26th September: Vanadzor, Armenia
A very lazy day today. We were able to have muesli for breakfast and make coffee in the apartment, which felt like a luxury. I’ve not been feeling so well for a few days, so this was exactly what I needed. The morning got better when we were finally able to book our sleeper train tickets back from Yerevan to Tbilisi! We also got the compensation through from AJet for the lost bag in Baku to the grand sum of £19 (!). One event we’re very glad is sorted, regardless, and hope we don’t ever have to repeat.
We did go for another walk around Vanadzor in the late afternoon, attempting to get to a viewpoint which was marked on the maps. However, it was fenced off and felt incredibly dodgy. Being honest, Armenia has felt incomprehensible and slightly unwelcoming so far. I’m sure this will change, as we’ve a very small sample size of three days and two cities to this point and haven’t had the best of weather or health. Either way, we also need to put ourselves out there a bit more too. I suspect that in a week, my opinion will have vastly changed.
We couldn’t find anything appetising to eat anywhere in town but, for the first time, we have a kitchen here. Kaja said that this combination of place and apartment was the perfect place for an admin day and I’m inclined to agree. The warming and nutritious soup she cooked up felt very apt for this autumnal day. We also decided that the idea of herbs in lavash is actually a good one, so lunch is sorted for tomorrow too!
Otherwise, we also started doing a bit of planning for China. We’d only really had chance to properly plan these first 6 weeks prior to leaving home, so have to get our heads around a whole new part of the world now. We have a list of potential options for our itinerary but have come to realise that we need to be way more selective as, having learn from this leg, we want to slow down a touch more and travelling long distances will decimate our budget. I worked out this evening that China is 52x the combined size of Armenia, Georgia, and Azerbaijan, so we’d require 5 years and 9 months of continuous travel to explore it in the detail we’ve done in these three countries! We have to leave China every 30 days (likely to Hong Kong) due to Kaja’s visa, so will likely travel down from Beijing through the centre to begin with. We’re undecided as to whether to add in a couple of weeks for the east coast as a middle leg (we can have a maximum of 3) but will finish with the southwest. It doesn’t seem like we’ll be able to make it west to the much-recommended Xinjiang or Tibet regions on this occasion but will instead try to travel slightly more slowly through the (still vast) remainder. Any further tips would still be greatly appreciated!