TRAVEL FEATURE - GEORGIA
MARIA SCHUMACHER
A TOAST TO GEORGIA
A small , brightly coloured outdoor cafe looked perfect for an early lunch stop . Within minutes of settling down , the locals beckoned us over . Beers and chips were ordered . Cigarettes were shared and ashtrays filled . Soon Chacha , the local home brew of varying strength , made the rounds . In true Georgian style , the selfappointed toastmaster proposed one heart-felt toast after another , and no amount of protesting that we still needed to ride got us out of knocking the shots back . The man who by way of loud kaboom and dramatic gestures of crashing planes had conveyed that he was an ex-army pilot , offered that we should stay at his place . His friends noticed that we weren ’ t quite convinced and eventually they all conceded that we must be on our way .
We escaped our liquid lunch with waves and smiles all round and wobbled off north along the Black
Sea coast . My partner Aidan and I had ridden here from London with the general idea to explore this beautiful country that few seem to have heard of . Following the coast seemed as good a start as any . The air-flowing through the open visor was refreshing and we were on the lookout for some actual food this time .
A man frantically waved and yelled at us from a ramshackle wooden hut . Suddenly enormous concrete cylinders blocked the road first one side , then the other . With no time to think , we weaved through with the bikes . That man had looked official . Did he want a bribe ? But we knew that Georgia had cleaned up its act . By employing educated people in the police and armed forces , and paying them adequately , they had eradicated their previous culture of petty bribery . Tourists did not get harassed here .
As we were trying to make sense
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