James Duncan

Wandering through a Georgian supermarket, and this turned up. Fail, especially for a German-owned chain.

The anti-Russia protest is exciting in a way little UK protest is. A line of police is standing in front of the Russian embassy, and outside are 2-300 clearly pissed off Georgians. Lots of flags, lots of chants of Sakashvelo (Georgia) and mobile phones taking pictures.

It's a bit later and around 1000 people are here. More flags and the protest has spilled onto the street. The 4 lane highway is now 1.5, and since every car is beeping it's impossible to tell who's happy and who simply wants to get home. Some blonde ho Nati knows keeps doing interviews, and I was also on Ossetian TV. Lines of people are holding hands, and an enterprising type is giving out candles for everyone to hold in front of the media. I smell the sweet sweet smell of PR.

There's now got to be 2-3000 people, and we are walking back to town behind a giant Georgian flag. This feels like it will last all night but we're off home.

I am at a Mexican resturant in Georgia. The food was cooked by someone who clearly had once seen Mexican food in a film but had no further clues. It's appalling.

The news is insane. Georgian troops have made a huge push into Ossetia, and the Russians don't appear to be doing anything but falling back to the tunnel that comes through the mountains. Misha Saakashvili just appeared on TV with a big smile on his face and said "we control ALL areas of South Ossetia" in Georgian. I think that looking like you are gloating over Russia's defeat is a sure way to make this a lot more serious, it's not a smart move at all. Russians armoured troops are moving over the border, and part of me suspects that the Russians have just fallen back to a bridgehead. I think Georgia is about to get it's ass kicked, and it's surprising that Misha can't see he just made it impossible to avoid. He has just absolutely forced Russia to have to act or be humiliated and have their new president publicly politically castrated on the Russian evening TV bulletins.

There's a protest up at the Russian Embassy on TV and we are going now. It's only going to get bigger.

Oh, random bonus...we saw a picture of the bombing we missed in Gori (it's the pic attached to this post).

I'm sitting in our Tbilisi apartment watching the news, and it is apparent it has all kicked off. The Georgian and Russian troops are in contact, and Georgian and Ossettian TV are going nuts. IMO they'll just get bombed a bit and keep mainly the same lines, Russia has a new president who needs to look tough.

Well, this drive is eventful. It started normally enough, and our plan was to stop off at the Gori market and Stalin museum. The roads were snarled up with traffic, and people have again been failing to pick a lane on a two lane highway, meaning that we are consistently 30cm from death. The roads are full of military hardware also, and it is clear the Georgian Army is in full deployment. Their equipment and tactical knowledge seems poor: the troop carriers are simple cloth backed trucks that tow CCCP-era small (very small) manual artillery pieces. I can't help thinking that if they go up against the Russians in a big way with this kit they will all die, and they are on the highway bumper to bumper with no room to leave the road. If I were a Russian pilot with a cluster bomb or two I'd just need to line them up right to kill hundreds of Georgians...and I dislike this given that I am having to drive on the same straight road. Apart from this, on a professional level it's always annoying to see poor tactical discipline. There is a little armour, but only really tanks. These again look like they were old at the point of independence, and I have an odd feeling they are going to get spanked. We proceed along at a minimal pace, merrily in the middle of the bombable military convoy. It feels quite pleasant, there's a fatalism mixed with an interested excitement. Russians to easily win if it comes to it though, these boys mostly suck. The only modern kit they have are some mobile missile launchers plainly supplied by the US and these are again stuck in the same line. I sigh for their mothers. Nati is also a bit worried, and I think she's only just realised I wasn't kidding about it being a bit more serious.

Well, no kebab at Gori market for me. Gori is *full* of soldiers and police as Gori market was bombed a couple of hours ago by the Russians. Where's my damn kebab and tourist nicknacs, Russia? Back to Tbilisi with our good health and pleasant thoughts that the convoy was not after all cluster bombed or strafed, I guess.

We drove up into the mountains above Borjomi for a wander, and they really are beautiful. We are on a ridge and the mountains fall away on both sides to gorge floors. I got to watch Nati pee in a bush for probably the second time in her life, and then we laid on the ground and talked. The trees are verdant and surrounded and shielded us, dappling the ground with delicate fingers of sunlight. This area is one of the most beautiful areas I have visited. After that we went down to lunch at a nearby small place, eating barbecued beef and fish fresh from the open charcoal fire. News from Ossettia is less good as the Russian troops are now openly involved. We had some discussion over whether we should travel via the Gori highway, but really have no choice about it if we want to get home. The driver's emotions are difficult to judge as he merely remains surly and uncommunicative.

