Enroute to Martvili
Our next destination was Martvili which was about 4.5 hour drive from Mestia. Our practice during self driving road trip was not to drive more than 3 hours a day so we naturally looked for a mid stop to half the driving.
We booked a place called “Feel Funny House” which we thought would be great place to relax. This place had a beautiful balcony and we thought in this mountainous region the scenery from the balcony would be lovely.
From google map, the drive to “Feel Funny House” was about 1.75 hour a very manageable drive. So we set out at about 10am from Mestia. The road was not of the best condition at certain stretches so bumpy ride was not uncommon. But we felt very uneasy when there was a funny sound coming from the back wheel. Oops, on inspection we realised we had a “leaking” tire!
Luckily we had a spare tire and all the “tire changing equipment in the boot”. No point “phoning” for help in such a “rural” place and rather than wait, Yat Thong got down to “work”.
I was of no help when it came to “tire changing” so I stood aside and left it totally to Yat Thong to finish the job at his pace. A few drivers passed and called out checking if we needed help but we were fine.
Getting to FEEL FUNNY HOUSE
At about noon we reached the junction where we branched off to a road leading to “Feel Funny House”. It was a 7 km drive to the House. For the first 1000m, the road was still sealed then it became a gravel road that worsen as we drove forward. Google map failed us. The the road that we were supposed to take was on the right side of the river. But that road looked impassable. We had no choice but to take the road on the left side of the river, at the same time we were wondering if there would be a bridge to let us crossed over to the right side of the river.
The road on the right side were disappearing inland out of sight and we were still on the road on the left side of the river. We saw another car coming from the opposite direction and we shouted if the road we were driving on led to “Feel Funny House”. Luckily the driver confirmed that the house was right ahead. That was when we felt confident to drive onward.
Feel Funny House
We booked “Feel Funny House” from booking.com for a night without breakfast, it was a house with 4 bedrooms (an “overkill” for us). It costed 145Gel per night which was relatively more expensive than other one bedroom place in the vicinity. Despite the cost we booked it because of the wonderful description in the listing
When we arrived at location we found that “Feel Funny House” was a two storey wooden house in a compound surrounded by a wood fencing. To get into the compound was a huge metal red plated gate.
What!! This place had no scenery. Only one of the rooms in the wooden house had a balcony and it looked out to a huge tree and dirt road! Where was the mountain view!
Going back to the hotel listing in booking.com we felt that is descriptions had many wrong details. It called this place a “resort” and described that it had “room services” and “24-hour front desk”.
But this place was just a wooden house built near the entrance of a compound covered with overgrown grass with no walking path or road. Surrounding the compound was “raw looking” wooden fence with a huge faded ugly red steel plated gate as entrance. In the compound there was another building (apparently where the host lived) which looked more like a “working yard”! How could this place be call A RESORT!!
We were one hour early for our checkin so had a hard time getting through the ugly red gate. Eventually a woman opened the gate, she was still in the process of getting the wooden house ready for us. Though we were disappointed with the place there was nothing we could do as the woman spoke hardly any English and the host was not around till later in the evening. Too cumbersome to looked for another place to stay so we made do for just just one night.
The wooden house and its furnishing was single handedly built and designed by our host. It had all the “stuffs” to stay comfortably in the house. Unfortunately we were not here just for the house, we needed a resort like ambience in the exterior, which was missing, to complete our stay!
We supposed this wooden house would be fine for a large family who was here for hiking in the vicinity and not for us two, who were looking for a relaxing resort.
The next day we did a slow drive on the terrible bumpy road for 7 km back to the main road. Unlike the day before when we were “panickingly” searching for the “right” road this time we took the time to enjoy the view. Some construction equipments and vehicles were abandoned/littered along the road, we could also see some beautiful scenery by the river side. We supposed after a couple of years when the roads were upgraded this place/vicinity would be a beautiful camping location.
Martvili
It was a near 3 hour drive to Martivili where we booked a place for two nights. We were in Martvili to visit two canyons. We reached our stay at about 2pm and was happy to relax in our room, blasting the aircon as the day was getting hot.
In the afternoon we went looking for a tire shop to get our “busted” tire repaired. It was on a weekend so we hoped that some shops were still opened for business.
Unfortunately the tire cannot be repaired. So the repair shop staff suggested to replace the busted tire with a similar condition second hand tire. It costed 80Gel for the tire replacement.
We did not bother to call the car rental company for “tire replacement” advise as we had read in the rental conditions that it was a standard practice in the whole of Georgia for “no coverage for tire” even if we took on a full insurance with “0” CDW.
Okatse Canyon
Okatse Canyon was about 23 km east of Martvili town and the journey was just a half hour drive.
We parked our car outside the white visitor center and went in to purchase our tickets. It costed 17.25 Gel/pax.
In the visitor center was a model of the canyon walk. Wow! It was a steel structure of 780 m length hanging by the side of the canyon wall. The last section of the structure was a cantilever steel platform that stretched into center of the canyon valley.
After the visitor center, it was an hour walk into Dadiani historic forests to get to the” hanging trail” of the Canyon. It was a pleasant walk with proper path and occasion shades from the trees. Just before the cliff walk (hanging trail) there was a building with slanting roof where we took a short beak before going down steps and steps to the hanging steel platform built into the wall of the canyon.
