| As tourist season
slowly approaches, several local business owners and
others who have come across tourists, have put together
a list of DOs and DONTs
for future reference.
DO tip generously,
restaurant staff depend on it.
DO ask other tourists
and repats about their favorite restaurants.
DO buy fruits, veggies, cheese and
bread and have a picnic.
DON'T forget your trash when you leave.
DO chat with locals (especially kids)
in villages.
DONT pass out gum like its gold.
Better yet, don't even bring gum. Armenia has plenty
of chewing gum from five different countries.
DO pay the Yerevan taxi drivers 1000
wherever you go in the center of town, even if its
close by. After all, youve taken them out of their
line, and the absolute minimum for any distance is 600
Drams, anyway.
DONT talk rudely to the owners of
the vegetable stalls; this is their life, these are
their fruits and they're proud of what they do.
DONT try to get a tour driver's phone
number so that you can hire them directly.
DO venture out of the city center.
Komitas, Monument, Zeitun are all interesting neigh-borhoods
with good restaurants.
DONTdrink too much mulberry vodka
(tutti oghi) trust us on this one!
DO sit in cafes near midnight. The city almost
never sleeps.
DO enjoy a cognac after dinner.
DONT enjoy more than 3.
DO get involved and volunteer for projects
while youre here and especially when you return home
Rome wasnt built in a day.
DO be on your best behavior you never
know who is sitting next to you at a concert or caf
you may find out youre related.
DO make a list of all the places you
missed seeing. And
DO come back soon. |
...but
there is another Armenia, a subtly green, richly textured
landscape, every corner of which has been sculpted by
millennia of human triumphs and tragedies. There is a
gifted and generous population, now mostly cut off from
outside stimuli but still desperately eager to demonstrate
to foreign visitors its traditional hospitality and pride
at its survival. There is nature, exotic, sometimes heart-rendingly
beautiful, now mostly unvisited but far from inaccessible.
And of course there is the basic human truth, that enjoyment
of a place or activity is directly dependent on the investment
made. Armenia is still difficult to explore unaided, but
the rewards of doing so are commensurately great.
