Our Trip
Day 8 - May 5
This day greeted us with unstable weather. During the night there had been heavy rain. First we visited the village of Noraduz with its famous cemetery. When we left the bus several women from the village came and unpacked their knitting work on some of the old stones. Some of us bought items for children which they wanted to give away in a very poor village several days later. We bought a pair of warm gloves for Hermann. Here, too, we noticed the unobtrusiveness of the people. They did not at all try to push us to buy their things, they just offered them like on a market. Least of all they got the idea to beg! It is strange in such a poor country, but one hardly sees beggars anywhere. We saw very few old people begging near monasteries and other tourist sites. However, usually jobless people try to make some money by selling something - even if it is the "family silver". We also noticed that these really poor people try to hide their poverty. When we met the children we are sponsoring they and also their relatives all appeared in their certainly best clothing, even though it must have been clear to them that as the children's sponsors of course we knew about the families' poverty. Some of them even gave us presents. They just do not want to appear as beggars and we hope that we made them feel that they were equal to us - after all, a financially better situation does not make us better people!
The cemetery of Noraduz
New grave in ancient style
New graves with cross stones
Even busts ...
... and statues can be seen
Gagik cleans the bus windows,
but this was not his main "special task" for that day!
From Noraduz we continued our way further south and reached the area of the Selim pass (2410m above sea level) over which led one of the routes of the Silk Road. The sky darkened, black clouds showed up and the rain started falling. Such a weather in this barren landscape showed us clearly which circumstances the travellers had been exposed to - and they had no comfortable bus with a toilet and enough mineral water in the fridge. They had to travel by foot with their pack animals. Even in the caravanserais they could only stay overnight and under very primitive conditions.
Such ramps can often be seen close to the streets; they are from Soviet times
and were meant as repair aid for cars, particularly for cars of functionaries who had a driver;
this driver was also responsible for the repairs.
Trucks from Iran; they have got no problems getting to Armenia, while Armenian trucks
are not allowed to drive into Iran; as the Armenians are
dependent on these transports
they accept it reluctantly; it is just the question why the Iran is doing this - is it just
economic protectionism or are they
afraid of Christian "mission"?
"Summerhouses" of shepherds who move to the mountains with their cattle when it gets warmer
The area around the former Silk Road
The Selim caravanserai
The new street...
... and the ancient one
We had only just arrived in a rather plain area again when underneath the bus there was suddenly a strange noise and something like a kick. Very obviously a tire had burst. Nonetheless we were told that Gagik would drive us to our restaurant as it wasn't far away and so it wouldn't make sense to change the tire immediately. But obviously we had different concepts of "not far away". We drove past several villages and two or three police patrols who did not at all seem interested in the roadworthiness of our bus. Anyway, after a rather long time (at least in the opinion of the passengers) we arrived at the restaurant. While we were having yet another good meal, Gagik changed the tire and as a proud Armenian he also refused any help offered to him by some men of our group.
Gagik changing the tire ...
... without any help
Next we travelled over the Vorotan pass (2344m above sea level) before we stopped at the stone field of Zorakhar which reminded us a little of Stonehenge in England, and obviously it had been built for a similar purpose.
Zorakhar
A stone with a hole
The following stop marked the end of today's tour. We travelled to the town of Goris where most of us stayed at the Mirhav Hotel while four or five of the group were placed in another hotel. This had not been planned, but the hotel in Sisian which the travel agency had wanted to book had been closed. However, we were very content with the place we were in.
Monument above Goris
These soldiers were assigned to fight the litter ...
... and this seemed to be a lot of fun
Unfortunately the litter pollution is a big problem in Armenia - some people actually seem
to detest the natural beauties of their country; later in Karabakh
we noticed a huge difference
Goris from above
Hotel Mirhav
An exhausted group member in the entrance hall
Some of the group are waiting for dinner
In front of the hotel
Hermann with a cat in the garden
View from the garden
Our room - in perfect Ikea style ;)
At the end of this day:
Our eldest group member - she was 84 years old and one of the fittest!
Photos by us
©2009 Hermann-Peter Steinmüller & Dr. Barbara Strohmenger
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