Wow, the walk along the cliff wall of Okatse was spectacular! The steel plaform brought us out from the side of the cliff. We felt like walking on air and could see through the steel grid platform under our feets. Greenery and vertical cliff were all around us and below in the valley we spotted a running river.
Though it was less than a 780m walk from one end of the steel platform to the other, we took our time spending about an hour, moving forward and backward, taking photos and selfies. The best part that made this walk so enjoyable was that we had the whole place to ourselves.
At the end of the platform was a set of high stairs that led us out of the canyon cliff and onto a “small parking” area. There were several old cars/jeeps ready to transfer us to the visitor center. The cost of the transfer was 35Gel for both of us. We hopped into one vehicle and took a topsy bumpy ride to the visitor center saving us energy and time (1.5 hour). The ride was bumpy as there was no proper road at all.
MArtvili CANYON
Martvili Canyon was about 45 minutes from Okatse Canyon and only 15 minutes from Martvili town. We left Martvili Canyon visit to the later part of the day so that once done we could easily return to our hotel town.
At about 3 pm, we arrived at the visitor center of Martvili Canyon. Unlike Okatse Canyon, parking was not free here. We paid 3Gel to park at a privately owned carpark near the visitor center. There were many guides touting a guided trip into the canyon for a fee. We did not sign on to any.
The tickets to enter Martvili Canyon was 17.25Gel/pax and the boat ride was 15Gel/pax.
This canyon certainly had more visitors and many were queuing for the boat ride. We too opted to go for the boat ride first before exploring the canyon on foot.
It was a short 15 minutes boat ride, moving up the river that flowed through the canyon. It was only a short section of the river that was assessible to the boat, the stretch beyond was “restricted”.
Though the river ride was very short, we certainly thought that it offered the best view of Martvili canyon. Our arrivial in the later part of the day was good as the sun rays were just nicely shining though the green leaves of the trees on the cliff walls, casting a lovely fresh green sheen around us.
The “visitable” of Martvili Canyon was rather small. After our boat trip we walked along the path that led us through the canyon. It was a very short. It was a loop walk of 700m starting/ending at the visitor center passing two bridges and three platforms.
Dinners
In our two evenings at Martvili we ate our dinner at two local restaurants. Both restaurants were highly rated on google map. The first restaurant was Oda and the second was Oda Family Marani. Not sure if they were related.
The first restaurant that we went to was Oda and it was just 300 m from our stay at Martvili Palace. Oda restaurant was on the 2nd level and there was a stairs that lead up to it.
We chose at the table in the balcony that over looked the road. We looked at the menu and ordered our food. The food was rather nice and tasty and we enjoyed them very much.
After finishing the meal we estimated the cost would be about 38Gel based on our memory of the prices. To our surprise we were charged 50.60Gel. We thought we were given the bill of another table. So we reconfirmed the items in the bill and the waitress insisted that the bill/price was correct so we paid and left.
We were still feeling uneasy about the pricing so we checked with our hotel manager if there was additional taxes on weekend in restaurant. We showed her our bill and pictures of some pages of the menu that we had taken on our phones. She confirmed that we were “cheated”.
The kind lady called the restaurant and tried to sort out the over charging issue. The conversation was in Georgian,and it got very heated as we believed the dishonest restaurant did not want to do the right thing. So we told the manager that we would not pursue the matter as we did not want to put her in difficulty.
Now the overcharging details were:
1. Salad 7Gel was billed as 8 Gel
2. Pork 13Gel was billed as 15Gel
3. Chicken 12 Gel was billed as 13Gel
4. Tea 2 Gel was billed as 3Gel
5. Coffee 2 Gel was billed as 3Gel
6. Sauce was billed as 2Gel. This was the sauce for our pork and chicken. We thought it came with pork and chicken.
7. 15% tax which again we were not sure if it was stated in the menu.
We could give points 6 & 7 the benefit of doubts since e were not sure, but the first 5 points were definitely over charging and we had the evidence.
Though we enjoyed the meal very much and would not mind paying 50.60Gel for the dinner we just felt “disgusted” with this “dishonest restaurant treatment of tourists”.
Oda Family Marani
Our second dinner in Martvili was at “Oda Family Marani” about a kilometer from Martvili Palace. From the main road we drove northward and turned left at a branch just outside town. There was a brown road sign and Oda Family Marani was clearly printed on it. There was also a grape symbol on the sign so it seemed that Oda Family Marani was also a vine yard.
It was farm growing their own organic vegetables. There was a simple dining hall with a couple of tables and bench chairs facing the vegetables beds. So while waiting for our meals we saw staff tending the vegetable patches.
The menu was just two sheets of paper. The items on the list seemed like very authentic local food. We had a “Megrelian Khachapun topped with fresh cheese” and a “Sativi chicken stew seasoned with walnut and marigold”. Such exotic names!
We enjoyed our dinner especially the Sativi chicken stew. Total cost of the dinner with coffee came up to 59Gel for two.
Stay in Martvili
Our stay was in Martvili town at Martvili Palace. It was a double room for 250Gel for two nights without breakfast booked on booking.com. We booked this hotel because it looked nice with beautiful compound and ambience.
Surprising we were the only guests in the hotel. It looked like it was a “lull period” so sadly many parts of the hotel were closed. The restaurant and the function rooms were closed, the garden yard were closed as the patio chairs were stacked up and tables were covered.
Our room as on the second level. It was bright and clean and the aircon was working well and quiet.
Accommodations