The Long Trip
Our trip from Montreal to Batumi looks like this:
Montreal-Istanbul-Tbilisi-Batumi
The flight from Montreal to Istanbul was about 7 hours. I was busy all the way: watching Star Trek Beyond, playing some video games and sleeping for a good amount of time. The in-flight meal was amazing:
we had a steak with grilled vegetables, potato bake and Turkish salad before rounding off the meal with a chocolate cake. The breakfast was decent too.
Passengers received very nice travel set as gift, in which one can find earbuds, tooth brush, tooth paste, socks and even slippers. They also offered a neck support, a blanket. The airplane was gigantic; maybe the biggest passenger airplane I have ever seen. They call it airbus.
Our second part of the trip was from Istanbul to Tbilisi which lasted probably 3 hours. The layover time in Istanbul airport was about 5 hours. We stayed in a coffee shop in the airport. My mom had this black coffee and told me it tasted like over-burned rice.
When we arrived in Tbilisi, we had to pass the Boarder Control. The officer there stamped on our passport and said “thank you” in mandarin which was amusing. Then started a 6-hour’s terrifying bumpy mountain road trip.
The mountain road looks like one-lane but it is used as two-lane. I don’t think it is wide enough to allow cars to drive in both directions without any risks. But the driver managed to drive like on a spacious highway. I was sleeping most of the time. But my mom was not able to do so as she was freaking out by the driver’s crazy driving.
Hotel
Luckily, we survived the road trip and arrived at Sheraton Hotel in Batumi in the early morning. There was still no day lights at the time. First glimpse of the city was great. It was quiet and beautiful:
(photo credit to http://georgiantour.com/batumi2/)
Sheraton hotel is well-decorated with 21 floors, equipped with a big indoor swimming pool, a well-functioning swirling pool and many types of spa service. We went to the swimming pool each day as long as it did not conflict too much with the tournament schedule. My mom went to the spa service and the swirling pool everyday while I was playing.
(photo credit to Sheraton Batumi)
Hotel room: spacious and neat:
The hotel room has a great view of our favorite: the Black Sea. It is within 5 minutes walking distance:
Swimming pool:
I went to the pool basically everyday in the evenings with Kevin Zhong; we had a really good time!:
There are luxurious spa service including Turkish bath.
Turkish Bath:
Dry sauna room: in my opinion, one can not survive after 15 minutes inside. I tried and had to flee after 5 minutes.
Sauna:
It looks like charcoal:
The benefit of black charcoal sauna is tremendous. By raising the body’s temperature high enough to produce sweat, health is promoted. Studies have shown that sweating not only promotes good health, but has beauty and weight loss benefits also.
There is another room called “steaming room”. One cannot take any photos inside as it is all steamy. You don’t want to drown your cell phone there. I don’t get the difference between the two spa service: sauna and steaming except it is obviously “dry vs wet”. But I believe both of them share some therapeutic benefits.
(For the record, I only tried sauna for 5 minutes.)
The breakfast is the best! The best service plus a wide variety of choice: hot drink, pastries, fresh fruits…. A truly great breakfast buffet that offers everything I could want and of a high quality. I also learnt to order different types of eggs.
The breakfast place:
Shawn, Prince and me at breakfast:
Lunch and dinner are hosted in a nearby restaurant. The food was ok. But with good friends around, it does not matter too much.
Shawn and me at the restaurant:
Giant chess pieces on the way from the hotel to the restaurant. It gives you an idea how popular chess is here:
Geography and Culture
Batumi, Georgia.
Not the “Georgia” in the States. It is Georgia as a country which is located at the crossroads of Western Asia and Eastern Europe. Little information that I read from WIKIPEDIA:
“It is bounded to the west by the Black Sea, to the north by Russia, to the south by Turkey and Armenia, and to the southeast by Azerbaijan. The capital and largest city is Tbilisi.”
