Telavi, Georgia

Telavi is yet another town in the former Soviet Republic of Georgia that most readers will not have heard of. It is the largest town in the Khakheti region, a part of the country that is known for its vineyards and its important and ancient sites.

Unless you have your own vehicle, the only way to get to Telavi is from the Georgian capital Tbilisi. There are no trains, only minivan services from beside the Samgori Metro station station. ...
...off in Telavi next to the market.

These days Telavi has no hotels; an enterprising person would do well to remedy this as the area is quite picturesque and does attract tourists coimng to visit the historic sights. Telavi used to have a hotel - the former "Inturist" concrete monstrosity is now packed to the rafters with refugees from the war in Nagorno-Karabakh in neighbouring Armenia.

Instead backpackers ... more

Telavi is yet another town in the former Soviet Republic of Georgia that most readers will not have heard of. It is the largest town in the Khakheti region, a part of the country that is known for its vineyards and its important and ancient sites.

Unless you have your own vehicle, the only way to get to Telavi is from the Georgian capital Tbilisi. There are no trains, only minivan services from beside the Samgori Metro station station. The journey takes about two hours and you are dropped off in Telavi next to the market.

These days Telavi has no hotels; an enterprising person would do well to remedy this as the area is quite picturesque and does attract tourists coimng to visit the historic sights. Telavi used to have a hotel - the former "Inturist" concrete monstrosity is now packed to the rafters with refugees from the war in Nagorno-Karabakh in neighbouring Armenia.

Instead backpackers use homestay accommodation which can be booked in advance but is pretty easy to turn up and find something. Our guidebook had a couple listed but the directions made no sense. Luckily a shopkeeper noticed us poring over the guidebook and came to our rescue. He took out his mobile and dialled the number for Mrs Tushishvilli, the owner of the house we were looking for. Seconds later a telephone rang next to us; it belonged to Mrs Tushishvilli herself who had come into town with her daughter to buy some groceries at the market. The very glamorous Mrs Tushishvilli did have rooms free and she bundled us into a taxi and gave some moeny to the driver. She said she would phone her daughter and let her know to expect us.

The upper floor of a sprawling family home was the guest accommodation. It revealed that the Tushishvilli's had clearly been quite well off in the past. It was full of books (in Russian so not that useful to us), old furniture and wonderful tapestries on the walls. There were several characterful bedrooms, a dining room and a large living room. There is sometimes (depending on the connection) internet access and (again sometimes) BBC World television. Alsa neither were working while we were there.

Best of all was the terrace where we would sit and drink (very) cheap vodka and Kazbegi beer with fellow guest, an American post-graduate student, Will. There was also a clothes line so we were able to catch up on the laundry - by throwing everything in the bath.

Not only are there no hotels in Telavi but there is not really anywhere to eat out. You can opt to pay for a room only but it makes sense to pay a little extra to have meals provided. Not only will it save ou from starvation but the food is always excellent in a Georgian homestay. Not even the news that one of us did not eat meat could not phase Mrs Tushishvilli. Dinner started with soup and warm bread. For the main course there would be two stews, one vegetarian but plenty for everyone to try, a rice or potato dish and a good salad. The food was very much traditional Georgian fare with beetroot, aubergine, walnuts and lamb featuring. Mrs Tushishvilli found us drinking on the terrace when she brought the first course upstairs to us and said that the beer was good but insisted that we drink Georgian wine with our meal. Georgian wine is an acquired taste and while it is popular all over the former Soviet Union it may not be with people used to drinking more refined wines. We, however, valiantly persevered and were looking forward to more on the second night.

Breakfast was good and filling; at each place there was a glass of yoghurt and one of fruit juice. The yoghurt was fresh and to our tastebuds used to sweeter things it was quite harsh. We all took spoonfuls of a fruit compote and mixed them into the yohgurt. There were fresh bread rolls an some fantastic liver pate left over from the previous evenings dinner. There were olives - lovely and wrinkly, covered in sticky oil. There were slices of what I call "Georgian squeaky cheese" - it is really salty and has a weird synthetic texture. Last of all there was a big pot of fresh coffee. It really set us up well for a day of sightseeing.

