Adventures with a Broken Car

Orbelian Caravanserai on the Selim Mountain Pass (Vardenyats Pass), Armenia – showing our little red car

OK, here’s the continuation of the story of how we made it back to Yerevan from the “Hills Have Eyes Hotel” Park Khoren (near Noravank) with a blasted broken car.

The fastest and most direct way back to Yerevan from Park Khoren was using the route we came from. It’d be 112km and take about 2 hours (but what’s the adventure in that??).

Alternatively, we could take the route going north to the shores of Lake Sevan and then back to the capital. It’ll pass thru a mountain pass to reach Lake Sevan, go along the shores of the lake to the town of Sevan (where we can make a stop at the lakeside monastery Sevanavank), and then head back (which definitely sounds more exciting). That’d be about 218km (according to Google Maps) and take 3.5 hours.

Knowing full well of the series of unfortunate incidents that had already happened in the morning of that fateful day, i.e. 1. We couldn’t bloody start the car for some reason unknown to us (at that time); 2. Jayden could’ve drowned falling into Lake Khoren; 3. We had to friggin break the lock of our brand new travel bag, we decided to proceed ahead with the more ‘exciting’ route. Car fault or no! Yes, we’re insane.


Little red car, at Park Khoren

And so we bid adieu to the old housekeeper of Park Khoren (who helped us push start our car) and went our way towards the Selim Mountain Pass. We drove past Arpi and Getap and had stopped near Shatin to fill our water bottles from one of the many free flowing Armenian drinking fountains, when I got a phone call! “…Huh? Someone calling me from Armenia?” Turned out to be the proprietor of Park Khoren who asked us where the keys to the cabin was. Shit, I was carrying it in my pocket to return it to the old man, but due to all those problems, I COMPLETELY FRIGGIN FORGOT!

We headed back. Yup, we’re responsible tourists who do not run away with hotel keys. Park Khoren also sent a vehicle out to look for us heading our way. We were almost there, I think near Arpi, when I noticed a car honking repeatedly at us from the rear. We stopped, and there, was the old man of Park Khoren. Sorry and thank you, that’s your keys back.

Made a U-turn and headed back for the Selim Mountain Pass…


Selim Mountain Pass / Vardenyats Pass, looking south, just north of the Vayots Dzor border


Selim Mountain Pass from the 14th century Caravanserai


The kids and the Orbelian / Selim Caravanserai


Inside the eerie Caravanserai… As is evident in its name, it was built as a halfway stop for travellers. Caravanserais were halfway stops common all over the Silk Route and Mongol-Islamic Khanates & Kingdoms in the Middle Ages


Hey Honey, where are you going? – Selim / Vardenyats Mountain Pass

Oops, the car couldn’t start. (So it’s definitely not the car lights, as the battery would have recharged by then after all that driving. Must be the blasted alternator). Luckily yours truly was smart enough to park it near a slope. A little push and there it goes. What the heck, let’s get on with the trip.


We reached Lake Sevan! Left the car engines on, but it stalled by itself. Luckily we were on a slope. Getting worried now.

Drats! It stalled again, halfway to Sevanavank, this time in a friggin dip in a rutted part of the road. How do I friggin push start it? Luckily, I got a missus who ain’t shy about asking for help. Some helpful passersby helped us push start and we reached Sevanavank! I parked the car on a parking lot with the front facing a downward slope, hehe!


The shores of Lake Sevan, Sevanavank – “Hey Jayden, we’re not here to play on the water! You forgot you already took a dip in a lake this morning??”


“Hey! Careful OK?” - Sevanavank, Armenia


Lake Sevan, Armenia – from Sevanavank


Let’s go! We’ve got 80km to make it back to Yerevan. Let’s hope everything goes well.

We successfully rolled our way down the slope to start the car, but on the journey back, we realized that every tiny little electrical thing that we used, horn, indicator, air-friggin-conditioner, slowed the engine down to the point of stalling! We switched everything off (luckily it wasn’t night yet!), including the AC! We reached Yerevan (yes!) but stalled twice in the city, in rush hour. The last stalling was near our hotel when I wanted to turn into a side road. I had to come down in the middle of a traffic jam and push the car (our car was friggin obstructing traffic on the back and front) amidst honks, across a major road. Luckily the side road had a slight slope downwards. That was the last straw. I found a parking spot, called the car rental company (Peнtmotopc) and told them I couldn’t get the car going any further and asked them to come and collect it (our rental was till the next morning, but since we were leaving Armenia for Georgia by cab on the next day, we didn’t need it the next morning anyway). (I had informed them of the fault in the morning before we started, so they knew the problem). (They checked the car and agreed to waive the cleaning and extra fees, etc…) And that was how we made it back to Yerevan with a blasted broken car!

