Translated material
Hot ticket
A special correspondent for Vremya Novostei spent the weekend in Abkhazia
“Russian armored personnel carriers brought into Abkhazia disrupted the tourist season there,” Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili said yesterday. The president went to the beach in the village of Ganmukhuri and promised to attract investment so that Ganmukhuri would become one of the best resorts “not only in Abkhazia, but throughout Georgia.”Ganmukhuri, however, is located in Mengrelia rather than in Abkhazia; in any case, this area is firmly controlled by the Georgian authorities. Perhaps Ganmukhuri will become the same showcase of reintegration that Adjarian Batumi has become - after the peaceful dismantling of Adjarian independence in 2004, Tbilisi is trying very hard to ensure an influx of funds to Adjarian resorts, hoping that tourists will follow the investments. According to Georgian data, Adjara already receives about 70 thousand people per season. The authorities of unrecognized Abkhazia, speaking about the 2005-2007 seasons, cited figures that were an order of magnitude higher - in Sukhumi they believe that up to a million tourists came to the “land of the soul” over the summer, that is, almost four times more than the permanent population.
Places in the surviving Abkhaz sanatoriums and health resorts, even under the most favorable circumstances, would hardly be enough for a million vacationers, but in addition to health resorts there is a private sector, which in 2006, as eyewitnesses say, was handed over to tourists for the first time since the 1992-1993 war, right up to Ochamchira . Ochamchira is the place where the track restored by Russian military railway workers ends. Further towards the actual border with Georgia there is only the Gallic region, and behind it are the positions of the peacekeepers. In general, a million was probably still a bit of a statistical exaggeration, but it is clear that there were significantly more visitors to Abkhazia than to Adjara.
Those Russians for whom Türkiye or Sochi were too expensive were willing to travel to Abkhazia. Abkhazia is more diverse, climatically more favorable and more accessible than Adjara - the Russian ruble is used here, and you do not need a visa to cross the border. The money brought by tourists began to work in the Abkhaz economy, and, despite the obvious traces of the recent war, it seemed that in a little more time the republic would become quite comparable to some Montenegro. But then came 2008, and alarming television news of unmanned spy planes flying, missiles flying to intercept them, and bombs exploding in cafes and markets made the inevitable happen. Unfortunately, fear returned, and there were noticeably fewer tourists on the streets of Gagra again.
But even in this sad circumstance, one can find its advantages: if in the Russian Adler during the day there is literally nowhere to spit on the beach (this is clearly visible from a landing plane), then near Sukhumi the coast in the height of July resembles Spain in mid-May. The difference is that the water temperature is ideal for swimming and under the sun you get a great tan during the day. In a word, it’s worth a trip - horror stories about the war are still just horror stories, but the impressions from the beauty of nature, the sea and southern hospitality will last for a long time. Perhaps, in a group of girls, the temperament of local youth will seem intrusive, but hardly more than in Turkey or Egypt. A reasonable male escort for a trip to this exotic region usually solves this problem.
A weekend in Montenegro can be cheaper than two or three days in Abkhazia, mainly because charter planes do not fly to Abkhazia. The airport near Sukhumi, which has not accepted civilian aircraft since 1992, is being restored and is said to somehow be operational by the 2014 Olympics. But while it is located on territory that de jure belongs to Georgia, and de facto belongs to the unrecognized republic of Abkhazia, its inclusion in the existing air traffic system seems problematic. Therefore, you have to fly to Adler and, despite the abundance of flights, it is difficult to count on a cheap ticket during the season. If you book in advance, you can spend $370 round trip. It must be said that the airport in Adler is not one of the places where you want to linger. Opened with pomp more than a year ago, the new terminal is still surrounded by scaffolding, the old terminal is stuffy, the baggage conveyors from the middle of the last century work like a miracle, for some reason you can only make out what a woman’s voice is saying in the speakers 30 meters away. buildings.
