Heyhey! Been a while on this blog and I hope everyone's enjoying my #georgiatravelmoments. If the long weekend here in Dubai didn't happen this week, I might have missed updating this page once again. There are lots of things going on lately and guess what, God willing and hopefully I'm travelling again this end of month to go somewhere! Travel is on my side this year and what's more exciting is that when I attended this year's Arabian Travel Market, a few other opportunities came up - I'm hyped!
But First, Georgia The Country
Today I will be showing you photos taken on my last day
of stay in Georgia. If you've been following my previous post, I
did mention that I ran out of camera battery on my last day and mostly relied on
my iPhone when we went to the last trip I booked
through David of Holidays Travel
Agency - an excursion to Ananuri - Gudauri Ski
Resort.
As early as 8am, we were already gathered at our meeting
place equipped with our thickest clothes. The weather during my travel was 0°C
thus I was wearing 5 layers of clothes and still bought a thick head cover just
to make sure I don't freeze myself to death.
From a tourist perspective, it's essential to bring
something to eat for breakfast. You'd enjoy it more in the bus while looking at
the window and watch the scenery change from brown to green then white. It's a
long drive from Tbilisi to be honest, took us about 2.5hours before we reached
the first stop which is also part of the tour - a side trip
to Ananuri Monastery Complex.
Zhinvali Reservoir
On our way to Ananuri, we quickly pulled over for smoke
break and to get a sight of Zhinvali
Reservoir connected to the hydroelectric dam on the Aragvi
River in the Caucasus Moutains . The crystal clear turquoise
water melted my heart, good enough for my selfie photo *inserts evil laugh
here*. Every grammer will understand why I had to stand like this and block the
view *wink*, so please excuse my annoying back.
People elements in taking landscape photos always make it
beautiful, in my own opinion.
Ananuri Monastery Complex
A few minutes later, we arrived at
the Ananuri Monastery Complex - a combined
castle and fortress that sits along Georgian Military Highway. Galina said that
the castle was set on fire during the early days and is now included in the
UNESCO Tentative List Of Heritage Sites.
A few things that you will see inside the complex are:
high crenellated curtain walls that joins the towers
together, Church of The Assumption, and a view of
the Aragvi River at the back. Outside the
complex is a small cafe where you can buy authentic Georgian bread and turkish
coffee and a souvenir shop where I got my head cover.
The Road To Gudauri
Perhaps on this trip, the thing that I loved the most is the bus ride and watching the scenery. I just can't explain how amazed I am with earth.
Ananuri to Gudauri is more or less an hour and in between, we also stopped by a convenience store for pee break. From here, our tour operators checked if the coast is clear because some of the road weren't accessible a few days back when we had the trip. Then off we went to snow land!
Gudauri Ski Resort
First reaction when I saw it - SNNOOOOOOWWWW (while
singing Do You Wanna Build A Snowman in my head). I was too excited to touch and
see the white sheets of snow for the first time!
Selfie here, selfie there, selfie everywhere! :))))
Kidding aside, it's not really that cold when we were at Gudauri - I even saw a
few Russian sunbathing!
Things You Can Do In Gudauri Ski Resort
Skiing, heliski, lifts, speedriding and paragliding are
the main activities in Gudauri Ski Resort. I wasn't able to try any of it
primarily because it wasn't my day but I could've tried paragliding. I'm
sort of a dare-devil, so to speak.
And the price is pretty cheap. Renting ski gears will
only cost you 20GEL and you can use it the entire day. Tickets going up the peak
of the mountain is cheap too!
If you're planning to stay longer, Gudauri also has a
hotel facility where you can spend a night or two.
There were about 4 -5 restaurants here and a common
barbecue place with lots of options. And all options serve beer, ha!
More snow photos:
We only stayed between 11:45 until 3:30 pm at Gudauri Ski
Resort and headed back to Tbilisi right after. I spent the rest of my day
shopping a few items in Tbilisi and prepared for my flight back to Dubai at 2am
the next morning.
My Georgia posts doesn't end here, I still have a bunch
of photos I took while walking around the streets of Tbilisi. And oh, food! So
please be patient while I sort all of it and hopefully summarise the solo trip
and give you guys a round-up of the short vacay I had as a solo
traveller.
Follow my other posts about my Georgia Trip on below
links:
Georgia - How I Fell In Love With
Sighnaghi
Georgia - Mtskheta Historical Monuments, Monasteries and
Cathedrals
Georgia - Uphill Hike to Gori Fortress and
Uplistsikhe
The Essentials - Georgia Budget Travel Must
Haves
Georgia, The Country Is REALLY Pretty
* * * *
Photos above were taken and processed by me and is
intended for this blog alone. If you intend to use this for commercial OR
editorial purposes, please email me at joy.caasi@gmail.com.
I booked my tour (travel to Ananuri and Gudauri) with
David through Facebook and email (please refer to the link above the post). The
price was 49GEL at the time of travel and this includes transfers and a
qualified guide.
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