Borjomi Park is beautiful. It's a park set around a central river and in the bottom of a gorge so mountains rise almost vertically on both sides. After a tiff with Nati finished we walked around it. The park is recently built and was apparently pushed by Saakashvili as a project. It's a running theme with these things, he seems to be not only the President but very much the national cheerleader. There's a cablecar that runs up to the cliffs above but we aren't taking it as Natia recounted stories of cars falling off and resultant briefly painful death. Talking of painful death, Nati and I discussed the prospects in Ossettia. The short version is that I thought the situation is a lot more serious than she did: I think that backing with mercs is one step from backing with troops. Georgia recently refused to sign a peace treaty, and shot a Russian peacekeeper. It seems volatile, and the Georgians keep giving Russia casus belli. Looking forward to the drive home! On the way out we passed the spring that supplies the park with mineral water, and the scrum of people with bottles getting some. Again, it has medical benefits 'science cannot explain'. This is becoming a catchprase; who said snake oil salesmanship is dead?

I awoke to see on the news that more shootings have happened in South Ossetia. Amateur stuff though: there are pictures of houses which have hundreds of bullet holes and the person inside survived when a single aimed shot through the window would have killed them. Sloppy. They also shot civilians, guaranteeing bad press. I'd have ambushed some soldiers and dragged them across the border for pictures and a claim they'd invaded Ossetia in front of the press. Again, governments are lucky their enemies are mostly stupid, depressing though it is regarding the average competence of the population.

We went for a walk around Bakuriani town centre, and got many suspicious looks. The town lacks features such as paved roads and the school has holes in the walls. I was surprised at the looks as this is a ski resort and must have tourists; I assume most of them are Georgian as I was constantly looked at in a hostile way. People keep talking to me in Russian so maybe it's political overspill from Ossetia. The houses are poor, but the mountains are beautiful. I got shots of both.

The drive to Borjomi is back through the same area as before, with poor houses and heart-stoppingly beautiful mountains. The drive has been enlivened by the fact that the Russians are now officially backing the Ossetians and apparently mercenaries are streaming over the Russian border. IMO this could be bad, last time the Russians paid for mercs the Abkhazian war happened. I'll obviously be fine; I can't imagine that the Russians will want to invade Georgia in any major way and it would not be worth the money spent in any case. It's all getting a bit more serious though.

I sat outside with Nati on a hammock chatting as a child in a 50 Cent t-shirt played nearby with a toy gun. Such product placement. The boy and his mother left, and I then had a nearby shouting husband and wife's row translated for me ("where's my jumper? I had my jumper" "you weren't wearing it!"). I then went inside to find the Georgian President on the TV condemning the fact that Russian-backed separatists have shot 17 Georgians but declaring a unilateral ceasefire. Ah, of such things are more exotic holidays made of. A perverse part of me is oddly pleased to be in a place such things happen. Maybe I should try a proper war zone but I have an odd feeling that this is about to turn into at least a minor one. Too much geopolitical rivalry for backing down, and the separatists are very definitely Russian backed (and, indeed, FSB run). To bed before I book a trip to where the action is and to avoid being like death on legs tomorrow I think, it's 0051.

Vardzia is a 11th centry complex of caves set into a remote cliff. It was originally made up of 3000 rooms, and housed anywhere from 700 monks to tens of thousands of civilians in times of war. In the 12th century a serious earthquake collapsed the cliff, and thus it is now open to the air with only 650 rooms remaining. Reverse decimation... It is at the top of a long long climb, and itself has 8 floors. The climb up was very exhausting, and the high heat led to really quite excessive sweating/panting/heart attacks. We stopped halfway up to tie some paper to the wish tree, and paused an a small working chapel set into the rock. The chapel was almost a bowl shape, and the walls were thick with smoke from the lit candles of hundreds of years. I touched the wall (it's Eastern Europe style, no guard rails for most of it, no visitors centre, nothing to stop you walking in the ruins or touching walls) and my finger sank into the soot. 900 years of history can be imposing. We went through a dining chamber with recessed seats and a hole in the middle for the fire and pot. We then walked up to a much larger chapel, with arched walls and original C12 frescoes. The caves are now used by monks, so the chapel is very much actively used and has many icons. The monks also produce icons, and I purchased a handmade woodcut icon of Jesus for 15l as a piece of art. This plus correctly exiting the chapel looking back led to the highlight of the visit I think. We were taken through a locked door to visit a spring the monks use for water and consider holy, then invited to drink and make a wish. It was a touching gesture, and we then walked through the security/dropping boiling oil holes to reach the top and paused for photos and metaphorical tea and medals as we were about 500 meters up from the valley floor. We then descended to the valley floor, pausing briefly so I could get ice water and throw it on Nati (and drink the remainder). The caves were an interesting environment, and have been preserved nicely. I was however told that it was inexplicable that the frescoes had lasted so long, something which seems quite epic fail as a claim considering the existence of prehistoric cave paintings. A nice place to visit though.