You can get to the border by taxi - the drivers attack those arriving even before they have time to get their luggage. However, most Adler drivers will take you only to the start of the pedestrian crossing across the border, after crossing which you will again have to bargain with taxi drivers, and during the season this bargaining may not end in your favor. Therefore, the easiest way, if you decide to make your trip to Abkhazia as comfortable as possible and have booked a hotel, is to arrange a transfer in advance. A car with Abkhaz license plates will be waiting for you right at the airport, and it will probably have a driver who is well aware of the peculiarities of passing the border checkpoint. This will save time and will cost around $100 from the airport to the Abkhaz capital. Gagra and Pitsunda are closer and therefore cheaper. It’s even cheaper to negotiate not with the hotel, but with an Abkhazian you know, but this option is available only to those who have already been to Abkhazia before and made such acquaintances.
There is also a train option, but the train from Adler to Sukhumi runs once a day at best, stands for a long time at the border and travels for a long time along the Abkhazian railway, which, despite the efforts of Russian military railway workers, remains far from ideal. Therefore, this method of travel is only suitable for longer vacations.
In Abkhazia, they say that on long-distance trains going to Adler through the cities and stops of the Krasnodar Territory and carrying some vacationers to Abkhazia, Krasnodar residents were spotted, who, in their own interests, are trying in every possible way to increase the panic effect of television news. So that people, frightened by stories about explosions, shootings and other Caucasian horrors, abandon their idea, get off the train immediately and rent a room before reaching Abkhazia. As they say, business is business, nothing personal.
Crossing the border is now easier than in past peak seasons or in winter, when tons of tangerines are exported from Abkhazia. This year, by the way, there were again problems with the export of tangerines due to the Russian embargo on the import of products from Georgia. The same applies to Abkhazian wine. Russian officials have already promised a thousand times not to block the import of Abkhazian products, but these promises remain shaking the air. Excellent Abkhazian wine, which two years ago could be bought in Moscow chain supermarkets, now costs around 150 rubles in Abkhazia. per bottle. And in a kiosk at Adler airport - despite or thanks to the embargo - the price reaches 700 rubles.
In the first half of the day on Friday there are more cars in the oncoming lane, from Abkhazia to Russia. This is apparently a process similar to the trips of residents of the Moscow region to the capital for the weekend. On Sunday the situation is reversed - there is a queue to Abkhazia, but it makes sense to plan your return with a reserve so as not to miss the evening plane. “The Russians have a shift change at eight in the evening, they close the border for about forty minutes, and everything stops,” say the drivers.
In general, on the border, the disadvantages of a large and not particularly agile imperial bureaucracy and the advantages of the “lightweight” structure of Abkhaz statehood are quite obvious. Thorough checks take place on the Russian side, on the Abkhaz side they only look at the passport and recall frequent episodes, again difficult to compatible with the rhetoric of Russian politicians expressing love for Abkhazia and concern for it. “One girl from Sukhumi had only an Abkhaz passport; she and her older brother were going to the hospital in Adler, and they simply refused to let her through,” says former mayor of Sukhumi Leonid Lolua. - The border guard looked through her passport and said: “I don’t know such a state - Abkhazia.” She was never allowed in until her elderly mother was brought from Sukhumi, who identified her as under 18 years old on her Russian passport.”
The road to Sukhumi goes either along the picturesque Black Sea coast or among the coastal hills. The beauty of the landscape completely compensates for the low quality of the coating, which in some places is undulating due to the movement of the soil. Right on the road, here and there, shaggy Abkhazian cows stand phlegmatically - the rushing cars work like a fan, driving away the heat and flies. On the roadsides you can see peasants on horseback and with a mobile phone, lazily wandering vacationers and traffic cops who are trying in vain to force ardent Caucasians to comply with the speed limit - up to 80 km per hour outside the populated area. Particularly daring violators are given chase. Others carefully slow down in front of the post and use their headlights to warn oncoming people about it, and then pick up speed again. “From the border to Sukhumi 109 km. How long will I travel if I comply?” - driver Mamuka shrugs. 120 km per hour on the Abkhaz road with desperate attacks on the oncoming traffic during risky overtaking is very noticeable, but no one is buckling up - the severity of the Abkhaz traffic police does not extend to such limits.
In principle, it is not necessary to go to Sukhumi. The epicenter of resort life is concentrated in Gagra and Pitsunda, and housing here is cheaper than in the Abkhaz capital - you can find a very decent room in a boarding house for around 1,000 rubles. per night, not to mention almost communist prices in the private sector. In Sukhumi, a good new hotel with air conditioning costs from 1,500 to 2,000 rubles. per room, and this is not the limit if you want some really fancy presidential apartments.
