Older Than the Other One

Another scary place coming up…


Sanahin Monastery, Armenia

This is my last post on Armenia (relieved, huh?). This was the last place we visited in Armenia before crossing the border into Georgia by hired car. If you like old churches, and places where horror movies are made of, this is the right place to be - Armenia!

Welcome to the Sanahin Monastery! Sanahin means ‘older than the other one’ presumably in comparison with the Haghpat Monastery which is located on the same plateau, but separated by a few gorges. We did not visit Haghpat (we thought it’d be a monastery too many! Besides, the taxi wanted a lot more money, if we make another stop). Anyway, Sanahin is at least a thousand years old. (Yeah, no kidding, according to Wikipedia). It was built in the 10th century! This place brings up scenes of vampires lurking in its dark interiors, or demonic spirits trapped beneath ancient hidden underground vaults. OK, that’s all my imagination. Anyway, here’re photos of Sanahin. Enjoy!


Wow, what’s this? The mother of all crosses? Errmm… it’s actually the …let’s Google it …Holy Cross monument (just north of the Armenian Alphabet Monument – I didn’t know such a place exists) on the M3 Road heading north, from Yerevan to Sanahin – (It’s about 33km north from Yerevan. We saw it from our cab)


Getting ready for a vampire hunt? – Sanahin Monastery 2018, Armenia


“That’s my stone! Koko!” Everywhere’s a playground for the kids, regardless of vampires, ghosts or werewolves – Sanahin Monastery


Barricaded! Who knows what horrors lie within? Or maybe it’s just the renovation works…


Wait, there’s a way in…




The interiors of the monastery


“Stop it BOYS! You’re stepping on people’s tombstones…” (Actually there’s no way to avoid them tombstones…)


Is that a fallen chandelier or some ritualistic altar of some sort???


A broken cross (khachkar)


Run! Granny’s coming! (‘Granny’ is the killer from the survival horror video game of the same name which the kids play. Granny can hear almost everything and come hunting for you if you make some sound. The objective of the game is to escape Granny’s house). ...Nah, it’s just the lady priest of the monastery…

OK, that’s all folks. Till next time.

On the home front, the kids have started school. Despite the Pandemic! Summer has ended. (UAE has an official summer period where all mid-day work in the open is banned – 15-Jun to 15-Sep). That’s also the day my Project’s work was expected to finish (but we still have a tiny li’l bit of work left). After this, …I really hope my company comes up with some new Projects soon… Fingers crossed.

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…

What Lies in the Red Hills…

View of the red hills of the gorge surrounding the Noravank Monastery, Armenia

Continuing on our adventures in Armenia, after a couple of nights staying in the capital, Yerevan, we headed out into the hills. Our mission – more mysterious monasteries. Yup, Armenia (and to a large extent, Georgia) is all about ancient monasteries and the countryside. Many tourists from our part of the world (i.e. the UAE) visit for the snow, but we visited at the peak of summer, during a heat wave with 40C temperatures all around. How likely do you think we’d be of seeing snow?!?

Our first stop south of Yerevan, was Khor Virap (which I’ve written about in an earlier post). Next off, 80+ km further to the south, is a remote monastery surrounded by quiet brick-red hills. Here’s our adventure of finding the Noravank Monastery!


We passed by the junction to Areni Village, which is famous for… wine! (What else, when the sign itself is a wine barrel?!) The signs sez Areni in Armenian (By the way, Armenia is one of the oldest wine producing regions in the world!)


Areni Village, from the main road. See that single church on the plateau, dwarfed by the towering cliffs? That’s a sign of things to come…


Is this the turn off to Noravank? Yes it is, the road between the towering hills


Here we go, into the gorge. "I spot with my little eye, something starting with ‘C’". There up ahead, churches up on the left


Noravank amidst the hills


Noravank Monastery, Armenia


Surb Astvatsatsin Church, Noravank


“Wow, this is fun!” “HEY COME DOWN JUSTIN, IT’S DANGEROUS! YOUR BROTHER WILL FOLLOW” (Sir, do you mind, this is a church…)


Yup, that’s the staircase. Stone slabs sticking out of the wall. That’s what you do, when you friggin forget to include staircases to go up to the second level in your design… “Shite! No place for stairs… Ummm…. Let’s just stick it on the walls and make it look as nice as it can. …There!” (I remember one place which had these amplified many times …the immense Chaturbhuj temple in Orchha, India. It had stone slabs sticking out as access to its towering dome. And these are unconnected, with some broken… No, never even thought of trying!)


There’s a hole! No, not going there! (Went halfway down, just for a photo. If I went down, what d’ya think the kids would do?!?)


Surb Karapet Church at Noravank


A priest arrives


A service in progress at the Surb Karapet Church. Armenians are a pious lot. Even in this remote place, there’re people attending services


Let’s go, before it gets dark!