New Delhi: trust is good, mistrust is better.

Namaste everyone!

I’m sorry for the absence but I have a slight “blogger’s block”, if we want to give it a name, and I didn’t feel very productive.

After almost three weeks stuck in a snow-coated Bishkek, we finally arrived in India!

We arrived in Delhi three days ago and we spent most of our time in Paharganj, the “backpackers area” where you can everything you need for a fairly cheap price.

Making chapati in Paharganj

I fell in love with this Shiva just in front of our guest house.

But let’s not forget that Indians are passionate merchants and you have to negotiate for almost everything!

But to be honest, apart from this fascinating chaos, we didn’t enjoy New Delhi too much.

For most of the time we have been hampered by self-called “guides”, “taxi drivers” and so on who saw us as walking cash machines.

You can find them everywhere, from Connaught Place to the railway station to the proximities of India Gate.

We can't forget our "firsts" in life: our first love, our first gig, our first elephant...

My recommendation is to NOT TRUST THEM in any way. They will always take you to their friends’ “travel agency” where they will propose you absurd tours of the country for horrendously inflated prices. Not mentioning that your “new friend” will get a commission for bringing new customers.

Poverty is a huge issue in this country and people would do everything for a few extra rupees. They might be peanuts for us but they worth a lot to them, still be ultra-careful!

Don’t listen to them if they tell you that your destination is “closed”, “burnt down”, if “there’s a festival and there is no access” to wherever you want to go. Stand on your ideas and don’t be afraid to shout at them! They obviously want to avoid the police’s attentions so they will scram in no time.

The only legal tourist office in New Delhi is in 88 Janpath, close to the crossing with Tolstoy Road, opposite the Janpath Bazaar stalls.

If you want to buy IndRail pass for reductions and advantages on railway services, you can get them at the Tourist Information Office at the railway station, Chelmsford Road side.

You might meet someone who tries to block you at the entry or convince you to go somewhere else to get the tickets, but don’t believe them and get straight to the office.

Another thing is the road safety: they don’t know what does it mean!

The first thing you’ll notice is the imperious anarchy along the streets, even the tiniest ones!

So be careful when you walk.

If you decide to try a motorickshaw get a prepaid one. They won’t deceive you as they won’t get paid if they don’t take you to your designed destination.

Otherwise be sure that 

they know where your destination is and 

 negotiate the price BEFORE you start the ride.

Yesterday we got a bit lost in Old Delhi and a driver didn’t know where Connaught Place was, plus he had the nerve to ask 100 rupees for the ride, so we walked our way to the city centre.

You should make it with no more than 15-20 rupees for in-town routes.

Other general safety tips:

• You will find animals everywhere. Dogs, cats, monkeys, cows, pigs, even hawks (no jokes!). Put your animal-loving instinct aside and avoid any contact with them as most of them might be infected (for sure most of them have never seen a vet). Try to avoid going out by yourself at night, most dogs tend to be aggressive in the dark.
• Don’t drink or brush your teeth with tap water. Try to avoid mouth and genital contact with tap water when you wash yourself. Sealed bottle water is cheap and definitely safer. If you’re in doubt, buy sparkling water as it can’t be recycled. 
• Try to avoid fresh fruits and vegs as they might have been treated with dirty water. Street food is at your own risk.
• Don’t give money to any beggar, man, woman, or child, including the ones who sell pens around the streets.They might be part of beggar gangs and you might find yourself surrounded by dozens of people. Children get nothing anyway.
• Another beggar trick is the powder milk one. You might encounter women with a baby in their arms and a milk bottle asking you to get them some powder milk for the kid. They will take you to a shop where you will pay at least 20 times the original price. The shopkeeper and the woman share the money and the child gets nothing. If you see the child sleeping, he/she’s probably drugged.

  

  The majestic India Gate

This is all for now, I promise I will make an effort to write more often.

Next time I will tell you about, Amritsar, the sacred Sikh city!

If I can’t write sooner, I wish you in advance a happy Christmas!

À bientôt!

Nagorno-Karabakh: a "non-existing" place

Hello everyone, first of all I want to apologise for not writing for such a long time.
We have been overwhelmed by a series of unexpected events but we're doing well and we're holding the grip through our journey.

Last week we left Yerevan for Stepanakert, capital of the Artsakh Republic of Nagorno-Karabakh.

Nagorno-Karabakh is a de facto nation, de jure a region in western Azerbaijan.
Historically it's always been Armenian and so is the 95% of population.

Our marshrutka leaves Yerevan in the morning. Just half an hour before approaching the frontier we find a cloud not above, but in front of us. 

