Welcome

[Hajo]

Welcome to the Georgia Forum on Britishexpat.com!

Before we start off here, it's always good to know that we are all talking about the same thing, hence the poll.

Servings of traditional Georgian food such as Khachapuri, Mzwadi or Khinkali are always welcome on this board.

Hajo 8)

[duncanwil]

Hi Hajo,

Good poll to start it all off. I fell in love with Khachapuri in my time in Georgia and even had a demonstration from my landlady in the digs I stayed in in Kutaisi. If only they had the right cheese in down town Oxfordshire I could dominate the fast food market world wide.

Other than that, meat holds no interest for me.

I did come to like churchkhela: walnuts gooily wrapped up in solidified grape juice: in Turkey they use that soft fruit ... of the tree that silk worms live in ... that I've forgotten the name of ... it'll come to me ... OK, I cheated and looked for the answer on the web ... Mulberry.

Tbilisi became a prison for sensible forgeigners in my time there: especially for bankers as they kept getting kidnapped. I left in December 2001 after a year and a bit.

Andrew Harding of the BBC wrote an appalling article on Georgia that Georgians found deeply offensive. I wrote to the bleeder about it, having read it, and was studiously ignored: I cannot watch and listen to that man now.

[Hajo]

Hi Duncan,

I too like Churchkhela a lot, but have been unlucky a few times when the nuts (and I think in most cases they use hazelnuts, not walnuts) were rotten, which you can't see from the outside.

Regarding the article by Andrew Harding, I will do a little internet search and try to find it. Would also be interested to read your reply. We have had an equally flawed TV documentary two years ago by ZDF German TV top anchor Peter Frey, which I wanted to reply to, but I would have had to write an epic to list all the points on which he was wrong. The funniest part was probably when he presented Stalin's grandson as the sole representative of the new avantgarde of young Georgian artists. I know a few dozens of young, highly talented artists in Tbilisi, but this one surely doesn't come to mind. His geopolitical conclusions about Georgia and the Caucasus region were ridiculous and naive. The same Peter Frey did a documentary a year later about the EU entry candidates which was no bit better. He now leads ZDF's Berlin studio. I switch channels whenever he is on.

As for crime and kidnappings of foreigners - I've heard about it, but I've never even come remotely in contact with it. Then again, I hardly ever mix with expats when in Tbilisi, as 99% of my friends and contacts are locals. It is probably very different if you live a high profile expat life in Tbilisi.

However, I do agree that things have become a lot worse. I last visited in November 2001 and found an atmosphere of depression. Corruption has reached sky-high levels, cheap striptease bars and casinos are all over the place. The only construction that is going on in Tbilisi at the moment is villas for the Achali Kartveli, the nouveaux riches.

Having said that, the electricity situation has improved profoundly, making parts of my article about Tbilisi whereabouts (see http://www.britishexpat.com/travelhajo/hajoge02.htm) outdated. And two very good new restaurants have opened since I last wrote about Tbilisi, the Old House and the Paradise Lost (run by a friend of mine), the latter one's name being almost prophetic about Tbilisi and Georgia in general.

I am planning another visit for April/May and hope to find at least a some little seeds for improvement. As one Georgian friend said to me, "Tommorow never dies".

If my plans for a trip to Georgia this Spring materialize, I will provide some updated info.

Me and some Romanian friends are currently considering to make this a landtrip, buying a cheap, old, but undestroyable Romanian-made jeep in Bucharest and driving it all the way through Turkey. We would be entering Georgia in Adjara region, one of my favourites for food and landscape.

Hajo 8)