August 6, 2024
Day C13: Long Bus Ride, Short Options
I woke up quite late, had a late breakfast, then went back into the hotel room to "pack", but that consisted of lying down again and sleeping for another two hours. I could not make sense of all this exhaustion. The phone jangled me awake with reception saying, "It's time for check out" but I hadn't even packed yet. Well, might as well start then.
After successfully checking out, I loaded the bike then proceeded to ride very sluggishly to the center of town. The destination was wherever there was a bus station. Although motivated to leave, I was getting sick of all these travel days that didn't involve the bike directly. And for whatever reason, the bike just felt so loaded down. Couldn't get any speed. The amount of stuff I had carried was far too much, and this would have to be adjusted for next time.
But eventually I did find a bus station. Google Maps was saying all kinds of things about departure times. In the end, they're unreliable. Best just to show up at the bus station and see what happens.
I hid the bike out of sight of anyone then locked it. The plan was to find out about buses and ticket prices. One company was absolutely packed with people buying tickets. The attendant said, through a translator, "Please wait outside, there are too many people." Well forget these guys. I found a company next door that was actually a minibus. I asked for tickets to Tbisili and a bus was leaving in 20 minutes. OK then I would be on it. Then I folded up the bike and the driver helped put the luggage in the back for a small fee of course. Total came to 85 laris which wasn't bad.
There was more traffic jam madness coming out of Batumi. Our minibus driver had an attitude of 'let's do whatever the fuck we want', and this meant driving in the opposite lane to beat the traffic jams. When it became clear that other drivers were getting irate, he just stopped the vehicle and got out to eat snacks. We figured it would make sense to do the same.
Snacks done, he then drove like a maniac once the road opened up. Oh great we're all gonna die. I might as well short some put options before that happens and take my mind off this road. All told I made close to $3000 with the stock market recovery today on the heels of yesterday's meltdown. Thankfully the roads got much better and the traffic thinned out about halfway to Tbisili. I then fell asleep again on the van.
It became clear that infrastructure can't keep pace with the massive increase in private cars. This is a country going gangbusters with economic growth and clearly there are opportunities here. Unfortunately as always it comes at a cost, which means the obsession with the private car. Don't even get me started on how much those things suck. They are a massive money pit: insurance, maintenance, depreciation, fuel, and general parking hassles. The bicycle has this beat in every single way, and yet you're constantly looked down on for riding one.
At some point the road went very close to South Ossettia. There were dark clouds over the mountains that marked the edge of Russian occupation. How fitting.
Things really changed once entering the outskirts of Tbisili. The roads widened, the traffic became super light, and there were even bike lanes for the final 6km ride into the center of town.
This was clearly the best hotel of the trip. It was located right in the center of the Meidan nearby all the restaurants and night markets you could possibly want. They even helped securely store the bike. All this for $40
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