There are a handful of important sites in the region but most of are not accessible by public transport so you need to find a taxi driver willing to take you between all the sites, wait until you have seen what you want to see and drop you back in town. Mrs Tushishvilli told us a price and that we should stick to it no matter what the drivers said. For about £12 between the three of us the driver - who spoke no English - took us to five sites; with a ltitle sign language and my basic Russian he was able to point out one or two things of interest along the way.

Briefly the some of the sites we visited

- Alaverdi Cathedral - built in the 11th century this magnificent church was used as a monastery and then a convent until Georgia became a Soviet Republic (and all the monasteries were closed down). It has recently become a monastery again and you have to ring the bell at the gate for admission. Inside the church you can see fragments of the frescoes which were uncovered in the 1960s after some fool had whitewashed the interior of the church.

- Shuamta - there are two sites here - the sixteenth century Akhali Shauamta which is a working convent and further up the road, hidden in a flower medow surrounded by trees is Dzvelie Shuamta which ws abandoned in the sixteenth century. All there is now is a ruin but it is a very pretty one in a beautiful setting.

- Ikalto Monastery - once a medieval Academy - founded in the sixth century set in a grove of cypresses. Here there are a couple of churches from different periods

- Tsinandale - the house and estate of the Chavchavadze family; Alexander Chavachavadze was the godson of Catherine the Great an son of Georgia's first ambassador to Russia. However, he was also reguarly arrested for anti-tsarist activities and he was a noted Georgain romantic poet. You can go on a guided tour of the house which is rather beautiful and has the potential to be interesting if the middle-aged ladies leading the tour could be more flexible in their approach. Tours are only available in Russian, Georgian or German so we took the tour in German and I tried to translate as quickly as I could while we followed this woman on a sprint through the house.

You can also go on wine-tasting sessions here but we trekked around the grounds and couldn't work out where this took place.

Back in town we hit the only cafe serving food (that's one out of two)and grabbed lunch - as usual in Georgia it was khachapuri. If you don't speak Russian and you can't speak or read Georgian you are really at a disadvantage in Telavi. The thing to do is to know the names of a couple of Georgian dishes you like and ask for those. One thing you can be sure of getting is khachapuri - a kind of cheese pastry which differs immensely in how its made from place to place.

In the afternoon we split up and while Will went to find a working internet connection we went to see the town's art gallery which is housed in a house in the grounds of Batonstsikhe Castle; you can walk around the castle but that is all - there are no exhibitions and no captions about what you are looking at. The gallery was closed but a middle-aged lady waved to us and unlocked the front door. For about ten Pence we were allowed to look around. She would push open the door to each room, turn the lights on and give us as much time as SHE thought we need to see the paintings, and then turned off the lights and going to the next room. But this is how things were done in the Soviet Union and still are in Georgia...

Next we went on our own mission to find somewhere we could send e-mail from. The first place to bill itself as an "internet cafe" was full of tenagers sitting in the dark playing "shoot 'em up" games. When we asked about internet the man at the door shook his head. Next up we found an office that was not only a translation and visa agency (for Georgians looking to leave), but also a very small (one computer) internet cafe. We composed the wittiest, most stunning piece to send home - and just as I out my hand on the mouse to click send - the internet connection failed. And I had not saved....

The connection never came back - in fact it probably hasn't to this day...

Telavi has a fairly busy market but not many conventional shops as we know them. It has one bank with an ATM but (as always) it was not working. The market is worth a visit to buy fruit and bread and cheese for a picnic but it isn't especially worth a visit.

In fact Telavi isn't really worth a visit at all unless you particularly want to see the sites around it. It's a restful place though and after the bustle of Tbilisi it is quite pleasant. Being quite small - it has just less than 30,000 residents, you do get stared at; in other places in Georgia people will chat to you but Telavi is less friendly.

It is unusual that I do not recommend a place I have visited because I see myself as quite a self-sufficient and broadminded traveller who can always make the most of the location. However, on ths occasion I am going to say - in spite of the happy memories I have of my visit - that Telavi is just one for the historians. Telavi is in a lovely setting but walkers and climbers will find better parts of Georgia to visit. If I had to pick one thing that stood out it would be the views of the snow-capped Caucusus that can be seen from Telavi; in all honesty I wish i had gone there instead. 

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