Baths!

It’s been raining here a lot, apparently so much that some of the water supply was polluted due to all the rain. Fortunately for me, besides occasional power outage, the water is flowing clean in my apartment.

Sunday I met with a couple of expats at a small café that clearly caters to tourists. It has a very Western feel to it – coffee brewing, books everywhere, little tables – your typical “Friends” café sans annoying Joey or anal character who is married to David Arquette. I guess it’s also one of the main hang out spots for expats since a couple started to tournament of Scrabble. Being a non-Scrabbled, I took an opportunity to wonder around a city with an expat who has lived here for about three years. He showed me the local outdoor market but since it was drizzling, not many people were selling their stuff. We also wondered around the old town which is really cool. Next time I am there, I’ll take pictures. The old town used to be the primary quarters for merchants who were passing through town and some of the buildings that have been recently renovated but still maintain the appearance of a merchant hotel. According to the expat, the ground floor housed camels while the third floor of such hotel was designated as resting quarters. Second floor was used to business and entertainment. I am not sure how much of this is true but judging by the structure of the buildings, it seemed plausible. He also seemed to be one of those “know-it-alls” – the type that would not stop blabbering, showing off the ever expansive knowledge about Georgia and pretty much everything else in the world. Even weirder, he insisted speaking in Russian with younger Georgians who spoke in English and did not know any Russian. Not only the unfortunate Georgians were completely confused on what he was asking, I was perplexed on why he insisted on speaking in his awfully sounding Russian. I am such a snob. I am sure his Russian is great, I just hate blatant, in-your-face show-offs.

Being an insane banya affectionato, the expat also showed me the local baths. They appear to be Turkish style but a little different. Although the roofs of the baths are rounded like the Turkish ones, there isn’t a huge round hot slab in the middle of the bath where you can sweat your heart out. But, and I smelled this a good mile away, Georgian baths have a large whirl-pool like bath full of warm sulphur water. In addition, the bigger ones also have a warm sauna. I say warm because it didn’t feel very hot when I peeked in. And each room has a small table where a masseuse or masseur (whomever you prefer) would scrub the hell out of you with a wool mitt and then wash you with crazy bubbly soap water so you look like Michelin tire man. And then they rinse you. Very Turkish. The baths that I was shown are private, meaning, you walk into a building, there are separate rooms, each equipped with a dressing/resting area which lead to another room that has a sulphur bath and a massage table. The larger and more expensive ones have saunas and additional rest area rooms. One large one shown to me had a bed. As you can tell, I’ve started doing some “research” and learning that baths are fully equipped with staff that can provide “happy endings.” pending the customer’s wishes and desires.

After all the wondering and “research,” I got trashed at small ‘hole in a wall’ type of local drinking establishment by having half a pint of beer. Yea, I’m turning into a lush from a half a pint! I blame it on its high alcohol volume (12.5%!). And lack of food in my belly. Fortunately, everyone was starving and we got some Azeri food at a nearby restaurant. I was so happy to get home that night; I think the Azeri food, although delicious, didn’t really agree with my poor trashed belly. Mmm, Sultan’s revenge!