The Most Treacherous Road of All?

The road to Tusheti, Georgia

An express post coming up. Project or no project, somehow, I have my hands full (which is a good sign in times like these).

On the home front, summer’s ended and school has resumed, with FULL attendance (yeah, no kidding). I guess the UAE’s just decided to screw COVID-19. Heck, almost everyone is vaccinated now, and new cases are less than 500 per day. (Fingers-crossed, I hope this downward trend will continue). It’s nearly 2 friggin years now of this blasted pandemic! Will we ever get back to normal?!?

Anyway, here’s a little something from our holidays when times were better. A continuation of our holidays in Georgia in 2018. (I’ve kept the photos ready just for busy times like these, hehe). Here goes.

These photos are of what a blogger called, the most treacherous road of all when we were planning our Georgia trip back in 2018. Now, it isn’t even featured in any of the Google searches for most treacherous roads. Besides, how do you measure treacherousness?? (If there’s such a word). But one road that features prominently in the most treacherous roads list, is a road which I’ve travelled through before – the Zoji La Pass Road in India that connects Ladakh to the Kashmir Valley. It was in ummm 2004 if I’m not mistaken, and I was with my brother Jason and friend Wai Yen. We were travelling from Leh in Ladakh, to Srinagar, the capital of Kashmir and boarded a public bus in Kargil. The entire Zoji La portion was traversed at night, and we didn’t see a thing, just that the dratted ride was super bumpy and I didn’t sleep a darn minute, except for the time when the bus stopped with many other vehicles and waited for ages in complete darkness in God knows where. Maybe the vehicles have to take turns to cross the pass, who knows?

Anyway, back to my post, here’re the pictures of our road trip to Tusheti, high up on the Caucasus mountains in Georgia. Enjoy!


About an hour in from the start of the road to Tusheti, near a roadside waterfall – still surrounded by forests – cool!


That's the car that took us up to Tusheti, a Mitsubishi Delica, the 4WD car of choice in Georgia – We hired a car from the guesthouse we booked in Tusheti to take us up there as our rented car’s insurance did not cover the road up to Tusheti. Besides, the blogs that I read while planning for the trip scared me so much (with fantastic stories about how treacherous the road is), that I decided not to take that risk with the family. Now thinking back, I could’ve driven up. It’s mainly rocks and boulders. The Gergeti Trinity Church Road (earlier post) felt tougher with wet slippery soil and steep inclines, and I overcame that with our Great Wall 4WD! We left our rented car in the friendly guesthouse at Telavi where we were staying before visiting Tusheti.


That’s the driver of our hired car. Nah, don’t remember his name, just remember that the children at the hotel called him Mama (meaning Dad in Georgian – yup, it’s the opposite. Mum is Deda). He happens to be the very owner of the hotel / guesthouse up in Tusheti!




The road to Tusheti (now with no more tree cover)




Looking back at the road we came from – nice, but it was a dizzying friggin ride. Anu didn’t wanna look down at all! (She has a fear of heights). And we were almost all down with motion sickness (told ya I should've driven)


We reached the pass (Abano Pass). It’s downhill from here onwards!


Crossing a melting glacier


No trees, but the slopes are covered with mountain flowers


Whew! Finally, our hotel – Guesthouse Javakhe, Lower Omalo, Tusheti – What’s that Chinese flag doing in a remote place like this?


Jayden at Guesthouse Javakhe, Lower Omalo, Tusheti, Georgia


Tusheti Protected Area (Tusheti National Park), Georgia - And here's a photo of little Jayden at Tusheti


There’re horses all over the place – the biggest building in this photo (middle slight right) is the Guesthouse Javakhe where we stayed

That’s it for the day folks!

At the Corner of the World

Here’s a cable car ride a continent away from Langkawi - Queenstown, New Zealand. I think we Malaysians just conveniently copied the idea from New Zealand, hehe. See for yourself.


