Got off the plane at Singapore, had to wait for about 20 minutes on uncomfortable seats, then queued up, got our boarding passes checked 3 times in 10 minutes, then through security again and sat in more uncomfortable chairs for another 30 minutes until finally back onto the same plane and the same seat. I would have been happy to have stayed on board and just lift my feet up while they vacuumed.
The seat next to us was taken by a young bloke who kept to himself but occasionally got up to stretch and pulled his legs into what looked like painful positions.
Arrived in Dubai, only slept about 3 hours on and off, then got off the plane, back through more security, then onto a bus to go to a different terminal. We’re flying to Tbilisi with Flydubai, a budget airline that doesn’t have the best reviews but none of the big airlines fly to Georgia, funnily enough.
The food on the plane was pretty bad, and the food at Dubai airport was limited to MacDonald’s, KFC and Subway. But I did have a Costa Coffee which was also bad. Decided not to use the lounge because it didn’t have showers which was the main point.
Plane to Tbilisi was OK, not very full and reasonably modern. Mind you, I always think that the pilots who fly the Airbus 380s between Melbourne and London probably did well at pilot school, but those that fly FlyDubai between Dubai and Tbilisi not so much.
From the plane, the landscape was quite hilly, and very green. There were lots of valleys but no mountains.
Tbilisi airport looked a bit grim, some old abandoned buildings and aircraft dotted around, but the terminal was new and we were the first through, questioned by the bored immigration staff (she actually yawned) and out into the arrivals section where all the shops were currency exchange places. Were accosted every 30 seconds by guys asking if we wanted a taxi but I checked before we came and there’s a bus that goes past the hotel more or less and is very cheap. The taxi is 12 Haloumi or Zucchini or whatever, the bus is 50c. Changed some cash to the local currency, asked at the information desk for the bus stop and hopped on with about 20 other people.
The bus was packed and got busier as we went on, people crammed in and it was pretty hot as well. It got to the stage where the doors wouldn’t close and people had to get very friendly. I felt that I should have given my seat up to an old lady but I couldn’t get out, plus she’d lived through Soviet occupation and was probably tougher than me and standing on a bus was not going to be a big deal. Added to this, we’d been travelling for about 32 hours without a shower so I was feeling a bit grotty.
Driving into the city we saw quite a few abandoned buildings, some looked relatively recent, after the collapse of the soviet union, and some older ones. Also the obligatory concrete housing blocks.
The hotel was just down the road from one of the main squares, another great choice by Song. And to add to our joy, a Paul’s patisserie opposite the hotel, our favourite chain of French Bakeries, they are all over Europe.
The hotel was very funky, the Ibis Styles. Lots of bright colours and quirky artwork which for some reason had a sheep theme. The room was spacious and comfortable, and the shower was fantastic after the travel. Cleaned up and pottered around the room for a bit and decided to see what Paul’s had to offer for dinner.
The Paul’s was more than a bakery, they also did meals which we hadn’t seen before. I had a tomato soup to start and then a chicken roulade. Song had a seafood salad and a tuna baguette.
My soup was supposed to be cream of tomato but it wasn’t really, it was spicy, but still good.
We also discovered that smoking is allowed in restaurants here, which is really annoying.
The chicken was on a bed of pumpkin puree and was pretty decent, not fantastic, but the cigarette smoke wafting around from other tables didn’t help.
Total cost was 77.15 Georgian kablooies, about 40 AUD. Not bad.
Back to the hotel to watch some downloaded TV, then crashed.