We went through the south of Tbilisi, it's quite USian in the large parking lots and designed-for-cars architecture. Lots of auto repair businesses in a Brooklyn like sweaty tanned macho guys at the front way. From the low quality of driving they must be busy. The outskirts further out are Soviet industrial in a Halflife 2 way: lots of pylons and factories interspersed with residential blocks and environmental damage like nobody cared about it. Interesting for a uckoeli (foreigner) like me but it must be a bit depressing to live in. The concrete looks like it was falling off almost as soon as it was built, and it is really often right between two factories. I'm curious if it was originally factory worker accommodation. (Nati says probably, and it was often provided for free).

I'm further out and it's just agricultural now, it looks like mainly corn. Not having to wear a seatbelt is still somewhat of an illicit feeling thrill..I need better vices. The road is the main one out of Tbilisi but currently has only two lanes, and I keep seeing people almost die while overtaking, driving down the middle of the lane divider etc. The road is currently being expanded and it's an interesting contrast to UK roadworks; almost all of the work is done by hand, and the machinery is limited to a bulldozer and two steamrollers. Low labour costs changing the economics, I guess.

We just passed Gori, the proud main city of Stalin's province. Home of the Stalin statue, Stalin statue and probably suspicious amounts of forgetting about gulags as he appears to still be the local hero. It is very noticeably poorer here, and for all that people don't like the USSR it looks suspiciously like a lot of the houses have not been maintained for 20 years or so. Looking back at my comment it's an interesting contrast: was the higher quality healthcare, education and housing worth the loss of almost all political freedom? It's difficult for me to say, and a real challenge to my democratic beliefs.

I return from lunch. Lunch was pretty much insane. Meat, katchapuri, and bread and spices. And, without any exaggeration, the best chips I have ever had. And a spirit. Oh, the spirit. It is chacha. I had chacha on Tuesday and it tasted normal. 40-50%, moderately intense but aged in an oak barrel and quite smooth. Today I had country chacha. It was 70-80% maybe, but homemade so I will never know. I have had ouzo and raki, sambouka and strong vodkas, but this was unquestionably the strongest. I have bought a bottle, and I am quite prepared to smuggle it back.

Now we are far in the mountains. Rock tracks, steering round cows, rapids and gorges below us - it's definitely a dramatic landscape. The people have become poorer and poorer, and the houses now often have an incomplete set of windows or roof. We briefly stopped as Nati had a headache. The temperatures here were in the 40•C range, so I checked her forehead and she had run out of water to sweat. A stop to a nearby house gave us some water and she later said she hadn't mentioned she couldn't see properly (presumably from heat stroke). Too little information passed on up to that point, really! The caves have come now, and look stunning.

Nati went out to finish a $40 million loan for HSBC, so I stayed home and read more of Andrew Marr. I got up to Major before having the wild idea of cleaning up, and was interrupted by a neighbour opening the door and knocking a lot. I wandered out in nothing as it was hot to look through the spy hole, only to find the open door. Both of us were somewhat thrown, and I told him to go away and he did. Random. After that I enthusiastically searched for my iPhone, and found it much to my relief. I then had a domestic moment and tidied while listening to Art Brut and dancing. It had vim! It had vigor! It's fun to do every two months or so but no more! I washed up, emptied old food from the fridge, put away clothes and generally went domestic. Nati returned and much was the surprise and rejoicing. Altruism: is there anything that doesn't just appear to be it?

