The original Georgia starts right here in Imereti region. It's biggest city Kutaisi is a regional hub and important port when getting to Georgia. Loads of European tourists are landing right here, for it's perfect location - in middle of the country.
My plan was to discover this part of Georgia for two main reasons. Cheap property and original culture. I was spared the chance to visit this region while on my first trip to Georgia due to start of the lockdowns. I have had a great time over in Tbilisi, but couldn't discover more as we have all been prisoners of 'viral war'.
I have also discovered more about Imereti only later on when already on another mission. There are two main destinations of my interest and today we will get to discover the first one - an old mining town of Chiatura.
Chiatura is most known for urbex and ancient cable car system from Soviet times...
Shortly after my arrival in Kutaisi a man approached me on the hostel's terrace. It was an Estonian traveler who's name I can't recall anymore. What do I remember perfectly though was his alcohol consumption. We will hence call him Boris in this article.
I was stuck in a bus for hours and landed to the hostel quite hungry. Before I was able to take a shower and move on to the city Boris offered me to share some food with me. He was at that time the only quest and so my choices with whom to interact with were limited. I have hence agreed on his offer.
He created a small version of Swedish table on one plate and while drinking wine he shared some cheese and salami with me. We had a nice chat and I have shared my plan to visit Chiatura on the next day. He looked interested, but I saw he might be just talking out of his drunken mind...
Believe it or not, the next day I am ready to go at around 5:30 to catch an early train and Boris opens his door saying: ''Can I come with you?'' at that time I am speechless and I just urge him to hurry up. First thing he did once we left the premises of our quest house was taking a hit from his improvised bong. I was thinking I must be still dreaming... However I was able to make him move fast enough to catch the train right on time. We have paid one dollar each for our three hour train ride to Chiatura.
We took our seats and Boris took a bottle of vodka out of his bag. I was feeling sick just looking at him pouring this substance of questionable origin down his throat. But hey, it made him comfortable and communicative enough to be a good companion for the long ride. Him being around forty years old meant he was fluent in Russian language. He definitely drank as a Russian army veteran to say the least. Our arrival was met with bunch of street dogs with whom Boris shared his breakfast - some of the cheapest sausages I have ever seen.
Property markets varies around the world drastically. In some cases even within single countries. Georgia might be the best example. The capital city Tbilisi is fulfilling all the descriptions of a bubble. A country within a country one could say. The property boom driven mostly by Russian refugees is unbelievable and few years back was also unimaginable. Georgian countryside is another story however. Three years ago shortly before and during the pandemic I have become interested in this topic and industry.
Taking into account how expensive is Tbilisi, a small former mining town Chiatura on the contrary might offer some of the cheapest housing in the world. Of course this lifestyle is surely not for everybody and I am not trying to sell you an apartment in Georgia here. I wanted a place for myself and my purposes only. If you think that you can be a house or home owner for about five or ten thousand dollars, it suddenly doesn't sound all that bad compared to all the other overpriced markets right?
Well let me tell you what I found...
Boris was awesomely handy tool for me at the end of the day. At some point I was almost annoyed by him and his lavish drinking. But on the other hand, he guided myself to the real center of Chiatura. Thanks to him and his drunken openness we have had a chance to meet some crazy locals - one of which was Georgi (of course :)
Boris and Georgi shared a weed pipe together and before you know it Georgi was running to get his homemade Chacha - a Georgian brandy.
Chiatura is an interesting place with some investment potential without a question. The only question I have is how are the locals going to adapt to the coming changes and are they going to be willing to be proactive participants in those changes. If not, Chiatura will be a drunken man's paradise and at the same time investors worst nightmare. It is sad to see how poverty and with that linked alcoholism is destroying many parts of the world, namely eastern Europe.
On early afternoon Boris was almost unable to walk and I had a hard time bringing him back to the bus station. As you can see on the photos he is a big big man. Luckily he managed it without me carrying him around but it took us about an hour an half what can be a ten minutes for an average Georgian grandma. Locals in their pawn shops kept on stopping me and pouring more wine into poor Boris as I was only hoping we will make it back to Kutaisi on time...
Let's hope the coming generation will have something better to do than hiding from their traumas inside a vodka bottle.
After this rather weird experience I have decided not to bother myself anymore with looking for property in Chiatura. There was however one more place that I desperately wanted to visit. But for that I will reserve another issue of my blog...
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such an interestign read
Boris sounds such a character ad in my travels i have meet a few people that sound similar to Boris
I remember a Russian pilot who a group of us met one night drinking in a bar, we were there till maybe 5 in the morning and we were all drinking probably far to much, then at 7 I turned up at the airport for our flight to another location in the mission, and the pilot flying us was the guy we were drinking with only a couple of hours earlier, one of my colleagues asked was he OK to fly, he said sure as he drunk a shot of vodka and offered us one
I guess he was I am still here today LOL
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Wow, that is quite a story to share... With this guy I was afraid to go into an elevator to be honest :):)