Batumi is located on the coast of Black Sea, known for its varying weather–it is a bustling seaside resort during warm seasons, but can get entirely covered in snow during winter. We were there in the middle of October, neither the best season nor the worst season. There are so many Tour buses and casinos; we have this impression that this city’s economy revolves around tourism and gambling.
Black Sea
Here is a little Q&A about this beloved sea:
Q: Do you know where it is?
A: It is a body of water between Eastern/Southeastern Europe and Western Asia
Q: Do you know how big it is? Think about the square kilometers.
A: It has an area of 436,400 square kilometers
Q: Do you know how deep it is?
A: It has a maximum depth of 2,212 m.
Q: which are the important cities along the coast?
A: Batumi of course, and the cities that I have never heard of: Burgas, Constanța, Giresun, Hopa, Istanbul, Kerch, Mangalia, Năvodari, Novorossiysk, Odessa, Ordu, Poti, Rize, Sinop, Samsun, Sevastopol, Sochi, Sozopol, Sukhumi, Trabzon, Varna, Yalta and Zonguldak.
Hew, I am glad that I have at least been to one of them.
Q: Do you know the color of Black Sea? Is it black?
A: No, it is actually pleasant blue when it is sunny; when it is cloudy, there are dark clouds over the sky and the atmosphere is wild. During our stay, we experienced really nice sunny days and greyish rainy days.
Sunny day:
Cloudy day:
About the name, the first theory comes from “the direction of the compass”, “black” referring to the north, and “red” referring to the south.”
The other theory is from the shipwrecks that were found under the sea: “There are no islands along the coast of the Black Sea, and sailors had no port in a storm. This caused many shipwrecks and could also be the origin of the name.
A beach without sand, only pebbles:
Thumbs up to the pebble beach:
Feel so free under the blue sky:
Us, pebble, Canadian flag:
Two drones passing by:
Crazy style:
City Tour
There was a rest day during those 11 rounds. We booked a city tour that day. It was supposed to be a wonderful tour, even the heavy rain that day did not stop us.
Makhuntseti Waterfall
It is located near the town of Keda, at 335 meters above sea level.
We also visited nearby tourist attractions, including the ancient arched stone Makhuntseti Bridge.
Makhuntseti Waterfall:
Makhuntseti Bridge:
Archeological Museum:
The exhibits cover a very long period of Ajarian culture -from stone age to the middle ages and are well presented.
A collection of gold treasures:
Gonio Fortress:
This is the oldest fortress of Georgia – which is located in village of Gonio in Adjara, 15 km from Batumi city.
“Many legends and myths are connected with the Fortress. Nowadays the Gonio-Apsaros Fortress is a monument of Roman period of the Adjarian history. The Fortress layout and architecture have left almost unchanged over all centuries of its existence.”
A tomb?
Panoramas to Batumi
We were on the top of the hill overlooking the city:
Gondola took us high up to the sky:
Dolphinarium:
We were sitting at the first row and got splashed as we expected. Dolphins are absolutely cute. I have seen a few other dolphin shows before. This one was unique as we were actually got splashed!:
A surprisingly amazing restaurant at the mountain:
It was a rainy day at the mountain. We had really fresh grilled fish, and barbecued pork, amazing salad. The fish was so good. It might be the best fish that I have ever had.
This is where we got our cold hands warmed:
The local wine and juice. Green one is the juice:
A meal at Istanbul airport to wrap up our trip:
The trip back was brief, with shorter layover at Istanbul. We bought some gifts for our family and friends. I bought a donkey-shaped piggy bank for myself with “Batumi” engraved on the back of the donkey.
Interestingly, at the airport, we met an Indian chess player and played a few games together. We quickly attracted some bystanders. Some of them seemed really good at chess. I am not surprised, this is Georgia; one of the top countries with the most GM-s per capita worldwide.
Play games at the Tbilisi airport:
Reference:
- https://www.reference.com/geography/black-sea-called-black-53f3366291934af
- http://www.advantour.com/georgia/batumi/gonio.htm
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Sea