Georgia

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'Drink Wine'..
... was the text on an advertising banner across the road - interesting advice!

Georgia was a real surprise to me, I was only there for a few days on my 'Silk Road' trip, but the little I saw was an eye opener.

The idea was to cross from Azerbaijan into Georgia on the overnight train between Baku and Tbilisi. I was impressed by the quality of the train - still ex-soviet rolling stock, but everything on this train worked (unlike the one into Baku). It was all going well until we got to the border. Then it became apparent that the Georgian customs were taking the train apart looking for contraband. I got cleared and decided to take a taxi into Tbilisi to save time!

I took a day trip out from Tbilisi to see Davit Gareja a monastery close to the border with Azerbaijan. The countryside out there is stunning with low hills in the foreground with a range of snow capped mountains in the distance. The monastery has a number of conventional buildings, but the oldest ones are those that are carved into the rock face.

Davit Gareja

My guide started to climb the hill behind the monastery and he took me up to see a whole series of tiny churches carved into the rock face. Each one had frescos painted on the walls. My guide said that at it's peak there where 1000's of people living up there.