Cave monasteries

While the hostel was full last night, it cleared out suddenly. I had my 4-bed dorm to myself last night. That’s great except that the out-of-town tours haven’t reached a quorum.

I had written off the idea of going to the rock monasteries at Davit Gareja by public transport as it involves chartering a taxi by myself for the last part. But at breakfast I met a group comprising of a Swede, two Italians and a Bulgarian. It was just my luck that they wanted to go to Davit Gareja too.

So we all walked to Republic Square metro, and went deep underground on the escalator to take the ride to Samgori station. From there we were meant to take a van to Sagarejo and then a taxi to Davit Gareja. But the van driver did us a good deal straight to the monastery including waiting time.

It was a 2h ride in the van to get there. We first explored the Lavra monastery which was right in front of the van. This was a walled and man-made monastery with parts that were dug into the cliff face.

Next was the climb to the part called Udabno. These are cave churches scattered high up on the hills on the border with Azerbaijan. It made a good effort to climb up to them. I noticed how dusty and slippery it was, and wondered if I’d make it back down without sliding on my bum. I gave up some three-quarters of the way up one side and slowly came back down while the others made it to the top and walked along the ridge to explore what we had come for.

The day felt like a complete waste of time for me. It’s weird that I conquered Kinabalu at 4095m but I couldn’t do Davit Gareja!

We got back in the late afternoon and I went to the sulphur baths that Tbilisi is kinda famous for. Being in the former Muslim part of town, it is very much like a Turkish Bath (except that one doesn’t need to preserve modesty). Upon entering it stinks of course! But one soon adjusts to the smell. After a shower, I had a soak in the tub which was far too hot for me. So it wasn’t a long stay after all.