Even in the crowded summer, the Abkhaz capital has a certain decadent charm of slight abandonment. It’s easy to feel it while walking along the embankment in the evening, as if it has jumped out of the quiet 1980s with its eucalyptus groves. Or just wandering the quiet streets, which are lined with white Latin-style mansions surrounded by palm trees, but still have plenty of abandoned and ruined houses, within which vibrant subtropical greenery blooms.
A riot of flora is ordered in the neat and well-groomed Sukhumi Botanical Garden, above which on the mountain there is the famous monkey nursery, glorified by Gorky and Zoshchenko. During the war of 1992-1993, hungry monkeys fled throughout the city, but now they sit quite peacefully in cages. It is written on the cages that the monkeys should not be teased (the word “feed” is painted over, and nuts and sliced apples are sold on every corner for those who want to get closer to their smaller brothers). In the center of the nursery, there is the only monument in the world to monkeys, on which grateful humanity tested vaccines against polio and other diseases.
There are several beaches in Sukhumi, the best of which is Sandy, which is about ten minutes from the center by car. It is really sandy, with a convenient sloping descent into the water, a volleyball court and even rental of umbrellas and sunbeds at an incredible price for a Muscovite of 150 rubles. per hour for five (!) sets. There is also a pebble beach of the sanatorium of the Russian Strategic Missile Forces - a facility of the Russian Ministry of Defense almost in the center of Sukhumi. Sandbags are stacked at the entrance, but the soldiers at the checkpoint are lazily friendly and not inclined to take an interest in visitors’ documents. On the city pebble beach, under the romantic canopy of a beached rusty seiner, the large pebbles are not very pleasant for your feet, but you can ride on a banana boat and even ride a parachute behind a speedboat cutting wide circles around the harbor.
In Sukhumi, of course, there are plenty of places where you can eat and drink coffee. A cup of fragrant coffee in the famous “Brekhalovka” - a seaside cafe in the city center, where half of Sukhumi gathers, from ministers on their lunch break to pensioners playing chess all day long - costs 10 rubles. The owner of the “brekhalovka” Leva opens the establishment at six in the morning and does not admit where he buys his coffee. A bottle of wine in a restaurant costs less than in a store in Moscow. Lovers of local cuisine should definitely order corn hominy with smoked cheese, meat smoked over an open fire and real Abkhaz adjika.
A weekend is quite a bit, so for long trips such as a helicopter excursion to the mountain village of Pskhu or a climb to the Geg waterfall, which only four-wheel drive UAZs can do, most likely there is simply not enough time. But the obligatory minimum of attractions includes six huge fantastic halls of the New Athos Cave, the New Athos Monastery and the beautiful Bzyb Gorge with Lake Ritsa and Stalin’s dacha. There are excursions to the dacha, although it is still used from time to time for its intended purpose by President Sergei Bagapsh and his guests.
It is wise to plan New Athos on the day of arrival - to get there, just turn left from the highway, not reaching 30 kilometers to Sukhumi. The cave, into which you have to go down on a small metro specially designed by Soviet engineers, is, it seems, not inferior to the computer-drawn galleries of the dwarven kingdom from the film adaptation of “The Lord of the Rings.” However, not particularly charming crowds of noisy tourists from Sochi are brought there by bus, so it makes sense to line up for a ticket and explore the monastery - the main shrine of the Abkhazian Orthodox Church. The Church is self-sacred, because the Moscow Patriarchate does not want to enter into conflict by encroaching on the canonical territory of the Georgian Church. The elegant multi-domed temple of Panteleimon the Healer with a rare ceiling image of Christ the Youth is being restored, but is open to both worshipers and tourists.
The cold, crystal clear Lake Ritsa, located a kilometer high in the mountains near the Russian border, is best left for the day of return - along with Stalin's dacha, where you can have lunch. Looking at the bright blue surface of the lake, bordered by a forest darkening against the backdrop of cloud-covered snowfields, it is easy to imagine that you are in Switzerland - and again you will feel a little sad because of the feeling of enormous opportunities that the “country of the soul” is deprived of due to its uncertain status and the stream of disturbing stories on television. You'll want to turn off the TV once and for all, but you won't want to leave.