| The Caucasus - My Journal |
An Exciting Sight, for a Physicist
Sisian, 1st to 2nd September
One of the most famous sights in Armenia is the Tatev Monastery in the deep south of the country. The monastery, founded in the 9th century, is situated on top of an isolated cape, high above a deep canyon. It is difficult to reach the monastery, but the journey out there is known to be worth it.
There are actually two good bases from which to see Tatev, two towns called Sisian and Goris. Both are very similar: small, backwater towns with little to see other than a few streets and a couple of hotels that have sprouted up for the trickle of tourists passing through. In the end, I chose Sisian, even though it was a little further from Tatev than Goris. Sisian is slightly larger, a bit easier to get too and there is another sight nearby that I fancied visiting. So it was decided.
A bumpy and uneventful 4 hours took me from Yerevan to Sisian. It never ceases to amaze me how bad the Armenian roads are. I've travelled through the deepest reaches of Cambodia and Laos, famous for their pot holed and stomach-churning roads. But the Armenian roads just seem much worse! What is really confusing, is the fact that the roads are tarmaced pretty completely (unlike the south-east Asian ones) but whatever method they use to surface the roads still makes them seriously bumpy! So, after 4 hours squashed into the back of a tiny mashrutka, my butt was sore from the constant bouncing and my bones felt like they'd be eroded to half their strength!
Anyhow, I found the hotel without any problems and the friendly owner, who spoke good English, checked me in and arranged for a taxi to take me to the sights and back. She told me that the cost would be about 11,000 Dram (15 pounds), which seemed a little steep for Armenia, but with no choice, I went for it. I was soon to find out that the journey to Tatev was about 2 hours on a horrendous road...so 15 pounds for a 4 hour round trip in a taxi was pretty good when I thought about it.
Like I said, the road to Tatev was seriously bad...much worse than the "main" road between Yerevan and Sisian. After about 40 minutes on an acceptable road, the conditions quickly deteriorated until we were bouncing along a road that was so bad, it was actually a long line of pot-holes held together by tiny scraps of tarmac. I felt bad for the taxi driver, the shredded asphalt and bone-crunching rocks that made up the road for most of the journey clearly wasn't doing his taxi any good.
Nevertheless, the arduous journey was definitely worth it. We eventually pulled up at a secluded location when the monastery could be seen encircled by high stone walls. The whole complex was in such good condition, it was easy to imagine how impressive it must have been to pilgrims who came there centuries ago when it was in use. The monastery was an amazing sight, perched on the side of a hill, overlooking the ravine below and the empty hills which spread out in every direction beyond the horizon. Again, when I get back home, I'll put up some photos rather than trying to explain it.
What really added to the experience, was the serene and solemn atmosphere. I was the only tourist there...in fact, apart from the taxi driver and a caretaker, I seemed to be the only person for miles around. As I picked carefully through the worn paths and the long grass, investigating every building and rock, the only sound I could hear were my steps and the strong wind that rushed over the hills. This really emphasised the isolation of the monastery and made the place even more impressive and even quite magical!
When I returned to the taxi, I found that the driver had eaten some food, but saved half his lunch for me! Now that was some unexpected kindness! Unfortunately, the food was fish and lavash (a type of flat bread), and I can't eat fish. I apologised profusely to the kind driver, indicating that I'd get very sick if I ate the fish. He seemed to understand, and I gratefully ate the lavash, a plain but tasty snack in its own right.
We made a quick stop to have some soorch (strong, Armenian coffee) and some cold drinks. We tried our best to communicate over the drinks, but as we had no mutual language, we just used every gesture and hand-signal until there was nothing else we could convey, and I let him browse the photos on my camera.
On the way back to Sisian, we stopped at the second sight I wanted to see, Zorats Karer. This is the Armenian equivalent of Stone Henge, an ancient site (circa 2000 BC) where the inhabitants worshipped or made measurements of the sun and stars. Of course, after having completed my Physics degree, I have some science geek blood in me, and had to check out a site that marked one of mankind's first observatories of the stars.
The site of Zorats Karer was much larger than Stone Henge, hundreds of large stones were spread over 3 hectares. However, it had suffered much more from the ravages of time and most of the stones had been worn away to nearly nothing. Nevertheless, the central stones, gathered in a circle, very similar to Stone Henge, were in good condition, and with a little imagination, it was easy to imagine how it looked when the area was in use. Standing, looking and touching (no stupid barriers here like in Stone Henge) was actually quite an experience. Imagining that mankind's ancient ancestors may have begun to watch and measure the heavens using these simple but impressive tools was an exciting thought (for a Physicist).
By the time we got back to the hotel, it was already starting to get dark. I thanked the driver and paid him a little extra than agreed. It had been a long day, and he'd been a kind and friendly driver.
At the hotel, the owner prepared a delicious meal of traditional Armenian food, but she couldn't tell me what any of it was. Suffice to say, it was excellent and well worth the small amount it cost. After dinner, I spent the end of the evening drinking beer and reading at a small open air cafe near to the hotel.
The only excitement happened when I tried to buy a bottle of water from a nearby shop, and one of the locals became very interested me. I'd got used to continual staring wherever I went, I'm clearly a foreigner, both in my dress and from my spiky hair, so I've learned just to accept my amusement value. However, this guy went beyond the usual staring and walked up to me and started jabbering away in Armenian. I explained I couldn't understand him, which amused him even further (as he poked my hair) and he began to exhibit me to his family, all sitting around on the porch steps of their house. I just grinned inanely while he talked about me, wishing I could speak Armenian, or at least Russian. In the end, we exchanged a few words when his young son used some stock phrases on me (Where are you from?, What is your name?). But the conversation quickly dried up and I waved goodbye. Apart from that brief diversion, the evening passed quietly.
The next morning, after a very hearty breakfast, I squeezed myself once again into a tightly packed mashrutka, preparing myself for the rest of my bones to be ground away on the road back to Yerevan...
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