aircraft already shake and fall like crazy, but this one was horrible! The whole flight no turbulence and suddenly from one second to the other, the plane seemed to drop out of the sky. It literally just fell and started to shake as you would when trying to get sand out of your shoe. If I wouldn't have had my seatbelt fastened, I would have hit the ceiling. The seat just dropped from underneat me and I was hovering for a second. People started to scream and even the flight attendents had a look of pure terror on their faces. Everyone clutched their seats and did their prayers. The next couple of second the airplane kept shaking as if a massive 9.0 earthquake hit us. The flight attendents started banging on the pilots door, which ofcourse didn't help in calming people down. Finally we had a few moments of silence and then it started again. I was so happy when we were finally close to the ground and the turbulence stopped. That was quite a scary moment, I swore to myself never to fly anymore hehe.
Anyway, we landed and everything turned out to be okay. A lot of people started clapping, mostly to get rid of their nerves I think.

Lasha and I went to the luggage claim together and we waited for my bag to arrive. Lasha didn't have a bag, but he didn't mind going with me to fetch mine. The sweetheart even refused to let me carry it after we couldn't find a trolly. I needed to get a simcard as well and Lasha needed one too, so we went to the counter together to get one. Lasha did everything for me, I didn't have to do anything, nor pay anything. I was completely flabbergasted. So, we got our sims and we took a taxi together towards Tbilisi. Ani, my landlord/host, was already awake to let me into the appartment I'm renting.
I heared that people drive like wildlings in Georgia and I thought I've seen quite some wild and dangerous traffic in all my travels, but this was insane. Let's just say that I was glad it was in the middle of the night with hardly any traffic around, otherwise I would have had my second near death experience in just 1 hour time. We arrived 15 minutes later and me and Lasha exchanged our numbers and again he refused to let me pay for the taxi. I made a mental note to myself, to invite him for lunch sometime this week to thank him for everything he has done for me.
We said our goodbyes and Ani was already waiting in the door to let me in. She quickly showed me the appartment and then both of us went to bed since it was already starting to get close to early morning.

Today I woke up pretty late and didn't do anything besides some grocery shopping. Tonight I will work all night and tomorrow I'm meeting up with a traveller to go for a hike in the park behind my house. Check out the "mountain" en turtle lake.

So that was it for now, more coming soon with pictures as well! Cheers!

Tuesday, February 23, 2016

Guatemala and a little bit of Belize

My time in Mexico was coming to an end, as my visa was about to expire. I couldn't believe I was already in Mexico for almost 180 days! But the good thing about that is, time to explore some more of central America! I was already in Palenque, so it was easiest for me to cross the border there. There are two options to cross the border. You can either take the one at El Ceibo, or the Frontera Corozal. The last one is via a boattrip on the river.

Border crossing Mexico - Guatemala

After a lot of research, I decided to go for the Corozal border crossing. I wanted to cross a boarder by boat instead of by land. You can cross by land so many time, so why not via the river! It costs a bit more than the one over land ofcourse, but worth it.

You can get there via colectivo from Palenque, or you just take a tour that goes straight to Flores in Guatemala. I choose the latter as I didn't feel like all the hastle with busses that are known for not showing up.
At 6am in the morning, I was picked up in Palenque and the drive towards the border started.

If you are not in a hurry, I recommend taking another tour that brings you to Yaxchilan and Bonampak as well. Two Maya archeological sites that are definately worth a visit! Yaxchilan is a relatively unknown Maya site and you can only get there by a 30 minute boattrip on the same river where the bordercrossing is.

The road to the border crossing was beautiful, mountains, rainforest and cute little towns and waterfalls. We had a nice driver who was happy and singing along with the music on the radio.
After 3 hours we arrived at the immigration office to stamp ourself out of Mexico. Please note: they will try to have you pay a fee, do not pay for it if you entered the country by air! You automatically pay for the fee when you enter Mexico by plane. If you entered Mexico by land, then you have to pay the exit fee which is around 300 pesos.

Once you're stamped, the bus takes you to the boats. The boats are very very small and they put as many people on them as possible. Once full, they cross the river and let you out on the Guatamalan side. The trip itself is just 5 minutes, but really beautiful. It's like being in the Amazon!

Crossing the river

Guatmalan side of the border

When you arrive on the other side of the river, a nice little town greets you. The town is called La Technica and there is not much to do. But it's great to walk around while waiting for the bus to pick you up. You can also exchange your pesos to Quetzal here. We found a guy that had a better exchange rate than the official set rate. So we were lucky!

La Technica

Finally after 2 hours of waiting, our bus arrived and we set out to Flores. We had to make a quick stop at the immigration service, which was in the town next to La Technica. Easy process, no fees and after the stamp we set out once more towards Flores. We finally arrived there after a few hours driving along a bumpy road.

From there I had to find my way to El Remate, where my hosts lives. All the people in Flores try to rip you off by telling there are no busses going there and you need to take a expensive special taxi. Don't fall for this! Everyone is working together with eachother, to make money of foreigners. I felt they were trying to rip me off, so I went to the bus station. And ofcourse, as expected, there was a bus to El Remate for just 20 Quetzel. The busride took just half an hour and when I arrived my host was already waiting for me.

El Remate

This was seriously one of the highlights of my trip in central America. It's so sad I was only there for 4 days. 4 days with no internet connection, no technology, just nature, rainforest and a beautiful lake and great company. Watching the beautiful sunset every single night, while my host played the guitar. Deep conversations under the stars and with the sounds of the jungle coming to live in the night. 
This place is so tranquil, so serene and beautiful. If you plan to go to Flores/Santa Elena, don't forget to go to El Remate. It's a lot cheaper than Flores and it's very close to Tikal. (Just half an hour by bus. El Remate is halfway between Flores and Tikal.) 
It's just a small town, but incredibly beautiful. I left a massive piece of my heart there and I can't wait to be back there.
If you love calm, relaxing moments, El Remate is the place. Back to basic, away from society.


Unfortunately, 4 days pass so quickly when you're having such a great time. It was time to go back to Mexico, via Belize.

I've only seen Belize through the bus trip we did, it took 5 hours across the country to get back to Mexico. The landscape was stunning, but for some reason I didn't really feel like going back to Belize some other time. It just didn't appeal to me so much. But what doesn't appeal to me, might appeal to you ofcourse!

Well that was it again! My next adventures will be in Euroasia and the middle East.

Have a great day!