Peнtmotopc is how you write it in Russian. Guess the name of Peнtmotopc in English. (P=R, H=N, C=S).

…Yup, Rentmotors!


We made it! Top of the hill, Sevanavank, Sevan, Armenia

Our Real Life Horror Movie Experience

Imagine a secluded ‘Cabin in the Woods’. Imagine a ‘Cabin by the Lake’ with a serial killer waiting to kill anyone who dares stay there like the ‘Friday the 13th’ movies. Or maybe there’re evil spirits like ‘the Evil Dead’ or ‘Mama’. Imagine a rundown road in the hills, with no one in sight, and maybe, silent eyes watching your every move like ‘The Hills Have Eyes’. That’s what we found ourselves in, on a day out in rural Armenia. I’m letting the photos speak for itself… (Yup, continuing on Armenia, since there’s no way we’re going anywhere for a holiday this summer, seeing that school will restart in less than 2 weeks!!!)


This was where Google Maps took us to in our search for the ‘hotel’ we booked for our excursion to Noravank… Are you sure this is the right place???




The quiet lake at Park Khoren… Creepy


Decrepit equipment rusting in the wind, like a scenario after a nuclear holocaust…

Whew, we met a boy. He gave us the keys to our cabin by the lake. Showed us where we could take a bath. No, it’s not in, or even near, the cabin. It’s a couple of hundred metres away from our cabin, a little cubicle of a building all by itself. Showed us a kitchen where we could cook, again not in the cabin, but in a house near the cabin. And the scariest thing is that there're no other residents for the night...


Here’s our cabin by the lake, Park Khoren, near Noravank, Armenia

We survived the night! Despite sleeping in an un-air-conditioned cabin with only ONE stand / swivel fan, in the middle of the room, for 3 beds placed on 3 corners of the room. In the middle of a friggin heat wave in summer. (If only swivel fans could turn 360 friggin degrees. We eventually squeezed ourselves onto 2 beds so that we could get half a fan, at a time). We only have ourselves to blame. We thought it’d be a nice countryside, heat wave or no, with a fan, how hot could it get? We friggin didn’t find out what sort of fan it was!


The kids after the holocaust. Oh-oh, there comes the bogeyman (behind)! RUN!


The bogeyman turns out to just be a nice old man who’s the housekeeper of the place, who doesn’t speak a word of English. With Jayden

He picked fruits for us. Huh, you mean we can pick them ourselves? The whole place is filled with fruit trees!


Justin & some apples


Jayden with peaches


That’s the road out. But this was just the start of our day-long ordeal we would soon find out.


First, we couldn’t get the friggin car started… We thought maybe we left the lights on or something like that the night before (but we didn’t see any lights on?!?). What the heck! It’s a friggin manual car (that’s the beauty of manual cars). We’ll just push start it. There! Started!

Second, just before we left the place, after taking some photos (with fruit trees above), Jayden fell into the lake! Justin, where’s your brother??? Luckily I realized quick enough, ran down the steps and yanked Jayden out of the lake by his hand!


That’s where Jayden fell in

Third, we tried to open our travelling bag which had a number lock, to get some dry clothes for Jayden to change. Try as we did, the combination which I remembered didn’t friggin work!! WTF. Tried different combinations, didn’t work too. Finally prised it open with a plier, broke the stupid lock! There goes our brand new bag!

Fourth, we realized only after we left the place, that due to all the problems we faced, I forgot to return the friggin KEYS of the cabin to the old man, which led to a wild goose’s chase… And that’s a story for the next post. To be continued…

The Abode of Peace (Continued)

Before I start, here’s a small wish and prayer for the people of Beirut over the devastating explosion that happened 2 days back that killed more than a hundred people and injured thousands… It was a shock seeing the force of the explosion on video. I hope there’re no more casualties and that the city recovers quickly.

Back to the blog, 4 peaceful days of holiday for Eid with nowhere to go, followed by a hectic few days of work to make up for the lost days (yup, nothing comes free).

Might as well post the remainder of the photos of Brunei, of our one day stopover. (Since that’s the easiest thing to do, coz I gotta focus on work pronto).