Queenstown, South Island, New Zealand, Dec 2018

Here’re some photos of our trip to the South Island of New Zealand in December 2018. Before visiting NZ and Kim’s family, I’ve always felt that NZ is too far away, tucked at the bottom right corner of the world map. What could there be, that other parts of the world could not have? But we made it to NZ finally, and it was wonderful! …But expensive. Especially as it was friggin PEAK SEASON during our visit!


This was our Airbnb home in Queenstown. A nice cosy little cottage in a new residential area at Shotover Country, a suburb of Queenstown beside the Shotover River


The family settling in. Hey guys, let’s get out and have some fun. It’s a beautiful day!


Anu with a backdrop of Lake Wakatipu, where Queenstown is located – from the Lake Wakatipu Viewpoint


Lake Wakatipu from the Lake Wakatipu Viewpoint, Queenstown, South Island, New Zealand


A romp in Queenstown – these 2 huge trees near the Queenstown District Court’s building are Giant Sequioas (aka Giant Redwood) which are native to California, the USA. They were planted here ummph… nearly 150 years ago! (In 1876, so says NZ’s tree register. Yup, they have a Tree Register! Don’t believe me? Check it out: https://register.notabletrees.org.nz/tree/view/1166). They were planted as ‘Trees of Justice’ to provide shade for those attending court!


In the middle of Queenstown – That’s the Queenstown i-Site Visitor Information Centre


Kiwi bird centre! Nope, didn’t visit. We visited the Auckland Zoo which was supposed to also have kiwis, but they just wouldn’t friggin show themselves! What the heck, we’ll see them the next time we visit NZ!


Skyline Gondola, Queenstown’s version of the cable car. Up, up and away!


At Bob’s Peak, Queenstown – Queenstown’s Ultimate Viewpoint


That slidey thing is the Luge. No, we didn’t have a go, despite the kids’ pleas. Justin has been bugging me ever since then. Sigh…


A chair lift at Bob’s Peak. No, I dunno where it goes to. Probably just to the luge…


It’s getting dark boys, let’s go home!


Queenstown at dusk, from the Skyline Viewing Gallery


A last stop at Queenstown Mall on the shores of Lake Wakatipu, before calling it a night

Good night!

Cable to the Clouds

Sky Bridge, Langkawi, Kedah, Malaysia

Since we’re at Langkawi Island, I might as well continue on Langkawi, hehe.

This is the Langkawi Sky Bridge Cable Car. Yep, we call them cable cars in Malaysia, not ropeways (that’ll get you confused with a ropes course, the type that you get at the adventure parks, like Escape Penang), nor gondolas (aren’t they the boats they use in Venice?), nor aerial trams (huh? never heard of that!)

Anyway, this goes up to the top of Gunung (Mount) Machinchang, who, if you read my last post, were one of the two giants in Langkawi who were turned into mountains after they messed up the whole island with their fight at their children’s wedding. The other giant was Mat Raya who changed into Gunung Raya.

The Langkawi Cable Car by the way, has the honours of being the steepest cable car in the world (I remember seeing it somewhere, but maybe no longer now, who knows?) Here’re the pics…


Ready boys? Ready mommy? (Mommy doesn’t look really ready …mommy’s scared of heights by the way. Uh-oh)


A view from the cable car. (See, it ain’t so scary. Or is it??)


We reached! The first station


Here we go again. Into the clouds…


What’s it with locks and love? They’re all over the place


Journey to the Sky Bridge – Hello little fella, where’s your mommy?


Anu, Sky Bridge, Langkawi (Watch the weather, as they’d close the Sky Bridge during bad weather)


That lift on rails is called a Sky Glide…


Langkawi Cable Car… OK, let’s get back down


Oriental Village. This is the base of the Cable Car ride. There’re restaurants, rides, children’s parks and a fabulous 3D Art Museum (which I’ll write about later)


A marina on Langkawi Island where Mount Machinchang is visible – it’s the peak at the back, with the clouds


Back at our hotel’s beach – Can you spot Gunung Machinchang far off in the horizon?

There one quick post done. Gotta go, very busy actually, with 101 things over my head!