Nati kept threatening to go to HSBC to do the loan (from 1100 to 1600 local time, in fact) but not doing so so I laid around and read Andrew Marr's A History of Modern Britain. It's an interesting book, with a few flaws that stop it being great. Marr is somewhat hamstrung by format; a book which attempts to cover 60 years of history in less pages than Rise and Fall of the Third Reich is always going to be a pen portrait and somewhat simplistic. Marr also fails to footnote enough, so one is left with many bare assertions. However the book is not academic, and the overview isolates many of the big issues well. It's an interestingly playful read, and worth a day or two.

After my surprising breakfast we left Natia's via taxi to go to a net cafe near DLA Piper's office. I wrote an email for Nati telling DLA Piper thanks but no thanks over their job offer but in a politer way. Nati was nervous but certain. We then walked past the DLA office but didn't go in and down to a slot machine hall. I put my 5 lari in with a sense of entertainment but cynicism. I lost my 5 lari. (Nati says it's hers but again, it's my diary). Then a taxi to the basroba! A Georgian basroba is a market in the Middle Eastern style, with many stalls selling everything one could want from electricals to clothes to pans. I bought some terrible sunglasses, a nice cap and a little bit of karma by giving all my change to the beggar kids. I then wondered through the alleys to find a little market stall with pure pork skish kebabs for 3 lari (about £1) so I had one of those and was generally fussed over by two old Turkish women. They were *very* surprised to have a foreigner eat there and asked where I was from etc. The kebab had tomato juice, onion and chilli flakes with it and was lovely. I also got two shots of vodka for 1 lari each, so 66p in total for the drinks and £1.66 total bill. This was clearly insane so I tipped another 10 lari to the delight of the woman. A nice atmosphere all round. The woman was also telling Nati before that how flattered she was I was so polite and spoke to her in Georgian etc etc. Reflections on the normal lack of respect implied by this are left for the reader. I then got a nice baseball cap and left in a marchuka (a private minibus absoltely filled with Georgians) for town. This was 0.50l, or 16p. If only this was Cambridge. Again, I was the only foreigner so had a loud convo with Natia in English while others were silent to keep the reputation of tourists alive. Then we stopped for Natia's lunch and almost bought a water pistol. The guy quoted 2 lari to nati then 2.5 lari when he heard Natia tell me the price in English so I didn't buy it on principle. Street trader fail. I feel pleasantly like I just did retail therapy, but on a budget of about £5 *smiles*.

Eggs, pasta and gomi prepared by Nati as I wake up. A man could get used to this.

Natia and I went drinking in a French style bar where you sit outside and get waiter service. 15 lari for a whiskey! I met Nati's friends: one who is going to Manchester for an MBA, one who was jealous at her offer from DLA Piper, and a mid 20s dieva (Nati denies this but it's my diary) who is dating a man in his 50s. Very continental street, all the bars have tables outside and people mingle to the live jazz and reflect on their good jobs and new Mercs. This place reminds me of Latin America in some ways; the lives of the poor and the rich are not so much in conflict as rarely touching. Drinks here are 15 lari (£5) in a country where the average wage is about £100pm. It slightly awed me to be drinking the equivilent of a £60 drink. I am quite rich here, it's an odd adjustment. The fact that the inequality here has made me consider this so much is indicative to me of the actually quite egalitarian society we have at home, something that makes me proud. I will keep giving my change to beggars and sign up to a Georgian charity at home, I think. One of the most interesting parts of travel is looking at your own state and life with the benefit of wider horizons, and it's nice to look at my own society with more respect for what has been achieved.

So I've arrived in Tbilisi, and I'm tooling around with Nati in oddly old architecture. It took a while until I realised that it's like Edinburgh in that it looks historically preserved because the RAF and Luftfaffe never came through. It's impressive, and the old architecture means that it doesn't have that horrific 70s concrete look of lots of ex-Soviet cities. We went and saw the hill fort and church at Narikala (although Nati was kicked out for wearing trousers), climbed the fort up a horrifically dangerous path of death, then went down to Tbilisi old town through a very poor street. I saw the the old Turkish baths and got nice shots of one. The baths are actually heated by natural hot springs, and smell slightly of sulphur over the vents. I also notice that Georgia has no geothermal energy, which is slightly surprising given that their main geopolitical power tends to apply pressure through prices of energy supplies. After that we went along to Sioni church for more frescoes and past the cool bar street at Shardeni to Antchiskhati church where Nati's sister got married. Another marriage was happening; beautiful chanting really filled the small church and I got to see the always touching couple in love. I then commited somewhat of a faux pas; I washed my hands at a tap then realised it was holy water. Ah well, at least I'm holier now. Tbilisi is nice.