Royal Regalia Museum, Bandar Seri Begawan, Brunei

Brunei, or Negara Brunei Darussalam (Country of Brunei Abode of Peace) is a place I’ve known about since I was a small kid. One of my paternal uncles used to work there. He had an accident and fell from the third story of a building which left him semi-paralysed. That was when I was a wee toddler in the early 70’s. My dad and granny flew to Brunei to tend to him. They brought him back to our home in Ipoh, and slowly nursed him back to recovery, to the best that he could. I remember it took years, but eventually he could walk (with a limp) and work (he trained to write with his left hand which was in a better condition than his right). Since then, he has very much been a part of our family’s daily lives (that was until we left Ipoh). He’s still in Ipoh. God bless him.

But I’ve never visited Brunei (nor any of the other East Malaysian states) till last year. Bandar Seri Begawan (BSB) doesn’t feel anything like a capital city of a country. Especially an oil producing city sultanate. (And I’ve visited many e.g. Bahrain, Qatar, Kuwait). No skyscrapers, no rush of people, hardly any traffic. Heck, it’s just like a small provincial town in Malaysia. Everything feels Malaysian, language, food, everything… Except for alcohol (it’s an Islamic Sharia state). And traffic jams (it’s so quiet, you can’t even get a friggin taxi when you want to).

As for alcohol, it is BANNED. For sale. Yes, such a place exists in South East Asia. Yes, it’s more extreme than the Holy Emirate of Sharjah! (Suddenly feeling wonderful to be in the UAE). No, the 5-star hotels don’t (can’t) sell it. No, there’re no duty-free (liquor) shops in Brunei’s International Airport. No, Royal Brunei Airlines doesn’t serve alcohol, not even on international flights, to ‘hedonistic’ locations like err… the rest of the world. You can bring it in (if you’re non-Muslim) from outside the country. Miri (just across the border in Sarawak, Malaysia) must be making a fortune selling the poor Bruneians liquor, wine and beer! No wonder it’s the Abode of Peace… No drunken uncles and aunties talking nonsense!

Another thing which ‘contributes’ to the ‘peace’ of Brunei, is the banning of homosexuals and transvestites. Just imagine how disturbed you’d be if you found out that the beautiful girl you were interested in, were a man! Just imagine how disturbed a man would be, if another man came up to him and said ‘let’s spend the night together’! Yecch, cringe! Brunei therefore created a law that would stone homosexual men. To death! (I’m not making this up, it’s in the news, OK?) Anyway, after an international backlash, the Sultan proclaimed that there would be no enforcement of that death penalty! (Why not just remove it altogether then?) But the ‘deed’ is done. No homosexuals would visit Brunei now, making it even more peaceful and quieter than it already is. Doesn’t affect us one way or another. We were there just on a one day stop. It’s still a nice and tranquil place to visit, free from the hustle and bustle of other capital cities!

OK, see ya, when we see ya! Meanwhile, have peace and enjoy the photos!




Inside the Royal Regalia Museum, Brunei. (And here’s a link to a photo of the kids in the Royal Regalia Museum)


Parade field of some sort I guess… Google Maps names it as Taman Haji Sir Muda Omar Ali Saifuddien (can’t you get an easier name??) – You can see a portrait of the current Sultan Hassanal Bolkiah on the far side of the field…

More photos of the peaceful mosques…


Anu at the Hassanil Bolkiah Mosque (Masjid Jame Asr Hassanil Bolkiah)


Decorative boat-shaped platform at the Omar Ali Saifuddien Mosque


Family pic, Brunei Frame – with the Omar Ali Saifuddien Mosque as the backdrop


And here’s the largest friggin water village in the world (that’s what some claim), Kampong Ayer, the heart of Brunei, since the middle ages… (never imagined a shanty kampong on stilts would spawn a kingdom that would last for centuries, huh?) By the way, this humble kampong has the honour of being the first bearer of the nickname ‘Venice of the East’ (before hordes of other cities adopted that title). It was coined by some Italian explorer in the 16th century! (OK, I took this from theculturetrip.com …ahem)




Kampong Ayer, Bandar Seri Begawan, Brunei


The kids by the Brunei River (Sungai Brunei), with a water taxi and Kampong Ayer behind


Ciao folks! Yours truly at a monument on the BSB water front called the …let’s see, Mercu Dirgahayu 60, built to commemorate the 60th birthday of the current Sultan (that’s how you write 60 in Arabic... ٦٠)