Book of the Year – ‘The Glass Castle’

One of the few benefits of being a perpetual traveller is the fact that I get to catch up on my reading during my trips. I accumulate various technical journals which I lug with me, eventually discarding, as well as books. Last mission I finished ‘For Whom the Bell Tolls’ by Hemingway and for this mission my friend Genie suggested ‘The Glass Castle’ and went as far as lending me her copy. I’m glad she did, as it is the best book I’ve read this year, or probably the last several years.

Georgia’s Third East-West Highway Project

As part of preparing our project we had a short video made which gives an excellent overview of the work we have been doing in Georgia. My colleague Tamara Sulukhia did a great job of condensing a 50+ project description down to under six minutes.

My Last Ride in Georgia (Hopefully Just For Now!)

It looks like next year I will phasing out of the South Caucasus to  work elsewhere for the Bank so I decided that this trip I would take my bicycle with me back to the USA. My next trip will be in November when it will be too late for cycling outside anyway. When I arose on Saturday and saw the brilliant blue sky, with the peaks of the Caucasus mountains in the distance I knew that it was time for a road trip—my last one for a while, but hopefully not forever.

One Night in Istanbul

Flying to Georgia or Armenia is not very convenient. One flies from Washington D.C. to Munich and then after spending 14 hours in Munich you fly out around 21:30, arriving around 03:00.  As someone who normally rises around 05:00 for my triathlon training, this puts another layer of unpleasantness to an already challenging trip. I was pleased to find a more civilized way of arriving by travelling through Istanbul.  The flight arrives at 16:30 although it means overnighting in Istanbul. Not a difficult choice … I had really enjoyed my earlier visit and it would be nice to see the city outside of winter.

To Russia on The Georgian Military Road

The plan was simple. Head part way up the Georgian Military Road into the Caucasus mountains and cycle towards the Russian border. But what do they say about the best laid plans of mice and men?

 

The Kakheti Region of Georgia

Our next road project in Georgia is the Vaziani-Gombori-Telavi (VGT) road, east of Tbilisi. After a frenetic week in Tbilisi appraising the Third Highway Project, my colleague Elena and I had a break from the office to do a field visit to familiarize ourselves with the VGT road. We also used the opportunity to visit some other parts of Kakheti Region, a place neither of us had been before.

Ancient Burial Site

At a recent meeting in Washington I was discussing the issue of chance archaeological finds with the World Bank’s regional safeguards co-ordinator. She commented that in Georgia you cannot put a shovel in the ground without finding something ancient. Very true. In fact, we had just recently uncovered a 7,000 year old burial site when excavating the new section of the East-West highway. While being inconvenient from a progress point of view, has yielded invaluable insights into ancient Georgia.

Immortalised By A Beetle

I have done some work on our family tree and we have traced the Bennett family back to the 18th century.  The name Bennett comes from the medieval given name Benedict, originating from the Latin "benedictus" meaning "blessed" and. while I may occasionally curse my job because of all the travel, I have been blessed in so many ways. 

Although my wife and I are childless, my brother and cousins have done their best to keep the family name alive. However, thanks to my work at the World Bank I have trumped them all by ensuring that the name Bennett will never die out. How? By having a beetle named after me – the ‘Superbotrechus Bennetti’.

Cycling the Georgian Military Road

The World Bank organized a regional retreat in Georgia at Lake Bazaleti some 50 km from Tbilisi. The location was just off the ‘Georgian Military Road’, which was constructed by Russian engineers starting in 1799, helping cement Russia’s annexation of Georgia in 1801. It was an incredible feat as they had to  traverse the Caucasus mountains from Vladikavkaz in Russia to Tbilisi, and in doing so built a road which was better than most roads that existed in Russia. Since I had my bicycle with me, I took the chance for a short visit to this historic area.

Gori – Stalin’s Home Town

One of my road projects is improving the East-West highway in   Georgia which runs from Azerbaijan through Tbilisi to the Black Sea. I had to do a field visit as part of our mid-term review of the project. After finishing our meetings we headed just west of our project to the city of Gori to visit the museum of its most famous son—Joseph Stalin, commemorated below with a statue outside of the City Hall.