The weather suddenly changes and we find ourselves surrounded by the clouds, nothing but a white fog in front of our bus.

And Stepanakert doesn't make exceptions. It's completely white.

People look at us like aliens, with our backpacks and hiking clothes we effectively look "exotic".

Karin (our hosts)'s daughters welcome us as soon as we arrive to their house.

We get the "seat of honour" just in front of the fireplace, and they prepare tea with biscuits, honey and jam for us.

Then Karin arrives and the food on our table starts to multiply. We can't say we've been hungry!

Karin explains to us how the Karabakhi's consideration towards Russia started to change once they started selling weapons to Azerbaijan.

We watch some Russian television and we go to bed, it's been a long day.

The morning after we have breakfast and we start our promenade through Stepanakert.

It's quite dispersive, not a big town, but not very "compact" either unlike any other capital.

We head to the Artsakh State Museum next to the main square and the guide starts following us explaining all the peculiarities of Nagorno-Karabakh.

She tells us about mulberry, the "national fruit" and how they make vodka from it.

She shows us a clay pot which we'll discover being an ancient coffin, and then she leads us to another room with a model of Shushi's monastery and some photos of Gandzasar.

She starts telling us about the true pride of Artsakh, carpets.

Karabakhi carpets are among the finest you can find in Central Asia and the techniques haven't changed till today.

Then her face darkens a bit and she tells us how the Karabakhi feel "prisoners" of Azerbaijan.

"Imagine being a child, being taken away from your mother and forced to stay with your neighbours for more than seventy years. This is how we feel."

Historically, the Artsakh region has always belonged to Armenia, from 189 b. C. to 387 AD, before passing to Caucasian Albania until the 7th century. Around the year 1000 the Kingdom of Artsakh is one of the few Armenian regions which managed to maintain its independence through Turkish invasions during the Middle Age.

Only in the 20th Century, with the Soviet invasion of Transcaucasia, Stalin assigned the region to the Azeri SSR, and even after the fall of the Union, Azerbaijan "keeps" Artsakh in its borders.

But the inhabitants always felt "children of Armenia" with an identity of their own, which you can find in their language, religion and costumes.

This country (I prefer to call it country rather than mere "region") is the most underrated place in Caucasus.

In 2012 some US States, New South Wales in Australia, Euskal Herria, Transnistria, South Ossetia and Abkhazia started recognising the Republic of Nagorno-Karabakh.

We hope some UN countries will start considering this beautiful place next time we'll be there. :)

People like the Karabakhi have a lot to teach to the world. In an era when people are defined by welfare and possessions, they don't care if you're rich or not. They have nothing, but they will always give you what they can.

Quick babbles - the joy of visas and Armenian language

Good evening everyone!
Today I feel extremely bubbly and chatty even though the weather doesn't help in Yerevan.
We started our visa gathering routine and it started in the best manner, as we got out Iranian transit visas!

I want to tell you about our arrival in Yerevan.
We left Tbilisi on Friday morning and after a 6-hour long drive across the mountains, cramped in the back seats of a marshrutka, having a walnut churchkela and tangerines for lunch, we arrived in Armenia.

On Saturday we started exploring the city, spending the afternoon in the History Museum in Republic Square.

Shame the most interesting parts were explained only in Armenian!

Talking about Armenian language, its beautiful alphabet has indeed an interesting story.
In 387 AD Armenia was split in two, Western Armenia (under the Byzantine empire) and Eastern Armenia, which was independent and reigned by the Arsacid dynasty.
The two Armenias then were growing with significant socio-cultural differences.
In 405 the future saint Mesrop Mashtots, supported by Sahak Partev and king Vramshapuh, started creating the first form of Armenian alphabet.
Someone claims that Mashtots invented the Georgian and Caucasian Albanian alphabets as well, but it hasn't been historically confirmed.
What we know is that this alphabet was the only thing which managed to keep the two Armenias together, and helped people keeping their identity alive through the centuries.

To know wisdom and instruction; to perceive the words of understanding

This was the very first sentence, taken from Solomon's Book of Proverbs, which has been translated in the new alphabet.
It is also the motto of the Holy Translators, who managed to preserve some ancient works in Greek and Syriac which have been lost in their original language.

I truly believe in the amazing power of languages. And you?

Georgia: Fighting for Freedom

While we were in Paris, organising the basics for our trip, we started thinking about doing some research work about the countries we would visit and their cultural heritage.
Most of them are the result of centuries of developing, invasions, constant metamorphosis, until the final detachment and further independence.
They all derive from something bigger than them, unions, empires, former colonies.

This is the case of Georgia, Armenia, and the 'Stans which we will visit later on.

