We had figured on catching a minibus to Tbilisi but when we arrived at the bus stop in Alaverdi there was a distinct lack of action, which was a little concerning. We were soon approached by a taxi driver who iffered to drive us to Tbilisi, 3 hours away, for about $30. After our last taxi ride we were a little dubious but on seeing his taxi our doubts started to disappear. It was clean and tidy and he seemed genuine, so we accepted. This ride could not have be...

Well I ended the last blog saying that arranging transport from Yerevan to Tumanyan could be interesting. Well it was. We had asked at the Information centre about getting a bus to Alaverdi. I think they misunderstood what we asked and we misinterpreted what they told us. We arrived at the bus station expecting to catch bus 259, whch we thought left at regular intervals. We were wrong. There was no bus 259 and the bus we needed apparently wasn't leaving for...

The moment had arrived. Our flight from Nur Sultan to Yerevan was booked with SCAT Airlines ( an unfortunate name). Reviews had not been promising, so our expectations were not high. However a seamless check in, on time departure, pleasant crew, a meal better in quality and quantity than you'd get on Qantas, and an on time arrival, resulted in 2 very happy travellers. Our first Arnenian lesson came via a "cab driver". Having negotiated him down ( with almost ...

Train 707 from Almaty to Nur Sultan provided us with a great experience. We hit the bar before we had left the station and were soon in conversation with Askar and Nurbol. Both Kazakhs heading home. Askar owns a shoe shop and I think Nurbol either works for him or is his business partner. Through stilted English on their part and Google Translate on ours we established how old they were, how many children they had, what sports they liked and shared similar de...

From Bishkek it was about an hour to the Kazakhstan border. For some reason the Kazakh officials took the passports for myself and the other Aussie in the group. We were then asked questions that no others in the group were asked. After a few minutes they were returned and we were cleared through but it was a little concerning. Our local guide had no explanation for it. We arrived in Almaty late in the afternoon. It is unlike any city we have seen so far on ...