Today I want to tell you about what I learnt in Georgia, and its constant struggle for freedom and independence through the 20th century.

Georgia managed to get rid of the Russian Empire in February 1918 along with Armenia and Azerbaijan, and the Transcaucasian Democratic Federative Republic was born.

Three months later Georgia becomes independent and Noe Zhordania becomes the Head of Government.

The country was recognised by eighteen States, including the Triple Entente which Russia was a member.

Russia will invade Georgia only nine months after the Declaration of Independence violating all the terms of the peace treaty and starts setting the basis for the occupation in 1920.

In February Lenin writes a directive to the military headquarters. It explains the necessity to "justify the military operations in the neutral zone and to protect the rebels".

The letter ends with "we expect from the revolutionary-military circle an energetic and prompt action, including the conquest of Tbilisi".

On the 25th of February 1921, the Red Army enters Tbilisi. It's the beginning of the Soviet era.

From the very first day the national liberation fronts were always eager to act against the Red Army.

The Military Council of the 11th Army, along with Bolshevik punitive forces, the so-called "special commission" started a blood-soaked repressive campaign.
At the end of 1921, the National Georgian Army colonel Kaikhosro "Kakutsa" Cholokashvili estabilished important connections with the leaders of the underground organization called Georgian Independence Commission, General Konstantine Apkhazi, Iason Javakishvili, Nikolas Kartsivadze and others.

In August 1922 a further riot in Khevsureti fails for lack of coordination.

As a result of this "betrayal", Apkhazi and other 14 members of the GIC were arrested and shot in 1923.

Between 1921 and 1926 Georgian elite, aristocracy and intelligentsia members were exterminated.

Between 1921 and 1941 72,000 people were assassinated and more than 200,000 were deported.

The 1937 repressions saw the executions of the most important people in Georgian scientific, scholar, and creative fields.

The beginning of the Second World War brought a glimpse of "hope" in a liberation from the Soviet grasp.

After the end of the war, the most important Georgian political emigrates were caught prisoners of Shinsankom.

The Shinsankom was a "special triad" of Georgian SSR Internal Affairs commission. Their main task was to exterminate the members of various liberation fronts who survived the repression raids of the 20s.
Their main targets were the middle class and rich peasants who fought against kulakhs, the aristocracy and the intelligentsia who were an "intellectual uprising" threat, and the surviving offiers, trained against the Soviet regime.

Between 1942 ans 1952 more than 5,000 people were killed and more than 190,000 were deported.

After Stalin's death in 1953, Kruscëv launched a "destalinisation" process, though Kruscëv himself had a role in Ukrainian repressions of 1937-38 and was also a member of the 11th Army which invaded Tbilisi.

An illegal organisation, KETO, was founded in 1953 by the then 14-year-old Zviad Gamsakhurdia and Merab Kostava. Their main goal was to re-uplift the nationalist feeling in young Georgians and they had a crucial role in the March 1956 protests.
They were arrested in that year.

In the 70s Gamsakhurdia and Kostava became members of Amnesty International.

In April 14th, 1978, thousands of people protested again against the USSR, and especially in defense of Georgian language. For the first time, the authorities were forced to step back.

Merab Kostava was released in 1987. This gave a further input to liberation movements. The protests in front of the Government siege in April 1987 were one of the last most delicate moments, and the Soviets repressed protesters one more time.

In 1989 things started to change. The Georgian SSR Supreme Council started recognising the occupation of Georgia and the admission to Bolshevik Russia in 1921. Then the Council had a further metamorphosis.

On the 14th of November 1990, the new Council approved the new independent Georgia's national symbols. The country adopted the name of Sakartvelos Respublika (Republic of Georgia), the ancient national anthem, the coat of arms and the Democratic Republic of Georgia flag were re-estabilished.

Zviad Gamsakhurdia was elected President of the Supreme Council of the soon-to-be Republic of Georgia.

The referendum of March 1991 was decisive: 98% of voters wanted independence.

On the 9th of April 1991 an extraordinary session approved the Declaration of Restoration of the Independent State of Georgia, recognised by the International Community on Christmas day of the same year.

The Rose Revolution in 2003-04 brought further changes in the flag and the general system, sweeping away corruption, reshaping the Parliament and opening its doors to the West.

Georgia is an exquisite example of national integrity, its inhabitants managed to keep their identity in spite of decades of occupation, and in the same time always eagerly open for changes and positive revolutions.

Everyone should consider Georgia as an example to follow to get rid of the rotten core of things.

I want to thank the Simon Janashia Museum in Tbilisi for the inspiration and the informations I gathered for this post.

I apologise in advance for eventual mistakes, in any case let me know where can I make corrections.